Sometimes I just bite the bullet and scrap it anyway. Most of the time when this happens I use a kit that may not be a perfect match, but can usually say that I am happy. Happy with how the page turned out and happy that I did the photo justice.

Other times, my procrastination and putting off and anxiety is duly rewarded. In this case, One Little Bird released a kit that was perfect not only topically, but also in the color palette. One look at that kit and I knew immediately which picture I wante to scrap with it.

I picked up the kit last weekend during interNational Scrapbook Day and promptly created this page:

I am just so tickled with how this page came out.

Products I Used

And then Pinterest smiled down on me when someone pinned the image of these chore sticks.

I immediately rounded up our craft sticks and some card stock. I printed these bad boys and then sat the kids down to figure out a reward system.

What we came up with makes everyone happy.

Chores – This is how we all contribute to our family and the keeping of the house. Everyone pitches in!

Every kid starts the week with 10 blank sticks in their jar (labeled with a Sharpie). The girls have a list of daily chores to do posted on the refrigerator. If I have to do one of their posted chores then they have to pay me one chore stick. To keep their original 10 sticks all they have to do is not miss a chore all week. We don’t penalize those that are on trips, but their siblings have the opportunity to earn extra – hang with me.

In order to really make this work there had to be a reward. And the kids picked Sonic, much to my delight!

So, our chore economy works like this:

5 sticks = a small drink

10 sticks = a medium drink

15 sticks = large drink or mini shake/blast

20 sticks = Rt 44 drink or small shake/blast

25 sticks = large shake/blast or snack + large drink

30 sticks = Meal of choice + drink

35 sticks = Meal, drink, and small shake/blast

At first they were not too keen on the idea, because we didn’t initially have the sticks set up for them to earn extra. But, I got it in gear and finished them today. And they are all about earning up. And the way I see it is that they are doing one of MY jobs with every stick they choose, so I pay them.

Now, I did make some rules.

1. Some jobs are more involved than others. Doesn’t matter. It’s still worth 1 stick. However! A big job, done well may be rewarded with cash.

2. You can choose 2 sticks at a time and then choose from those jobs. No rummaging through and grabbing all of the easier jobs.

So far, it is working well. I haven’t had to nag for chores to get done and they are happily doing jobs that I would have never thought to suggest, but still needed to be done (wipe down the dashboard?).

The PDF File with the chore stick printable actually has more chores than we need, but aside from the 8 that we’ll never use (shovel snow, etc.) I put all of them on sticks.

The seasonal jobs – raking leaves – and occasional jobs – pulling weeds – all live in a separate jar. I will toss them in to the chore jar as needed. Once a job is done and checked the stick gets added to their jar, so at the end of the week they turn in their sticks, get their reward and I sort the sticks out replacing the weekly jobs to te chore jar and the taking seasonal and occasional jobs out of circulation until they are needed again.

There are also sticks for jobs beyond their experience, like checking the oil, washer fluid, or air pressure. All of them still need to learn those things and are welcome to choose that chore when their Dad is home to teach them and supervise that job.

Then, I went ahead and created sticks for their existing jobs, because at some point in the future we may decide to mix it up and make those unassigned chores as well. So, it never hurts to have them all set-up and ready to use.

I hope this helps someone out there as much as it has helped me!

————————————————————-

Disclaimer:  I am not a perfect parent. I own it. But occasionally, I stumble on something that works for us and I want to share that, cause maybe it’ll help you too!

Week 13

This was the week that Party Boy was off work. Didn’t have much going on in the way of pictures and most were Instagram pics, so I went with it and used an Instagram style template (flipped for the facing page).

I didn’t get many pictures simply because we were so very busy! It’s hard to take photos when your hands are muddy all day. But we did get lots done. The journaling all came from this blog post.

And the Easter Egg Hunt! Thank goodness Jen had her camera. I’ve seen some of the pictures in the editing process and she got some great ones! Very excited to see the final set. Cause that one of the backs of everyones heads? Yeah. Not doing anything for me…

Week 14

Totally took some advice from all of the camera/photography experts this week and changed where I was shooting.

The week of the road trip with few pictures. And the ever important first tee-ball game!

It was here that you can see my shift in perspective – shooting low and backing up/framing. I like the results.

