Jeremiah 29:11

A penny for your thoughts ...

and the last thing I wanted to do this morning was argue with *someone* about getting out of bed. When said younger someone was, well, younger ... we played a game of tickle. I would use 3 voices, all sounding somewhat like Speedy Gonzalez, and each had a special placed they liked to tickle.

The last time I tried that he almost broke my fingers off ... he was attempting to 'pop the heads off of all tiny mice in the house' ... (see previous entry, we've turned the satallite off).

Plan B ... For two weeks I've been trying to use my "nice mommy" voice (note the quotation marks ... that signifies that the nice mommy voice is FAKE) ... followed by the normal mom voice, which has been effective, like ONCE ... followed by the mean ole mother voice, which usually nets me a grouchy 12 year old. ahem ... what to do, what to do.

This morning, I was in a more playful mood ... I considered water torture (but retaliation frightens me), I considered testing the fire alarms (don't want to teach him to ignore the computer) ... breakfast cooking might have worked (but shredded wheat cooked ... well, maybe not and didn't meet the want for a giggling boy).

So the solution was this ...

He has a fish bowl full of pennies sitting on the steps leading into his room. I entered with a not so fake happy mama voice and said "A Penny for your Thoughts this morning!"

I got a groan.

When I took the first penny and said it again, I tossed the penny onto his toes that were peeking out of the covers (note to self ... must look for a longer blanket by next fall).

I got a "hey, what was that?"

When I took the next two and aimed slightly higher ...

he moved to peek out of the blanket.

Where I promptly landed one penny right on his forehead (I knew that God was in this plan all along) and said cheerfully, "Penny for your thoughts?"

To which I got a giggle.

SUCCESS!!

NOTE: I have been pelted by pennies for the past 20 minutes, and I have no blanket to protect myself. Take this into consideration when testing this system at your house.