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.
Showing posts with label Life Skills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life Skills. Show all posts
Sunday, September 1, 2013
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.
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.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Not Resolutions, per se...
But there are changes that I'm wanting to make, ones that I have been contemplating for a little while and that I would have been implementing regardless of the date, so here they are:
My best friend, Bree, and I are planning to do Scripture study together and separately. We plan to do Seminary reading assignments and then meet up together once a week and discuss them. We're hoping to get a couple more friends involved in it as well. It should be quite a bit of fun and teach us a lot.
I rearranged my house this past week. Partially to accommodate a few Christmas gifts and partially to change things up and get areas neat, straightened and organized. I plan to continue to purge (a MAJOR part of what I did this past week) and to continue organizing as well. I plan to tackle a particular area of the house each week. I think the first week will be the den, as that is where Hubby and I spend most of our time. We got the furniture rearranged in here, but now there are some items sitting around in piles that are now, well, homeless. And they need homes. They deserve homes. I'll post more about this tomorrow, complete with pictures.
I also plan to start doing meal planning again. It works out so well but lately I have really dropped the ball when it comes to doing it. I mentioned in my post from the early morning hours today that I plan to have the family sit around and pick out recipes that they'd like to try and we will incorporate them into a monthly meal plan. This way, I can set a meal plan for the whole month. We can always tweak it a little bit based on changes for that day, but even still, it's much more helpful to have an actual plan in place.
And I have been working hard to set aside some money for savings. I have a goal this year to save up $1200, which isn't so bad. That's a mere $100 per month. I know that I can do it! And the idea is to not dip into it for any reason at all. So far, I have $300 saved up, which really isn't much. But this new goal to save $1200 would put us at a savings amount of $1500, which would be wonderful to have on hand just in case we should need it.
Our chore system is going well. I have tweaked it here and there and may need to slightly tweak it again here soon, but it will be after some additional thought and evaluation and a discussion with the Hubby to see what we like about it and what we want to change about it. But overall, the kids have done extremely well with it.
We have skipped the gym and all associated activities with our membership since, oh, I don't know, July maybe? Something horrible like that. We fully intend to use our membership at least once a week starting this week now. I would seriously like to lose 40% of my body weight, but probably it wouldn't be practical nor safe to lose that much in a year's time, so I'd settle for losing 2% per month, each month from now until I am at that 40% lost mark. That's a goal that will take 26 months to accomplish. Just over two years. I'm okay with that. I have to be. It took me awhile to get to the point where I am now and it will take me awhile to get back to where I was. At the end of this year, I should have lost (according to my goal) around 12% of my body weight. Regular gym activities, eating more meals prepared at home and as a family and cutting out soda (even diet soda) should help these things out tremendously.
So that's my New Year's "Not Resolutions, per se" post. Tonight, we are going to have dinner, pick out some recipes, maybe bake some banana bread, then curl up on the couch with our pajamas on, watch a movie, eat some popcorn (none for me, thanks, I'm not a fan) and just spend time together as a family. Sounds like a wonderful way to start a new year!
My best friend, Bree, and I are planning to do Scripture study together and separately. We plan to do Seminary reading assignments and then meet up together once a week and discuss them. We're hoping to get a couple more friends involved in it as well. It should be quite a bit of fun and teach us a lot.
I rearranged my house this past week. Partially to accommodate a few Christmas gifts and partially to change things up and get areas neat, straightened and organized. I plan to continue to purge (a MAJOR part of what I did this past week) and to continue organizing as well. I plan to tackle a particular area of the house each week. I think the first week will be the den, as that is where Hubby and I spend most of our time. We got the furniture rearranged in here, but now there are some items sitting around in piles that are now, well, homeless. And they need homes. They deserve homes. I'll post more about this tomorrow, complete with pictures.
I also plan to start doing meal planning again. It works out so well but lately I have really dropped the ball when it comes to doing it. I mentioned in my post from the early morning hours today that I plan to have the family sit around and pick out recipes that they'd like to try and we will incorporate them into a monthly meal plan. This way, I can set a meal plan for the whole month. We can always tweak it a little bit based on changes for that day, but even still, it's much more helpful to have an actual plan in place.
And I have been working hard to set aside some money for savings. I have a goal this year to save up $1200, which isn't so bad. That's a mere $100 per month. I know that I can do it! And the idea is to not dip into it for any reason at all. So far, I have $300 saved up, which really isn't much. But this new goal to save $1200 would put us at a savings amount of $1500, which would be wonderful to have on hand just in case we should need it.
Our chore system is going well. I have tweaked it here and there and may need to slightly tweak it again here soon, but it will be after some additional thought and evaluation and a discussion with the Hubby to see what we like about it and what we want to change about it. But overall, the kids have done extremely well with it.
We have skipped the gym and all associated activities with our membership since, oh, I don't know, July maybe? Something horrible like that. We fully intend to use our membership at least once a week starting this week now. I would seriously like to lose 40% of my body weight, but probably it wouldn't be practical nor safe to lose that much in a year's time, so I'd settle for losing 2% per month, each month from now until I am at that 40% lost mark. That's a goal that will take 26 months to accomplish. Just over two years. I'm okay with that. I have to be. It took me awhile to get to the point where I am now and it will take me awhile to get back to where I was. At the end of this year, I should have lost (according to my goal) around 12% of my body weight. Regular gym activities, eating more meals prepared at home and as a family and cutting out soda (even diet soda) should help these things out tremendously.
So that's my New Year's "Not Resolutions, per se" post. Tonight, we are going to have dinner, pick out some recipes, maybe bake some banana bread, then curl up on the couch with our pajamas on, watch a movie, eat some popcorn (none for me, thanks, I'm not a fan) and just spend time together as a family. Sounds like a wonderful way to start a new year!
Friday, October 5, 2012
31 Days...Day 5...Chores for Mom
The theme behind my 31 Days of... posts will be "31 Days of Homemaking". It will be 31 posts about anything related to homemaking, you know, making a home. Whether it has to do with parenting, housework, organization, crafts, whatever. As long as it falls under the definition of making a home, it counts.
Day 5 -
Today is Friday, October 5th, 2012. Today's topic is "Chores for Mom."
Yesterday, we discussed the concept behind my kids' chores. As such, you may be wondering what my chores are. My chores go into much deeper cleaning than the kids' chores. Their chores call for them to simply pick up a room (or areas of multiple rooms), but does not actually require any cleaning.
That's where my chores come in. And trust me when I say that the kids' chores are going to start incorporating some of this stuff as well. I just want them to get to a mastery point with their current chores, if that makes sense. You know, the point where they can look around the room and know for certain that it is done, as opposed to coming up to me or Hubby and asking, "Is this done enough?" or some similar question.
So today, we are going to talk about MY chores and for a little bit of time management, we'll also talk about when I do these chores.
