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.

Sickliness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finding and Acheiving Balance

I am struggling to find a balance for all of my responsibilities. Any one else have this issue? This week is going to be busy, but not so much that I don't have time to get it all done.

Tomorrow, we don't have school, but I will only be home part of the day as I am going over to Bree's house to help her declutter her clothes' closet (and maybe even get to take home some of the items if I really like them). Tuesday, we have an appointment with our therapist and one of her partners about finally starting a medication regime for Cephas (it's something that we have tried to avoid, but entering the teen years, we feel it is now time) that will take up most of the morning. The rest of the day is fairly empty though. Wednesday, I have to work and then in the evening I also have an appointment at church. Thursday, I will be visit teaching with my teaching companion and then I will be going to a movie with the mother-in-law. We also have the Pinewood Derby in Scouts on this night, so one of our free evenings this week will be spent on creating a car for the Derby. Then Friday, I have blissfully nothing planned for the day yet.

Okay, here is my problem. The week itself, broken up like this, isn't so bad. But I seem to be having issues trying to acheive a balance. Thursday, there is just absolutely no wiggle room in my schedule. None at all. I'll be gone all day from 8:30 am when I take the kids to school until 8:30 pm when we get home from Scouts and Mutual.

These are the "scheduled" items on my list for the week. The "unscheduled" items are things like my personal Scripture study, Scripture study with Bree, tackling one area of the house at a time to declutter and really really clean it, doing all of my regular maintenance-type housework, getting to the gym and working out, and then other regular stuff like school drop off, school pick up, meal planning and execution, grocery shopping and other routine errands as such. I just need to sit down and figure out when and where everything is going to go.

Since I have tomorrow morning free (kid-free with Hubby at home, to be exact), we are planning on working on laundry and our bedroom, which is buried in laundry and clutter that gets shoved in there whenever we have company. Then I'll be going to Bree's house to help her, then I'll be heading back home to get dinner ready so that we can eat before beginning our evening plans. We'll probably work on the Derby car and I also really want to take the kids to the gym that night to go swimming. They really enjoy going and they have such a great time.

Tuesday, I know that my morning is already pretty much gone. We'll probably feed Cephas before sending him back to school (or just let him stay out for the rest of the day - depending on how much time is left in his school day before they are let out) and then that afternoon, we will be working on the Pinewood Derby car, as well as things around the house, maybe even get around to tackling one complete area too. That evening, I want to take the kids to gym again after supper, but I want to do a water aerobics class that I enjoy that evening. It's a TOUGH workout and I feel it so much afterwards, but it is incredible! The older boys can either swim in the other pool or they can shoot baskets in the gym. The little kids will go to the Child Watch center while I am in my class, then maybe we will swim again as a family afterwards.

Wednesday, I'll have work and then I'll do school pickups, home dropoffs (we carpool that day), then get home and make dinner before I have to leave for my meeting at church. When I get home that evening, we'll do finishing touches on the Derby car, and then I'll work on some regular everyday housework and call it a night.

Thursday is my busy day. I'll take the kids to school, go visit teach, then do lunch and a movie with my mother-in-law (it's not something that we've ever done before, so I'm kind of excited for it!) and then it will be time to get the kids from school and a friend's house and hurry home to eat a quick dinner before leaving for the Pinewood Derby. After the Derby is over, we'll call it a night.

Friday, oh how I am looking forward to Friday! I plan to spend my day on Friday (at home, without Hubby or kids or anyone else!), working on things around the house, to get it ready for the weekend. I also want to spend a good chunk of time in my Scriptures this day. I'll need to do this before Hubby gets home, as he has this desire to try to talk to me while I'm reading something (anything!), just as I have the same desire to try to talk to him during a football game or a video game or some other inopportune time for him. Friday night, we will plan on the gym again, but we'll have to see for sure.

Saturday, Hubby has to work and the kids and I will be working on our deep-cleaning chores here at home. My goal for Saturday's chores: have all three bedrooms completely clean! It's a big, giant goal but it's definitely worth trying for.

