Wednesday, October 2, 2013

31 Days - Day 2


Day 2 - Dishes

I have way more dishes than I could possibly ever need for any one meal, so I have decided to pare those down as well. I still have more than I will use for any one meal, but I do have enough for two meals, plus one set of four place settings decorative dishes that are sentimental to me. The dishes I use on a daily basis are a set of red top, black bottom, square dishes (8 place settings) and a very simple set of dinner plates from the Dollar Tree. I have twelve of these. This may seem like a lot, but we have seven people in our family at this point in time. Technically speaking, I could get rid of the one set of 12 dishes, but that leaves us without dishes if more than one other person comes over for a meal and we host dinner often enough to make it worthwhile to have these dishes on hand as well.

I have a stack of dishes that I have cleared out, that are currently sitting on my front porch, waiting to be taken out to the van. I'll grab a picture of the stack (on top of the box that is filled) with the dishes to be gotten rid of and I'll share it with you.


Tuesday, October 1, 2013

31 Days - Day 1


Day 1 - Clothes

Yesterday, I spent a crazy amount of time and energy on laundry. We have a cat, a male cat actually, who just recently hit the six month(ish) mark. And speaking of mark...well, let's just say that I had plenty of laundry to do BEFORE the cat added to it with the clean laundry I had already done.

Anyhow, after a ton of time spent yesterday on laundry, I decided that we had too many clothes. Well, actually, I had decided that a long, long, long time ago. But yesterday, I decided that I was going to do something more about it. I have already sent three HUGE totes full of clothes over to my best friend, Shea's house. But even still, I came up with this pile of clothes that needed to go to her house for the garage sale as well.


(Yes, those are all clothes that I am getting rid of. It's a huge pile and it's not even all of it that will be going over to her house!)

Recently, we needed to change out dressers between some kids due to space constraints in their rooms and our daughter ended up with a dresser that has three more drawers, but each drawer has much less space in it. Right now, her dresser is nearly at capacity and I still have probably ten loads to go yet. So I think we still have too many clothes. This is something that I will be working to whittle down even more over the course of this month.

But a realistic question. How many clothes does the average person have? We have had way too many clothes for such a long period of time that I don't even know what a normal amount of clothing should be.

Do you have too many clothes? If so, now might be the time to look around and see what you can come up with to get rid of. Take an honest look at what you really don't like and what is very clear that you won't wear. Those are the easy decisions. Get rid of those first. Then come back and tell me how you did. Did you get rid of a lot or just a few? Do you go through your wardrobes on a regular basis to alleviate this kind of problem?

Monday, September 30, 2013

31 Days - Intro

 

For my 31 Days series this year, I am going to do 31 days of decluttering. Bonus: I have been working on this like mad the past few weeks and still have a bit to go. This is the perfect time to get it all accomplished. My biggest challenge is in actually making a point to get rid of things each and every day. My desire is that this series will help me to stay focused and on track. On October 10th or 11th, you will get to see all of the things that I have gotten rid of so far over the past few weeks, as that is when my best friend, Shea, is having her yard sale. Most of her yard sale is of my stuff. However, I will be taking a planned vacation from the blog (and from internet and well, most of regular life) from the evening of the 11th through the evening of the 14th. We're heading out of town for the weekend and going up to the family lake house for a long weekend of family reconnection time. So needed! I may schedule a post for those days, but I might just miss them too. I guess we'll have to see what happens!

You can click on the following links to check out each day.

 
Day 1 - Clothing
Day 2 - Dishes
Day 3 -
Day 4 -
Day 5 -
Day 6 -
Day 7 -
Day 8 -
Day 9 -
Day 10 -
Day 11 -
Day 12 -
Day 13 -
Day 14 -
Day 15 -
Day 16 -
Day 17 -
Day 18 -
Day 19 -
Day 20 -
Day 21 -
Day 22 -
Day 23 -
Day 24 -
Day 25 -
Day 26 -
Day 27 -
Day 28 -
Day 29 -
Day 30 -
Day 31 -

Monday, September 23, 2013

Menu Planning: Week of 9/23



This week's menu is going to be:

Monday 9/23
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: applesauce
D: chicken enchiladas, rice, refried beans

Tuesday 9/24
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: yogurt and fruit
D:pizza casserole (in the crockpot), fruit

Wednesday 9/25
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: cookies and milk
D: brunch for dinner, fruit

Thursday 9/26
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: jello
D: chicken nuggets, french fries, fruit

Friday 9/27
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: popcorn
D: pizza

Saturday 9/28
B: cold cereal, fruit
L: hoagie sandwiches
S: popcorn
D: chili with cinnamon rolls

Sunday 9/15
B/L: Brunch food - waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage, fruit
S: at Grandma and Grandpa's
D: at Grandma and Grandpa's / leftovers

Monday, September 16, 2013

Menu Planning: Week of 9/16



This week's menu is going to be:

Monday 9/16
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: applesauce
D: sausage, egg and cheese casserole, fruit

Tuesday 9/17
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: yogurt and fruit
D: reuben sandwiches, fruit

Wednesday 9/18
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: cookies and milk
D: runza casserole, fruit

Thursday 9/19
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: jello
D: slow-cooker beef stew, fruit

Friday 9/20
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: popcorn
D: pizza

Saturday 9/21
B: cold cereal, fruit
L: ramen noodles (I have to include this for at least one meal a month for Oralee who LOVES the stuff)
S: popcorn
D: ham and bean soup

Sunday 9/22
B/L: Brunch food - waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage, fruit
S: at Grandma and Grandpa's
D: at Grandma and Grandpa's / Hubby and I date night

Monday, September 9, 2013

Menu Planning: Week of 9/9



This week's menu is going to be:

Monday 9/9
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: applesauce
D: tacos, beans and rice

Tuesday 9/10
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: yogurt and fruit
D: lasagna, green beans, fruit

Wednesday 9/11
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: cookies and milk
D: shepherd's pie, fruit

Thursday 9/12
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: jello
D: beef noodle casserole, peas, fruit

Friday 9/13
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers
S: popcorn
D: pizza

Saturday 9/14
B: cold cereal, fruit
L: grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup
S: popcorn
D: chicken noodle soup

Sunday 9/15
B/L: Brunch food - waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage, fruit
S: at Grandma and Grandpa's
D: at Grandma and Grandpa's / leftovers

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Payroll...almost complete

Hubby had the day off today and asked me if I would take the kids to school for him. He usually does both sets of school drop offs in the morning and quite often, he does the school pick ups in the afternoon as well. But today, I took the kids to school. Then, I came home and went back to bed. I planned to miss my first class of the day at 11:00am because I turned in the assignment that was due for today over a week ago and it was just a work day in the classroom.

My friend, Melma, often joins me out at the college after that first class, so I called and left her a message, asking her to swing by my house on her way out to the college around noon. Then I fell back to sleep.

About an hour later (and two hours before I was expecting Melma to come over) Hubby came into the bedroom to tell me that Melma was here. I grumbled about getting up and may have said something about people actually listening to their messages yada yada. Well, after I got out to the living room and told Melma that I had left her a message about what time to come over, she informed me that she didn't yet know how to check her voicemail on her new phone. She just switched from an iphone to an android last week. So I showed her how to and she then got my message.

While she was here, I did the prep work for tonight's dinner and got it into the crockpot and divided up a 10lb. roll of ground beef that I got for a great price on sale (93/7 for 2.98/lb). After I was done with that, we left for the college, grabbing food on our way.