Products I Used

Project Life is the creation of Becky Higgins.

Project Life Posts | 2012 | 2011

I really do love this project. Really and truly – I find it a fantastic place to use as a memory catch-all, keeping up all those little bits and pieces of everyday life.

The bright pretty colors of those craft kit pictures just make me really, really happy.

I had to include the story of the weeping angels. And since it made sense, I figured I would include an homage to a new favorite around here: Doctor Who. We are working our way through the older seasons while the current season sits on our DVR, waiting for us to catch up.

Products I Used

Project Life is the creation of Becky Higgins.

Project Life Posts | 2012 | 2011

But then, I stumbled on the recipe posted here (not found through Pinterest).

I thought, “Why Not? Captain Chaos needs to experience the disappointment that is homemade play-dough, just like his sisters did!”

Please never accuse me of not being an equal opportunity childhood disappointer.

He helped measure and pour the ingredients. And then he stirred everything together.

It looks gross, but he insisted on orange play-dough.

He stepped away while I cooked it. Medium heat, stirring constantly (while simultaneously checking email).

It didn’t take more than 5 minutes and the stuff was all blobbed up and semi-solid. I dumped it out on a cutting board and let it sit for about 3 minutes til it was cooler – still kinda hot, but not so hot that it burned.

Then I kneaded it up and this stuff is like silk. It feels even better than store-bought play-dough and you can see that the color darkened during the cooking process.

The best part was that Chaos LOVED the stuff. He sat and played with it for well over an hour – with cookie cutters and a popsicle stick for a knife. When he was done it wasn’t even crumbly. We just popped it into a plastic baggie and squeezed all of the air out.

One of his reading enrichment activities is to use play dough to make letters, so we plan to try that tomorrow!

**********************************************

Recipe

1 cup flour
½ cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Combine above ingredients in a large saucepan.

Gradually stir in:
1 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon food coloring (I used more – just make the color as rich as you’d like)

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until a ball forms. Remove from heat and knead until smooth.

Here’s what’s on my…

VANITY | I have baby oil, Aveeno Exzema cream, some random cotton balls, little toys and my keys. Most all of my make-up and personal care items are stored in drawers, so it’s just stuff that’s too bulky for that. Also, you can tell that Captain Chaos has been there recently (the cotton balls and toys – I think it was “snowing”).

PERENNIAL TO DO LIST | Laundry, finish the front walk, water the yard (depending on the rain that we are supposed to get), ironing, clearing the kitchen island.  

REFRIGERATOR SHELVES | Two different kinds of mixed salad greens, broccoli, grape tomatoes, sliced and shredded cheeses, turkey, mayo, mustard, leftover brisket, milk, OJ, eggs (5 dozen!), pickles, and a half bottle of cooking wine. 

ITINERARY | A Kenny Chesney concert in May. A trip to Oklahoma in August. Camp, Vacation Bible School, and some day trips to the little lake beach that the kids love in between.

FANTASY ITINERARY | Anywhere in Europe. Washington, D.C. Disney (World or Land – doesn’t matter – I would visit either in a heartbeat). Hawaii. Tahiti. The Caymans. Anywhere with a beach and warm water. 

PLAYLIST | The Beatles, Fun, Mumford & Sons, Beyonce, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw

NIGHTSTAND | Notbooks for different purposes, a one line journal, a tiny stuffed bear in need of repair, hair bands, charging station, clock, and lamp.  

WORKOUT PLAN | Couch to 5k. Again.  

IPHONE | A new TARDIS lock and home screen, Instagram, Instacast (podcasts), Instaweather, Sleep Cycle, Pixel People. I actually have a lot more, but these are my top used apps.

TOP 5 LIST | Talking to Party Boy at the end of the day, meals with friends, good meals (planning, cooking, enjoying), opening the mail, the smell of tomato plants.

BUCKET LIST | Publish something, travel more, take a cross country road trip with no real plan, tour Europe, get certified as a Master Gardener.

MIND |  cleaning, finishing our mission project (I’ll reveal that on the blog tomorrow after it is revealed tonight at church), learning to can, stories to tell,  Project Life, learning to work the tractor/mower, house projects.  

