Summer is here

Two weeks ago it was rather chilly and rainy and blah. Now it is HOT like the farm, muggy and my grass is already yellow!! Crazy.
Happy Canada Day! We aren't really celebrating, but sitting in our Pj's which is enjoyment enough.
It's 9:13am, and Riley is already in his room for a time out. Riley doesn't do so well in the summer. Maybe it's the heat, but I like to think it has to do with the fact that we aren't on a tight schedule like he is at school. It seemed that the second I brought him home from school on Thursday, that he was angry at the world. Last summer he was ratty too, but I thought it had more to do with the move and the new baby. He likes to pester his brother incessantly and drive his mother bonkers. I try to ensure that he always has a long list of things that he can do, and I take the kids out as much as possible, but the arguing, fighting, disagreeing, pesting and just being a PAIN is enough to make any normal person go loony. Liam has his own challenges just cuz he's four and likes to think he knows everything! but is suddenly booted out of his position of being the oldest in the house during the daytime. I already have had to write a huge list on my fridge of "CONSEQUENCES". For example..."grabbing a toy away from someone= the toy is taken away all day", or "pesting= 5min. alone on the basement stair", etc. I HATE this part of parenting. Why don't kids see how good they have it, that they have a mom at home who will sit out with them as they splash in the pool, slide on the slip and slide, go to the beach, eat watermelon, go on bike rides...without a care in the world, no bills to pay, no essays to write...just play play play and enjoy life, but no they just want to FIGHT and BICKER and YELL. Ugh. I did the classic "mother move" yesterday. We were on our way to my sisters to do something utterly boring and miserable...go swimming in her pool, ya, tell me about it. Anyway, they fought the entire way about some stupid book that the other wanted, but the other didn't want to share and were just holding, knowing full well that the other wanted it. You know the scenario. So I jerked to a stop (no one was behind me) and pulled into a vacant lot, threatening with my meanest voice that I was ready to go home and forget taking them somewhere fun because they didn't seem like they deserved to go. I think it scared them...both saying "We're happy mom! We want to go to the pool! We won't argue." So I kept going and of course they had an absolute blast swimming...but bickered most of the way home.
hmmph.
If they only knew how good they have it. Sometimes I wish I could teleport them to the slums of Africa for a week to let them scrounge for food and sleep on a cardboard mat and then maybe they would understand?
I'm trying, folks... I will enjoy this summer with my three and keep my cool. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.