We spent the next nearly eight hours working on our end-of-the-quarter payroll project. I love this project. I had messed up on one part so I ended up spending a bunch of time trying to make all of the changes necessary for that one. I still ended up missing a few of the changes. But I did get to the point where I am ready to just work on the year-end forms for this project. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

However, I really really love doing this. It is such a blast! Like ridiculously fun for me. The girl who sits in front of us, Shy, doesn't seem as enthused with the whole project as I am though. Poor dear. :) She and I had a great discussion about meals and menu planning. She actually plans her menus TWO months a time. I am in awe. I struggle at times to just do a month at a time. She is newly engaged and yeah, she just has the domestic thing down! I think she may come over sometime to work on payroll with Melma and I. Or maybe we could meet somewhere else, since my house is quite often, rather insane. Particularly in the evening.

I am feeling more and more confident about my college major. I love doing accounting work!

Shy asked me today what I was going to do when I am done with my major, if I was going to go to work full-time. Probably because we were also talking about Paytin at that point. And I really don't know. I mean, I guess that is the reason that I am going to school - to be able to get a solid career. But at the same time, I only want to work while the kids are in school. Or as close as possible to that time frame. I'll have to look into the job options more as I get closer to finishing my schooling - which should be sometime in the middle of next year.

I just cannot wait until next quarter! I only have one in-person class and it is two nights a week from 7:30-9:30. It will allow me to be home during the day to take care of Paytin, in the afternoons to get the kids from school, oversee homework and chores, make and clean up dinner and then get the kids TO their evening activities. Someone else (probably Hubby) will have to be in charge of getting them home from said activities, but I know he can do it just fine. Then he will have them all in bed and hopefully asleep by the time I get home around ten at night. If there is one thing that he is really motivated to do when it comes to the house/kids, it is to get them to bed. So, it really does seem like the perfect situation!

But it has been a long day. A very long day. And I am beat. The kitchen still needs cleaning, the laundry still needs folding and hanging and putting away. I am not sure that I'm going to be the one to make it happen though. At least, not tonight. I'm ready for bedtime!

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Paytin

Hubby and I are not having any more children. He made that decision just a few months after I had Jeriah. It's been a solid five and a half years since he has had his vasectomy, so it comes at no surprise to him or anyone else who knows us, just how excited I get every time I get to watch little Paytin.

As of today, she is now 43 days old and just a doll. I could just hold her for hours! I so badly miss this newborn baby stage. Of course, that being said, she is a much easier baby than any of mine were. With Cephas, I was high-strung and very sick shortly after he was born. With Jeriah, he had torticollis and I had an emergency appendectomy a month after he was born. He also had really bad GERD but it took us months to determine that is what his issue was. With Oralee, she was a pretty easy baby but Hubby and I were going through some major marital issues and I was just EXHAUSTED! With Jeriah, it was good but he had MSPI and was intolerant to nearly everything under the sun and it took up so much time and energy trying to figure out all that was going on with him. Everything I ate made him cry. It was so hard.

Comparatively speaking, Paytin is a breeze. She burps and then pukes everything up if you don't burp her after each and every ounce of formula that she eats. She has even settled in to a regular schedule here. She arrives at nine o'clock and is awake and alert. She usually needs one or two diaper changes by ten o'clock, then she'll doze for about half an hour, decide she is hungry, wake up and eat a bottle, then she'll get a new diaper and fall back asleep for real between eleven and eleven-thirty. Most of the time, she'll sleep through until one or two. Her dad picks her up just after two, so I almost feel bad for charging him for babysitting, but I still do. It's not much money, but it does help with small extra things. I am even able to get stuff around the house or homework done. My friend, Melma, comes over around twelve-thirty and we do homework while Paytin sleeps. It's such a perfect scenario!

I seriously love my baby snuggles time! I know that there are no more babies in the picture for Hubby and I, but sometimes it really makes me sad. Especially when at least ten of our friends have had babies just this summer alone! Watching Paytin is great though. I get my "baby fix" without actually having to have a baby and all that goes with it.

Only another fifteen years until Cephas is allowed to have children. He'll be almost twenty-eight. I think that's a good age for him to have kids. Probably will happen before that, when he is like twenty-three or twenty-four, but still that's only ten years away. I am going to be the grandma who loves to have her grandkids/grandbabies over!

Okay, that got really weird. Apparently, stream of conscious typing gets a little bit weird when I'm tired. It's 1:30 in the morning, but I'm going to set this to post around 8:30 in the morning instead. For now, though, I hope you are having as much fun today as I am going to have!

Labor Day

Today was an odd kind of day. I had planned to get up and spend much of the day doing homework, but ended up sleeping in. I have had hay fever this past week like nobody's business and it has been turning my world upside down.

I ended up staying in bed until around ten o'clock this morning, then I got up and started working on some homework. Truthfully, with all that has happened in our house in the last month and some medical issues I have been dealing with, I think I may end up failing this class if I am not able to drop it. I am going to talk to the instructor tomorrow about it and ask if I can drop it. I am guessing that I will need to have her permission to do so, since it is so late in the quarter. I just need to figure out what it is that I need to do for this class. I did get a full week's worth of work done. Problem is that I need to get four more week's worth done before Wednesday to get caught up. I don't think that is going to happen, but I'm going to try before I make my decision.

Hubby and I went down to get the kids from his parents around three in the afternoon. Oralee has learned how to ride her bike without training wheels finally. She's seven and has been terrified of riding without training wheels. We were certain that Jeriah was going to ride without them first. But Grandma said that Oralee was watching Angel tootle (yes, that's the word she used) around on the bike without needing the extra support and Oralee decided that if Angel (who is two years younger than her) could do it so easily, then she could too. She was determined to do it and now she can!


This is Oralee with the bike we bought her for her sixth birthday. We will be taking the training wheels off and she'll be ready to go!

Jeriah is the last one to learn how to ride a bike unsupported. If he is willing to ride on the tandem bike attachment, family bike rides are now an option. They just haven't been for a little bit now because the Jeriah and Oralee weigh too much together to be pulled in the bike trailer - not to mention, that they are cramped as can be in there!

When we got home, we had the kids do their chores and Hubby made supper while I worked on our month's menu and this week's grocery list. After dinner, I was hit HARD with a migraine. The kind of migraine where you don't even want to move. Thankfully, the kids are pretty much able to get themselves ready for bed and with Hubby's encouragement, they did what they were supposed to do.

Once all five of the kids were in bed and my migraine had subsided enough for me to function, I left for the grocery store. I picked up some fast food and a shake for Hubby on the way home but had to have Hubby bring all of the groceries in because I was having this horrible post-migraine shakey pukey feeling that is incredibly uncomfortable and scary to me.

He brought the groceries in and put the cold stuff away. The non-cold items are still sitting around in bags but I'll get to them first thing tomorrow morning. Well, maybe not first thing, but early on in the morning.

I have Paytin tomorrow morning so I need to make sure that the living room and den areas are really neat and tidy first. It just makes me feel better if those two rooms are at least tidy before her dad drops her off. Once she is here and napping, then I can get to work on the kitchen and putting the groceries away and folding the laundry and all that jazz.

Overall though, it's been a pretty decent day. I got a lot of stuff done today, despite feeling like I hadn't accomplished really anything at all.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Menu Planning: Week of 9/2

This week's menu got off to a late start, due to a busy weekend. But better late than never, right?

The kids were at Grandma and Grandpa's house today for breakfast and lunch so that just left dinner at home for us for today. I hadn't gone grocery shopping yet, so we went with staples that we had already on hand. (I have since gone grocery shopping for all but the chicken I need for tomorrow's meal.)

