Points for Payday

For awhile now I have been trying to figure out how to solve a few problems.  The kids need some way to get spending money that I can help them keep track of.  They also needed to start paying tithing and putting some aside for savings.  I also needed a better carrot to get them to do jobs around the house.  I have often thought that kids should do chores just because they are a part of the family.  But at the same time, that gave me no leverage to encourage them to do their chores.  So, this chart was born.  I didn't post about it until I had actually used it for 3 weeks.  It is working really well.  They can earn up to 11 points a day.  That has never happened.  I am expecting them to earn as many as they can depending on what is going on.  Then we tally up on Friday.  We have an exchange rate.  Depending on the week, the points will be worth different amounts.  So far it has been 10 cents a point and they have earned about 35 points by Friday afternoon.  With their spending money, they can buy screen time from me rather than take the money.  This has been pretty effective at cutting down on screen time.  They would rather have money to buy stuff.

  On this revision I decided to add a weekend column where they can earn points over the weekend that we will tally up on Sunday night and use toward the next week.  They actually have more time to earn points on Saturdays and Sundays, depending on what is going on.  

I made a simpler version of the chart for Ben, who is about to turn 4.  

Anyway, it is great when a kid has some spare time I can just ask what they want to do to earn a point.  It is helpful in getting them to do their dinner jobs.  (BTW, Room patrol means that they make a quick-ish run through the room they are assigned for the week and tidy up.  I took pictures of what the finished, clean room should look like and they try to match it.  Sweetness Shining is sort of discretionary.  It means they are kind to their siblings, no eye rolling or nastiness.  It also means they remember to FLUSH--since we are having trouble remembering this around here lately.)  

I have also decided that since it is so rare, we will have a special prize (or options of prizes) for 10 point days.  

This takes a fair amount of work (I have to remember to check off their points every night and make about 15 minutes for payday on Friday) but so far it is totally worth it!

A LONG/SHORT WEEK

 I swear this week has been going on forever and forever and forever.  Tomorrow I am getting a new calling.  And that has had me all a flutter for like 2 weeks.  I feel like I need to get everything in my life done so I can be ready to take on this new responsibility.  Which is never going to happen.  But I attempted it this week. I cleaned, I shopped, I did yard work, I organized, etc.  And I'm blogging on Saturday night.  On the other hand, it has been a very fun and successful week--since I did accomplish a lot!  I am especially proud of how the new chore charts I created for the kids are working out.  I think I'll give those a separate post....But here are some of the fun things that helped the week drag/fly by.  

We had 3 birthday parties to attend this week.  Ben got really excited about the fact that his is coming up.  He picked out a couple of presents for himself and helped me wrap them.   Then, after I put them in the closet he decided he didn't really want to wait for his birthday to get them.  But I held out.  Maybe he will forget about them and actually be surprised.  NOT.  This kid is even more of an elephant that any of the rest of my kids.   

I created the "Boa Constrictor" that is going to be eating Sarah as she recites Shel Silverstein's classic for the Arts Festival this week.  Ben loved it.  We are still working on the physics of drawing it up her body.  But practice will make perfect.  I also made some alterations to my costume for the dance recital (using a stitch ripper and fabric glue, no sewing here!).  This year is going to be so fun!

I taught Libby to use the blower.  Amazing.  I love how clean you can make the space look!  

Glow Swords purchased on my shopping excursion during Libby's make-up dance class this afternoon.  

And a pic with the Target dog.  Sarah is petrified of dogs in real life, but she couldn't wait to get a pic with the Target dog!

One of the birthday parties was a gymnastics party!  Clark launching Sarah into the foam pit.  

Clark launching Ben into the foam pit. 

Then, since we wouldn't get to see Dad for most of the weekend, we stopped by to see him at work--at Folklife.  They have just opened up a new playground at the Seattle center.  See the giant slides?  Ben climbed up the rope ladders and went down each one.  No fear for that boy!  I went with both times.  Libby only went once and Sarah didn't go at all.  

Officer Dad trying to spin this toy.  It doesn't go very fast.  Sarah spent most of her time on this one.  We did eat an elephant ear and listen to some music.  Ben wanted to dance in the front row.  The girls wouldn't.  Too shy.  It is so fun having kids who are a little more grown up!

One of Those Weeks!

Libby made dinner "all by herself" meaning I told her what to do and she did it.  I was super proud of her!

