Today is called: Mommy Guilt... I have totally sucked this weekend. We had the soccer marathon on Saturday, starting with a game at 9 am, and it was hot, muggy, sticky... I was irritated by the game because Steven and Izzy's league is so lopsided- usually the team they are on can't get the ball past half-field, and the field is 50 feet long... I just don't know why all the other teams are *so good* if you can say that 6 and 7 year olds can be *so good*. Usually I'm really chill about the whole thing, but for some inexplicable reason, their coach is sort of a jerk. He coaches a 10 year old boys' team in the competetive league, and I suspect he uses the same drills and techniques on both teams. Anyway, at least the kids still seem like they are having fun... But I am very tempted to request that they be placed on another team for the fall. They don't want to do that, though. They want to stay with their current team. I don't see why- the coach doesn't make it fun. There is no need to yell at kids about not following the "diamond formation" or for "not dribbling the ball" or for "not passing the ball" or for... you get the idea. What really irritated me about the coach this week was that he chewed out the parents who brought a snack for bringing chips (GASP) instead of oranges as he'd requested. The parents don't speak English, for crying out loud!!! Anyway, it's about time the kids get a snack they actually want to eat instead of oranges. So there. After the twins' game, we went to Kate's game where eventually it started thundering, and then there was a brief rain storm. The most irritating part of that experience was the idiot other team's coach who had a player fall down within our goal box, crying and acting like she'd been hit. She tripped over another girl, that's it. The coach got in the face of the ref and *loudly* screamed at him for not making a call. Meanwhile, the ref stood there, and a player from the opposing team took a shot at the goal! Our goalie luckily stopped the shot, but HELLO play was stopped anyway... And the ref didn't even kick this coach off of the field. I had the unfortunate experience of being a Volleyball ref for one LONG season, and if a coach talked to me like that... I would've kicked his butt out of there. I don't get it. You can't let coaches and parents approach the ref like this. And it happens all the time out here. Seriously annoying.

Anyway, thus started the weekend of my bitchy mood. I can't shake it. Kate is pushing every. last. button. The theme of the weekend is her going off by herself and not meeting back up with the family at the appropriate place and time. This happened 3 times in one short weekend. She's now grounded for a week, and docked allowance. I hate that almost every dinner meal we have as a family is dominated by her making snarky remarks, and we have to correct her, and so on and so forth until the younger kids think dinner is just the time in which we discipline Kate, and pretty much nothing positive or happy happens. Do I make her eat bread and water in her room until she can be a *pleasant* dinner companion? Thank goodness for swimming-- it takes her out of the house during most of the dinner hour.

DH is on call today. Since we didn't have time for the Wii yesterday, what with soccer and shopping, etc., etc., I got to monitor Wii usage today. The twins played MarioKart for about 45 minutes, and then they played with Luke for another hour or so... Luke is becoming obsessed with video games. Just like dear old dad. Isn't that heartwarming?

Here's to a better week!