Monday 9/2
B: at Grandma and Grandpa's house
L: at Grandma and Grandpa's house
S: applesauce
D: spaghetti

Tuesday 9/3
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / egg salad sandwich, fruit
S: fruit and yogurt
D: chicken cordon bleu (in the crockpot), mixed veggies and fruit

Wednesday 9/4
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers, fruit
S: PB toast
D: beef stroganoff (in the crockpot), egg noodles, fruit

Thursday 9/5
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers, fruit
S: applesauce
D: tuna noodle casserole, peas, fruit

Friday 9/6
B: at school / cold cereal, fruit
L: at school / leftovers, fruit
S: popcorn
D: pizza

Saturday 9/7
B: cold cereal, fruit
L: macaroni and cheese with tuna, mixed veggies, fruit
S: popcorn
D: chili with cinnamon rolls

Sunday 9/8
B/L: Brunch food - waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage
S: at Grandma and Grandpa's house
D: at Grandma and Grandpa's house (Hubby and I date night)

I will add in recipes later on.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Sportsmanship

My sons had football games today. Koren had to be on the field for warmups at noon and his game was supposed to start at 1pm. I left the field to run to the store really quick to buy extra water jugs and when I got back (right at 1pm), it was almost half time. They started the game around 12:40 because the games were running ahead of schedule. I really dislike that! :( There was a woman in the stands who had driven an hour to come and watch this game. Her grandson is one of Koren's teammates. She missed half the game as well. Just not cool.

However, the boys played well and this week, they won their game 12-0. Last week, they lost 0-12. No clue what next week will end up looking like for them.

After Koren's game, Grandma and Grandpa took Koren, Oralee, Jeriah and Angel back to their house because Cephas' game wasn't set to start for another two hours. Cephas stayed and we hung out, watching the next Rookie game. What can we say? We were already parked on bleachers in the shade. It was a great afternoon to be outdoors just relaxing and watching some football.

Cephas' coach showed up at 2:15 and he ran over to get ready. He was the first one there today, I think. I also think it made a good impression on the coach because Cephas was given a LOT of playtime in his game.

While Cephas' team was doing warmups, I stayed over by the Rookie field, which is right next to D field. There was an injury on D field to the point that the rescue squad was called. Play was obviously stopped on D field and all the boys took a knee. It's such a sign of respect and courtesy, it just overwhelmed me.

When they opened an extra gate to allow the rescue squad access to the field, play on Rookie field was stopped as well. The injured boy was placed on a stretcher and wheeled off the field. Fans and players alike clapped the entire time they were wheeling him to the ambulance and loaded him in. The gate in the fence was next to the boys' opponent's side of the field and those boys were all talking to the boy as he was wheeled past them. The boys' teammates also ran over to encourage the injured boy. It was such a display of sportsmanship, I was actually moved to tears. I don't really cry easily, but this was beyond that.

It made me really stop to think about all that the boys are really learning while playing football. They are not only learning a sport and getting physical exercise, but they are learning sportsmanship, compassion, social skills, strength of character, honor, integrity and all of these other things that don't immediately come to mind when I think of football initially. They are also learning self-control, perseverance, and so many other great qualities and skills that will suit them well in life, not just this football season.

Cephas' game started early as well, around 3:15 instead of the 3:30 scheduled start time. Only Grandpa came back for the game. The little kids were tired and didn't want to come back to the field, which I figured may end up being the case.

Cephas played a LOT as I said. In the 40 minute game, he played probably about 30-35 minutes of it. He was allowed to play both sides of the ball and had some great hits. One boy on the opposing team was running the ball and had gotten past his blocker and Cephas saw it, abandoned the guy he was supposed to be blocking and ran to block this kid. The kid sidestepped one way, then the next, trying to figure out how to get around Cephas. The ball runner then cut sharp one way and when Cephas stayed with him, he cut sharp the other way. Cephas cut the other way also, reached out, grabbed the boy around the waist and pulled him down to the ground. It was such a great play! I got really excited and yelled, cheering for him and turned to my father-in-law and said, "THAT'S my boy!" Totally a dad moment, but Hubby was at work, so I had to do the dad pride thing in his place. :)

I was struck by just how powerful Cephas is as a football player. I really think he has potential to play high school level in two years when he is a freshman. It's crazy sad to think that next year will be his last year of midget football and then the next year, he'll probably be playing freshman football.

I'm not sure that Koren is really all that into football. He wanted to play this year, but I'm not sure that he'll want to play again next year. Some of our friends say that he should wrestle, but I'm not sure about that either. Maybe? We'll see what he wants to do. Football scholarships are more plentiful where we live and cover a lot more than a wrestling scholarship will, but it's really about what Koren wants. I'm just glad that Cephas is motivated. Football has really helped him with self-control and with his ADHD, ODD and aggression issues. Plus, it also encourages and motivates him to do well in school, get along better with his siblings and to just be personally responsible. Football has had a tremendous impact on Cephas and I'm truly grateful for the opportunity he has to play.

Football Weekends

We live in a college town, in a state that pretty much revolves around our Capital City's college football team. On Saturdays during college football season, the Capital City, which is the second largest in population in the state, has such an influx of people, most of which are at the Stadium, that it sometimes rivals the population of the first largest. Our stadium here, actually has the third highest population in the state during the game. That's a wicked large number of people! And that was before our stadium had the new addition put onto it. The stadium seats 91,185 people! With players and coaches, media and trainers and security and maintenance and groundskeepers and vendors and all of the other people that make the day a reality, I'm guessing that there are actually closer to 95,000 people there.

As you might be able to guess, football is a big deal here. A really big deal.

On Sundays, our Midget football teams play. Our YMCA football teams play. There are virtually no games played on Saturdays in our city, because there are not enough people willing to sacrifice the ability to watch our college team play ball in order to watch our youth play ball. It's sad, but it is so true. As such, our youth play on Sundays.


Yesterday: Chores. Kids got their bedrooms clean (FINALLY!) and their chore rooms were pretty well done also.

Last night: Season opener 7pm-11pm. Football party at a friend's house (Shea and her hubby, but sans their four kiddos). Brought kids home afterward and all five were asleep the moment their heads hit their pillows (some even before that!)

Today: Week two of Midget Football. Koren has to be at the field at noon and plays at 1pm. His game is an hour long. Cephas has to be at the field at 2:30p and plays at 3:30pm. His game is an hour long. I am so thankful for my inlaws! They are so supportive of the boys playing that they are even willing to take (not only our kiddos, but Angel as well - with her mom's permission, of course!) the kids so that I don't have to have all of them out there all afternoon.

I'll drop the four kids off at Grandma's house (Cephas, Oralee, Jeriah and Angel) then take Koren over to the field for warm-ups. I'll sit there for an hour (homework time, maybe?) until Grandma and Grandpa show up with the other four. We'll all sit and watch Koren's game and then when it is over and he is ready to leave, Grandma and Grandpa will take all but Cephas back to their place for about an hour. Cephas will have to be on the field for his warm-ups at 2:30 and I'll have another hour to sit and maybe do homework or something. Then Grandma and Grandpa will come back with the four they took home initially and we'll all watch Cephas play. Afterward, Grandma and Grandpa will take all five kids home with them and they will keep the kids overnight so that I have time to really focus on homework. They take them each and every Sunday night at this point in time. I don't know what I'd do without them. Hubby has to work and doesn't have a set time when he gets off the clock, so he'll join us whenever he is able to.

After getting all the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's house, I'll (or we'll, depending on if Hubby was able to make it down for a game) head on home, where I plan to spend the rest of the evening doing homework. Woo woo. Such an exciting life I lead!

