"You should write a book."

It was a nice Spring day...finally. It was a day off from school, so we had a full house. I had planned to send the kids outside after lunch, but that was the same time the field to the south of us was being disked. There was a strong south wind. We were in the middle of an Idaho dust bowl. So much for going outside right then.

Luckily, the field work was done quickly and I sent them outside and strongly encouraged them to pick up the pods that had fallen from the tree since last fall. We were planning on taking them out for ice cream, but they don't have to know that. I told them if we could get all the pods cleaned up, we'd get a special treat.

So they get a spurt of excitement and pick up pods for 10 minutes. After repeated cajoling, wrangling, threatening and reminding, I finally went out to help. Because we're already going to get the ice cream, I can't let the pod ploy die. I don't want them to think we just went and got the ice cream anyway! I raked and bagged a lot of pods.

We were also tent shopping. Remember the tent? It needed to be replaced and we wanted to check a few stores. The kids were almost as excited about looking at tents as they were about the treat!

We eventually ended up at the ice cream restaurant. (For those of you in my old hometown, think Leatherby's.) We all got a sugar cone with way too much ice cream on top. A lady there found great joy in watching the kids. She was especially taken with Leah.

"I'll bet she's a character!" "I'd love to take her home." "I'll take her home and put her to work." (I thought that was an odd thing to say.) Anyway, she kept watching the kids and smiling. I think she was the wife of the owner.

So as we're getting up to go, she tells me that our kids are very well behaved and....surprising to me...I should write a book! Inside my head I'm laughing my guts out. Ha! Like I'm someone that has anything to say about getting kids to behave. Luckily, I didn't say what I was really thinking but rather, "I don't have any secrets."

We were talking about that in the car on the way home. Chad mentioned that all kids are good when they're sitting down eating ice cream. It's when they're behaving in the middle of chores that is the real test. I told him not to steal my glory. But I really don't think I need to write a book.