Now, with the above list being my Daily Checklist, it is the list that I refer to when I am at home, working on tidying everything up. This is what another blogger I know, Rachel Anne refers to as Minimum Maintenance in a home. It's the least amount of work you can do in your home to just keep it maintained and looking neat and welcoming. Ideally, by the end of each day, every single item would have been done on this list. You notice that I say "ideally." Let's face it, life happens and there are days that I don't even go into certain rooms to do any work. It happens. I don't stress over it (too much) and make an effort to make the skipped room my top priority for the next day. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
This next list is my Weekly Checklist. I also have a Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly Checklist (all on the same page) but I'm not going to get into those right now. Similar to the Daily Checklist, in an ideal world, I would hit on each and every item each and every week from this list. But when life happens and something comes up, I just suck it up and try to get the missed items done first the following week.
For the weekly schedule, I generally try to get the items accomplished one of three ways. Everyone has a process that works best for them.
Way numero uno is the way that I was taught to clean when I was growing up, going room by room.
Option numero dos is the way that I was taught to clean by my grandma when I was growing up, doing all of a certain chore type throughout the house.
The third option is to just attack everything on the list in a particular room that is either in the most need or the one that is about the be in the most use. I learned this method on the fly as an adult when the other two methods didn't work (or rather, when I didn't use either of the other two methods!)
Actually, now that I think about it, there is a fourth option. It's actually a combination of options one and two and to be honest, one of my more favorite approaches to cleaning. First of all, it requires the minimum maintenance to be complete. Next, you do all of the dry work throughout the house. Dusting high and low, dusting surfaces, vacuuming furniture and carpets, organizing areas, emptying trash cans, etc. All the so-called "dry work" throughout the house. Then, you move on to the "wet work", cleaning and disinfecting in the kitchen and eating areas, the bathroom and the laundry, then sweeping and mopping the floors.
Things like washing windows and cleaning mirrors are negotiable. They can be done as dry work or as wet work. I personally would be doing them as wet work, but that's just because the cleaner itself is also wet. Oh - and carpet cleaning. My Hubby does that chore (which is why it isn't on my list) would be considered wet work to me.
And even though, the fourth option is my favorite, most of the time, I use option one. I feel like it doesn't all get done nearly as quickly though if I use this method. Using the fourth method, I can clean and disinfect my 1300 square foot home from top to bottom in just under four hours by myself. That being said, usually the minimum maintenance isn't done enough to be able to do it in that time frame. And I get stopped by kids or activities or appointments or whatever.
The one piece of equipment that I highly recommend for cleaning is actually not a cleaning tool or supply and you might be surprised to learn what it is. I think the number one product that helps me get the most done around my house is my bluetooth. I can leave my phone on the top of the armoire in my den. It's the most central location in my home and from that spot, I can walk throughout my home and talk on the phone, hands free, while cleaning. The only thing that I can't do with it on is go around to the far side of my bed in my bedroom. I can go up to the far edge of the bed, but if I stand up on that far side of the bed, I lose the ability to have people hear me speak. Highly, highly recommend it! (I got this idea from Bree as well)
Let me know if this has helped you at all or if there is anything you are wondering about that I might be able to answer. Til tomorrow....
Thursday, October 4, 2012
31 Days...Day 4...Chores for Kids
The theme behind my 31 Days of... posts will be "31 Days of Homemaking". It will be 31 posts about anything related to homemaking, you know, making a home. Whether it has to do with parenting, housework, organization, crafts, whatever. As long as it falls under the definition of making a home, it counts.
Day 4 -
Today is Thursday, October 4th, 2012. Today's topic is "Chores for Kids."
It is my strong desire that when my children are grown and move out of our home, that they are able to keep a home. I want that for my boys as well as my girls. At this season in our lives, while we are getting this housework monster under control and I am getting back to teaching them how to clean and maintain a house, this is the end goal that I have in mind. I want them to be able to keep a home.
At this point in time, I am not even working on the actual cleaning of a home. At this point in time, my goal is simply for them to learn what it means to just thoroughly pick up a room. And to teach them the responsibility to do it well, with a sense of pride in having a clutter-free home. Or at the very least, one where it is kept in check. That's been a long road on my part and I'm still traveling down that path to a much more clutter-free home.
Anyhow, to instill the idea of what a clutter-free home should look like, to gain some assistance around the house, to give the kids some ownership over our home, I have given them each a series of chores that reflect their ages.
Cephas is eleven. So he has eleven chores. They are all in the living room (well, I guess one is on the front porch) and they basically just cover keeping flat surfaces from getting filled up and to keep an eye on the hotspots that occur over time. One in particular, the space under our sectional. I don't know what it is about that area, but it constantly has to be cleaned out.
In addition to his chore room, he also has five regular chores to do in his bedroom (as do all of the kids). I expect them to do these chores, in their entirety, every single day, with only a rare exception. For the most part, it happens as planned.
Now, you may wonder what chores I would give to an 11 year old in a single room that would just include tidying it up, but not actually cleaning the room. I'll show you.
Clear off side table
Clear off TV stand
Clear off cedar chest
Clear off couch
Clean under couch cushions
Clean under couch
Clear off entry table
Straighten entry area
Pick up floor area
Straighten shoe area
Tidy the front porch
* * * * * * * * * * *
Tidy bed
Clear off bookshelf
Clear off dresser
Pick up bedroom floor
Take dirty laundry to bathroom
I'm sure you can guess, but the five chores at the bottom are the ones for his room.
You may be asking yourself why I have such a laid out and detailed (when it is a no-brainer) list of what to do to merely pick up a room. But you see, this is where the ADHD comes in for Cephas. It is where the Aspergers comes in for Jeriah. And the possible Aspergers for Cephas. And the slight OCD tendencies that Koren shows. For Cephas, it helps keep him on track and keeps him from asking me very couple of minutes, "Is this good now?" I can simply redirect him to the list and ask him to look at the list, then look at the room. If there is something that is not neat and tidy, it still needs to be done. He is eleven. By all means, he should be able to look at a room and tell what needs to be done to it on his own. But he doesn't., because he can't.
For Koren, this kind of list helps him to reduce his OCD tendencies. He needs some kind of guideline to know that okay, this is enough. He doesn't have to continue working on it indefinitely. He doesn't have to get it all perfect. As long as the items on his list are neat and tidy, even if the vacuuming isn't done, the windows aren't washed, the frames aren't all dusted, the books on the bookshelf aren't perfectly lined up, it is still okay. He needs this. Jeriah needs the list as a visual idea of what he has to do. It's a motivational thing for him. For Oralee, it keeps her on track most of the time. Which she needs, because her chores are spread out. She has two in the kitchen, three in the dining room and one in the hallway. She can easily lose her place. This is a tool to help her.
I will post later on "Motivating Kids" and tell how we use these current sets of chores to motivate our children.
I will post later on "Motivating Kids" and tell how we use these current sets of chores to motivate our children.
Monday, October 1, 2012
31 Days...Day 1...Budgets
The theme behind my 31 Days of... posts will be "31 Days of Homemaking". It will be 31 posts about anything related to homemaking, you know, making a home. Whether it has to do with parenting, housework, organization, crafts, whatever. As long as it falls under the definition of making a home, it counts.
Day 1 -
Today is Monday, October 1st, 2012. First of all, today is Jeriah's fifth birthday. Happy Birthday, Jeriah! Secondly, today's topic will be "Budgets," as it is an area of our lives that I have been working hard on.
I am going to share more on this subject than I have ever planned to share online about such a private matter, but here goes.