This is pretty typical for what Football weekends look like around here at this point and will continue to look like until mid-October or so. Then it will just be Football Saturdays.

Playing Catch-Up

I feel like that is what I do with most of my time right now. It is quite crazy to be honest. But first, I have to catch you all up to where we are now:

Cephas, age 12, seventh grade, center on his football team. ADHD fairly well controlled now, ODD getting controlled, aggression well under control. Trying to parent the younger kids: still a major issue. Has a best friend he likes to hang out with. I love it because it gives him a chance to be with another kid without his own siblings around. Best friend, Andy, has an older sister but she is much older than him and lives elsewhere for her college.

Koren, age 9 but almost 10, fourth grade, first year playing football. Still very studious and loves to learn, read, build with legos and hang out with his friends. His friends mostly live near us, so he can play with them outside near our home. Starting to come into his own stronger personality, but still loves to snuggle (even with Mom!)

Oralee, age 7, second grade. Princess-turned-Diva-turned-well, a handful. Has MAJOR attitude going on most of the time, but we're working on it. I have a pretty good idea what could be causing some of it though. Loves reading, writing stories, playing with her dollhouse and art projects. Also loves having Mom do her nails and hair. Nearly impossible to get this child to wear regular shoes, as she strongly prefers calf- or knee-high boots.

Jeriah, age 5 almost 6, first grade. Still has Asperger's, still reads way above grade level. Comprehension is still closer to grade level though. Very advanced in math. Can do sister's second-grade homework with ease. Brought home his first spelling pre-test of first grade this week with a perfect score on all of the regular words, plus the bonus words were spelled correctly as well. The challenge words are not given on the pre-test, but he was able to orally spell those for me when I asked him to. Kid is a whiz with words! Socially still at a deficit, but that is to be expected. Has started to pick on his sister. (Part of her issue with being a handful anymore.) Demanded some dignity about his bedroom situation and moved from the "girly room" he shared with his sister to the room his brothers occupy. Now, we have a boys' room and a girls' room.

Yes, a girls' (as in plural) room. No, I didn't have a baby, but yes, we kind of, sort of, have another kid. You might remember Angel, a kid whose mother works with Hubby. Well, just before the school year started, Angel's mom's life turned a little bit upside down and things were pretty shaky there for a little bit. I offered to have Angel stay with us so that her Mom could get herself situated and some things worked out. Angel is now with us temporarily but indefinitely. We have no legal rights or claim to her, her mom has full custody of her, but she just happens to be with us most of the time. So:

Angel, age 5, kindergarten. Adjusting well to being here and starting school. Loves being in school and is so proud of her work. Can now write her name. We had about four months where I didn't really have her, so she may have learned how to do it in that time, but I just now know about it. Does an amazingly perfect cartwheel (I'm thinking gymnastics may be in her future here soon!) and has gotten over her quiet shyness for the most part.

So, if you are following along, that's five kids, two in football, two who are on the Autism Spectrum. Busy yet? Nope! Cephas and Koren are both still in Boy and Cub Scouts, respectively. We were considering putting Jeriah in our school's Scouting program, but in doing so, he would advance from Bear to Wolf and then transfer to his brothers' Pack/Troop and have to go back to being a Bear, because of the difference in the way they do their Scouts. And instead of having Oralee do formal Girl Scouts this year, I have strongly considered doing Juliettes with her. It's basically like Girl Scouts for homeschoolers. She would do her activities and earn her badges and all that, but we would do it independent of a group. It is basically what ended up happening in her first year as a Daisy as well. And since we have Angel, she would also do Juliettes as well.

If that isn't all enough, you might remember we have three dogs: Tink, Tiny and Freddy. Tink and Tiny are Chihuahuas and Freddy is a Cocker Spaniel. To mix things up a bit, we added a cat, Phineas or Phinny for short. When we got him, we were pretty sure that Freddy wanted to eat him, but within a few days, they got along well enough. Now, Phinny does his own thing, the dogs do their own thing and all is well.

Hubby just passed his two-year anniversary at his work. There's a lot of stress there right now because he works in a restaurant and the restaurant chain was bought out by another company late last year and they have made some changes since the purchase. Well, on top of that, his store is also going through a Revitalization Phase. They are getting a full-store remodel and they are staying open throughout the whole thing, minus only ONE day! Can you imagine?! I'm so thankful that I don't work there. On top of being fired for being insubordinate to the General Manager (he's a friend of mine), I'd want to pull my hair out at all of the changes going on.

Speaking of changes, I have a couple of new things going on in my own life. I have started back to school. I started back in classes in Spring. I took 16.5 credit hours (4 classes) during the regular 10-week quarter, 4.5 credit hours (1 class) for the accelerated 5-week quarter and another 4.5 credit hours (1 class) for the accelerated 3-week quarter. I was able to knock 25.5 credit hours out in one quarter alone. For the summer quarter, I have slowed it down to only 18 credit hours (4 classes) and for fall, I am slowing it down just a bit more to the smallest amount that I am even willing to take and will only be taking 12.5 credit hours (3 classes), although I am struggling with that decision, feeling that I should still take 4 classes. Oh - and for my crazy Spring quarter? Term GPA of 3.588.

And to finish off the changes that will catch you up the rest of the way, I have started caring for another one of Hubby's co-worker's children. Her name is Paytin. I have her only part-time as I have a traditional class during the day, three days a week which is when her parents would be needing me to watch her. Instead, I watch her on my non-class weekdays. The very first day I watched her, she was only 15 days old. I actually had to check and make sure it was legal to watch her as I do daycare part-time, but am license-exempt. It is actually because I am license-exempt that I was able to take her. Her mom went back to work before Paytin was even two weeks old. I am in awe of her, to be honest. No way was I ready to go back to work that soon after having my kids. But she is determined. Both of Paytin's parents are going to be taking college courses this fall in addition to working and raising a newborn. They are going to be taking online classes. I haven't the slightest idea how they are going to do it all, but they are young, they are in love, they are determined and they are working hard to make the best life they can for tiny little Paytin and themselves.

And I'm pretty sure that you are now all caught up with our lives here. Stay tuned though. I plan to update more than every six months.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Not Resolutions per se...Week 6 update

Back on December 31st, 2012, I posted about some changes that I have been wanting to make. I didn't call them resolutions because I just didn't think that was quite the right term for them. But I did want to update you on those changes I wanted to make and how they have been going. So here goes:

Personal Scripture Study: F
Same as I said last time...Between doing the reading for Sunday School (which I don't attend because I'm a Nursery leader) and Relief Society (which I also don't attend for the same reason) as well as the reading that relates to my Visiting Teaching message and to my Nursery leader role, I really haven't been doing any personal reading. I do still plan to do it though.

I have yet to really do any personal scripture study. I think I may need to change this one out, to be honest.

Scripture Study with Bree: C
I had planned to order our Seminary books so that we could start as soon as the kids were back in school on the 7th of January, but time got away from me and I ended up not ordering them until the 9th and as of yet, we haven't received them, they are due here though, on the 22nd, although I anticipate them actually showing up before then.
They actually showed up on the 18th, although we didn't start them until the 20th/21st. I gave her the copy of her book at church that day and we started the next day. I have been pretty faithful (missed one day but had an extra long session the previous day that I felt kind of balanced it out, even though I know that it doesn't really) about doing my Seminary reading.

We are doing pretty well on this. Bree is going through our study more quickly than I am, but I am also going through it more slowly because I have never been through it before and she has. I feel like I have more to learn from it than she probably does.