BLOGROLL | Storylines (Donald Miller), Lifehacker, Ali Edwards, Karenika, Stuff Christians Like

WALLS OF YOUR FAVORITE ROOM IN YOUR HOUSE | Kilim Beige by Sherwin Williams. It is the paint throughout the house, except for the kids rooms, which each have their own color. It’s a nice, warm neutral that home stagers recommend if you’re selling a house. I love it.

LAST CREDIT CARD STATEMENT | Target (ahem.), Dollar Tree, groceries, and Sonic. I think these are on every statement.

SCREENSAVER | Don’t have one. I should look into this.

TV EVERY NIGHT | Doctor Who, Criminal Minds, Bones, Castle, Elementary. See a theme?

Finally got to play with this again. And some new goodies, too.

So, I don’t take a lot of food pictures, but my dinner that night was so pretty that I felt it needed to be documented. And anytime I get on the treadmill, there’s a picture involved. I really should do it often enough that it’s not an event that needs to be recorded, you know?

I love it when I can include the news in my Project Life. Like the picture of the cardinals meeting. We’re not Catholic, but electing a new Pope isn’t something that happens all that often. And it was a beautiful picture.

Products I Used

Project Life is the creation of Becky Higgins.

Project Life Posts | 2012 | 2011

And my 5-year-old chatters on and on about powers, talents, weapons, and abilities.

We are standing in front of a display of small action figures called Skylanders. They’re extra special because when you put them on to the portal that attches to your gaming system they come to life in a video game world.

And Captain Chaos is standing here – dutifully looking at every package, trying to choose so carefully where he will allocate his very own money that he has saved just for this. Just for new Skylanders.

And when he had finally narrowed it down to the three Skylanders that he wanted we headed over to price check them, just in case. It was there that I noticed that they had a tiny label on the corner of their boxes. And that tiny label indicated that the Skylanders that he had picked out were not compatible with his game.

Cue a mini-mommy-meltdown.

Once I had gathered my wits about me I took on the monumental task of explaining to my small boy that these figures wouldn’t work.

Which was quite confusing because they were still in the box, so clearly not broken. And they had worked just fine on the stores display portal. So, what’s the problem Mom? Yeah. That conversation didn’t go well, but we avoided tears and an all out tantrum, so WIN!

We went back to no man’s land the Skylanders aisle and this time, I took the lead in choosing our new friends. Turns out, our generation of the game is older. And because of this most of the available characters at the store were no longer compatible.

We did manage to find one box set of three character that were labelled to show they would work. Success!

But when we got home, one of the figures didn’t work. So I requested a new one, figuring it was defective. And it came today, less than a week later (customer service win). And it still didn’t work. And when I really dug down – read: checked on Amazon – and lo and behold the new packaging shows that the ONE Skylander that wasn’t working is incompatible.

Cue minor-mommy-meltdown.

I think Chaos is taking it better than I am.

Of course, he just asked to add the new Skylanders Giants game to his mile long birthday list. So, I guess he thinks it is just a matter of time.

Mom on the iPhone

I love spring-time adventures.

Last Monday Party Boy called me and asked if I wanted to go to Austin. Um, duh. Yes! I love Austin. I love road trips. I love breaks in routine!

So on Tuesday, we did our normal thing. I didn’t tell the kids what was going on, just quietly packed an overnight bag for each of them. Then at 3 I ordered everyone into the truck and we took off.

I think we were a full 2 hours into the trip before one of them asked where we were going. That sheds some light onto how long it can take to get places locally!

Anyway, it was then that I told them. Chaos and Hollywood were all “YAY! WOO-HOO! We get to stay in a hotel! Yay!”

MOTS was all, “whatever. Do they have wifi?”

I had great plans to get a few pictures of the beautiful hill country scenery, except that it poured down rain the whole trip. And I couldn’t see the countryside.

We rolled into Austin about dinner and decided to go try out the Salt Lick Barbecue. It was so good.

Then it was on to the hotel.

And the indoor pool, that was supposed to be heated, but wasn’t.

But was still the highlight of the trip.

And as these things go we turned around Wednesday morning and headed back.

The kids loved it. They love anything that’s a break from routine. Honestly, I do too. Little adventures are just what the doctor ordered.