Chore updates

Well our new chore system is still going strong and I love it. Even with the novelty now worn off, it makes my day tremendously smoother. Here are the bumps we have had with each kid...

AMMON
Bumps:
Ammon has lost the bounce and run as he rushes to do all of his chores. He sees the card that says to empty the compost and every times says "Do I have to do this one today?"--And he is back to his mozying, so sometimes has to be reminded to start chores. There have been a couple of days that he chose not to do a certain chore and then didn't earn a star, and he was very sad those nights.

Success:
BUT he still does them, and I still don't have to direct his every move. And he does jump up and down and say "yeah" when it's time to go and get the mail. He doesn't beg me about getting it all day, because he knows it will eventually show up on the chore board and then he doesn't even have to ask. He loves to use his tickets, and he is more excited about putting stars on the special date card, than he is about going on a special date with Mom or Dad. And when he doesn't earn a star, it doesn't come across as me being mean. They know they earn one for doing each of their chores right all day and if they don't, I just can't give them one, and I can be kind and sympathetic about it instead of mad.

KADEN:
It's going really well with Kaden--it's helped me with him in a lot of areas actually. My biggest bump with him, is the extra jobs--the jobs that they can choose to do to earn a little money if they want to. He keeps trying and trying to come up with his own extra jobs, which happen to be things like "get Micah out of bed in the morning" or "I know, Mom, I will pray 3 times a day instead of twice, and one can be an extra job" (we had to have a good talk about that one, about how praying is on there not really as a "chore", but more a reminder, and that would not be right to get paid to pray)--anyway he comes up with all kinds of super simple things as I explain it's my job to come up with the extras and not his.

NOAH:
It's actually working awesome with Noah. This system goes so well with his personality and gives him some control and some feeling of contributing and being important. His only problem is that he tries to enforce the whole system once in awhile with his brothers, which is not his job. But other than that it's awesome.

MICAH:
Micah's chore board holds all the extras because he doesn't have any chores. But he sees Kaden clearing the table and always helps him. And every time he comes down in the morning he asks for a star to put on his hand, and he's so cute I give it to him.

So that's our update for now. As I type I am giddy with excitement because Travis is on his way home! We survived, and I am so excited to be a complete family again.

A Child's Prayer

I always have loved to hear the things that kids will say in their prayers, that show the way their hearts and minds work. Yet those prayers seem to come in rare spurts in our house. There are a lot of short repetitive non thought out prayers. But Kaden seems to be the one who most consistently makes me smile. Like last night as he blessed every one in the family by name and then their bodies, their bones, and their blood. And then he said he was sorry for all of his sins. He probably really does feel like he has a lot of sins. I need to show him how happy he makes me more. I get frustrated sometimes because he is all over the places and doesn't always think before he acts and doesn't always listen like I seem to think he should. He is such a sweet boy and wants to please people. I love how he runs from the bus and tackles me in a big hug. And he loves to be helpful with Micah. Micah has pretty good taste and he loves his big brother Kaden.

Run Run Run

My friend is trying to convince me to run a half marathon with her. I know that is easy for all of you superheroes out there. But she came to me with this idea, 5-6 weeks before the marathon, and I have been exercising regularly, but with things like kickboxing, and cycle, and ellyptical--sometimes walking when I want to read a book, and once in awhile jogging a couple of miles. Hardly on my way to 13 miles. The furthest I have ever run was 10 miles and that was ONE time, um,.... about 14 years ago. Anyway, it does sound fun and I WOULD like to do something like that. I get nervous for this bum knee of mine that hasn't been the same since the end of my last pregnancy. And I like to think that full marathons are just plain unhealthy. Right?....Anyway, I've decided, instead I will run a 10K. I found one that gave me almost 6 weeks to train, which happens to be really closeby, so it seemed meant to be. I started to run more the past week or 2 and I have 4 weeks left. I can totally do that right? And that's motivated enough for me, because I have really never even run in a 5K before. You gotta start somewhere.

CHORES!!

I have had the hardest time with organizing and enforcing chores. I look at a million ideas and halfheartedly start them. My brain is just not as functional as all these people around me and is easily boggled. It seems like my time every day is all taken up with frantically trying to maintain a slight (and I use that word loosely) sense of order amid the chaos. All day long, every day. And messes spring up faster than I can keep up with and my kids are constantly under orders to clean this and pick up that and it's stressful for everyone.

