Ten on Tuesday (early)

It certainly has been longer than I would like since I have posted here. There are some great new things in the works regarding Feasting On Joy and I have been occupied in that lately as well as 50 other things. We also are in the thick of finishing up school for the school year as well as co-op so that always comes with a lot of parts and pieces to balance in my life.

I thought I would catch you up on a few fun things happening around here.

1~~ The recent daylight savings time change totally threw me off! It usually doesn't but this year it was an "off" week. It does help that we homeschool and can be flexible and adjust though.  But that was a week that I felt like would never end.  Now I am loving the lighter later evenings and the feeling of Spring in the air.

2~~ Speaking of Spring, normally my counters would be totally covered with seedlings of all sorts that would just be popping out of the soil by now.  This year there are no seedlings adorning my counters. Steve and I have decided to let our soil (and me) rest for a year.  We plan on deeply amending the soil this year and last year started a trash can compost outside too.  It usually took me around 30 hours a week to tend the garden and that is not counting the "putting up" time. I love it but really want to open up time to be able to do a lot more outdoor things this summer here with the boys. We will probably still have a tomato plant or two (instead of 9) and we have our apples and peaches along with the never ending weeding. I will also probably plant some more expensive organic produce like collard greens and chard to save some money. It is weird to look out at our planters and see them quite bare!

3~~ After winter (which I love) it is always nice to see the signs of Spring. I love when the Daffodils start blooming! They are one of my favorite flowers. My Aunt reminded me the other day of a little poem my Grandma used to say whenever she saw a Daffodil. It made me love them even more because I absolutely adore my Grandma. The poem was. "A little cup, a little frill and now you have a daffodil!"  So cute. I love my Grandma and I love Daffodils. 

4~~ We have come to love a certain song in our house! Actually we hear it on Pandora every once in a while and thankfully the lyrics don't really come in that clear because some of them are a little out of our conservative arena for 8 year old and 4 olds. The boys have never seen the video either. However, there is something about the beat to this song that literally makes us want to start dancing around the house and be silly. It has totally helped break up the seriousness in our house. We could be eating dinner or doing chores but the minute we hear this, we convene in the living room and start dancing all around! It is a regular dance party. I love it! So, I bet you are wondering what the song is?  It is "I Like to Move it, Move it." from Madagascar. My boys have never even seen the movie but we love the song! Click here for the song. (Disclaimer, I have never let my boys watch this video and really don't think the video is appropriate so if you have littles around and you are pretty conservative don't watch. For adults it is pretty funny though.)

5~~ Our conversations around the table can get pretty funny especially with an 8 year old and a 4 year old. Lately the topic has come up multiple times of wishing we lived in a Candy land and then a Protein Land. Actually, Cody clarifies each time that we need protein land first! You know protein/fat helps sugars digest more evenly and deters blood sugar spikes! Cracks me up. They go on to describe what will be in each land. Bacon, of course, would be in protein land! Candy land gets more descriptive. Waterfalls of chocolate (organic of course with no GMO's Cody adds) and rivers of honey. We are all craving protein and candy after the conversation which happens multiple times a month at meal times!

6~~ On the topic of Bacon we have been loving a snack called Porkitos lately. Actually this is made from Prosciutto that is baked and it is oh SO good! Michelle of Nom Nom Paleo coined the phrase and created the snack.  I buy Prosciutto at Costco and decided to try Michelle's version of it one day. Now, we like to eat it her way better than not baked.  It is good for putting on top of salads or eggs. Even to jut eat plain is wonderful. Try it! It also has that crunch that sometimes Paleo eaters crave.

(picture from Nom Nom Paleo)

