A long time ago, I designed a grocery list form with Microsoft Word. We can print it out each week, (or every few days it seems), and go through the refrigerator and cupboard checking off things we need to pick up at Food Lion or Target. This has been a pretty helpful thing for everyone in the family, especially when it’s left on the fridge door for anyone to check items as they finish off the last of whatever.

This week when Wifegrit mentioned she was going grocery shopping the next day, Calfgrit8 decided to help her out by filling out the checklist all by himself. He took it and sat down at the kitchen table with a pencil. This is what he checked off for his mom to pick up on her shopping trip:

I’m pretty proud of some of his choices. Grapes, apples, blue berries, peaches, bananas, strawberries. I have to give credit to Wifegrit for our boys’ better-than-average eating habits. They love fruits. Although I like some fruits, too, I’ll too often take a processed snack over a natural one.

But to balance out the healthy fruit choices Calfgrit8 made on this list, I see he actually scribbled out “Frozen Vegetables.” Ha!

I’m not sure what the arrows are for, but I notice the items he had to write in. I’m surprised I missed french toast sticks and gummies on the standard list — they’re regular items in our house. Lunchables and chocolate (chotlete) ice cream are special treats that we don’t always keep around.

I see a couple items that need to be dropped from this check list. The Tropicana Light Orangeade and Pineapple OJ are my items, but I haven’t had either in couple of years. I drink 100% water, now. The Diet Dr. Pepper is Wifegrit’s one vice. (Our boys have never had a soda.)

In addition to having this check list, each Sunday we sit down at the kitchen table with the boys and plan out our dinners for the week. They pick what they want, (main dish plus a side), for each day, Monday through Friday. We write the choices on a note card and post it on the fridge. That makes it easy for whichever of us, (me or Wifegrit — about a 40/60 split), happens to be the one to make dinner that night. And the kids can’t complain about the meal we set in front of them because they specifically chose it.

This combination of dinner list and grocery list has worked out really well for us for as long as we’ve been doing them. I highly recommend this process to anyone with children, (and maybe even for those without kids), as it makes planning and shopping so much easier.

Bullgrit

Over the past week or so I’ve been working on changing our TV, phone, and Internet service. So every day after I come home from work, I have had some kind of wiring, connecting, activating, setting up, or rearranging to do with all our electronic devices. I’ve spent about 6 hours on the phone mostly with customer service or technical support to get things organized. It’s been extremely frustrating and stressful.

Nothing is easy. Nothing is simple. Nothing just works. Every step of every process is complicated.

Thursday night was going to be the last of this work I had to do. I was going to install the new modem and router to the new Internet service. The night before, I went through all the cables and connectors to make sure I had everything I needed to complete the process. My home desk was covered in electronics and paper instructions.

It had been a long, stressful week of all this, but I hoped that finally I’d be done with it all. When I got home from work, I said hello to the family and then went straight up to my office to get into the cables and connectors and instructions. What greeted me on my desk was like a punch line in a television sitcom. My 12 year old son had left a note for me:

Really? I stood there looking down at the cube and note for a full minute or so.

Turns out it was no joke or gag. Little brother had played with the cube and unintentionally messed it up. Wifegrit suggested giving it to good ol’ Dad to fix.

Well, instead of getting upset, (which I was on the ragged edge of doing), I decided to take the situation as a chance to show off to my boys and look like a hero. After finishing the electronic hook ups, I sat down to work out the cube. I searched the web for the solution and followed the step-by-step directions. Once I solved the puzzle, I took it and the note downstairs to where the family was finishing dinner around the kitchen table, and placed the finished product in front of Calfgrit12.

I got a, “Thanks, Dad.” But that’s really about it.

Oh well. I know I’m awesome.

On my way home from work on Friday, I half expected there to be a box of Christmas lights for me to untangle.

Bullgrit

I mentioned back in May that I was experimenting with creating a Minecraft adventure for my boys to play through. Well, I finished the adventure map and the boys have played in it. I watched them play an hour at a time, Saturday and Sunday, over a few weeks. They didn’t actually finish the adventure, and I’ll have to explain why.

First, I found a world seed for a good wilderness area. I placed three villages, each a little different from the others. One is larger, (the main and starting area), and has lots of villagers and food and supplies. Another is smaller but has different food and a magic book shop. And the third is medium-sized with different supplies. I paved a road between two of the villages, but I left the other off the trail so it would have to be found by exploration. I also placed a few little “hermit houses” hidden in the area that could be found. The hermits sell various potions. Basically, I wanted the boys to be rewarded for exploring the environment, not just the dungeon.

I then created a large castle/tower in the center of the area, central to the villages.

The above-ground parts of the castle, right up to the top, I filled with tricks and traps to test the boys’ puzzle-solving and team-working skills. These puzzles can only be passed by two people working together. For instance, there are buttons that open secret areas or passages in another location — one person can push the button, but the secret door will close before he can run to the opening. There are traps that can only be escaped by someone else pulling a lever or standing on a plate in the floor. There are only a few monsters, (some zombies and spiders), in this part of the adventure, and none of the traps are by themselves deadly. I wanted them to learn how to work together well before going down into the dungeon proper and facing real dangers and troubles.

After successfully navigating through the upper part of the castle, they bought better equipment, (armor, weapons, food), and were excited to delve down below the castle into the dungeon. The below is three separate levels. The first level is 20-some rooms designed like living areas for the former castle staff and guard. There are many monsters and a few puzzles, traps, and tricks. They navigated this level pretty well, working together, but Calfgrit12 was showing his bossy side.

Calfgrit12 wanted to be the leader of their two-person team, and he often complained when his little brother didn’t do exactly as he was told. Now, Calfgrit8 never did anything bad or wrong. He just didn’t want to always be ordered about.

