chores, chores, chores.

This post and the idea behind it was birthed more out of desperation than inspiration.  But, maybe the two go hand in hand.  Some of my best ideas come from being stuck and needing a way to move forward.  Am I making any sense?

I think my workload has increased by 300% since the birth of #3.  Seriously.  My house shrunk by at least 50% if not more. All of a sudden not only was it terribly messy, but there was no where to put all the stuff!  Ack.  How does this happen?

Anyway, I needed some help, major help.  Aside from dreaming about having a maid, chef, and personal servant, I was pretty stuck, and feeling very overwhelmed.

It had occurred to me that the girls are at really good ages to begin helping a lot more around the house.  I will admit that their school schedule makes this very tough, but I still thought they could be inspired to do a little more than they were.

After chatting with a friend, I decided to implement a new system.  The concept is simple.  They girls are expected to do certain chores every day and certain other chores every week.  They are rewarded for showing initiative.




Most are simple things like pick up after themselves before they go to bed, but others require some training like helping to cook dinner by chopping or peeling some vegetables. If they do their chores without having to be reminded, they get a reward.  Usually 5 or 10 cents.  On the contrary, if they do not do their chores and I have to do it for them, I get a reward, quite a bit more.  Usually 25 cents.



That's a lot to keep track of, so we have three glass jars set out all the time.  They all start out with $2 worth of coins in them.  Mine is the large one in the middle.  The girls are in charge of rewarding themselves, if they show initiative.  And, if I do their chores, I'll pay myself as well.


At the end of the week, any extra money they have above $2, they get to keep.  But, if they have less than $2, they refill their own jar back up with their own money.


The first week we used this system, the girls were sooo excited to do their chores, they were practically fighting over who go to be my helper.  As the weeks have worn on, the novelty has worn off, and I have slacked off too, so we are not quite as diligent.  But, in general, we are all working better together.  And, I really like that the girls are learning how to contribute to the family too.


What are your best home-running ideas?

b is for bathtime

Well hello, blog-world!  I took a little break from blogging aparently!  Life has been full with lots of life lately, and I just haven't been around.  I am back today with some of my favorite photos--bathtime!

These photos make me smile, and I'm the mood to smile, so here you go.  Hope they make you smile too!

organized living

I love to organize.  I always have.  When I was four, my mom let me have a drawer in our built -in cabinets just for my stuff.  I have no idea what I used it for, but I can distinctly remember sitting in front of my drawer on our burnt orange shag carpet sorting and organizing my stuff while my mom cooked dinner.

Organizing made me happy!  Thirty years later, it still does!

A few years ago, I needed a simple solution for all of my plastic grocery bags.  They were piled up on the bottom of my cabinet and seemed to explode out whenever I opened the door.  There are lots of containers out there for purchase--IKEA makes a one, but it was just way too large for my space.  I needed something small.  My solution was simple.

I took an  empty kleenex box....



...and put my grocery bags in it.


I have about three of these in around my house for various purposes.  One for the kitchen, one for diapers and one for bathroom trash cans.  I'm also planning to put one of these in my car because you just never know when you'll need a spare trash bag.

his first kisses

I ran across these photos while working through my digital files.  I'm all the way to September of 2010.   Once I have them all organized, I'll get them printed.  It's taking awhile because I have so many photos and must tweak one just a bit.  Plus,  haven't been spending much time at my computer much this past month.   But, I am happy to report that all of my photos through April 2010 are happily resting in photo albums.  Just the simple slide-in kind.  It's so nice for them to have a home.  And, now the girls and I can enjoy looking through them while they wait to be  made into scrapbook pages....someday!

 Here, Z is only one month old.  The girls were getting ready for their ballet recital back in May, and had lipstick on.  Can you guess which one of my girls planted this kiss on little Z?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Little Z is not sure what to think about his first Valentine's day.  Why the perplexed face, Z?


The girls, of course, love it because it means getting lots and lots of candy from their friends at school.


Mmmm...M&M's.  Who doesn't love M&M's?!







Happy Valentine's Day!

one of my little valentines

Not much to say today, just want to wish you an early Happy Valentine's Day!



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Note from yesterday's post: my dear friend Kendra has corrected my tree classification from yesterday's post. Oak tree. It's an oak tree. Not an acorn tree. Thanks, horticulture major, for setting me straight!

no more acorns, please?

I'm not sure why it took me four years to notice this, but we have an acorn tree in our back ally.


It produces lots and lots of acorns every fall.


This year, the girls and their friends decided to start collecting them in order to make necklaces.


I'll be really impressed if they actually complete one! The process is quite lengthy. First you have to remove the ends of the acorn by rubbing for a looonnng time.