7~~ This month I will be Gluten Free for three years! Wow. I can remember like yesterday how I viewed it as my death sentence in 2011 when I was told I had to eat GF. I have several posts detailing my journey of going Gluten Free if you search Gluten Free Journey in the labels on the side. Funny, I never knew that being Gluten Free was actually not hard at all. Looking back at the way I used to be able to eat was a piece of cake in comparison to the way I eat now. I look back though and realize that even though the things I was eating were Gluten free they were mostly NOT healthy. Just because it is GF doesn't mean it is healthy. I repeat just because it is labeled Gluten Free does not mean it is healthy for you to eat. Gluten Free food items (even prepared at home from scratch) have A LOT of starch and refined sugar in them and can have very little nutritive value. Eating as much refined sugar and starch as I used to contributed to my demise (Intestinal Permeability) in 2013. I am SO thankful for what I have learned since that journey started in March of 2011. I will never go back to eating Gluten Free ONLY. I love eating GMO free, grain free, legume free, refined sugar free, & dairy free (and a lot of other things "free.") It does my body good and has helped my boys with rashes, allergies and more! It has even helped my husband eliminate blood pressure issues, his overall wellness and he is down to the weight he was in high school! He doesn't always eat grain free either. My boys can have dairy though and we buy raw milk for them which they tolerate very well. Anyway, even though GF was simpler in terms of being able to have more convenience foods, I love Paleo because the food is nutrient dense (almond flour and coconut flours verses white rice flours for baking and lots and lots of veggies along with small portions of "clean" lean meats...) and easier to cook. It is just the prep that takes more time. What a journey it has been. I have been Paleo for over a year now and my health (due to autoimmunity) has done a 180 in terms of improvement. I highly recommend a grain free Paleo diet (or even Autoimmune Paleo) for those with autoimmunity. I am thankful for my doctor back in 2011 who was the ONLY doctor out of several who even told me that Gluten could affect those with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. It put me on the path to the realization that food, and everything we put in our mouths and on our skin, affects our health either positively or negatively. All God's Providence. PS: If you want to see what I can eat (which is a ton) check out my Pinterest Board.

8~~ Co-op is coming to and end! We have three more weeks left (after Spring Break). Time flew. It seems like we were just at Christmas break. Corbin has loved taking Chess, Creative Thinking, and Creative Writing with some amazing teachers. Cody has loved taking story hour, PE and Games, Eric Carle, and Christ Centered Character also with some amazing teachers. I absolutely love our co-op and am amazed at the sacrifice our moms make each week to teach our children. It is such a blessing and I have made some sweet friends in the process. God is good!

9~~ Steve and I started using doTERRA Essential oils in December for us individually. We have loved them so much and have seen some wonderful results in us personally as well as in our children from implementing these oils into our lives. I call them my "icing on the cake." We only got minor colds once or twice this year due to our lifestyle overhaul and using doTERRA EO's! Yay! It is so cool to us to be able to use something natural that God gave us (that were even used in Bible times) to help our bodies with their ailments. We have learned so much in the past few months and we are actually teaching classes together now to share our experience with others. We teach and help get our clients on the path to using doTERRA essential oils in their everyday lives. We love that we can literally replace our entire medicine cabinet as well as cleaners with Essential oils! Stay tuned to this blog because eventually I will be posting recipes for cleaners and home remedies. I will also have some giveaways of homemade cleaning solutions using doTERRA EO's. It is going to be fun!

10~~ One of the things that is so much on my mind and I pray about all the time lately is walking in God's will. There are so many things we can do in life. So many directions we can take. So many traps we can fall in. I know my Lord has ultimate discernment and protection over me and has my best interests and that of my family at heart. I trust in His unending sovereignty. He is amazing. I pray for protection from the snares because, as a human, it is so easy to not see one of Satan's traps. One of the best allegories and illustrations of the conniving, sneaky, deceit of the devil is played out in the book Pilgrims Progress. I like the audio version of this for road trips. They even have a kids version that my son has read over and over. It is a captivating story of the main character, Christian, who is on his life journey to heaven's gate while trying to stay on God's path. It was written by John Bunyan who was in prison at the time of the writing! I highly recommend it. 

I pray Proverbs 16:9 in my heart daily. 

Proverbs 16:9
A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.

If we direct our steps we are really walking on the sinking sand. 

Temporal is the word that comes to mind. If we are in God's will and walking his path we can be safe in his arms and under his protection. That's what I want. With all these new things happening in our lives I do pray that, as I plan my ways (and heed the Lord's instruction and open doors), that God truly does direct us on this journey and that we trust in him for in and for everything.

Thankful Thursday

vacation edition...

We recently took a family vacation for 10 days. It was such a blessing to be able to take such a chunk of time off and go on a road trip together to the Pacific Northwest. There were many things I was thankful for.

I am thankful for the innocence an joy my little boys have.

Corbin enjoying the fall leaves at the James Cant Ranch in the John Day Fossil Beds

I am thankful for fossils we got to see at the John Day Fossil Beds and that this is proof of the ice age and that Noah's Flood actually happened.