Our monthly income is $2641.00.
This is how we break our income down:
2641.00
-765.00 food
1876.00
- 500.00 savings
1376.00
- 240.00 fuel
1136.00
- 335.00 lot rent
801.00
- 200.00 electric
601.00
- 200.00 cable/internet/home phone
401.00
- 125.00 phone
276.00
- 125.00 student loans
151.00
- 60.00 household supplies
91.00
- 30.00 gym membership
61.00
- 10.00 netflix account
51.00
Now, you may notice that I have taken this line by line through our budget. But there are a few notes I want to add in about.
Our food budget is high. We have six people in our family and the budgeted amount is based off of "Official USDA Food Plans: Cost of Food at Home at Four Levels, U.S. Average, August 2012" guidelines using the thrifty plan. While those guidelines put us at an average of 915.30 for our family of six, our budget is $150.00 less than that. I still think that $765.00 seems like quite a bit as well, but we just carry over the food budget from month to month for when the price of food increases (last year from flooding, this year from drought, so on and so forth). We also have additional people that eat with us as well. In a typical week, we have at least 11 meals shared with at least one more person, but most often, it is more meals and more people.
Next up, is our savings plan of $500.00 per month. This is a recent addition to our budget. I think this is a nice even amount to deduct each month. We have it divided up though. Part of it (40%) is long-term savings, part of it (20%) is short-term savings (for big ticket items), part of it (20%) is savings for gifts and such, and another part of it (20%) is for unexpected expenses or infrequent expenses (insurance premiums, home repairs, car repairs and maintenance, etc.)
We both have vehicles (paid off) and our only monthly fee for those are for our fuel. I based our fuel cost on roughly $4.00/gallon. Lately, it has been closer to $3.75/gallon so we are keeping the excess reserved for those times when the price may increase to more than $4.00/gallon. We roll the excess allotment over from month to month, when there is one and we use the excess when we take road trips to visit family or friends here and there throughout the year. If we accumulate a fair amount of money in this area, we will use it toward a down payment on a newer vehicle when we need one.
Our home is paid for free and clear. The only housing payment we have is for the land our home sits on, which runs us a mere $335.00 per month, which I think is pretty reasonable.
I over-budget for our electric bill as well. We roll this amount over from month to month as well. When we have enough excess in this area, we will use it for things like new windows, new appliances, new HVAC unit, etc. to help with our energy efficiency. I'd love to use it for solar panels, but not sure if that is realistic.)
Our cable bill is also over-budgeted. We do have basic cable, digital cable, DVR service, internet service with a faster download speed and home phone. And even with all of that, our budgeted amount is still almost double what our actual bill is. I really have no plans for the excess amount in this area, unlike the other areas, but it's nice to know that it is there. I suppose that amount would eventually be used toward the purchase of new electronics (TV, computer, audio, etc.)
Our cell phones (two of them - both smartphones) run $125.00 a month, with no contract and unlimited everything. We love our plan!
Student loans. What can I say? Blech.
Household supplies is a small portion of my monthly budget because we really don't spend all that much on this department. I buy in bulk as needed and usually, I don't have to replace big bulk items all at once. Some of our household supplies come out of our grocery budget (things like baking soda and vinegar) and I can get many personal care items for free or next to nothing by watching the sales and the coupons and pairing them up together.
Our gym membership is SO worth it to me. Between the activities for the kids, the fitness and activities for us, the free childcare, etc, it has well proven it's value far beyond the cost.
We have a netflix account. This has been a lifesaver! We stream mostly through our Wii or our computers. I love being able to go in and watch complete seasons of TV shows. Tonight, we used it for a show that we don't have recorded on DVR to settle down a toddler that was going to be staying the night here for the first time. It worked very nicely!
And that leaves us with just a small amount unaccounted for. Hubby and I use that amount for our rare date night dinners out or things like that.
I think the key to budgeting is to get an idea of what and where you spend your money each month, by tracking it for a few months and then make your decisions based off of that. You can see where you need to trim your budget and where you should just cut things out of it.
I also make a small, varying amount of money each month, but since it varies, I don't factor this in to our budget and just stick it into savings or use it for extra things that the kids need or that we want but don't want to take it out of our regular budget, etc.
The hardest part of a budget isn't really so much of coming up with it or setting it, it's sticking to the budget that is really hard. I don't have any real tips for that. I still feel like I get to shop quite often, but I tend to really watch for sales, buy used from other people (which saves money and reduces waste) and once you get started trying to save as much as possible, it becomes almost like a challenge, trying to save more and more each month. I love it!
If you have any questions about my budget or about making or setting your own budget, feel free to leave a comment and I will do my best to help you out as well.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Trust and Patience
I had a bit of an epiphany the other day when I woke up. It was Hubby's last day off from work that he would have for about two weeks. I had gone to bed the previous night with a migraine and when I first woke up in the morning to get the kids up and off to school, I was not feeling so great. I still had the migraine and had some sinus issues as well (I think it was from allergies). So I asked Hubby to get the kids up and take them to school for me, which he did. I did have to call out to them that Koren didn't need to wear shorts or tennis shoes today because although he did have P.E. for that day, he would not be participating in it because of his eyes being dilated. Oralee had P.E. on the schedule as well and she DID need her tennis shoes, which I also had to make sure that Hubby knew. But for the most part, he got them all ready to go.
I came out to the living room to keep an eye on Jeriah while Hubby went to drop the other kids off at school and then Jeriah fell back asleep as well (I think he might be having allergy issues as well) and slept until 11:30 in the morning. And for a kid that does NOT nap, Hubby got extremely lucky. Because I also fell back asleep. I didn't wake up until noon though, when Hubby was putting Jeriah on the school bus.
I got up and realized that Hubby had spent his entire morning after the kids went to school, playing video games and just relaxing. Normally, this is something that would severely tick me off. But I really think that there is something happening within my whole thought process and perception thing. Maybe it has to do with the official decision of me being the one that is staying home now, maybe it has to do with me just trying to make a stronger effort to be a better housekeeper and wife, maybe it is a combination thereof. But my first reaction was not to be ticked off.
My reaction? Gratefulness. Yep, you read that right. I was grateful. Because although there were things that he could have very easily done, he didn't do them. He felt like he could take that morning and just relax and do something fun for him to do. (I'm guessing the fact that he let me sleep in helped a bit too, to be honest!) I took his actions to mean that he TRUSTED me to get it all done. He had faith that he could just take the morning for himself and enjoy it, because he knew that the work would get done. And that is what I took as a huge compliment.
Not too long ago, I got offended because I had told him that I would get around to doing something and then I got busy with the kids' activities and lessons and my work and volunteering and church activities and whatever else. And I didn't get around to doing whatever it was that Hubby had wanted me to do. So he did it himself. I was hurt. He didn't trust me to get it done. And I reacted in a hurt manner. I'm sure I told him that I was hurt that he didn't trust me to get it done. And he responded by saying that he had trusted that I would get it done and then had waited patiently for me to do it until he just did it for himself.
