What's with that really looong blog name, you ask?

Well....it goes way back.

I used to read a lot of parenting magazines when the boys were little. I thought they'd hold all the secrets to being a perfect mom and raising perfect kids. I finally gave up and canceled every subscription when I realized that they were actually just giving me a whole bunch of stuff to worry about. I decided I didn't need to borrow trouble.

I did get at least ONE great idea from reading an article about reducing sibling rivalry. The expert doing the writing suggested that families come up with a cheer or chant or pledge that the kids could do together....something easy to remember and something that they would do only with each other.

The expert postulated that in good times and bad, having your kids pledge their devotion to each other would go a long way to foster positive feelings. The idea was to get them to see that getting along with siblings wasn't easy, but no matter what, they were together as family for the long haul.

Now...if you were hanging out in our cul de sac yesterday, you'd realize that I am any thing but a perfect mom. During some crazy football/driveway game the boys had made up (but loosely modeled after "keep-away") the name-calling was unbelievable! And hurtful. And not at all Christ-like. You'd have wondered if those three yahoos even had a mother.

Brant thought Jay was being a baby; Jay thought Brant was manipulating the rules mid-way. Will thought they both needed to go to their rooms.

And they DID....but not until they apologized to each other, put their hands in a pile together and did the Dixon Brothers' Cheer. They didn't necessary like doing it and they certainly didn't sing it or rap it this time, but they did say it. And yep, you know where this is going.....the words of the cheer are...

Forever.
For always.
No matter what.
Dixons.
Brothers.

Simple words that do the trick.