Dustbunnies begone!

You know, we're just a typical homeschooling family.

The girls rise early, bring me breakfast in bed, and ask, "Mommy, how can we help you?"

"Can we rub your back? Can we rub your feet? Can we clean the bathrooms? Fold some laundry?"

Nary a harsh word is spoken. Nary a frustration between siblings.

No fighting.

No raised voices.

No meltdowns.

Never.

We all dance around our home, joyfully cleaning and singing "What a Wonderful World!"

Okay, okay . . . maybe not so much.

I just have to tell, you, though, I've discovered something that gets us close!

I read in a Family Fun magazine (sorry, don't remember which month) about a family using this - it is so FUN! Are you ready?

Daddy Dollars!!




I set out 1 Daddy Dollar for each of the girls first thing in the morning. They have their handy-dandy chore charts to check off as they go. When (and only when) all their morning chores are done, they can pick up their Daddy Dollar. The caveat is that the dollars are only out for so long. If chores aren't done promptly, no moolah. I repeat this at noon and after dinner.

For their chore charts, I blew up a piece of clipart, printed one out for each of the girls, and one for the reward chart. The little circles under the chore have A's, N's, and P's in them. A is for a.m., N is for noon, and P is for P.M. I covered the charts (along with the dollars) with contact paper, so they can mark off each chore with a dry erase marker. I clean them off each night and waalah - they're ready to go again for the next morning.

Now, before you give me a hard time about what a slave driver I am, know that these chores rarely ALL have to be done every day. For example, although the girls have to check the dishwasher 3x a day, it usually only needs to be emptied once a day. They are responsible for checking, though.

Here's Sarah's (6 year old) chart.


And here's Emma's (almost 9 years old).




So, the girls can get 3 Daddy dollars a day, if not more. I've handed out a few "freebies" when I've seen them being extra loving to each other. Once they've got a few dollars, they can go shopping at the Mommy Mall! Here's the breakdown:



This works because, if you notice, I don't have to run to the store, or worse yet, take them to the store as a reward. :) These are all things available at home - and many of them increase that good quality family time.

I made the "biggie" having a friend sleep over. We love to have the girls' friends over, but I don't want this to be an option every weekend. With Daddy's two jobs, all of us being together is a rare treat and I don't want to dig into that time. So far, though, my girls haven't saved up near enough to get close! Just like real money, it burns a hole in their pocket!

Here are the reasons this is working so well for us.

• I don't have to lose my patience voice reminding the girls over and over and over again to do their chores.
• Computer time is limited without me being the bad guy. (If we had a tv, I would obviously have put a tv time reward on there also.) The girls have to pay their money if they want on the computer.
• Candy is also limited without me being the bad guy. On my counter I've got the goodie basket. For $5 Daddy Dollars, the girls can choose one thing out of it. It's full of nothing but dollar store items and a little bit of candy. Playdoh, pencils, nail polish, headbands, etc. Again, usually they don't get any candy unless they pay for it.
• I don't have to lose my patience voice reminding the girls over and over and over again to do their chores. Yes, I meant to put this twice - this is awesome!!

To make your own Daddy Dollars, or Mommy Money, or whatever you'd like to call it, go to www.festisite.com/money. It's very simple - upload your picture, edit as you wish - go to town!

I actually made bills in $1, $5, $10 and $20 denominations. The higher bills were mainly for trading in. So far - this hasn't been necessary yet! I think the most either one of them has had at one time was $5.00, spent on the goodie basket.

There you are! A shining light in my little world - my Wonderful World.

It's an Invasion!

Image via Wikipedia

Have you ever done something so completely out of character that you thought aliens must have invaded overnight and taken over your body?

That didn't happen to me this morning. Nope. Not at all.

I didn't get in the shower at 11:00 this morning. While in the shower, I didn't take a closer look at the tile floors of my shower. This tile floor has always been a bit 'discolored', which I had concluded was just evidence of the OLD OLD age of this tile floor. You see, I had cleaned my shower many times, and the color of the tile floor never changed. However, after this closer look, I didn't then take my fingernail and scrape said tile floor.