Patience. My husband has way more of it for me than I do for him (on a regular basis). When I want him to do something, I ask him. When he doesn't do it, I ask him again. When he still doesn't do it, I ask again. I have learned how to ask repeatedly without it sounding to him like, "Nag nag nag nag naaa-aaaggg" All I have to do is ask. Then when I have waited an appropriate length of time, I just say, "Honey, I don't know if maybe you got distracted or forgot, or if you were still planning to do it, but I was wondering if you were still planning to..." to which he will generally respond, "Oh, right! I'm sorry. I forgot. I will get that taken care of right away!" and sometimes he doesn't get it done right away and I will wait another appropriate length of time and say, "Honey, I don't want to bother you, but if you need me to do .... , I can do it. Just let me know," which usually is the point he will do whatever the task was. But it is all about timing and tone. He can tell in my tone if I am sincere in the way that I am asking or if I am sarcastic. We have been married for 11 years, he should definitely be able to pick up on that by now.
But there is very little that Hubby actually asks me to do for him. So when he asks me to do something specific, I try to make sure it gets put up towards the top of the priority list. On the other hand, it could be said that he doesn't have to ask for much because I already do most of what he would ask for. But you know what? To be honest, I don't think that is necessarily true. I mean, I do try to make sure that the home is a comfortable, relaxing, inviting place for him to come home to at the end of his workday and to not bombard him with my day or with requests when he walks through the door. But I think it is just that he trusts me more to just do "my job" here at home.
And before someone gets their panties in a bunch about the house being my job, let me assure you, I am happy with it. The home and the kids and my husband ARE my job. It is my job to focus on them and make sure that they are taken care of and loved and to make sure that they know that too. My husband's hard work allows me to be able to do this. So when he makes the odd request of me to do something, I will do it.
It's funny, as I was typing this, my husband came up to me and asked me to switch a couple of meals around on the menu because he wanted a particular meal this evening (I am writing this post ahead of the day it will be published) and also asked me to pick up some very specific items at the grocery store when I go shopping. And asked that I do something very specific in the house tomorrow (which I did let him know that it would not likely be able to be done tomorrow, but that the following day, I would have a chance to do it) and he will not ask about these things again. He just won't. He trusts that I will do these things and he has the patience to wait for me to get it done. I could learn a lesson or two from him on this matter.
(And darn it! I saved my blog as a bookmark on his phone. Now he gets to read all of this about himself! Just kidding. I love you honey!)
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Super busy-ness
I have come by the blog EVERY single day and even though I have often thought about whipping up a blog post, I just didn't. I journal off of the computer, although that is a different sort of thing than what I write about online. But regardless, I love blogging and I miss doing it regularly
I had mentioned that Jeriah had some changes happen at school, so I am going to share about that and then move on to another (semi-)related topic and that is some of the things that we are going through with Cephas. You will see in the end how the two tie (loosely) together.
So to start with, when Jeriah was 19 months old, he was evaluated by our school district's team of experts (a doctor, a speech/language pathologist, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, and a few other professionals) and they determined that he had PDD-NOS, Pervasive Developmental Delay, Not Otherwise Specified, which is on the Autism Spectrum. We began home-based schooling at that point in time, working with him on language development (he'd had words but "lost" them) and on gross and fine motor skills (He had just started walking the day before his evaluation with the team). We worked with his texture issues and his food intolerances/sensitivities. He had more specialist doctors than the other five of us in our family combined.
Last year (2010-2011 school year), he started school-based, well, schooling. He attended preschool five days a week for half days, then due to some issues, we ended up reducing it down to only 3 days a week. His development really progressed during this process. This year, (2011-2012 school year), he started a new school since we moved over the summer. He has been attending half-days of school, five days a week.
Then in February, we met with his "team" for his MDT meeting. They were talking about the progress he has made this year, which has been incredible. They were setting up his evaluations to see if he still qualified for Special Education and to set up all of the information that they needed for his IEP meeting, which was to happen at the end of the month.
The last day of February, we had a "home visit" with his classroom teacher. I say "home visit" because the visit actually took place at school, instead of at our home (the way that it is generally done), because his teacher is pregnant and has severe allergies and dogs are one of them. We have three dogs. However, Miss C is not able to take her allergy medicine during pregnancy so therefore, home visit at school.
Jeriah, BC (a little guy I take care of here and there) and I met with Miss C for the visit and she told me that Jeriah's testing had come back and that she thought he would probably be dismissed from the Special Education program. Also, we had discussed our options for him for next school year. You see, where we live, the school district has changed the guidelines for Kindergarten. Ever since I was a child, the cut-off date for Kindergarten admission was "5 years by October 15th of the current school year" so a child could enter Kindergarten at age 4, provided that they would turn 5 by October 15th.
Oralee is in Kindergarten right now. Before they had changed the guidelines, we had figured that Jeriah would be just one grade behind her all through school. Then they changed up the guideline and so we had planned on there being a year between the two of them in school. Jeriah was going to attend the preschool program for one more year.
Then, we met for his IEP. And he was released from the program. His IQ testing had all come back at average or above average for his age. His verbal skills are great, his Kindergarten curriculum skills are great (in fact, he's at grade level right now for Kindergarten academics for where Kindergarten is RIGHT NOW in the school year) but he still has his "Jeriah Quirks" as his teacher calls them. They are little things that he does that is just a little bit "off". Mostly, they are social things. He scripts, for one thing. Some of what he says makes sense and is said in context, but the manner in which he says it is scripted. For instance, he will "test" someone else's knowledge (repetitively - which in itself is a quirk) and when they give him a correct answer, he will say "You have the right answer!" Not a big deal, right? The inflection and intonation of his sentence is the exact same every time.
Earlier this year, when Jeriah's first semi-regular non-family babysitter was watching him, she was telling me of an interaction that Jeriah had with her husband. At the end of the conversation, she told me, "Jeriah told B that he correct," and without even thinking about it, I said, "You have the right answer!" with Jeriah's practiced intonation and inflection. She stopped and said, "Oh my gosh! That's exactly what he said! And EXACTLY how he said it! How did you know that?" It's just Jeriah. Anyone who has spent time with him knows some of his scripting.
If you think about the old Taco Bell commercials and the little chihuahua who would say, "Yo quiero Taco Bell" we all can repeat it. Now, imagine if EVERY single time you went to Taco Bell (and let's say you eat there for lunch two or three times a week), you walk in and say, "Yo quiero Taco Bell" in the same tone and with the same inflection as the chihuahua. That would be very much like Jeriah. Correct timing for a phrase but always the same exact phrase, said the same exact way. And that is scripting. Which, as I said, is just ONE of Jeriah's "quirks".
So anyhow, he was released from Special Education and is now attending the same preschool class as before, just sans IEP. He is now one of the "peer models" instead of the one needing the peer model. He still has his social issues (won't generally initiate contact with another child, prefers to parallel play with other children, has developing problem-solving skills when it comes to disagreements with others, and a few other things) but his academic skills are out of this world!
In fact, at the beginning of the year, Miss C made up these little progress books in which she would "test" each student throughout the year and record their progress. It had numbers listed 1-10, kept track of how far a child could rote count, how far they could count with one-to-one correspondence, which letters of the alphabet they knew (lowercase and uppercase), which shapes and colors they knew. Well, Jeriah knew all of his numbers 1-10 (and actually could recognize numbers up to 100), could rote count and could count with one-to-one correspondence to 16 on both (he missed 17 both times and she had to stop him, although he wanted to keep going), knew most of the letters (uppercase and lowercase both!) except for five of them I think, and knew all of the colors and shapes Miss C tested him on.
