LOST

Josh is the king of losing his footwear this summer.  Despite my protests, lessons, yelling, punishments, and general pleading, the child cannot seem to track of his sandals.

It's driving me batty.

He got a brand new pair of good hiking sandals the week before Lance and I went to Taiwan.  The week we came back?  Lost forever.

Luckily for him (and his allowance account) we found some old ones of Spencer's that fit.

At least every other day since then he has misplaced his sandals and or flip flops, always right before we are supposed to leave for somewhere.  No joke, he almost had to wear his church shoes to swimming lessons once because he couldn't find his sandals or either of his TWO pairs of flip flops.

But today he claimed he had forever lost this SECOND pair of sandals.

Frustrated doesn't even begin to explain the emotions I felt, mainly because 1) seriously, who loses shoes like this?!!??!?, and 2) I had warned him a full 90 minutes before we left that he needed look for those sandals and that he was to do nothing else until he found the sandals.

When it was time to leave I found him watching TV, sans sandals.

Growl.

As punishment I told him he couldn't play with friends or have any screen time whatsoever until the sandals were found.  Weeping. Wailing. Gnashing of teeth.

To his credit, he did find yet another pair of used sandals that fit him. (The benefit of having an older brother, right?)  ((Also, Spencer has got to stop growing so fast in the summer.  His sandals never have a chance to wear out...))  I told him that was great, but he still had to find the other sandals because how could I trust him with these "new" ones when he had already lost two other pairs?

Mope mope mope, whine whine whine.  That's what I got to listen to all afternoon.  Finally, I said "Why don't you pray about it?  I bet Heavenly Father would help you find the sandals, because what's important to you is important to Him."  Josh refused.  He has a thing against praying in pubic lately.  So I said a prayer, because I was going batty with this child and I probably wanted those sandals found more than Josh did.

Not five minutes later I found the sandals out in the garage.

After a quick prayer of gratitude I marched triumphantly back into the house.  Josh was dumbstruck.  I made him say "Mommy is the best Mommy in the world" three times before I gave him the sandals.  Then I told him he needed to thank Heavenly Father when he said his bedtime prayers. (I knew I wouldn't get it out of him tonight.)

And after that, everything was domestic bliss at home.

Wait, no.  That's not even close to the truth.  Spencer's moping around because I won't let him play on my phone, Josh is throwing a trantrum on the floor for some unknown reason, Cole is begging everyone to play a game, only being really obnoxious about it so no one wants to, and Tess is fussing for a snack even though dinner is in less than an hour.

But at least everyone is now properly shod.