The one thing that I have, for the most part, missed in this plan is my Scripture time. And maybe that's my problem, that I am not starting with that and that's why I feel like I'm not achieving any balance.  So, going back through the days...on Monday, I will do my study time in the morning before Hubby gets up, Tuesday, I'll do my study time in the morning before everyone gets up, Wednesday, I'll do it after dropping kids off at school but before going to work, Thursday, I'll do it after visit teaching, but before the movie, Friday, I'll do it in the morning while Hubby is at work (as I had already planned), then on Saturday, I'll do it in the evening.

Also, on Saturday evening, I'll need to make sure that I have my lesson plan for Nursery completed. I broke up the lesson we are on into two parts, with part one being today and part two being next week. I had also planned to meet with my Nursery co-leader at some point this week, which may end up being on Tuesday afternoon, after Cephas' appointment. I just remembered that we had talked about tentatively setting something up this week to discuss Nursery.

So, that's my week. It will be busy, but the important thing for me to realize is that there is more than enough time to get it all done and to find that balance that I so desire. I love my life and I love all the different aspects and yes, even all of the different responsibilities that go along with it. Sometimes, I just get overwhelmed and talk myself into a situation where I (incorrectly) think that I'm over-scheduled or whatever, even though this is absolutely not the case! So thanks for being here and reading and letting me get it all clear in my head. Most of the things that I was trying to make sure that I had time to dedicate to in my schedule were those things that I had on my goals for this year. It is very important to me to be able to complete those goals and to make that solid lifestyle change. Every little thing that I can do to help me accomplish those goals, I'm willing to do.

Climbing, Unearthing and Tackling - Challenge 2013

I don't know how else to phrase it, but I have a ton of work to do around the house. I have totes that need to go out to the shed filled with Christmas decorations, wrapping papers, trees, etc. I have filled boxes that need to be donated, I have filled another box that needs to go to my inlaw's house, I have another one that needs to go to my best friend's house, I have a cooler that needs to go to my Relief Society president's house (because in all reality, it is her's! It just so happens that I have had it for about six or eight months), I have toys to donate to our church nursery. I also have clothes for every.single.child. I take care of. (Boys ages 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9 and girls ages 3, 4, 7, 8, 12) Plus, I have additional clothes that I just need to donate. Right now, all of these items still taking up space in my house is driving me just a little bit slightly insane! It's time to start a new project on here, one that I started and completed last year, but just did not blog about in it's entirety. And now, I'd like to present:

Challenge 2013

The challenge is to get rid of 2013 items in 2013.

You know, like, apart from regular household waste. This is the stuff that is taking up residence in your residence that you'd rather have used for other purposes. The rules are pretty loose. You can count individual items or you can count boxes or bags. But the idea is to get it OUT. We live in a society with so much excess that we don't even realize how much extra we have!

For instance, somehow this past winter, I went from having one set of dishes to having five sets. We have our normal set of dishes that we use everyday, but we were wanting something that was white and simple, so we found these plates at the Dollar Tree that we really liked and we bought 12 of them. $12 for 12 plates, not bad. But then, I found this other set of dishes that someone locally was selling for $10. Two complete dish sets (service for 8) for $10. Even better, right? Then, my mother-in-law bought us two complete dish sets (also service for 8) for Christmas. And then our friend who was moving out of state decided that he wanted to give us one of his dish sets. So now...if I need to plate, oh, let's say somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 meals at once, I could. But here's the crazy reality - I don't need to. The most that I need to plate at any one point in time is like 20, give or take. And most of the time, it's not more than 10. So I have decided to keep the plates that we got new for Christmas, the ones that we were using full time anyhow (at least until they all break or something) and maybe the simple set of 12 plates from Dollar Tree. I really do love them! I plan to sell or donate the set that I bought for $10 and to keep one of the plates from our friend to use on my plate rack. So, that would leave us with roughly 30 plates. Still more than we need, but in all reality, we lose one plate from our regular plate set about every month or so. We have kids and lots of extra kids around. They get used a lot. It happens.

