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?

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.

christmas photo album

Wow, the month just flew by! I've missed blogging, but it was also nice to take a little break, even though it was unintentional. I've been a rather sporadic blogger this past year. Maybe 2011 will be different?

One of my favorite things about Christmas is receiving our friends' family photos. Really. I love photos (no surprise), and it's always nice to get a little glimpse of how kids have grown, even if I can't keep up with everyone throughout the year.

I display our photos here on the wall rather informally.


Several years ago, I decided that it was a real shame to toss everyone's photos after Christmas, so I purchased a cute little photo album. Nothing crafty about it. Just a regular album that you can slide 4x6 photos into and out of.



When it's time to put away Christmas decorations, I take down my photos, and put them into our album. If they're too big (like those long envelope-length cards), I just cut off what doesn't fit, and slide them in. Our album sits on our end table throughout the year so that my girls can look though it and be reminded of who our friends are. Some are long-time friends, some are new friends, but I love how it helps them to know that we are loved and part of a bigger community of people who live all across the country.

getting organized

September is here. School has begun. It's time to get organized.

Some of you know I'm a Jazzercise instructor. I know it sounds so 80's-ish, but believe me, if you haven't been to Jazzercise lately, you haven't been to Jazzercise. It's an awesome workout that will kick. your. butt. Seriously. You should check it out.

Anyway, I digress. We have an amazing instructor team this Fall. There are four of us. Four. Wow. I am so excited! With four of us, trying to figure out our teaching schedule was a bit of a mental challenge.

So, I thought a little visual aid might help. I started with some circles, one color per person, and added our initial to make it more fun.



I then arranged them on a little calendar that I made. Here's the artsy shot.


And, voila! It was so much easier to see our options and trade out days to find what would work best. I'm going to make sure the circles are not affixed permanently so that we can make changes as needed.



You can use this idea too. How about a chore chart? Or a school schedule? Just change out the AM/PM for subjects or chores. Be creative!

Oh, and just in case you workout with us, this schedule is not yet finalized. We'll let you know when it is!

a new way to budget

Ever heard of the envelope system? I was a big fan of it before I was married and living overseas. Since then, we've tried a few different sytems for budgeting and tracking our expenses, including Principal Plan and Mvelopes. Both were electronic envelope systems. They worked well enough, but both required a lot of maintenance. I want to simplify, so I made a little cash carrier for my new plan.

Here's how it's going to work. All of our discretionary spending will be funded once a month into envelopes. We've agreed upon categories: the girls, our personal allowances, home/gifts and eating out. Once the money is gone, we won't spend out of that category until the next month. Alternatively, we could borrow out of another envelope if we wanted to. There's no need to track this spending because it tracks itself. We can physically see if we have the money or not.



I took five envelopes and glued them together with scrapbook paper to make a binding.


Then, I glued all the flaps inside except for the outer envleope which I glued extra paper to in order to make a larger flap. After adding a button with some ribbon for the closure, I mod-podged the front and backsides to make them a bit more sturdy. Thus, the glossy look.


So, how do you budget? What's your best tip or system?