Crime and punishment

Mark and I have been having stalemates over math.

Yes, this is my life.  I get into power struggles with 6th graders.  He's been doing order of operations (My Dear Aunt Sally--who is only trumped by parenthesis) with fractions.  It's been a lot of fun.  Except for the part when he does it all in his head and gets them wrong and then I tell him he has to show his work and then he refuses.

So I told him he had wasted so much time we wouldn't go to the gym--which turns out to be a punishment for Mark.

So he told me that he wouldn't eat lunch.

Did I mention how much fun this has been?

Yesterday he did show his work and we finished school sooner and we--wait for it--went to the gym!  Don't ever tell me we don't know how to have fun.  Mark loves going to the gym because he's old enough to play exercise on the machines.  He spends a few minutes on each one which is perfect for his attention span and I walk on the treadmill and read on my ipad which is perfect for my attention span.

The gym we go to is the Pleasant Grove Rec Center which is right next to the high school.  Mt. Timpanogos was breathtaking against that glorious blue sky.

There's the high school on the left. And see all those vehicles?  They are driven by teenagers who try to kill me every time I get near the school.  Scary.

I love living by a mountain.  I grew up by a mountain and it seems like all is right with the world when you have a big hulking rock keeping watch.

I even like the G.

And, I admit, I like my exasperating red head.  He is stubborn, but that isn't all bad.  Someday he'll move mountains...just hopefully not Mt. Timpanogos.  I like it where it is...