It's Tuesday and I'm blogging.  Never a good sign since my goal is to blog on Sundays.  But this Sunday I had the cool experience of going to a cadaver lab with my yoga teacher trainees to study anatomy.  It was fascinating!  But then I had to rush home, get the kids to church, and then have dinner with friends.  By the time you clean up from that (with no dishwasher) it is time for bed!  Then yesterday was busy too, playing catch up from the busy weekend (Saturday was my yoga Seva class) so I decided to have the kids help me blog last night for FHE.  It was actually really fun.  The girls have decided they want to start blogging with me every week.  We will see how that goes.  (But they have been reading their photobooks nonstop lately, so they are really into their recorded history.)

Just have to give a shout out to the Tooth Book.  It is a Dr. Suess using his pen name Theo LeSeig.  It is Ben's current favorite. We have been reading it almost every night for a couple of weeks.  

Ben had me draw about going on our Buddy School field trip to the police station with daddy.  We saw the K-9 dog.  He thought my picture looked like a unicorn or horse more than a dog.  Okay already!  I also drew gymnastics.  We have been going to an open gym time on Fridays that he loves.  This week we have 3 birthday parties to attend.  He is excited.  I am less excited.  

Ben the artist.

Here is my week in review.  I am looking forward to a break from my yoga training and school!  But I have loved the yoga journey.  I'm thinking I might do a 500 hour training in a few years.  

Artist Libby

On Saturday our babysitter took Libby and the kids to a part that had a half pipe.  She rocked it on her scooter.  That girl is brave!  

Sarah was the last one done writing, and she did it all in black and white.  She was so excited that she had her first little after school soccer day yesterday.  She ran her little heart out I think, she was pink cheeked and exuberant afterwards.  

Each of the stick figures is one of her friends that was there.  She is so good at making friends and all her classmates love her.  She is especially close with some of the boys.  

Another Ben-ism

Yesterday morning I was getting Ben his breakfast and he said, "I want to be a mom!"  I told him that actually, he would get to be a dad.  He started tearing up and said, "But then I won't get to have Mother's Day!"   He was pretty easily soothed by the fact that he will get a Father's Day.  Love that kid!

One morning this week he came in and told me he was "Hangry!"  He is so adorable in the mornings. (And all day too.)

Kid-isms

I have been compiling a list of Ben-isms that are amazing.  I just have to get them all down.
He told me a few weeks ago when we were having a sun room picnic for lunch, "Let's blow together (on his noodles).  On the count of 1."  I agreed wondering how this was going to work out.  He said, "1" then thought about it...that didn't seem long enough.  "2,3,4,5,6,7....8,...1!"  And he blew.

Same week I handed him a string cheese in the car.  He ate it.  Then he started complaining.  "Mom, now my breath is SO BAD!  I am just going to stop breathing because it is SO BAD.  I will talk, but not breathe.  I need a tubby to help my breath!"  I finally convinced him that he could chew gum to sweeten up his breath.  Seriously, what 3 year-old is thinking about his breath?

He also told me I need to stop kissing him so much because "if you kiss your little boy too much he will die."
Yikes!

He has a horrible cold right now. He is constantly wanting me to help him blow his nose.  Luckily he is actually good at it!

Thursday night Derek was watching the NFL draft.  Libby loved it. She said, "I love the draft Daddy!  We should watch it every year, even if you aren't here."

Sarah was also super into it.  She was watching when a man named Damarius Randall was drafted.  She got really intense and said, "Mom never told us she had another brother!"  LOL!

Being a mom is so busy and fun and hard and amazing.  I wish I could capture it all.  But those are the recent highlights that my tired brain can dish out.

A Sunday Picnic with the Dogs, I mean Kids

Today the weather was amazing!  So we broke our fast with a meal in the backyard.  A yard that now has a reasonable amount of healthy-ish grass.  Perfect temp.  Perfect burgers.  And 3 kids who wanted to pretend they were dogs. The dog thing comes partly from this book we checked out of the library with a CD called Dog's Rule.  I did something I will NEVER do again, and copied the CD so we could return it.  I dislike it strongly, to put it lightly.  I keep resisting playing it.  The other day Sarah put it in the CD player in the van.  Then slyly, when it was her turn to request a song, suggested disc 4.  Bam.  Dog's Rule.  Now the stupid songs are stuck in my head again and the kids are playing dog all day.  Really, the songs aren't that bad.  Just too catchy and too cheesy.  OTT.