Even though there was some serious arguments here and there, they mostly played really well together. But a couple of times I had to end the adventure time because of serious arguments. I was surprised at how heated their arguments got. One boy would cry and the other would get angry. I was stunned. But then the next time I let them play, they’d laugh and shout in excitement, and afterwards tell me that was the best time they’ve had playing Minecraft. There were no mediocre times; it was all either fantastic or awful.

They eventually finished the first dungeon level under the castle, and then made their way down to the second level where more and tougher monsters and challenges awaited them. This level was bigger than the one above, and they’d separate often to go in their own directions. This going different ways caused them to get killed a few times. I tried to warn them that they needed to continue working together. Calfgrit8 would urge caution and want them to leave the dungeon to heal and re-equip more often. Calfgrit12 wanted to keep pressing forward, leaving CG8 to go back to safety on his own. This would inevitably cause CG12’s death, and he’d get angry at his little brother for not helping him.

This all started to get very frustrating for me. I didn’t want to guide them on this adventure — I wanted them to do this on their own while I watched. But I kept having to defend CG8’s decision to play safer against CG12’s push for more dangerous activity. He actually was playing the wisest, and his older brother was going a bit crazy with wanting to just go everywhere and see everything without caution.

Eventually CG12 got stuck in a trap off in some back chamber while his brother was leaving the dungeon to repair his equipment. Being stuck mad him angry, and he blamed CG8 for not being there to help him. He couldn’t do anything until CG8 came to rescue him, and CG8 told him to wait while he finished his errand back in the village. Things got pretty heated, and I had to break up the argument and end the game at that point.

Geez! Really. They’d go from laughing excitement one minute to hating each other the next minute. It was more than I could stand, and it made me hate this adventure I’d built for them. So I not only ended that game session, I told them that was the end of the adventure.

I was terribly disappointed in it all. It depressed me so much. I’d put a lot of work into that whole thing, and I was so excited to see them play through it. They’d had some really great fun at times, but the really bad moments killed the good feelings.

A few weeks passed with them just playing their normal Minecraft survival and creative games, and then Calfgrit8 came to me and asked about the adventure game. He asked if they could play it again, and if they couldn’t play it together, maybe he could play it without his big brother. Knowing that it was dangerous to explore the dungeon alone, he asked if I would play it with him. That touched my heart.

Later and separately I asked Caflgrit12 about it. He said it was too hard and he wasn’t interested in continuing the adventure.

So I may just end up finishing it with my 8 year old, the two of us. That could be cool.

Here are some screenshots from the dungeon delve:

Bullgrit

I took the boys to get their haircuts Saturday morning. We let them bring their Nintendo DS games with them so they have something to do while sitting still in the chair and while waiting for their turn in the chair. This time, Calfgrit8 was the first to take the chair, and Calfgrit12 sat on the waiting couch with me.

Within a minute of the stylist starting on CG8, CG12 got up and walked over to his brother. Now, to get there, he had to navigate through two other stylists and customers and the various cords dangling about at the chair stations. He spoke something to his brother, then made his way back to our couch. I didn’t realize what he was getting up for until he was already getting in the way. And it was too late to stop him after he was sitting back down with me.

Maybe a minute later, he got up again to go to his brother. I was distracted with reading at that moment, so, again, I couldn’t stop him before he was walking through the crowd. He again spoke to his brother, said, “OK,” then came back to sit on the couch. That “OK” made me think the conversation was finished.

But another minute later, he got up yet again. This time I stopped him. “Don’t keep going through everyone. Leave CG8 alone to get his haircut.”

He showed me his DS, and said, “But we’re playing together. I need to tell him what we’re going to do next.”

“Well then stop playing together,” I suggested. “You can’t keep walking up there. CG8 needs to stay still for his haircut, and you shouldn’t walk through everyone’s business.”

He gave me some explanation why they had to talk to get their game straight. I sighed, then gave him permission to go up one more time, to finalize things. But I also gave him directions to walk around the stations so as not to get in anyone’s way.

He went around as I told him to, talked to his brother, and then started back to our couch right through the work stations. I was about to scold him for walking back through the stations, but when he was only halfway back, he turned around and went back to his brother.

I slapped my palm to my face. Oh for the love of . . . !

When he came back, I did scold him for walking back through the crowd. His defense was, “But you told me to go that way to go to CG8.” He sat down next to me again.

A minute later, he got up again. But this time I immediately stopped him. “No!” I said. “No more going through everyone’s way.”

“But I’ll walk around,” he said.

“Still no,” I said. “Just sit here.”

He again explained why he needed to talk to his brother because they were playing online together.

I sighed. “Then stop playing together.”

“But if I stop, CG8 will wonder why I’m not helping him.”

“Then quit the game.”

“If I quit it will cut off his game too.”

“Just . . . geez . . . don’t . . . oh my God!” I was at my wit’s end with this. “Just sit here. Do not get up.”

A few seconds passed and CG12 shouted to his brother, “Sorry, CG8, Dad won’t let me play!”

“Don’t shout in here,” I said, barely below yelling at him. I was flummoxed. What in the world?

CG12 sat there and eventually got back into the game — without having to communicate with his brother.

A few more minutes, and it was time to swap turns in the stylist’s chair. CG8 came and sat with me, and CG12 went and sat in the chair.

To catch the problem before it came up, I immediately informed CG8 that he wasn’t to get up and go to his brother. I was still aggravated by having to stop his brother.

He bristled at me. “You don’t have to be so hard on me. Why are you being mean?”

Sigh. I apologized for my tone. But I repeated my instruction to not get up from the couch.

“OK,” he agreed.

A few moments later . . . “CG12! Let’s change games!” he shouted across the room.

My head a’sloded and I collapsed to the floor a quiver pile of insanity.

Bullgrit