Uh-oh.

Something scraped off.

I didn't then do what any self-respecting, family-loving wife and mother would do. I didn't march myself right out of my shower and into my haircut supply bin. I didn't take out my straight razor. I didn't commence to get down on my hands and knees in said shower, scraping away, tile by tile, years of soap scum and dirt and whatever the heck else was on that floor until the water ran cold.

Nope. Not me.

'Cause I struggle enough to keep the clutter in my home at bay. A straight razor? To my shower floor?

Who am I, and what happened to the real me?

If you wanted to, you might could eat off this floor.

But I would seriously wonder about you if you did.

When It Rains, It Pours . . . or Gushes. . .

Image by nebraskasc via Flickr

take your pick!

Have you ever had a bad day? Not a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. . . just a little bad day? That was me yesterday afternoon. There wasn't anything really wrong, I was just a little melancholy all day. No reason, really. . . I think I'll blame it on hormones. :)

Ivan worked late and got home around 8:30. I had the girls bathed and ready for bed. By 9:30 he and I were sitting in bed, chatting and trying to reconnect - catch up on our day. All of a sudden, what do we hear?

Splash! Gush! Spill! More splash! More gush! More spill!

AGH! The hose on the back of our washing machine had detached, and water was SPEWING all over the floor. Folks, we had a little flood on our hands. A little one inch flood. At 9:30 at night. 2 feet away from hardwood laminate floors we put down 15 months ago. Not fun.

We grab every towel we can find, and soak up as much as we can. We don't have enough towels, so we started grabbing dirty clothes from the hamper, trying to save our floors.

To make this long story short, here is my home today. In the hallway, where our washer and dryer are, we've got the wood laminate flooring pulled up, with the liner underneath it exposed, box fan trying to dry it out.

In the hallway entrance, we've got 3 laundry baskets overflowing with WET clothes and WET towels, waiting for their turn back in the washer. (Wish it wasn't a rainy day, I'd hang them out on my clothesline and get it done a little faster).

In the dining room, things look pretty normal except for the concrete floor, looking black and nasty from old glue that's on it. (Water seeped under the wall into the dining room and we had to remove/throw out the flooring we had in there last night). (Which meant we had to move the table, chairs, and 3 other pieces of wood furniture out of there last night after we saved the hallway flooring).

Maybe we could consider it a date night and we'll feel a little better about the whole thing.

Okay, maybe not.

All that to say. . . I was a little more melancholy after we crawled in bed for good last night, 2 hours later.

You always hear, "Sleep on it. You'll feel better in the morning"!

So, here I am today.

I'm thankful that I have a washer and dryer.

I'm thankful for the roof over my head.

I'm thankful for the air conditioning.

I'm thankful I have 3 happy, healthy girls.

I'm thankful I have a husband who loves me, and gives me backrubs after bad days like this.

I'm thankful I have clothes to wash and mop up dirty water. :)

I'm thankful it was the washing machine we had to deal with instead of a fire from the dryer.

Rereading this, it all seems kind of silly, huh? I am so blessed! My life is not horrible because I had to deal with a little water and extra work last night. I'm not trying to sound that way at all. I was just truckin' along, feeling okay, and this seemed to be that little straw. You know, the one that broke the camel's back? I'm so thankful for the life I have, and the life I live. I'm just a little irritated. That's all.

I think the Lord is working on our pride. Pride can really sneak up on you pretty quickly, we're learning. Sometimes our pride causes us to focus on the wrong things, and sometimes it causes us to make the wrong decisions. So, in the spirit of learning and discipline, we're going to pull up our bootstraps, swallow our pride, and deal with an ugly, unfinished dining room floor until we can REALLY afford something new. That something new may not be exactly what we wanted. It may be a whole lot cheaper, and a whole lot more about function than style. However, if the Lord is trying to teach us about pride, I'm gonna try to learn.