So, the second time we met, she skipped the numbers portion (although we played Chutes and Ladders and he had a great chance of showing off his number recognition skills), and she had tested him on letter sounds (because he had mastered the "missing" letters shortly after his previous testing) and had tested him on other shapes than the typical preschool level shapes. Things like oval, crescent, hexagon, pentagon, octagon and rhombus (to name a few). By the third meeting, the "testing progress" book was a moot point. Other than his cutting skills, which I am honestly just fine that he doesn't have great scissor skills. :) Personal preference.
So, now we are in the unique place where we can have him attend preschool one more year, as would follow guidelines. Or we can have him tested to enter kindergarten a year early. He would have been one of the youngest with the old guideline, he will be one of the oldest following the new guideline.
We reserved his place in preschool for next year and are setting up a time for him to be tested into Kindergarten for next year. We have the option of not placing him in Kindergarten even if he tests into it.
You know how parenting is an absolute trial and error experience and you generally learn things from one kid to the next? Well, Jeriah is our fourth and last. And I'm STILL learning. Some of what I am learning is all new to me because of his PDD-NOS.
Since he no longer qualifies for Special Education services and coordination, we will be starting to see a behavioral psychologist at a group that specializes in ASD. We found this group because of Cephas and some of the issues we have been having with him.
I have honestly debated on whether or not to share about this but have decided to go ahead and share. You see, Cephas has some issues with staying on task at school, following directions, things all the way up to outright defiance. There are times when I will tell him to stop doing something and he will continue to do it and then proceed to tell me why he is continuing to do it. And while I appreciate his independent thinking, sometimes it is more important to just be able to obey a simple directive immediately. And if it were once in awhile, it wouldn't be such an issue, but it isn't. It is a several-times-a-day kind of thing.
So we went to see someone in this office and while we were there, Cephas DID a few of the things/behaviors/attitudes that we were there to discuss. Now, I know it may sound bad but I was secretly quite relieved that he did that. Just because it gave some of my concerns about him more validity, if that makes sense. I think we may end up looking at an Aspberger's diagnosis down the line. I can't say for sure though, which is part of the reason that we are there. To see if there is something that we can do to help him, or at the very least come up with strategies to help him be successful.
So, there you have it. Jeriah's exciting school thing and Cephas's behavior thing. Slowly but surely, I am going to get caught up!
I had mentioned that Jeriah had some changes happen at school, so I am going to share about that and then move on to another (semi-)related topic and that is some of the things that we are going through with Cephas. You will see in the end how the two tie (loosely) together.
So to start with, when Jeriah was 19 months old, he was evaluated by our school district's team of experts (a doctor, a speech/language pathologist, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, and a few other professionals) and they determined that he had PDD-NOS, Pervasive Developmental Delay, Not Otherwise Specified, which is on the Autism Spectrum. We began home-based schooling at that point in time, working with him on language development (he'd had words but "lost" them) and on gross and fine motor skills (He had just started walking the day before his evaluation with the team). We worked with his texture issues and his food intolerances/sensitivities. He had more specialist doctors than the other five of us in our family combined.
Last year (2010-2011 school year), he started school-based, well, schooling. He attended preschool five days a week for half days, then due to some issues, we ended up reducing it down to only 3 days a week. His development really progressed during this process. This year, (2011-2012 school year), he started a new school since we moved over the summer. He has been attending half-days of school, five days a week.
Then in February, we met with his "team" for his MDT meeting. They were talking about the progress he has made this year, which has been incredible. They were setting up his evaluations to see if he still qualified for Special Education and to set up all of the information that they needed for his IEP meeting, which was to happen at the end of the month.
The last day of February, we had a "home visit" with his classroom teacher. I say "home visit" because the visit actually took place at school, instead of at our home (the way that it is generally done), because his teacher is pregnant and has severe allergies and dogs are one of them. We have three dogs. However, Miss C is not able to take her allergy medicine during pregnancy so therefore, home visit at school.
Jeriah, BC (a little guy I take care of here and there) and I met with Miss C for the visit and she told me that Jeriah's testing had come back and that she thought he would probably be dismissed from the Special Education program. Also, we had discussed our options for him for next school year. You see, where we live, the school district has changed the guidelines for Kindergarten. Ever since I was a child, the cut-off date for Kindergarten admission was "5 years by October 15th of the current school year" so a child could enter Kindergarten at age 4, provided that they would turn 5 by October 15th.
Oralee is in Kindergarten right now. Before they had changed the guidelines, we had figured that Jeriah would be just one grade behind her all through school. Then they changed up the guideline and so we had planned on there being a year between the two of them in school. Jeriah was going to attend the preschool program for one more year.
Then, we met for his IEP. And he was released from the program. His IQ testing had all come back at average or above average for his age. His verbal skills are great, his Kindergarten curriculum skills are great (in fact, he's at grade level right now for Kindergarten academics for where Kindergarten is RIGHT NOW in the school year) but he still has his "Jeriah Quirks" as his teacher calls them. They are little things that he does that is just a little bit "off". Mostly, they are social things. He scripts, for one thing. Some of what he says makes sense and is said in context, but the manner in which he says it is scripted. For instance, he will "test" someone else's knowledge (repetitively - which in itself is a quirk) and when they give him a correct answer, he will say "You have the right answer!" Not a big deal, right? The inflection and intonation of his sentence is the exact same every time.
Earlier this year, when Jeriah's first semi-regular non-family babysitter was watching him, she was telling me of an interaction that Jeriah had with her husband. At the end of the conversation, she told me, "Jeriah told B that he correct," and without even thinking about it, I said, "You have the right answer!" with Jeriah's practiced intonation and inflection. She stopped and said, "Oh my gosh! That's exactly what he said! And EXACTLY how he said it! How did you know that?" It's just Jeriah. Anyone who has spent time with him knows some of his scripting.
If you think about the old Taco Bell commercials and the little chihuahua who would say, "Yo quiero Taco Bell" we all can repeat it. Now, imagine if EVERY single time you went to Taco Bell (and let's say you eat there for lunch two or three times a week), you walk in and say, "Yo quiero Taco Bell" in the same tone and with the same inflection as the chihuahua. That would be very much like Jeriah. Correct timing for a phrase but always the same exact phrase, said the same exact way. And that is scripting. Which, as I said, is just ONE of Jeriah's "quirks".
So anyhow, he was released from Special Education and is now attending the same preschool class as before, just sans IEP. He is now one of the "peer models" instead of the one needing the peer model. He still has his social issues (won't generally initiate contact with another child, prefers to parallel play with other children, has developing problem-solving skills when it comes to disagreements with others, and a few other things) but his academic skills are out of this world!