I also inherited about $900 worth of yarn recently from one of my husband's co-workers. His mom had been a stockpiler and had purchased SO much yarn! Most of these skeins of yarn were probably about $3 each, so I ended up with roughly 300 skeins of yarn. Plus sewing patterns, supplies and notions, crochet patterns, stuffing for toys or pillows or something, Just lots and lots and lots of crafting materials. I had Bree come over and I sent her home with all but one (minor) sewing project, all of the crochet patterns and half of the yarn. But that also means that I still have somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 skeins of yarn. I do plan to make LOTS of scarves and hats this year to donate to the those who are on the tree at our church at Christmas time. And if I make enough, maybe some to give to a facility for seniors in our area. I'm not quite sure yet, but I do have lots of ideas! But whatever I haven't used, I plan to donate at least 50% of it to an organization that can use it. I might even make some prayer shawls a hospice facility that I am familiar with and which is very dear to me.

There are lots and lots of other items that I am wanting and needing to get rid of, because in all practicality, we don't use these things often, if at all and I'm just done with it. I don't want our home to be overloaded or for me to be overwhelmed by caring for all of this stuff that doesn't really matter.

So, here I am starting this challenge for myself (and for any who may want to join in) of making 2013 items disappear from my home this year. Although, in actuality, I would strongly prefer the number of items to be at least double that figure. If you're in and would like to participate, leave me a comment and I'll make a button (I'll make one anyhow, most likely) for you to place on your page as well, if you want to join in.

Changes This Week

Good morning! Why don't you come on in and sit for a spell? I don't have any coffee on (though I could put some on, if you'd like) and visit for a bit. I'll try to keep this on the shorter side as I have a lot to do today.

It's been a semi-busy week and yesterday, I let things go. But I'll get back to that in a bit. This past weekend at Hubby's work, someone quit on the spot. Just up and quit. Hubby has taken over this guy's hours as well as his own. It'll be nice when the paycheck shows up for it. Unfortunately, that won't be til the first payday in February, but that's okay. We'll make it work.

The Neighbor Girl, My Kids and Family and Friendship
I have had the neighbor girl every day after school and it has been going REALLY well. She loves coming over to my house after school and I'm not quite sure why. On Tuesday, she was sick and her stepdad's mom came to stay with her for the day. (My phone was dead and by the time, I was able to call her mom back, she was busy and had her phone turned off so she didn't get my message in time that I could take her daughter.)

On Wednesday, the girl's mom didn't need me to take her before school because the mom didn't need to be at her appointment until 10am. However, on Tuesday, one of the ladies that teaches at church asked me to go over to the church on Wednesday and pick up a food order for someone, so that is where I spent a large portion of my Wednesday morning. Then, I stopped in at Hubby's work to grab a bite to eat (I have about $50 or so in gift cards to use there and I get a discount on top of it, so a really good deal) and to try to have lunch with him. But he was almost done and it wouldn't have made sense to have him take a break right at the end of his shift, so I ate without him.

When it was almost time to pick up kids, I called my neighbor to see if I needed to pick up her daughter as well. She said that her daughter was really upset that morning because she didn't get to come over to my house before school and that it would probably make her daughter pretty happy if I picked her up. So I did.

We had to stop at her house on the way home to drop off some stuff and I went in and talked to our neighbor for a little bit. Her daughter had a chance to come in at that point, but chose not to.

When we finally got home, I had the kids do their homework and gave them a snack (which is our regular routine for after school) then they played video games (we have puzzle-solving games on the wii so I figure at least it is something that they have to think about and work for, right?) then sent the girl home at dinnertime.

Yesterday, when I was walking up to the school to pick my kids up (I no longer needed to take the girl before and after school because her mom's need for that was temporary), the neighbor calls me and asks me to pick up the girl and I agreed to do it. It really isn't any extra work for me, I mean, I'm already there doing that exact thing. It's just using one more seat in my van and at my table. One more snack and one more kid to help with homework. No biggie.