Tackling a particular area of the house each week: B
I had planned to start with the den. And as far as this goes, I forgot to do a post the next day with pictures of the items and then the finished product. However, I will say that nearly all of the homeless items were either re-homed to someone else's house, discarded or given a proper home here. The one exception to that would be the things that are under my husband's desk. Practical excuse: When I have the time, his legs are usually under his desk. In reality: I have more time than when he is actually using his desk, but when he's not, I push the chair in (out of habit) and the chair essentially hides those few remaining homeless items. Therefore, out of sight, out of mind. I WILL get that done (with pictures to prove it) before this week is over.
For next week's tackle, I plan on attacking laundry in a major major way. It just needs to be done.
I did get that area done but no pics. Sigh. One of these days my posts WILL have pics again. One of these days. I have been working on the laundry in a major way. There is still more to do, but it's a process and I'm plugging away at it. And making great progress, I might add! I think this laundry tackle may be one that I will actually continue doing throughout the month of February.

I have been working really hard on the laundry situation this week. Just this past week, I sat and sorted through socks and when all was said and done, I matched and folded probably 240 pairs of socks. I'm not even done with it, but once I had about 40 pairs per person, I was done with it. It is actually really great that I was able to do that early on in the week, because the latter half of the week, I was barely even home, much less able to do anything around the house.

Meal Planning: A
Week 1 (aka 1-1-13 to 1-6-13) was planned and followed
Week 2 (aka 1-7-13 to 1-13-13) was planned and followed
Week 3 (aka 1-14-13 to 1-20-13) was planned and is being followed but I didn't blog it because I was busy and forgot to do it.
Week 4 (aka 1-21-13 to 1-27-13) was planned and followed
Week 5 (aka 1-28-13 to 2-3-13) was planned and is being followed but I didn't blog it because of illnesses and the fact that it's been kind of a loose plan due to the illnesses.

Week 6 (aka 2-4-13 to 2-10-13) was planned and is being followed

Savings Goal of $1200: A+
I have saved up an additional $300 already this month, on top of the $300 that I already had. In reality, Hubby's check is going to be short this next pay period so most likely the extra $200 that I have saved will be re-routed to make up the shortage on his check. However, it will not affect the amount that I have saved this far and it also won't drive me off track with my goal either. Hubby did see something this one idea on Facebook though and while it does seem interesting, I'm not sure that it is entirely practical for our family.



Someone had commented that they were doing it backwards so that it would get progressively easier as opposed to progressively harder. Plus, if you put away the most amount of money early on, and you have it in a bank or someplace where you are earning interest on it, you're making more interest earlier on. Not to mention, you are more likely to save more money at the beginning of the year when your resolve to save is at it's freshest. I hope that makes sense.

Hubby's work missed a paycheck that is still unaccounted for and he had a less than usual paycheck as well, so we are back to just the $100 (+ $300=$400) saved. We might need to dig into that, though, to make up for the missed paycheck. That's what it is there for though, right?

In addition to Hubby's missed paycheck, we also had another thing come up that cut us short by an additional $700 so far. It's a scary situation to be in right now. I called on Monday to find out what was going on and it was resolved on Tuesday.

Chores: B+
Our chore system is still going strong. I have tweaked it and will post about it (and some of the previous tweaks that I have done to it). Who knows? Maybe this current system (or one of the previous tweaks) will work for you as well. Or maybe give you something to start off from.
The chore system is going better than ever! Loving it! My older boys are continuously going above and beyond their expected chores nearly every day. Cannot complain about that!

Our chore system is rocking out! Even Jeriah is starting to get on board with it, when Cephas encourages him.

Use our gym membership at least once per week: D
Week 1 - 0
Week 2 - 0
Week 3 - 0
However, I did just sign the kids up today for swim lessons (Oralee and Jeriah) and swim team (Cephas and Koren) as well as for Recreational Soccer (Cephas), Flag Football (Koren), Micro Volleyball (Oralee) and Micro Soccer (Jeriah). So, that kind of used our membership...kinda. Once we are already at the gym for those lessons, it's so much easier to just go ahead and work out. Funny how things work out like that.
Week 4 - 3 times
Week 5 - 0 times so far due to illnesses. Blech! (in the end, we went once.)

Week 6 - 2 times

Losing 2% of my weight per month: D
At this point, I'd have to go weigh myself, but I don't believe that I have currently lost any weight at all.
I weighed myself on 1/26/13 and at that point, I had lost 1%. Not all that I'd hoped for, but it's a start.

I do know that it isn't going well. And I am pretty sure that the 1% that I'd lost is gained back and some. This is a major struggle. I need to really work on this one. This is my new main focus for the month. It WILL happen this month. No excuses.

Eating more meals prepared at home: C+
We have definitely done better in this department. There is still room for improvement though. Ideally, we would be eating out once per month, twice in a birthday or anniversary month.
Still doing better, still lots of room for improvement. Our biggest downfall is those unexpected trips that come up that ends up preventing us from being home in time to start the meal at a time that would make sense. I just need to do a better job of planning ahead and making sure that I am home in time to make the meal.

This has gone really well. I ate out once with Bree, her treat and ended up only eating half the appetizer and my veggies from my meal. My plate had to be remade and by the time they brought it out, I was done eating, so I took home basically a full meal, much of which Hubby ate for me.

Cutting out soda: D
Complete fail at this point in time. My plan was to trade soda in for decaf tea, but I haven't gotten there just yet. If I were to just make some and have it ready to go in the fridge, I'd set myself up for success right there. However, I haven't as of yet. There's nothing like the present to get started on that one though!
Still a fail, but mostly because I haven't yet bought the tea. I thought I had decaf tea, but I didn't. So instead of giving up the soda, I have been drinking non-caffeinated soda or diet soda. I wish it was both, but it's generally one or the other. I don't really like the diet versions of the caffeine free sodas. But this last week of January, I have actually been doing really well with it. I did have one diet soda when we ate at Hubby's work this week, but that was only because the server knows us and that's what I always order and she never even asked me what I wanted to drink - she just brought it out.

I did really well with this until a particularly grueling time with Cephas and that's when I broke down and had some Diet Coke. Hubby knew I was stressed and when he went to the grocery store, he picked some up for me. Super sweet of him to think of me, not so awesome when I'm trying to cut it out. The sweetness definitely wins out. My hubby is the best.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

ADHD, ODD and Aspergers, oh my!

I have talked some before about Jeriah's Aspergers and how he is doing such a fantastic job with school and social situattions, and learning and all that. And I have mentioned briefly about Cephas and his ADHD. Well, here's a little bit of an update about these two kiddos.

Jeriah is still doing an amazing job at school. He has adapted quite nicely to his school routine and to his work and expectations there. His grades at school are all at either meeting or exceeding district standards, which is amazing. At home, though, it's a different story. He has been really defiant and refuses to help out or cooperate or whatever. It's trying on a mama, let me tell you. There are some days and situations where my energy and abilities are long spent just a few hours after he wakes up. I need to schedule another appointment for him with our therapist. This mama needs some resources to deal with this very strong-willed child. He is amazingly smart and I adore him to pieces, but I'm at a point where I need some kind of resources and ideas for what to do now.

I had this same issue with Cephas at this age. It was so INCREDIBLY difficult because with Cephas, I had two younger children at this age, one of which was a baby. With Jeriah, I think it's almost worse though, because I also have Cephas at his current stage, which is taxing at this point, to say the least.

Cephas was diagnosed with ADHD last Spring ('12) and we didn't want to medicate initially. Plus, he had Midget Football, which took up a LOT of time and energy and everything else. It was something that was physically grueling for him and kept him busy enough that he was too exhausted on a regular basis to act out. And then football season ended. And then we started back in with some of the issues.