One day I was looking at different chore systems on the Internet and came across this video telling me about the "Accountable Kids Program". As I watch it I got so excited, thinking this could actually work for us and once I put in the initial work and details, it would run itself and not need me to keep up with it as much. But it was also very pricey. For me, if it worked, it would be worth the price, but I would have to convince Travis of it as well. A little more tricky. And who knew if it would work?

As I made Trav watch the videos, he mentioned that he could just make the chore boards, and it would be much cheaper, so I started pressing him about that and trying to come up with the same sort of cards that they have for their program. I hope I haven't committed some felony of copyrighting things, etc. And just before Travis left for a 5 week tdy, he whipped these things together and they turned out so well!

It took me 2 more weeks, to get around to helping the kids all decorate them how they wanted and get the cards all set and ready, so we could start, but we finally started 3 days ago. I realize we are completely in the excited novelty stage, something new and fun. And in a couple of weeks we are going to face challenges and the excitement will wear off, but just for these 3 days alone--it's worth it! We will fight through it all later, and it will be fine. My kids came down the first morning, so excited to see what their chores are. They are excited to help and want to be an important part of the family, but they just don't know how. This makes it so easy for them. Without me saying a word, or having to remind each kid to get dressed or brush teeth, or put their pull-up in the garbage, it all got done and in an amazingly efficient and fast manner.

Ammon is the most excited about it. He has been bouncing around frantically doing chores and asking for more chores for 3 days straight. Jumping up and down when he earns a "ticket", even though so far he doesn't want to even use the tickets to do fun things. He just wants to look at them and do more chores. And when threatened to lose a ticket, almost any tantrum (okay except for the one yesterday at the library) melts into a smile. He's excited to go to rest time every day, because that's one of his chores. And excited to clean his room afterwards. It is amazing!

My downstairs is still a bit chaotic and out of order--but it's because of me and isn't being added to. And the upstairs (the boys' bedroom), is SO much better. At bedtime I don't get frustrated with the toys all over the floor, and the dirty clothes aren't piling up on their floors. And suddenly we have more time for fun! Anyway, I am so excited and the pictures about show what the boards look like....And how happy Ammon is about them. Micah's board is just a place to store extra card right now, so eventually I'll have Trav make a board just for that purpose. If you want to know more about the program, you can look at http://www.accountablekids.com/ or go HERE to watch the video.

Pinewood Derby

We made it through our first pinewood derby on Friday night. My goal was to make it through without any tears and we did it, despite Noah's not winning any races. I think he may have fought it by being a little on the apathetic side, but he was trying really hard. I can't believe I forgot to have him wear his uniform. It just got crazy right before we went out the door and we were still figuring out who to take and when because.....

.....because Ammon's eyes started to look a little irritated the day before the I took him to the Dr the morning of and yes, he did have pink eye. We have never dealt with pink eye--all I know is the first word that comes to mind is....very contagious. So it was a hard decision. Trav needed to be there because he's the Dad and he helped Noah make the car, and he was leaving the next morning for SOS and would be gone for a few weeks. I needed to be there because I need to be learning what in the world is going on in the scout world, and I had assignments and things I needed to be doing. But Trav almost stayed home with the 2 youngest anyway, but at the last minute we decided to take Ammon and confine him to the stroller. He didn't mind that. I don't think he was feeling well at all by then and he fell asleep before the races started and we just stuck him in a corner. The Dr had assured my that it is very contagious if he rubs his eyes and touches things, but if we could be confident of him not touching anything, it would not be a problem at all. So. That's what we did. Poor guy though.

Each car got to race 3 times. Noah's came in third twice and second once (when the third place car had a wheel fly off....). He handled it remarkable well. It's no joke though, that some families (dads) get really into this and know all the tricks and secrets and take it a little bit seriously =).

Just some pictures

Ammon and his friend Taylor. Every time I try to rake leaves, it's just a big playground.

They are so darn cute...

Bleh

Here is our quote of the week--It sums up our week pretty well and made me laugh when I heard it.

Travis: "Noah, what are your shoes doing here by the sink?"
Noah: "Micah threw up on them, so Mom was washing them."

He was right. It seems to be working it's way through our family. Only Kaden hasn't gotten it, and Micah took on the worst of it. Poor little guy. I don't like to see my kids sick, but luckily he is mostly acting as happy and boisterous as ever inbetween.