We get back to our home and the kids come in and get started on their homework, then snack, then a game. I drove the girl home just before dinner (yes, she only lives a short distance from us but it was VERY VERY cold and I wasn't going to make her walk in it, I didn't want to walk to her house in it and I definitely didn't want to walk to her house AND back in it) and talked with her mom for about an hour. It was nice to have that time. I get the impression that her mom doesn't really have that many people to talk to in a grown-up conversation and to be able to REALLY talk, you know? It was really nice. I enjoyed it.

Time Management and A Bad Schedule
This week, I have also been battling a bad sleep schedule and really bad headaches most of the day that evolve into migraines shortly after dinner. This past week, I have been waking up around 4:30am and I have been getting tired (and going to sleep for the night) around 7:30pm. My kids' bedtime is 8:30pm. So Hubby has been left on his own for the evening and bedtime routine. Poor guy!

Yesterday morning, even though I had a ton of stuff to get done, I went back to bed for a couple of hours after Hubby went to work. I was hoping that by getting some additional sleep earlier in the day, it would afford me the ability to stay up until, oh, I don't know? 9:30pm, 10:00pm? Something more reasonable than 7:30pm, at least. So I did it, then I went to the school to do my normal Thursday afternoon volunteering session (stuffing Thursday folders in Cephas' fifth grade class and Koren's second grade class) then going home for a bit before going back to get him and the others. Needless to say, I didn't get a whole lot done around the house. In fact, I don't think I have done ANY housework since Wednesday. Yeah, that doesn't go so well. I mean, that's like 36 hours of no housework being done. Scary. Honestly, it doesn't look that bad, thanks to some changes we have made around here.

Volunteering and Work

After doing second grade's folders and before doing fifth grade's folders, I ran over to Hubby's work to see if he was done yet because we are sharing a vehicle right now while mine is in the shop being repaired. He wasn't done, but he was close. His head manager (the store's general manager) was sitting at a table across the room and he saw me and waved. I waved back and relaxed there for a bit, drinking a complimentary diet soda and eating on some complimentary french fries (told ya I get taken care of there!) and out of the blue, Hubby's GM stands up, points at me and says, "You're fired!" It's a running joke. He fires me nearly every day that we are both there. I don't work there, have never worked for him, yet he fires me all the time. :) Weird, I know. But he's a fun guy.

Hubby got off work and went with me to finish up fifth grade's folders and then I found out that he had been promoted to prep trainer. Yay! He makes an extra $3.00 an hour when he trains AND he gets a free meal (yes, I sometimes get free food and he still has to pay for his usually) so that is pretty cool. I keep telling him that he needs to take advantage of his free meal when he gets it but he usually passes on it. Oh well. Probably healthier that way, I suppose.

Oh and my plan of napping earlier in the day worked. I was able to stay awake until 10:30pm last night before crashing. And I slept through until my alarm woke me up at 6:00am. Do you know how long it has been since I have slept through until my alarm woke me up? (Okay, last Wednesday, but before that it had been quite awhile as well) It is wonderful to sleep until your alarm goes off. I felt so excited about it! I woke Hubby up to tell him how happy I was to wake up that early. He wasn't nearly as thrilled as I was though. Hmmm, wonder why? ;)

Plans
So that was my week in a nutshell. Today, I have a lot on my agenda. I need to tidy up the house from the last 36 hours and then I have some ideas that I want to put into action in the kids' bedrooms. Oralee received a new bed last week from a co-worker of mine and then this week, she received a new vanity from some friends of ours. Her room is getting considerably more girly by the minute, I tell you! And I LOVE it! I never thought I would drink in all this girly froo-froo stuff but it is so cool and wonderful! I have some changes to make in her room (remove her dresser and set up a different system for clothing storage) and then in the boys' room (make a trundle drawer for Cephas' mattress to go on and get rid of one of the bed frames, move Oralee's dresser into the boys' room for the boys to have more clothing storage for them and rearrange their room just a bit) plus, I have a clean home challenge and an organized home challenge that I am working on as well. So I have those things to do. One thing is for sure, it is never boring in this house! :)

I hope you are all having a wonderful week as well! And many wishes for you and your family to have a wonderful weekend and next week too! Thanks for dropping by for my (long-winded) update for this week!