Two weeks ago, after about a month of really considering the options, we went ahead and met with someone in the psychology office who is in charge of prescribing medications. She put him on a low dose of one ADHD med for him to take that week. It's a short-acting medication and is only in his system for a very limited period of time. Then, the second week (this week), the dose was doubled and would last for twice as long. And it has done an AMAZING job for him at school. He has been able to focus and not even his best friend goofing around here and there has been much of a distraction issue while he is in school. But then, he gets home, the medication wears off and we have our hands FULL. I try to get him to do his chores and homework immediately after school while his meds are still possibly in effect, but if something comes up and we're delayed by an hour or so, the rest of the night is a complete struggle.

Anyhow, before I go into all of that, I should share about the visit that we had with his psychologist before we went to meet with the person in the office who makes the medication decisions. Anyhow, I was talking to the psychologist and told her that it often feels like in addition to his ADHD (which we have talked about and worked with at length) that it feels like he also has ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder) and sometimes a touch of depression and with all of these things combined, it's like he has bi-polar or something.

She validated my feelings about all of that and showed my Cephas' graded assessments, in which his scores were 99.99% ADHD, 99.99% ODD, 99.99% Aggression (something or other) and I was like, Oh wow. Suddenly, it all seems to make sense. It's not just me losing my mind with this child (whom I love dearly, don't get me wrong!)

So, we met with the other person and started him on this medication. We have a meeting with both women coming up this next week and I cannot wait! There's potential that we will end up giving Cephas the low-dose med after school to get him through the evening and we may end up needing to give him another one to help him sleep as well. I don't know if I have ever mentioned this, but I really and truly dislike medications, but we are at the point where there's little other choice. We cannot have him un-medicated right now. But part of the problem that we are having right now is a side effect from the med of restlessness and insomnia. He's always had sleep issues and now on top of that, he has a medication that makes him more prone to it. So, in addition to the medication wearing off around the same time that he gets home from school, he's also not sleeping well at night and he is excessively tired, yet restless at the same time. It seems to be a vicious cycle.

These past few days in particular have been extremely challenging. I think that there has been three days in a row now that have me at my wit's end. The first two days that he was on the stronger dose, we didn't really have any major issues. However, I do think that by the third day, the sleep issue was really starting to catch up with him. All I know for sure is that I cannot wait until next week to meet with both ladies. I don't know if they are going to change his med, add on to it for the evening hours, or give him a sleeping aid of some sort. I almost want to try for the sleep aid first and see if that helps with the evening hours and the restlessness and insomnia issue first. But I don't know what route would be best to go.

It seems that he functions best when he is over-scheduled. You know, there was a big thing about kids being too over-scheduled and how they don't have downtime in our society, etc for quite a while a few years back. But Cephas seems to thrive and function the best when he is constantly on the go. However, I can't do it. Even if I don't have to do all of it, I'm still the one that has to take him here, there and everywhere else and it wears me out.

Right now, we have him involved in Swim Club. (Koren is also in Swim Club, while Oralee and Jeriah are in swim lessons.) Swim Club is quite physically demanding. Koren was complaining that they pushed him too hard, but Cephas kept pace with it really well. He has to do Swim Club before he can do Swim Team. I cannot wait for him to do Swim Team. He needs that intensity. Right now, Swim Club is twice a week. After this session is over, I plan on keeping Koren in Club and putting Cephas on the Team. Hopefully that will help matters as well. Then, this Spring, Cephas will also be playing soccer, Koren will be playing flag football, Oralee will be playing volleyball and Jeriah will be in soccer as well. It's such a demanding sports schedule, but given the similarities between Cephas and Jeriah at Jeriah's current age, I think it may be very beneficial to keep him busy as well. I've also toyed with the idea of having the boys do gymnastics, as Koren wants to and so does Jeriah. Oralee wants to do dance classes.

Anyone else exhausted just thinking about this? Because I am just from typing it and trying to keep it all straight. If I am sparse in posting over the next few weeks, this is why. I'm just trying to keep up with my ASD kiddos.

I also got into a huge disagreement with one of my best friends tonight. This is someone who hasn't been around for just over six months because he was deployed for a month, then he was home for about a month and has been gone for another three months. He doesn't spend all that much time with Cephas either. But as I was talking to him about just the ADHD, ODD, the meds and the current struggle, he made the mistake of telling me that Cephas doesn't have a disorder, that he's just twelve and developing his personality and such. This friend does not have children, does not work with children, rarely is even around children, much less any Spectrum children. Needless to say, we did not exactly see eye to eye about it and our discussion got heated and in the end, I unfriended him on Facebook. I told Bree about the conversation, as her son also has ADHD and ODD, although he's three years younger than Cephas is. But she understands what I'm going through with Cephas. And while she doesn't always understand completely what I'm going through with Jeriah, she's there and she's supportive and validates what it is that I'm feeling and going through with him. This other friend did the exact opposite. I also happened to be talking to Bree on Facebook and she was also getting riled up about this other friend's attitude.

This other friend gets home from his deployment tomorrow and I unfriended him tonight. Not exactly the best timing, but I was angry. Livid, really. I also wanted to talk to his wife tonight, before he gets home tomorrow, to let her know where I stood with her husband at this point in time. Let's just say, he really isn't scoring points with anyone at this point in time. His wife said that he was lucky this conversation took place while he is deployed and that it wasn't in front of her because she'd end up telling him a thing or two herself. I used to get along with him better than I did with her, but over the last few years, I have really lost a lot of respect for him. I hate to say that and to feel that way, but that's just the way that it is. I'm really grateful though, to have rediscovered such a good friend in his wife.

Okay, so this post was in large part an update and also a vent. Sometimes, it is so hard to balance all of this stress though. Thanks for reading through this. I'm exhausted and probably a little worked up yet. And to add to the stress, I also just found out today that Hubby is going to be back to work six to seven days each week. That is going to take yet another toll on me, because I'm going to lose him as a regular resource on Sundays. Wish me luck?

Friday, February 1, 2013

Cold outside, chores inside.

I know some areas are worse, but man, oh man, is it ever cold outside this week. This past weekend was GORGEOUS! Fifty-five degrees and sunny and today it was bitterly cold, overcast and windy. Okay, in all reality, our high for the day was 16 degrees and our highest windchill temp I do believe got up to around -5 degrees. But brrr!

All the super cold means that we have been spending a lot of time indoors. Doing a lot of planning and chore work. Which means that right now is a great time to show-and-tell our current chore system here.

I have four children. Each child has an age in years. Each child is expected to do the same number of chores in living areas of the home as they are old. If all of these chores are done each and every day without fail, said child receives a dollar amount equal to their age once a month. What this ends up working out to being is 3.5 cents per chore. I wanted something that would give the kids money but not be something that would break our budget either.

So here is how it works for Cephas (the child with the greatest age/number of chores/earning potential):

His room has to be clean in order for him to earn any stickers (the way we keep track of our chores) for chores. A clean room means that his bed is neat and tidy, under his bed is free of debris, his dresser, desk and bookshelf are all neat and tidy, the closet is neat and tidy with all items on hangers or in the canvas bins that we use for underclothes. This may sound like a normal thing to the rest of you, but to my twelve year old and his apparent lack of ability to see mess, it is something that has o be clearly defined.