In fact, at the beginning of the year, Miss C made up these little progress books in which she would "test" each student throughout the year and record their progress. It had numbers listed 1-10, kept track of how far a child could rote count, how far they could count with one-to-one correspondence, which letters of the alphabet they knew (lowercase and uppercase), which shapes and colors they knew. Well, Jeriah knew all of his numbers 1-10 (and actually could recognize numbers up to 100), could rote count and could count with one-to-one correspondence to 16 on both (he missed 17 both times and she had to stop him, although he wanted to keep going), knew most of the letters (uppercase and lowercase both!) except for five of them I think, and knew all of the colors and shapes Miss C tested him on.
So, the second time we met, she skipped the numbers portion (although we played Chutes and Ladders and he had a great chance of showing off his number recognition skills), and she had tested him on letter sounds (because he had mastered the "missing" letters shortly after his previous testing) and had tested him on other shapes than the typical preschool level shapes. Things like oval, crescent, hexagon, pentagon, octagon and rhombus (to name a few). By the third meeting, the "testing progress" book was a moot point. Other than his cutting skills, which I am honestly just fine that he doesn't have great scissor skills. :) Personal preference.
So, now we are in the unique place where we can have him attend preschool one more year, as would follow guidelines. Or we can have him tested to enter kindergarten a year early. He would have been one of the youngest with the old guideline, he will be one of the oldest following the new guideline.
We reserved his place in preschool for next year and are setting up a time for him to be tested into Kindergarten for next year. We have the option of not placing him in Kindergarten even if he tests into it.
You know how parenting is an absolute trial and error experience and you generally learn things from one kid to the next? Well, Jeriah is our fourth and last. And I'm STILL learning. Some of what I am learning is all new to me because of his PDD-NOS.
Since he no longer qualifies for Special Education services and coordination, we will be starting to see a behavioral psychologist at a group that specializes in ASD. We found this group because of Cephas and some of the issues we have been having with him.
I have honestly debated on whether or not to share about this but have decided to go ahead and share. You see, Cephas has some issues with staying on task at school, following directions, things all the way up to outright defiance. There are times when I will tell him to stop doing something and he will continue to do it and then proceed to tell me why he is continuing to do it. And while I appreciate his independent thinking, sometimes it is more important to just be able to obey a simple directive immediately. And if it were once in awhile, it wouldn't be such an issue, but it isn't. It is a several-times-a-day kind of thing.
So we went to see someone in this office and while we were there, Cephas DID a few of the things/behaviors/attitudes that we were there to discuss. Now, I know it may sound bad but I was secretly quite relieved that he did that. Just because it gave some of my concerns about him more validity, if that makes sense. I think we may end up looking at an Aspberger's diagnosis down the line. I can't say for sure though, which is part of the reason that we are there. To see if there is something that we can do to help him, or at the very least come up with strategies to help him be successful.
So, there you have it. Jeriah's exciting school thing and Cephas's behavior thing. Slowly but surely, I am going to get caught up!
Monday, January 9, 2012
The Saved Quarter Challenge - Week 1 Catch Up and Week 2
I'm joining in on this a little bit late, but I am ready to participate! For the first week, we were supposed to set a goal and write it down.
My goals are to:
Save 10% of our income for an emergency fund.
Save 5% of our income for medical expenses not covered by insurance. Or to use for co-pays, etc.
Set aside 10% of our income for tithing. While not technically saving, it is an important investment and I think a crucial one when it comes to money matters.
Week 1 Complete
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beginning of Week 2
Savings:
Hubby got paid on 1/6/2012 and I immediately put 10% of his paycheck aside for savings in a certain tucked-away spot. It would make more sense to put it in the bank to accrue interest but that is not a logical option for me right now, as I am too quick to withdraw money from there when I want it. I now have $20.00 set aside for our emergency fund. (Hubby had a lot less hours than normal over the last month or so, these totals are going to be smaller for this paycheck and the next.)
Total: $20.00 this week, $20.00 year to date
Medical:
I also tucked away 5% in another spot to set aside for medical expenses. I now have $10.00 set aside for for medical expenses.
Total: $10.00 this week, $10.00 year to date
Tithing:
And finally, I tucked 10% into an envelope and turned it in to the church yesterday morning. I contributed $20.00 plus an additional amount to the church for our tithing.
Total: $20.00 this week, $20.00 year to date
Tracking Spending:
I haven't been writing everything down as it happens, but I do keep every single receipt and then I record it later. This works for a couple of different reasons. This way I can also track regular and sale prices for individual items as well. But since I have the receipts to use for all of this, I can easily track our spending.
This also helps with one of my 2012 Resolutions, in particular Item 6e.
You can click the image above to be directed to the Saved Quarter or you can click here.
Monday, January 2, 2012
2012 Resolutions
Yesterday, while the kids were working on their chores (and they did a very nice job on them for the most part) Cephas came up to me and was asking about resolutions. He said that he wants to make some for this year. Miss Lil Oralee already did make two, which she shared with me, and it got me to thinking that I should make some as well. I have my goals for Organizing My Life and a number of those goals actually directly correspond with some of my resolutions.
But without further ado, here are (some of) my resolutions:
1. Improve my health.
a. I plan to do this by getting into a consistent sleep schedule. I want to be able to have more energy to spend on the things that really matter and that requires me to get adequate sleep. It would also improve my health and wellness.
b. Another way that I plan to do improve my overall health is to start exercising on a more consistent basis. Sadly, I do not even walk on a daily basis.
c. I also plan to eat balanced meals, at home, at the right time of day, so that it has the best possible effects for my body.
d. I would like to lose 90 pounds by this time next year. I bought a scale yesterday. That is the first step. (Get it, step?! I crack myself up!)
2. Improve my spiritual life.
a. I plan to pray specifically and to journal those prayers and answers on a regular basis.
b. I plan to read my Scriptures daily and to continue to journal about the things that I am covering in my reading.
c. I have also accepted a teaching position at church and will be spending time once a month (at minimum) teaching others and being there for them.
d. Attend church every week.
e. Read the Bible with my children daily.
3. Improve my homemaking skills.
a. The kids have their regular chores and they are fairly good about doing them. I need to be better about doing my own personal chores though as well.
b. I need to be able to say no to things that would interfere with my own goals of what I want my house to be. My home needs to be a higher priority.
c. Continue to teach my children how to thoroughly clean a home so that they are able to do this when they become adults and don't have to struggle with it the way that Hubby had to.
d. I need to develop a regular cleaning schedule that works for me and for my house and my life.
e. I have a vision and a goal of what I want my house to look and feel like and I will know that this has been accomplished when my house feels and looks the way it does in my head.
4. Continue to build new relationships.
a. I have started building new relationships and have been rebuilding some current relationships. I have found this to be most pleasing overall and really want to be purposeful about this.
5. Improve my education.
a. Ideally, I would love to continue to work on a degree, but honestly, I don't foresee that happening at this stage in my life. I am okay with that though. Or mostly okay with that at least.
b. There is a plethora of online resources for learning and I plan to utilize these to increase my education this year.