Ben tried to actually fetch this with his mouth.  I heard him say "Yuck! And spit grass out of his mouth!"

Libby is a proud poodle and Sarah is her proud owner.  

I took a short snooze and Sarah took my camera.  Lots of pictures of running!

Really? Another Project?

It was actually awesome to come home in the middle of the trip.  I got to sort mail, pay bills, clean up, do some laundry, & even blog.  My yoga training weekend was super fulfilling.  I am learning to do headstand.  I got to the airport smiling at everyone.  I even stayed really chipper on the drive home.  (My favorite thing about the ride home was that I would set a timer at every rest stop.  We could be in and out, every bladder empty and hands washed in 4 minutes!)  We made pretty good time.
So we got home and I wasn't super overwhelmed!  I cleaned out the fridge and started on the pantry.  Thats...when....things....bogged...down.  My pantry is great.  And sort of dysfunctional.  1/2 my food is in the garage and 1/2 in the pantry.  I decided it was time to end the dysfunction.  The result?  At this writing there is food EVERYWHERE in the kitchen and entryway.  The pantry is bare and 1/2 painted.  I have been to Storables, Home Depot and need to go to Target and Storables again.  But this pantry is going to be the organized storage woman's dream.  Hopefully.  And hopefully it is all done soon.  I will have a bunch of "Cansolidators" to sell soon!  I bought a smaller version that is more fitting for how I shop.
 I can't get away from projects.  I attract them like flies to honey.  (I am not going to state here whether I am the fly or the honey--I guess you can decide).

Can't really call this a before picture...a middle of the project picture, when I had finally decided it was actually going to be a project and not just a simple reorg.  And, there was contact paper on all the shelves.  So I ended up doing some peeling.  Every project in this house involves peeling something!

The Rest of the Trip

I posted last weekend about Logan, but didn't feel I should post about the rest of the trip since it wasn't entirely over.  I still had to fly back and pick up the kids and drive them home.  This plan seemed so awesome...and actually it worked out pretty well.  I made the 13 hour drive home feeling great.  Until I started unloading the car and realized just how exhausted I was.  But, I digress...
In Utah we did more than just visit Logan.
We also had a fun Sunday night dinner/games with the Randall clan + Nick's girlfriend Drea.

We played some cutthroat Daytona.  Rachel pulled off a spectacular win.  Emily ran out of gas 2x and I ran out once.  It was super fun!  

James and his parents came in that evening and I wanted a picture of James and Ben together.  James is 2.  Barely.  Ben is almost 4.  Almost the same size.  But every time I stood them together for a picture, James would look confusedly at Ben and back up.  So Ben would back up.  It was one hilarious dance.  

They love riding grandpa's "cars".  Libby did an awesome faceplant (awesome because she didn't really get hurt) over the front of one when she was driving it standing up with no hands.  Taught her a quick lesson.  The kids also spent a bunch of time playing across the street with a neighbor girl on her trampoline.  They were in heaven!

We did a bunch of summer clothes shopping.  The kids all got new shirts on one Target excursion, so they wanted to share in carrying the basket.  

We took Drea out to lunch for her birthday.  One of Drea's favorite moments of the weekend was when Libby noticed that she was wearing jeans with holes (this was on Sunday I think).  Libby got all serious and said, "Drea can't do yoga in those pants!  They have holes!  (Then turning to Drea...) Hand-me-downs?  Thrift shop?"

We also got to celebrate with Brad because he got an internship at Disney starting soon!  Guest Relations here we come!

Ben loves going to visit James' house, which we did to have dinner with Soren and Emily who live conveniently downstairs from Bryn & Brian.  It is a sweet set up! 

This is how the girls sad goodbye to me when I left.  Really sad.  They actually kept saying, "Mom, what day are you leaving again?  Can't you leave on Monday?"

 While I was gone, G&G took them to the Cinderella movie, the aquarium, McDonalds, etc.   So it makes sense that they were excited for me to leave.  Their one regret was that they never got to swim at the Bubble.  Guess we will have to come back this summer!

I wrote each kid a note on Sunday before I flew back to pick them up.  Ben, the kid who can't read, was the most excited about his!  They also got Kuma hats (Kuma is a Mariner's pitcher from Japan, and Kuma means bear in Japanese) from Dad.  It is good to be reunited!