Now for his chores. Currently, at his request, he has the living room. Once again, it may seem silly that we have such a specific list for him, but quite honestly, he needs to have completely clear expectations. His chores are: (1) clear the bookshelf of anything that doesn't belong on there, (2) clear the TV stand of anything that doesn't belong on there and make it look neat, (3) clear off the cedar chest, (4) clear off the couch, (5) clear under couch cushions, (6) make sure the area under the couch is clear,  (7) hang up all the coats and backpacks neatly, (8) make sure all shoes are put on racks or in the shoe baskets, (9) clear off entry table of all non-essential items, (10) pick up floor area in TV area, making sure to check the perimeter area of the floor, (11) pick up floor area in the entry/shoe area, (12) clear off mom's side table.

All are super quick things to do, especially if he does it daily. If he doesn't do it daily, then it builds up and he has to work harder and longer to get it all done. He only earns one sticker per item each day and only if he keeps the chore items up throughout the day. He does have he ability to ask a sibling or a parent to pick up their item if he sees them leaving an item in an area that he is responsible for keeping tidy. He has to do it with respect though. He will get twelve stickers for doing these very basic routine pick up jobs in this one room. The other kids have similarly specific chore items to do in other rooms. This is a system that works for us.

On the wall in our hallway, I have a row of their current school pictures. Under this row of pictures, I have a string that is threaded through 8 mini clothespins that I got from Walmart. Two clothespins for each child hold a sheet of 8x11 printer paper on which we put their stickers. At night, after they go to bed, we place sticker strips with their accumulated stickers from the day in one of their clothespins. Then, once a month, we pay out for their stickers. They can keep the sheet or toss it. The boys generally toss theirs, while Oralee keeps her sheets and hangs them on her wall in her bedroom. Once paid, they get new sheets for the month.

I do allow the kids to do extra work and award extra stickers. For instance, if Cephas or Koren decide to do a load of laundry, it usually nets them 3 stickers (unloading the dryer and bringing the load to my bed or to the couch, transferring the laundry from washer to dryer, reloading the washer). They know all the little parts that need to be done each time. Sorting the load to make sure they are washing like items, using the right amount and temperature of water, cleaning the lint trap of the dryer, etc. etc. Last weekend, they worked together and did six loads of laundry. They worked together on it and I had no issues (because of how well they were working together, cooperating and showing initiative - I didn't say anything to them at all about doing laundry) of giving them each the same number of stickers that I would have given them if they did the work solo. My reasoning? Their joint work ethic. I wanted to reward that as well. And to show them that if they work together nicely, they can get the job done quickly and easily and reap even more benefits than working solo. Their additional benefit was half the workload, same amount of stickers and more time to spend doing what they wanted to do.

Cephas and Koren have been incredibly helpful around the house this week. They have helped me clean Oralee and Jeriah's bedroom, did probably 9 loads of laundry, Cephas cleaned his and Koren's bedroom, and helped me with some laundry work in my room. To be honest, my bedroom most often resembles a clothing store explosion. They earned A LOT of extra stickers for going so far above and beyond this week. The only thing that I actually asked them to do was offering them the opportunity to earn stickers for Oralee and Jeriah's bedroom. Bedroom chores are NOT generally worth any stickers. But if your bedroom chores are not done, you can earn stickers, but you may not collect them, if that makes sense at all.

Okay, so this is what our hallway looks like right now. I will be paying out for their stickers later today as it is the first day of the month.




This is Koren's chart. He has currently earned nearly $5.00 for two weeks worth of work. We had the same concept before, but the stickers were on a different chart (10-strips).





 


This here is Cephas' chart. He also has been working for about two weeks, and he has currently earned nearly $6.00.




This is Oralee's chart. She prefers her stickers to be placed on there at random. She has earned a little over a dollar and a half.



Jeriah's chart has the least amount of stickers, as he is the youngest and currently the most resistant to doing chores. He has earned just cents shy of a dollar.






I love this system! I love the fact that the kids' chores are so specific that there isn't any doubt that they know exactly what is expected of them. They know what each area is supposed to look like when it is done. It is great! They know what to do and how to do it. Also, I had mentioned that they can earn extra stickers for doing extra chores, if they choose, but their prerequisite for that is that their chore rooms have to be done and their bedrooms have to be clean. It has been a beautiful little arrangement.

Oh, and we are also about to institute a dinner chore wheel, where everyone has a roll to play in the dinner prep or clean up. Those mini-chores are not for stickers, but as part of being a family and learning to be a responsible member of the family. The dinner chores include: unload the dishwasher, clear off the table for dinner, help prepare the actual meal, set the table with dishes, help bring the food to the table, help clear the table of the extra food (everyone is responsible for getting their own place setting scraped off and to the sink), rinsing dishes, load the dishwasher, wipe down the table and chairs, wipe down the counters and stove, sweep kitchen and dining room floors, take out the trash. If everyone chips in and does even two items, the work will fly right by and we will have more time to spend doing whatever we want in the evening.

I think it is a great and wonderful plan and cannot wait to implement it later today as well. I love our chore system and how well it works for us. Maybe something in it will help you, maybe it won't. But I thought I'd share it because it is a system that we have been using for quite awhile now and it just works so well for us.

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Not Resolutions, per se...end of January update


Back on December 31st, 2012, I posted about some changes that I have been wanting to make. I didn't call them resolutions because I just didn't think that was quite the right term for them. But I did want to update you on those changes I wanted to make and how they have been going. So here goes:

Personal Scripture Study: F
Same as I said last time...Between doing the reading for Sunday School (which I don't attend because I'm a Nursery leader) and Relief Society (which I also don't attend for the same reason) as well as the reading that relates to my Visiting Teaching message and to my Nursery leader role, I really haven't been doing any personal reading. I do still plan to do it though.

Scripture Study with Bree: B
I had planned to order our Seminary books so that we could start as soon as the kids were back in school on the 7th of January, but time got away from me and I ended up not ordering them until the 9th and as of yet, we haven't received them, they are due here though, on the 22nd, although I anticipate them actually showing up before then.

They actually showed up on the 18th, although we didn't start them until the 20th/21st. I gave her the copy of her book at church that day and we started the next day. I have been pretty faithful (missed one day but had an extra long session the previous day that I felt kind of balanced it out, even though I know that it doesn't really) about doing my Seminary reading.

Tackling a particular area of the house each week: B
I had planned to start with the den. And as far as this goes, I forgot to do a post the next day with pictures of the items and then the finished product. However, I will say that nearly all of the homeless items were either re-homed to someone else's house, discarded or given a proper home here. The one exception to that would be the things that are under my husband's desk. Practical excuse: When I have the time, his legs are usually under his desk. In reality: I have more time than when he is actually using his desk, but when he's not, I push the chair in (out of habit) and the chair essentially hides those few remaining homeless items. Therefore, out of sight, out of mind. I WILL get that done (with pictures to prove it) before this week is over.

For next week's tackle, I plan on attacking laundry in a major major way. It just needs to be done.

I did get that area done but no pics. Sigh. One of these days my posts WILL have pics again. One of these days. I have been working on the laundry in a major way. There is still more to do, but it's a process and I'm plugging away at it. And making great progress, I might add! I think this laundry tackle may be one that I will actually continue doing throughout the month of February.

Meal Planning: A
Week 1 (aka 1-1-13 to 1-6-13) was planned and followed
Week 2 (aka 1-7-13 to 1-13-13) was planned and followed
Week 3 (aka 1-14-13 to 1-20-13) was planned and is being followed but I didn't blog it because I was busy and forgot to do it.

Week 4 (aka 1-21-13 to 1-27-13) was planned and followed
Week 5 (aka 1-28-13 to 2-3-13) was planned and is being followed but I didn't blog it because of illnesses and the fact that it's been kind of a loose plan due to the illnesses.