6. Improve our financial well-being.
a. This is an interesting thing for me to list in here, as I have actually stopped working regular hours and am just on PRN status with two different families, but maybe that is also while it is even more important.
b. I want to get all of our bills caught up and current within the first 3 months of this year.
c. Beginning in March, I want to pay off every bill IN FULL that we receive every month.
d. Beginning now, I do not want to accumulate any additional debt this year.
e. I also want to start putting money aside every paycheck (maybe 10%) to begin building a nest egg for a rainy day.
f. I want to get rid of our storage unit by March as well. That is money that we are spending each and every month that serves no real purpose for our lives. I do need to go through it and make it work into the space that we have available for long-term storage or make some tough decisions.
7. Get rid of 2012 items in 2012.
a. I have seen this on people's blogs this year and I would like to do that this year. It goes along perfectly with Resolution #6, part F, don't you think? I love it when things work together like that!
I think that is it for this year. I may come back and add more or even do a new post in which I change them or add to them or whatever, but I feel good about this list. I expanded on general goals and clearly defined what I want to happen. I will check back in with you all and let you know how they are going.
But without further ado, here are (some of) my resolutions:
1. Improve my health.
a. I plan to do this by getting into a consistent sleep schedule. I want to be able to have more energy to spend on the things that really matter and that requires me to get adequate sleep. It would also improve my health and wellness.
b. Another way that I plan to do improve my overall health is to start exercising on a more consistent basis. Sadly, I do not even walk on a daily basis.
c. I also plan to eat balanced meals, at home, at the right time of day, so that it has the best possible effects for my body.
d. I would like to lose 90 pounds by this time next year. I bought a scale yesterday. That is the first step. (Get it, step?! I crack myself up!)
2. Improve my spiritual life.
a. I plan to pray specifically and to journal those prayers and answers on a regular basis.
b. I plan to read my Scriptures daily and to continue to journal about the things that I am covering in my reading.
c. I have also accepted a teaching position at church and will be spending time once a month (at minimum) teaching others and being there for them.
d. Attend church every week.
e. Read the Bible with my children daily.
3. Improve my homemaking skills.
a. The kids have their regular chores and they are fairly good about doing them. I need to be better about doing my own personal chores though as well.
b. I need to be able to say no to things that would interfere with my own goals of what I want my house to be. My home needs to be a higher priority.
c. Continue to teach my children how to thoroughly clean a home so that they are able to do this when they become adults and don't have to struggle with it the way that Hubby had to.
d. I need to develop a regular cleaning schedule that works for me and for my house and my life.
e. I have a vision and a goal of what I want my house to look and feel like and I will know that this has been accomplished when my house feels and looks the way it does in my head.
4. Continue to build new relationships.
a. I have started building new relationships and have been rebuilding some current relationships. I have found this to be most pleasing overall and really want to be purposeful about this.
5. Improve my education.
a. Ideally, I would love to continue to work on a degree, but honestly, I don't foresee that happening at this stage in my life. I am okay with that though. Or mostly okay with that at least.
b. There is a plethora of online resources for learning and I plan to utilize these to increase my education this year.
6. Improve our financial well-being.
a. This is an interesting thing for me to list in here, as I have actually stopped working regular hours and am just on PRN status with two different families, but maybe that is also while it is even more important.
b. I want to get all of our bills caught up and current within the first 3 months of this year.
c. Beginning in March, I want to pay off every bill IN FULL that we receive every month.
d. Beginning now, I do not want to accumulate any additional debt this year.
e. I also want to start putting money aside every paycheck (maybe 10%) to begin building a nest egg for a rainy day.
f. I want to get rid of our storage unit by March as well. That is money that we are spending each and every month that serves no real purpose for our lives. I do need to go through it and make it work into the space that we have available for long-term storage or make some tough decisions.
7. Get rid of 2012 items in 2012.
a. I have seen this on people's blogs this year and I would like to do that this year. It goes along perfectly with Resolution #6, part F, don't you think? I love it when things work together like that!
I think that is it for this year. I may come back and add more or even do a new post in which I change them or add to them or whatever, but I feel good about this list. I expanded on general goals and clearly defined what I want to happen. I will check back in with you all and let you know how they are going.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Organizing My Life - Week 1
You all might remember when I first introduced this idea here and if so, you can see here and now that I remembered this and am still planning to stick to it. And for day numero uno, I have succeeded. I am awake and present and accounted for by 7am. It feels good to accomplish this goal already this morning! Yay for a good start to the year!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Daisy Party
This past Monday was our Daisy meeting. For those of you that may not know, Daisies are the youngest group of Girl Scouts, made up of Kindergartners and First Graders. My Oralee is a Kindergartner. And this past Monday, we met with her other Daisy Scouts and celebrated Juliette Gordon-Low's birthday. Juliette is the founder of Girl Scouts and her birthday is October 31st. She founded Girl Scouts 100 years ago. So this is an important year in Girl Scouts.
We made a card for Juliette and we celebrated all of the girls' birthdays. It was quite a nice time! We also discussed (and earned!) the petals for "being a sister to other Girl Scouts". And the girls also decorated some shirts. It was a lot of fun and Oralee did a fantastic job!
Here is the (VERY!) decorated card that the girls made for Juliette:
I just love the creativity of the girls! They were so into decorating that card! It is quite the change from working with Cub Scouts the last 3-4 years, let me tell you!
Also we got preliminary information on Cookie Sales! We are doing direct sales this year - for the first time! The girls will have cookies that they can sell (and deliver) right away! No more card orders and waiting til March to get your cookies (unless of course, we run out! And even then, we would try to fill the order by getting it from the office or another troop or something. I am really excited about this! Oralee already has probably close to $100 in sales lined up for January 13th. This will be an awesome thing for her! She is so quiet and shy and I think it will really do her quite a bit of good to do the sales and build up her people skills and confidence. She did quite well tagging along with the boys while they were selling popcorn for Cub Scouts.
Very fun and exciting times!
We made a card for Juliette and we celebrated all of the girls' birthdays. It was quite a nice time! We also discussed (and earned!) the petals for "being a sister to other Girl Scouts". And the girls also decorated some shirts. It was a lot of fun and Oralee did a fantastic job!
Here is the (VERY!) decorated card that the girls made for Juliette:
I just love the creativity of the girls! They were so into decorating that card! It is quite the change from working with Cub Scouts the last 3-4 years, let me tell you!
Also we got preliminary information on Cookie Sales! We are doing direct sales this year - for the first time! The girls will have cookies that they can sell (and deliver) right away! No more card orders and waiting til March to get your cookies (unless of course, we run out! And even then, we would try to fill the order by getting it from the office or another troop or something. I am really excited about this! Oralee already has probably close to $100 in sales lined up for January 13th. This will be an awesome thing for her! She is so quiet and shy and I think it will really do her quite a bit of good to do the sales and build up her people skills and confidence. She did quite well tagging along with the boys while they were selling popcorn for Cub Scouts.
Very fun and exciting times!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Organizing My Life - Intro
I have decided to start a new plan for myself for the year 2012. I want to start implementing a number of different things. I want to give myself a new task to incorporate each week. It will be something minor each week but little things that will help me to get and stay on track as I progress through the year.
What do you think? Does this look like something that would help you as well? I'd love to hear your feedback so that I know if this is something that I should maybe stock in an etsy shop. Also, I would love to have 3 people try it out and let me know what they think of it. I want to know if it helps you.