Busy Day

Today is the last weekday before school starts back up for the new semester. My kids spent the night at Grandma's house and I will be picking them up midday from her. Today, I have a full agenda. Hubby and I rearranged the living room and front room in our home and as such, I have now have a huge pile to deal with on my dining room table. Well it was sort of a result of the rearrangement. None of the stuff on my table actually came from the living room or front room (as far as I know) but instead from a corner built-in cabinet that I had been using as our "curriculum cupboard". Considering the fact that we don't homeschool and barely afterschool anymore, I felt that this cupboard was best to go through and to use it instead for our dinnerware items. Plates, bowls, cups, salad plates and glassware. This was done so that all of our food storage could be accomplished within the boundaries of the kitchen cupboards. It has taken some re-working (and is still being re-worked, if I am to be totally honest) but it is progress. I am really pleased, however, with the dinnerware and glassware being in the dining room cupboard though. I think this puts more emphasis on real family meals - the kind where the food is placed in dishes and passed around, not just served from the pot or pan on the stove.

This does mean, however, that I have a quick job of tidying up the living room and front room and a little bit more extensive job of cleaning the dining room and kitchen. I need to get dishes put away so I can run the dishwasher, clear off the counters and the stove and make sure my sink is empty. Then I need to focus some effort on the dining room to clear off the table and sort through the pile that is on there at the moment, pick up the floor and then sweep and mop both the dining room and kitchen. And then last of all, I need to move all of the clean laundry into our bedroom then do a quick clean of the bathroom (toilet, sink, mirror, tub, floor). Oh, and to make it interesting, I have two hours. Yup, two hours.

You see, there is a family that lives just around the corner from me and they are going through some seriously rough times right now. Seriously rough. And today, they need someone to watch their 7 year old girl. It was not without a lot of thought and prayer and even seeking approval from my own 8 year old that I decided to offer to watch this little girl today. She has some challenging behavioral issues and as I said, her family is going through some really really rough times right now. But I called her mom last night and offered to watch the girl today. The lady who watched the girl all week had let the mom know I would be calling, I think, because she had mentioned something about the other lady mentioning my name as well. (Yes, I had even talked to the lady who had taken care of the girl all week! I'm telling you - I took this under great consideration.) The mom agreed to have the girl come over here today and just hang out and she will also be coming over every morning next week for an hour before school and two or three hours after school . I have a feeling that I am going to know this family very well by the end of next week. I am grateful for this opportunity to serve this family as well.

But that means that I need to get my house in order before the girl shows up. And I am clearly not as motivated to do it as I should be, considering the fact that I am sitting her blogging about what I need to do instead of, oh, I don't know - doing it? Yeah that. Oops. Ah well. It will get done. And most of it will be done in time. I don't mind some of it not being done in time, but I do want most of it to be done.

Later today, the girl and I are going to run my cocker spaniel across town to our vet for grooming. Our vet has a grooming area and a doggie daycare center as well as a hospital all in one building. It is great and I love it there! So we will drop off the dog and then go pick up my children from Grandma's house.

When we come back here today, we will either be making (and decorating!) sugar cookies or else assembling gingerbread houses that I picked up on clearance this past week for $2 apiece. I had only gotten four of them (as I only have four children) but I think that the girl would enjoy the activity more than Jeriah will, so I plan to have Jeriah and Oralee share a house to decorate, if we go that route. Who knows? And maybe, just maybe, I can convince Hubby to go to the Dollar Store after work and pick up a large disposable deep dish baking pan so that I can make the girl's family dinner for tonight and that way the mom doesn't have to try and worry about getting that all squared away after a long day too. Maybe. I hope that we are able to do that at least.

But anyhow, I am now down to 1 hour and 48 minutes to get as much housework done as I can before the girl arrives, so I will sign off for now and check back in with you all later! Toodles!

