Painting myself into a corner

Maybe I should start all my blog post titles with idioms. Today was really cold and tomorrow is going to be even colder, which makes me not want to go anywhere, even though I really wish I could spend time in the sun (of which I am reminded every time I do my kids' hair and see the distinct line of lighter hair growing further and further away from their scalps), and conclude that it is no wonder that while I am reading other people's blogs, or viewing their facebook pictures of their fabulous vacations to tropical locations or swimming in the ocean in Hawaii, that I start dreaming of laying on a hot beach with the option of swimming in the warm water, but back to how I have painted myself into a corner. So many times when I am reading others' blogs (by others I mean my small group of followers who also happen to be very creative women and gifted writers) I start thinking, I should blog more like this or that or my blog should be more inspiring or funny or deep or lots of other adjectives, or I think about how I included the address of my blog in our Christmas cards so people that have never visited my blog before might be visiting it and they probably just want to see pictures of my cute kids, who I haven't been photographing as much lately because I can only take good pictures outside and when we can't go outside. . . well you get the picture. So I can't blog about anything. But then I was thinking about November when I blogged every day, and thinking that was a good thing and maybe I should make some lame blog posts in hopes that some good ones will pop up.
So, I was thinking about making a tag. But the cool thing about tags is that they are usually pretty light and quick, so that is why people like to do them because they are fun, but I don't want to make that kind, I want to make the kind where I ask deep questions that I really want to read answers about (not that I don't care what song you are listening to, or what is in your fridge or what the 4th picture in the 4th file of your 4th hard drive is). But people probably wouldn't do a tag like that, but maybe my people would, because they are deep-thinking people, but then what about all of those Christmas card recipients who just wonder what we are up to? Well, they haven't been leaving any comments anyway, so unless they start leaving some, I guess I'll just go ahead with my crazy-deep-tag idea.
This tag is not only for all of my consistent commentors (that has got to become a real word soon) but also any Christmas card recipients, or anyone else who wants to do it, but you'll have to leave a comment to let me know that you did it so that I can go check it out, because I really do want to know some answers to questions.

Questions #1
What is the most important thing that you want your kids to learn while they are living in your house and why?

Question #2
Based on your marriage experience, what kind of advice would you give to a person who is contemplating getting engaged?

Question #3
When you overhear kids talking to each other and "negotiating" with each other, what kinds of instances would make you interrupt them and set things straight?

I guess this last one comes from an idea that my grandma and my aunt planted into my head when Ariel was 4 and Adriana was 2 and they were fighting. We were at my aunt's house and the kids were on the trampoline while my grandma, my aunt, and I were eating lunch and having a pleasant adult conversation. When I heard them starting to fight I got up to get them to stop. My grandma and my aunt told me to sit down and let them work it out. There is some wisdom in that, but I don't want my kids to bully each other around. Sometimes when friends are over, it is interesting to notice what kind of tactics other kids use to get their way. I have heard the line of argument that they are learning to negotiate and building important social skills, but sometimes I feel like as the responsible adult, I need to set a standard of what is acceptable behavior and what it polite, and reinforce the concept that we do value politeness, otherwise won't it end up like the "Lord of the Flies" mentality? We used to have a neighbor girl that played at our house a lot who would pout when she didn't get her way and say things like "You just don't like me do you?" to manipulate a situation, or just go home if no one else wanted to play the game she wanted to play. A few times I called her on her bad behavior, and other times I thought, "Well, maybe the other kids need to learn for themselves how to deal with someone when they are acting like this."
Let me know your thoughts, I guess you could just leave a comment instead of answering my crazy-deep questions like a tag. Or you could just ask me some deep questions too, and I will have something better to blog about.

I'll try to take some pictures of my kids to post tomorrow, if that is what you were looking for.

Oh, two more observations of the day. Ariel (7) had to fill out a little survey for her second grade class about her favorite things. One of the questions was what her favorite TV show was, and we don't get many channels or watch much else besides PBS and DVDs. Her response to her dilemma was so telling of how cognizant she is of becoming a big kid, she asked, "Do they mean like, Curious George?....but I can't put that, it's for babies, do you think Clifford is just for babies?" Me, "No not at all."
On the way to school she was telling me about how her teacher doesn't like snow at all, and I said, "She should move to Florida."
"Why?"
"Because it doesn't snow in Florida."
"Never?"
"I don't think so."
Maybe we should move to Florida. I forgot to mention that the snow was really sparkley (I really think sparkley is a real word) this morning, it looked really cool, I had forgotten how magical it looks when it is sparkley, and just when I was ready to move to Florida.