Savings Goal of $1200: A+
I have saved up an additional $300 already this month, on top of the $300 that I already had. In reality, Hubby's check is going to be short this next pay period so most likely the extra $200 that I have saved will be re-routed to make up the shortage on his check. However, it will not affect the amount that I have saved this far and it also won't drive me off track with my goal either. Hubby did see something this one idea on Facebook though and while it does seem interesting, I'm not sure that it is entirely practical for our family.



Someone had commented that they were doing it backwards so that it would get progressively easier as opposed to progressively harder. Plus, if you put away the most amount of money early on, and you have it in a bank or someplace where you are earning interest on it, you're making more interest earlier on. Not to mention, you are more likely to save more money at the beginning of the year when your resolve to save is at it's freshest. I hope that makes sense.


Hubby's work missed a paycheck that is still unaccounted for and he had a less than usual paycheck as well, so we are back to just the $100 (+ $300=$400) saved. We might need to dig into that, though, to make up for the missed paycheck. That's what it is there for though, right?

Chores: B
Our chore system is still going strong. I have tweaked it and will post about it (and some of the previous tweaks that I have done to it). Who knows? Maybe this current system (or one of the previous tweaks) will work for you as well. Or maybe give you something to start off from.

The chore system is going better than ever! Loving it! My older boys are continuously going above and beyond their expected chores nearly every day. Cannot complain about that!

Use our gym membership at least once per week: D-
Week 1 - 0
Week 2 - 0
Week 3 - 0

However, I did just sign the kids up today for swim lessons (Oralee and Jeriah) and swim team (Cephas and Koren) as well as for Recreational Soccer (Cephas), Flag Football (Koren), Micro Volleyball (Oralee) and Micro Soccer (Jeriah). So, that kind of used our membership...kinda. Once we are already at the gym for those lessons, it's so much easier to just go ahead and work out. Funny how things work out like that.

Week 4 - 3 times
Week 5 - 0 times so far due to illnesses. Blech!

Losing 2% of my weight per month: C-
At this point, I'd have to go weigh myself, but I don't believe that I have currently lost any weight at all.

I weighed myself on 1/26/13 and at that point, I had lost 1%. Not all that I'd hoped for, but it's a start.

Eating more meals prepared at home: C
We have definitely done better in this department. There is still room for improvement though. Ideally, we would be eating out once per month, twice in a birthday or anniversary month.

Still doing better, still lots of room for improvement. Our biggest downfall is those unexpected trips that come up that ends up preventing us from being home in time to start the meal at a time that would make sense. I just need to do a better job of planning ahead and making sure that I am home in time to make the meal.

Cutting out soda: D
Complete fail at this point in time. My plan was to trade soda in for decaf tea, but I haven't gotten there just yet. If I were to just make some and have it ready to go in the fridge, I'd set myself up for success right there. However, I haven't as of yet. There's nothing like the present to get started on that one though!

Still a fail, but mostly because I haven't yet bought the tea. I thought I had decaf tea, but I didn't. So instead of giving up the soda, I have been drinking non-caffeinated soda or diet soda. I wish it was both, but it's generally one or the other. I don't really like the diet versions of the caffeine free sodas. But this last week of January, I have actually been doing really well with it. I did have one diet soda when we ate at Hubby's work this week, but that was only because the server knows us and that's what I always order and she never even asked me what I wanted to drink - she just brought it out.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Sickliness

This week has been a week for the sickies. I got sick early on in the week, to the extent that had my Nursery co-leader already planned on not being at church, I would have stayed home. But, as it was the first day for Cephas to pass Sacrament and that my co-leader was absent, I decided that it would be best for me to push through and teach last Sunday. It was a great experience! I even met someone that is new(ish) to our ward, because our Nursery Presidency took pity on me with the babies and went to the Relief Society Presidency and asked them to offer a Sister from there to help me the third hour.

Then I came home and was sick, sick, sick on the couch for the next day and a half or so.  I didn't really get to feeling bad until after church on Sunday, so I'm praying that I didn't pass anything on. It was like a really bad cold, to the point that I thought maybe I had bronchitis. As it turns out, I didn't have bronchitis, but man, it was horrible!

It hit hard for a good two days, but by Wednesday, I was at work (Monday was a holiday - no school or work on that day for us!) and by Thursday, I had three kids home sick. I sent them all to school on Friday, as I was subbing for someone else that day and Hubby was working as well. Plus, they seemed like they were well enough to be at school that day. We also skipped out on Scouts on Thursday night, even though it was the Pinewood Derby, because I just wasn't feeling well enough to do that.

On Friday, my mother-in-law took the kids overnight and I guess Jeriah had a rough time over there. He was just so miserable with his sinuses. My mother-in-law was worried that he had strep throat because Koren had that about a week and a half ago, but I assured her that he didn't have it. It was just a severe cold/sinus issue.

On Saturday, I worked on the house all morning long. I have had piles and piles and piles of clean laundry sitting in my room needing to be taken care of. I sorted through the clothes that I was working on and from that portion, I found 2 1/2 bags worth of clothes to donate. I reduced my clothing to sale/give away or consign to just one single tote and either folded or hung the rest. However, I didn't put it away. I was so excited because short of actually finishing the job on the portion of clothes that I had worked through, I felt like I had really accomplished a lot. Don't look in my closet at the six baskets waiting to be folded or hung in there. I sorted but didn't mate the socks and I sorted out the under clothes, but didn't do anything with them, other than put them all in their own basket.

My older boys (Cephas and Koren) worked really hard doing extra stuff here around the house, freeing me up some to take care of Jeriah and to do my own work that I need to get done won't let them do.

Saturday night, Jeriah had another rough night as this cold has really been hitting him hard. But we all got a decent night of sleep. I had forgotten that Hubby had to go to work in the morning for a meeting, so we ended up staying home from church today, which was just as well, being that Jeriah STILL hasn't been feeling 100% yet. And let me tell you, an autistic child during church services can already be a handful, an autistic child who sometimes still naps during church services can be even more of a handful. But an autistic child who sometimes still naps AND is sick? During church services? Forget about it. Often times, with Jeriah, I am exhausted by the time I hit the Nursery after Sacrament Meeting and I still have two hours to go! Add to it that I'm still not 100% myself and yeah, it's just out of my capability right now.

However, due to the fact that we stayed home, the older boys helped me out immensely today. They did their regular chores, then they did a little bit extra around the house, helped me out by cleaning up Oralee and Jeriah's room so that I could go in there, sort through and organize their toys and build them their toy storage and get it all set up and arranged and everything. Then, just because they wanted to be extra helpful, they did like six loads of laundry. Which means that I now have six.more.loads.of.laundry.to.fold. On top of the six baskets still in my closet. Don't get me wrong, I'm completely grateful for the help. But I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed by the laundry situation. And yes, I know that we have too many clothes. I'm working on it. Truly, I am! The last round of laundry that I did, I got rid of nearly a third of the clothes that I went through. I figure if I can get rid of a third of the clothes each time I'm doing laundry this next month, we'll be down to a reasonable, doable amount of clothes. Koren doesn't really need 20 pairs of pants (jeans/windpants/slacks/etc), Oralee really doesn't need 50+ pairs of bottoms either (leggings, skirts, skorts, capris, jeans, etc.) And for the most part, all of her pieces are interchangable, so it really isn't necessary for her to have all of that. It's just not.

And just now as I am typing this, Koren came rushing out of his room to the bathroom due to an upset stomach and he didn't make it. Glad that Hubby is home tomorrow to take care of sick kids, since I have to work. Poor kiddos. Poor Hubby!