Thank You, Father, for working in our lives, and teaching us humility and contentment. And thank You for being with us on our Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Days.

Thankfulness

Photo by: TheAlieness

We woke up early today - VBS is this week! I was worried about getting us all there on time, so I woke up at 6:00 (okay, 6:15!) to begin the day. I hopped in the shower, hoping to get myself ready first, then concentrate on the girls. Lo and behold, when I got out, Emma and Sarah were up, dressed and fed, and Aubrey was just starting to stir in her crib. I fed Aubrey, fixed Emma's and Sarah's hair, and out the door we went.

As I was leaving, I noticed the disaster that is my kitchen. What in the world happened? I remember cleaning it up after lunch yesterday - but it looks like a bomb exploded in there! We had popcorn and fruit for dinner last night - I didn't think it had left much of a mess, but I guess I should have checked before bed last night. Normally, the kitchen is cleaned immediately after we eat, but I tend to slip a little on the weekends. :(

But I digress. I noticed the kitchen as we were leaving, but I didn't say anything - just kissed Ivan, thanked him for all his help, and shooed everyone out the door.

Fast forward to 1:00. The girls and I arrive home from VBS to grab a quick lunch before we head to the Dr. for Aubrey's immunizations. The House Fairy decided to clean up my kitchen before he left for work this morning! I know - I am very blessed. It was very thoughtful - Ivan knows I am used to being home all day to take care of everything. He knew I wouldn't want to come home after a busy morning to a messy kitchen.

I was so thankful. Which made me think - do I show my thankfulness enough? Do I foster a thankful spirit in my home?

What about you? How do you show your thankfulness to those you love? What are some creative ways that you show others what they mean to you? Please share - I'd love some new ideas!

I Think I've Got the Blah's. . .

It's Thursday morning, and here I sit at my dining room table. To my left, there is a green and yellow Harkerware bowl filled with oranges and lemons, "The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook", and a steaming cup of coffee. To my right, my kitchen window - I'm looking out at the lush green grass of my front yard and listening to the cheerful song of the birds outside. Ivan just left for work and the girls are still asleep, so I am relishing the very rare moment of quiet in my home. It's definitely a still, peaceful morning, yet I'm feeling a little anxious and irritated.

Thursday is my normal day for grocery shopping, and it is usually a 3 or 4 hour ordeal. You see, I strive to honor God with our finances, and to honor my husband's blood, sweat and tears also. I don't want to waste any of the money that he works so hard for. Because of this conviction, I clip coupons. And I scan sales ads. And I go to at least 3 grocery stores every week. And, believe it or not, this is something I really enjoy doing. It's like a game - seeing how much I can save and what I can get free. 40% savings is a pretty common amount I see at the bottom of my receipts - and last week, I got Ritz Artisan crackers, a box of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, and a can of Cutter Bug Repellant free.

I also use this time to teach the girls. They are learning how to compare prices, find the price per unit, and stick to the budget that I've set up. Emma and Sarah take turns marking off the grocery list and putting our goods in the buggy.

For some reason, I just don't feel like it today. Maybe it's because it looks so dreary outside. Maybe it's because I took the day off yesterday and stayed on the couch with a good book. Or maybe . . . just maybe. . . it's because I have about 3 weeks worth of coupons to go through. And this week, I can't go anywhere until that is done.

I've really been trying the last few months to stay on top of things here at the house. I've got a "homekeeping" system that, for the most part, works for me. If you were to just drop by for a visit, most days I wouldn't have anything to be embarrassed about. Believe me, with 3 children that are ALWAYS home, that is a feat to be proud of. Well, for some reason, coupon clipping has fallen to the bottom of my to do list lately. If my list isn't all crossed out by the end of the day, "coupons" is one of the items left undone. So it gets forwarded to the next day. And the next. And the - yes, I think you get my point.

So, I need some help here, peeps! How do you inspire yourself to do those things that you don't just love to do? How do you get past the dreary day humdrums, and kick those gray skies out of the way?

Because we really need some milk in this house.