No matter what I do online, I have to have a physical paper version of it to really get me to stick to it. My problem with online things is simply that. They are online. Which involves me sitting at my desk (if I am using the desktop computer) or on the sofa (if I am on my laptop) where I am not exactly motivated to get whatever it is done that needs to be done.
This way, I can put it on a clipboard or inside a page protector and hang it somewhere that I am sure to see everyday. Like the wall next to my desk or in the kitchen. Shoot, even in the bathroom would work but I'm not sold on hanging it there. Unless I had multiple copies of the same sheet and hung them up in the room where each job would end up occurring so that I would be sure to see it while I was in that room. I don't know, I guess it could work. We'll see though. I'm going to start out with just one copy put up in a central location.
Who knows? If this works for me, it might even work for the kids to develop personal responsibility habits? It just might work to help them out as well.
What do you think? Does this look like something that would help you as well? I'd love to hear your feedback so that I know if this is something that I should maybe stock in an etsy shop. Also, I would love to have 3 people try it out and let me know what they think of it. I want to know if it helps you.
No matter what I do online, I have to have a physical paper version of it to really get me to stick to it. My problem with online things is simply that. They are online. Which involves me sitting at my desk (if I am using the desktop computer) or on the sofa (if I am on my laptop) where I am not exactly motivated to get whatever it is done that needs to be done.
This way, I can put it on a clipboard or inside a page protector and hang it somewhere that I am sure to see everyday. Like the wall next to my desk or in the kitchen. Shoot, even in the bathroom would work but I'm not sold on hanging it there. Unless I had multiple copies of the same sheet and hung them up in the room where each job would end up occurring so that I would be sure to see it while I was in that room. I don't know, I guess it could work. We'll see though. I'm going to start out with just one copy put up in a central location.
Who knows? If this works for me, it might even work for the kids to develop personal responsibility habits? It just might work to help them out as well.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Organized Home Challenge - Week 45 prep
Kids' Bedroom Organizing Challenge
Wow. Can my kids (and I) ever use this challenge right now! I also like the idea of doing this challenge at this point, where it is far enough before Christmas that we can weed out space for the incoming new items, yet it won't leave them feeling deprived of their purged belongings because Christmas will be coming up soon enough.
In the older boys' bedroom, they have two twin beds. We hope to change this out to twin beds or even really to this one bed I found that has a set of twin beds with an attached loft bed, creating an L-shape. I love that bed design! Three beds taking up the floor space of one! Perfect for a small room!
Anyhow, for right now, only the two older boys are sharing a room and that is the one that I am going to share with you. Their room is done up in a sort of sports theme. I wish it was more complete but it's a work in progress.
We start out with their beds. Two twin beds. We have had these beds in nearly every single configuration that is possible in this room. The way it is right now is the configuration that they have chosen. They also have their dresser and Koren's keyboard (for his music practice) and Cephas' violin and music stand (for his music practice). They also have some toys in their room as well as some storage drawers that they have inherited from my mother-in-law's garage sale pile. Well, actually, I inherited them, but then didn't need them afterall and so I offered them to the boys.
Cephas also uses an older wooden tv tray as a night stand next to his bed. I actually like this idea because it takes up less room than his old one did and it matches the wood tone of their beds. The dresser is another story as it does not match but that's something that I have just come to deal with. We bought that dresser back in the day when Cephas was an only child. And a teeny tiny child at that. Like two years old. It's been around awhile now. It definitely shows too!
But we're not here to talk about his dresser. We're here to make sure that their room is organized and functional for them. The first step to do that is to determine what this space is used for.
The first, primary use of their bedroom is for sleeping. For sleeping, they need beds. Check.
The second use of this space is for clothing storage. They have a dresser. Check.
The third use of this space is for music practice. They have their music area set up. Check.
The fourth use of this space is for playing with toys. This is one of the areas that needs some fine-tuning. They have storage and they have toys, but I think it could use some tweaking to be honest. Koren tends to be a very orderly child. He likes to have his toys separated into different bins or compartments or whatever based on what the item is. So all of his Hot Wheels are together, all of his dinosaurs are together, all of his sea animals are together, all of his stuffed animals are together, so on and so forth. Which I love! That is a child who takes after my CDO (a family joke - CDO is like OCD but in alphabetical order the way it should be).
Cephas also likes storage bins and having things organized. However, there's something missing somewhere between having the containers and keeping things organized. He also tends to be a bit on the hoarder side of things. Or so it seems. The fact that he has an old end table that we tried to get rid of and an old computer that barely functions in his closet is an indication of that.
So, that is the primary thing that I am going to be working on this week with them. Organizing their space for their toy/playing/entertainment functions. Check back at the beginning of next week to see how it turns out.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Intentional Acts of Kindness - Days 1-6
I decided to list these acts of kindness out once a week on Sundays, so here goes:
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011
I went over to my mom's house and took her out to do some grocery shopping. It was later in the evening and I was tired, but I did it anyhow. I actually ended up having a pretty nice evening with her. She also asked me to check on a few things for her in her house, which I also did.
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
We had our home visit with Jeriah's teacher today and Hubby was SO tired. I had been up much of the night helping my mom with things and getting other things ready for the kids for school, so I was tired as well. Regardless, once we got home, I had him go lay down and I stayed up to get Jeriah off to school before laying down and taking a nap myself. That was extremely hard to do.
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
On this particular evening, we went out to the mall for a little bit and while there, I picked up a few items to put into a box for a donation to our local mission.
Friday, November 4th, 2011
I was home taking care of a sick child most of this particular day. I did let kids watch a movie on this day after they had their homework and chores done.
Saturday, November 5th, 2011
I was battling the sickness that Oralee had on this day and as such, I let the kids do a minimum amount of chores and they also had more screen time than they normally would have. I know that this doesn't particularly count, but we didn't go anywhere or do anything and I barely made it off the couch this day, so I think it counts. Plus, kindness begins at home, right?
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Well, this one is honestly tied to Saturday as well, but here it is. Even though, I was battling the sickness that I inherited from Oralee (who was better by the way), I encouraged Hubby to stick with his plans to spend time with his friends. They have standing plans to get together on Saturday evenings. Generally speaking, they get done around midnight and Hubby is almost always home by 1am. On this particular night/morning, Hubby didn't get home until around 3am, which would have been 4am had it not been for the time change. Anyhow, even though he was out three hours later than I expected him to be, I didn't get mad at him for it. I knew that he had missed seeing his friends and was enjoying himself. He hadn't seen them the last few weeks because of his work schedule.
Also, while he was gone, I was able to talk to an old friend of ours. As it turns out, this particular friend really needed someone to just listen to him, which I did. This friend of ours is really facing some personal challenges right now and I hope that by being there for him to talk to and lean on, I was able to help him in some small way.
Some things I want to do this coming week:
(MON) Take my mom out to run errands
(TUE) Take a load of donation items to the local mission
(WED) Check on the possibility of serving the community somehow
(THU) Taking part in a volunteer advisory committee for our school system
(FRI) Volunteer at the kids' school (outside of my normal hours)
(SAT) Take the kids out to a park to pick up litter
(SUN) Volunteer in the church nursery
You can click the picture above to be taken to the linky where all these Intentional Acts of Kindness are taking place!
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