Dinner time

It is so satisfying to have my boys home with me. We had a pretty good afternoon and evening for the most part. Some nice game time with the older two while the little one slept and then a trip to the grocery store before dinner. Depending on the moment, if someone could be a fly on the wall, s/he would have seen me elated, affectionate, demanding, cross, creatively cajoling, or exasperated. They manage to take me through a lot of emotions in a short span of time, but I love them so. Dinner time definitely felt like a victory tonight. I made us a healthy dinner (spaghetti and meatless meatballs, roasted broccoli, salad for me, and garlic bread), and they helped set the table and then afterwards they assisted (with a lot of threats and nagging, but eventually compliance) with clearing the table, unloading and reloading the dishes, and generally cleaning up the kitchen. There were baths for everyone and then grapes and blueberries for dessert before story time. Pretty successful evening given how much those three boys can (and were sort of trying to) sabotage any potential positive rewards. 

I met with my attorney today and we brainstormed some strategies for getting the STBEX to agree to less than 50/50. She had some good ideas like making some conditions that he read certain books like Mom's House, Dad's House and report back a summary of the book. Great idea.  Perhaps I'll also ask for a meal report. Is he managing to feed them healthy well-balanced meals regularly?  She also suggested having a custody evaluator work with us to figure out what would be best for the boys. I feel like I'm armed with some strategies for Wednesday's meeting now, so that's helpful.