*Checking back in*
The day did NOT go as planned, though it did go very well. The girl was late in arriving. I had expected her at 8:00 but she actually showed up around 8:30. That was fine because it gave me some time to sit out on our front porch swing and just relax for a short while.

She was disappointed that my kids were not here this morning, so we went over and picked the kiddos up early from my mother-in-law's house. The kids played a few games over there while my mother-in-law and I visited for a bit.

We then headed back to our house and I sent my kids off to clean their bedrooms. They actually have more chores to do than that, but since today was a different sort of day, I decided that just cleaning their rooms would be enough. Afterwards, the kids watched a movie while I continued to work in the kitchen and dining room (which I hadn't gotten completely done before the girl arrived) then we left to go get lunch. I had ordered pizza from a small shop close to our home that has pizza that the kids love (and I am okay-ish with, mainly because they are SO affordable!) and then we came back, the kids ate lunch and then they finished the last twenty minutes of their movie while I cleaned up and put our leftovers away. Then we broke out the gingerbread house kits!

What a disaster! It was a lot of fun, but man oh man, it was difficult to put those houses together, or maybe I should say, to KEEP those houses together! Ay yi yi! Koren gave up pretty quickly on his and decided to go outside to play with some neighbor kids, then Cephas' kept falling apart and he decided he was done but that he had had a good time trying to create his. The girl's house held up well enough for her to take home about four hours later. I helped Oralee and Jeriah assemble their house and left them to decorate it. Their house actually turned out the best. I think mainly because Oralee is very caught up in patterns (or "patterins" as she calls them) and so her side of the roof looks very balanced. Meanwhile, Jeriah's side of the roof was random in the coloring although the candy he used was all the same type. Overall, a very fun day!

I then set the kids up with the second movie that they had requested for today, but they spent more time playing with toys and on the computers and Nintendo dsi and Leapfrog Leapster games. Regardless, I think they really enjoyed the day.

When the girl's mom called to say that she had just pulled into her driveway, we got ready to go and Cephas and I walked the girl home. Cephas came along to carry the girl's gingerbread house. Isn't that sweet of him?

The girl's mom and I talked for about half an hour. I set up plans with her for taking the girl next week. Next week, the girl will be coming over in the morning and I will take her to school when I take my kids to school and then bring her home afterward when I pick my kids up. I am actually wondering if it would be better for me to just keep the girl overnight so that her mother doesn't have to struggle to get her up in the morning. It's something that I plan to ask her about later this weekend. I am just trying to figure out how best to help this family.

I also plan to bring them prepared, complete meals next week. I wish that I'd had that idea today because that mom was so exhausted after her day. It seems that there must be something more that I can do to help them, but I honestly don't know what I can do for them. I do know that these things would help them out and that is a good start, I think.

My main desire in all this is that I can somehow share her load and provide her with some much-needed respite in whatever capacity that I am able to provide.

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.

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!

Halloween Day and Evening

What a great day all around! Hubby didn't get home until almost 2 am from work but he was willing to get up and get the kids off to school this morning, which was great for me because I had fallen asleep for about 20 minutes earlier in the night and could not fall back to sleep until close to 5 am. Since he let me continue to lay and rest/sleep while he took the kids to school, I was able to get some additional much needed rest. Then I got up and took care of Jeriah and we played and watched TV and did housework together while Hubby went and laid down. I let him sleep through until almost 4 pm.

I got Jeriah ready for school and onto the school bus and then I took myself out for Chinese food. There is this place close to my work that I absolutely love but haven't had much lately and I have really been wanting to get something from there and I decided that today would be the perfect day for it.

After getting my food from there, I went over to the kids' school and helped out in the classroom for a couple of hours. All I needed to do for the first hour and a half or so was assemble the fifth graders' academic skills testing packets. There are four booklets and their scantrons that needed to go into folders. I took care of them for one teacher (Cephas' teacher) and then moved on to another fifth grade teacher's packets. I got those almost done but was not able to get them completely finished because I ran out of folders and sticky labels. I marked my spot though so that I could pick back up where I left off. I plan to go back in later this week to finish those up for that teacher. That teacher is currently out of school right now. She has a new grandbaby and is taking a few days off from teaching to help the new mama. I think that's really sweet and I'm glad to hear that she was able to do that.