Ten minutes later you get something that looks like this:


Next, you use a toothpick to poke out the fleshy part of the nut.  It's sort of yellowish and grainy in texture.


Then, you finally end up with a hollow acorn shell.


Just repeat the process about 10 times...and maybe the girls will have a necklace or bracelet.

I wonder what else we could do with these acorns?

the effects of the mamma-razzi

It's so nice when the girls play together in their room.  They just don't have enough time to enjoy each other anymore now that they're in school all day!  They were excited for some down time alone when little Z and I thought we should go take a lookey-lookey and find out what was so fun.



Upon knocking and entering, we were not greeted so warmly.  I think we were crashing their party.


It must be hard living with the mamma-razzi.  I mean, who wants each and every moment of their life documented? Miss M didn't mind letting me know how she felt about me snapping away.


"Leave us alone!  We want to play with our ponies in peace!!"


Little Z was of course, fascinated by all the new toys.  Miss A was mildly annoyed, but Miss M immediately scrambled up for a piece of paper and began furiously writing something down.


After a few minutes, we were ousted out of the girls' room.  Well, technically I was the only one being ousted out, but where I go, little Z follows.


This sign was promptly posted on the door as it was firmly shut behind us.


Hmm...I think they want a break from me and my camera.  Or maybe they just miss each other and don't want me crashing their party to take photos of them.  Poor girls.  They'll have a well documented life to thank me for one day.
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On a side note, thanks for all of your nice FB comments yesterday telling me that you enjoy this blog!  They really do make my day.  It is a fun way to keep in touch with friends all across the country, get to know new friends and deepen existing relationships.  So, thank you for some feedback!  It's nice to have a little encouragement every now and then :-)

repurposing a large frame: diy

I hope you had a good weekend! We took a little family outing to IKEA on Friday night. It's a fun outing for everyone. We eat a cheap, yummy meal of sweedish meatballs and chocolate cake (I'm sure it's very healthy for us!), and then David and I get a little date night while the girls play in Small Land. They're brilliant to provide dinner and childcare and fun shopping all in one location. I love IKEA.

I will share my one little tip that we learned the hard way on Friday night. You must have your kids checked into childcare ONE HOUR before the store closes. I was not aware of that little factoid. So we arrived at Small Land at 7:08, and found out the store closed at 8:00pm, and that childcare was closed. It was a very sad moment for everyone. The girls love playing there, and we were looking forward to a little browsing time with just little Z.

Anyway, we ran into an old friend while shopping with the family. And, she totally made my night telling me that she checked this blog everyday! Really? Everyday? That's encouraging. I love hearing that someone reads this blog and enjoys it! Thanks, Jackie!

On to the subject of this post. Remember when I was stuck in a rut? I'm slowly working my way out of it. I decided to keep that large frame and repurpose it. I liked the size of it, and I didn't want to start from scratch, so I decided to try to work with it. I've been wanting to get more of my photography into my living room, and love how this turned out!



I had to tear off the backside of the frame and remove a bunch of staples and large piece of cardboard. When I took the actual print out, I realized it was glued to the matte board, so I just stuck my photos on top of the print by using the oh-so-high-tech scotch tape. Yes, scotch tape. In order to figure out what sized photos would work best, I took lots of measurements, and realized that I could fit 6 rows and 6 columns of 4x6 sized photos almost perfectly. The last column on the right is very slightly overlapped underneath the column beside it.



I just used photos that I already had on hand. (I have a box full still waiting for me to do something with them!) But, now that I know I love this, I'll probably be more diligent about printing out photos I love in order to put them in this frame.



Still don't love my sconces next to the large frame, but I'm so proud of taking a baby step! I'm thinking something more modern. Maybe some W's? I'm going for the non matchy-matchy look. Any more ideas?

if I could only have one baby "appliance..."

...it would be our Gymini a.k.a. a baby play gym. We've had this thing for 8 years, and all three kiddos have loved it. From birth to nine months, Z is still enjoys playing on it.

What I love:
it's compact: it folds flat for easy storage.
it's customizeable: you can remove the toys or add more to your liking
it's bright and colorful, and that makes me happy.
it's easily washable: the little arches snap off, so that the flat part can be thrown in the washing maching
it's got a long life: newborns can lie on it and enjoy all the colors. 9 month olds still enjoy sitting on it, pulling the toys off and ummm, eating it?

Need I say more? I think this one's a keeper. I'm going to save it for my kids' kids. It's that good.

















And, because I want to play along with Emily today, here are a few favorite "me-Z-and-the- Gymini" shots.