Then we had the fifth grade class party. It was a low-key affair. The teacher, Mrs. P, and her practicum student, Mr. H, another parent and I just kind of oversaw the festivities. Mrs. P bought sugar cookies, frosting and sprinkles and let the kids come up to a central table to decorate the cookies and they also had chips and water and were able to sit and watch some movies she had projected onto the white board from her laptop. Then they played hangman. It was nice and the kids enjoyed it immensely.

Mr. H had been having a hard time getting some of the kids to listen in his math group and I so wanted to be able to help him out. But I didn't. I have been there and done that with students and while I knew that I could get them to listen and follow along, he really needs to develop those skills himself. I think he will be a great teacher. One of the hardest parts though, honestly, is getting the kids to respect you as a teacher when you aren't confident about your abilities.

For the first time ever today, I let the older boys walk home from school. At our old house, they had walked to and from school every day, but with living in a new neighborhood and being so close to such a major arterial street, I have been reluctant to let them walk home. But today was absolutely gorgeous, I knew I had the time and the patience to allow them to do it and so I did. I also circled the route twice checking up on them (but couldn't find them!). They ended up walking home with our next door neighbors (who walk to and from school EVERY day of the week!) so it worked out pretty well. And, as it turns out, those two kids know a path that keeps them off of the main arterial street. One of these days, I am going to have to get the boys to show me this route so that I know where it is. If I'm comfortable with it, there is a good chance that I will let them walk home from school in the spring. Maybe. It seems kind of pointless though, because we still have to go to the school to pick up Oralee. But the boys have been wanting to walk home from school so badly that I agreed to it today. We'll figure it all out eventually.

Once home, they buckled down and got right to work on their chores and then decided on some last minute changes to their Halloween costumes. I ended up waking Hubby so that he could be up with the kids and awake to get Jeriah from the school bus and I ran over to our friends' house to pick up an bright orange vest and hat for Koren, who decided that instead of being a pirate wanted to be a hunter. It worked out. He had a camouflage turtle neck and a NERF gun. That plus the oversized (to him) hunting vest and stocking cap, made for a decent hunting outfit.

Cephas had planned to go as a robot but was having some difficulties with his costume design so we changed it up at the last minute and he wore a set of my scrubs (too big for him) and some gloves and a mask and we called him a doctor/surgeon/whatever.

Once they were set, we had to dash over to the other side of town for their music lessons, only to realize that we had not had them practice this past week AT ALL. It's been crazy busy/hectic, what can I say? Ooops. We'll do better this week, I promise!

I dropped the boys off at the studio and ran over to the inlaw's house to do some last minute things that I hadn't gotten around to yet. Cleaning out my mother-in-law's car, putting some camping gear back in the basement, starting a load of laundry in the washing machine, general tidying up and also trying to get Oralee and Jeriah's costumes together. Oralee was on the fence about what she wanted to be. MIL has a stash of dress up clothes and Oralee couldn't decide between a cat (all black clothing, plus ears, tail and collar to match), the water fairy (complete with tiara and wand) or a different fairy (forgot which one - but without the extra accessories). Oralee couldn't find the water fairy outfit or the cat outfit and had settled on the other fairy outfit when I found the water fairy outfit and she ended up going with that option.

Jeriah wanted to be a painter. I had planned to make him a little painter's palette out of cardboard but I couldn't find any over there (and I was in such a mad dash to get over to that side of town that I didn't grab cardboard from our house) so I just took some sheets of computer paper and glue stick-ed them together and then used a marker to draw in the paint circles. We got a brush from the garage and a washcloth to tuck into his waistband and he was good to go. He wouldn't dress up any further than that.

At one point I had even tried to persuade him to be a cowboy (MIL has a cowboy hat and a vest - it actually goes to a pirate costume but looks really cute with the cowboy hat) but he was adamant about not changing his clothing.

We had to run back to the studio to pick up the boys and then head back to MIL's house to park the van so we could hit up the neighborhood over there. We did it and ended when pretty much all four kids were ready to quit. I cannot believe that it happened around the same time for all of them! How awesome was that!

We then packed up and left. At this point, it was 8:30, the kids still hadn't eaten (so busy getting ready for music lessons and trick or treating and then actually doing those things) and while we were out, I had gotten a message from the restaurant where Hubby works saying that for a Halloween special, kids could eat free with an adult purchase. That sounded like a winner to me so that's what we did. We did not go to Hubby's work though. We went to a different location for our favorite server.

Our server, Jay, was dressed up as Charlie Sheen. My kids totally missed the reference (because they are really too young to know the difference) and there was karaoke going on. Let me slow this down for you. Favorite restaurant + favorite server + cheap food + karaoke. My kids were in HEAVEN!

My kids sang karaoke. Oh yes, they did! I finally pulled them away from the restaurant around 10:30. Our normal bedtime on a school night is 8:00 (ideally asleep by 8:30). But. It was a special occasion, the kids were being unbelievably well-behaved, they were enjoying themselves and quite honestly, I lost track of time.

Oralee started the karaoke singing for our family tonight by singing the ABC's. Yes, the karaoke guy had that. Then Oralee and Jeriah and some random kid (one of our server's regular customer's kid - didja follow that one?) sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star together. And then Cephas and Koren got up and sang More (by Usher - yes, they know the words. They are HUGE Usher fans!). They were going to do a few more songs after that but that was when I realized how late it was and had them go up and pull their requests. I had joked around with Jay, telling him that I was pretty sure if left to their own devices my kids would close the restaurant. But the restaurant doesn't close til like, 1 am? (I should know this actually!) and there was NO WAY my kids were going to be up THAT late on a school night. It was bad enough that we wouldn't be home til 11 pm as it was.

Before we left though, we had to get a picture of the kids and Jay in their costumes. It was so cute! Jay was sitting on a chair, Koren and Jeriah to his right, Cephas and Oralee to his left. It was quite cute and cheesy. I, of course, promptly posted it to facebook and tagged Jay as well.

We drove home and I warned the kids that it was time to go STRAIGHT to bed when we got there. Bathroom stuff then bed. I wanted them in bed within 15 minutes of getting home and asleep as soon as possible after that. They promptly obeyed. Well, all but Jeriah. He was up til 1:30 am. And he was the one who was the MOST tired at the restaurant. Guess the boy hit his second wind or something. He literally fell asleep when Hubby was walking across our front porch to come inside. Stinker!

And that, my friends, was our Halloween. What did your family do?

I just saw a link for this over at Absentminded Mother and had to click on over to I Can Teach My Child to check it out and see what it was all about.

I must say, I like the idea! I am also going to present it to my kiddos and suggest it as a family activity. It will also give us something to share about each night at dinner. It's also not a bad idea since the boys are in Scouts and one of the things that they are supposed to put into practice is to "Do A Good Turn" each day.

Some things I would like to do include:

volunteer at our homeless shelter
donate food to local charities
serve meals at one of the senior centers here
take a meal to a family
host a Thanksgiving meal for those who might otherwise not have a Thanksgiving
offer to babysit for a family for free
create a craft project of some sort to be given away

Plus, I really like all of the ideas that Absentminded Mother had as well! I look forward to seeing some of the ideas from the other participants so that it can spur on additional ideas for our family! I love to serve others. I do so with a (generally) grateful and happy heart. I long for my children to acquire that as well. I think they are on their way there. Koren most definitely. He wanted do a yard job for free just to be nice. I suggested that if he wanted to, he could do it for the money and then donate the money to a charity of his choice. That job ended up being cancelled, but I do believe that Koren's heart is in the right place.

So anyhow, I just wanted to let you all know about this great idea going on for this month. What do you think? Are you going to join up as well?