I am thankful for our trailer that we got to camp in. I am grateful for the heater and the comforts of home we had in it. I am also thankful for the memories we have made using our trailer. ** This is the first road trip that I have actually packed a fruit and vegetable basket to take along and homemade broth to drink throughout the trip!

I am thankful for waterfalls. Sunsets and waterfalls are two of my favorites in God's creation. We saw A LOT of waterfalls at the Columbia River Gorge on our trip. I was in awe of the beauty. I took over 80 pictures of the waterfalls!

I am thankful for new discoveries, like this leaf that is as big as Corbin's head. I am thankful for the quiet peace that the hikes up to each of the falls had to offer. 

I am thankful for my family of boys. They are so curious and full of energy. I am thankful they have a Daddy who is willing to teach them how to grow up to be men and give them the wrestle time now that they need. 

I am thankful for sweet treats! We had several treats on our vacation and since the boys are Gluten Free and I am Paleo we had to hunt for treats a lot of the time. We were thankful to find Kyra's Bake Shop. It is a 100% Gluten free bakery! She is the two time winner of Cupcake wars on Food Network. She won with some of her Gluten Free Cupcakes.  I did not partake in a cupcake but did have a small bite and they were delicious. The boys were in heaven! 

Speaking of food, we found some amazing places on our trip that were Paleo Friendly and had many Gluten Free options. One of the places we stopped was Cultured Caveman - a little food truck in Portland. I am thankful for Clean, Whole Paleo food that is prepared for me. We had coconut crusted chicken tenders (fried in beef tallow), braised collard greens with bacon, bacon wrapped dates, macaroons, chili, and homemade garlic aioli. MMMM...I can taste it now. I am thankful for good food! 

I am thankful for the power and majesty of God. We visited Mount St. Helens and it had a way of making us feel real tiny. Like small little peons. It is amazing how this 8,000+ high foot mountain could literally blow thousands of feet off it's top devastating everything (for miles) in it's wake in a matter of three minutes. There is nothing like being at the foot of this mountain in person. It is HUGE. It is active. It is mind blowing. God is big! God is all powerful. Nahum 1:5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.

I am thankful for laughter. We visited the fish market at Pike Place in Seattle and it is always so much fun there. The fish Corbin is standing by moves when the fish monger pulls on a chain it is connected too. I knew this (because we had been there before but Corbin was really young) and so I told the boys to go up close and look at the fish. They did and when they did the Monger moved it and scared the bejeebers out of them. Corbin thought it was funny and Cody did not! He wouldn't go near that thing. It gave us a good laugh.  Such fun memories.

I am thankful for animals and for Corbin's love of animals. I have always loved animals too just like him. They are so fun to watch and learn about. It is amazing how much we can see that we have an intelligent Creator through the study of animals.  The intricacies of all animals is astounding. There is no way they could just have formed from a blob. When we visited the Seattle Aquarium it was like a field trip for our homeschool. We learned so much about aquatic animals (which happens to be what we are studying in science right now anyway.) We saw Octopus being fed and very active, otters, harbor seals, fur seals, jellyfish, starfish and more. It was a great time!

I am thankful for my husband. To have a complete family is a blessing I don't take for granted. God has blessed us tremendously. He was the one to do all the dirty work on the trip like jack up the trailer and make sure we had the spare tire. Get the "lines" hooked up to make sure certain things - eh-hem, went where they were supposed too. All the loading and unloading. I am thankful to literally have the man-power. Also I am thankful that God has allowed my husbands back issues to heal and God has given him relief and ability to be able to do these tasks without pain.

I am thankful for time away from the normal routine and all the many sites to see on this earth. I am thankful for renewal and refreshment at the perfect time of the year. It was much needed and what better time that to go see the fall colors!  This is the Puget Sound in Seattle from the top of the Seattle Great Wheel. We were in a Ferris wheel that was 200 feet above the ground over the Puget Sound. We got so see an amazing sunset which I am thankful for and view all the sites of the town from way up high.

I am thankful for the means to take a much needed family vacation like this. God has provided in abundance! 

I thought this Psalm was a fitting end to this thankfulness post...

Psalm 145
A Praise of David. I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, And shall declare Your mighty acts. I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, And on Your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, And I will declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, And shall sing of Your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, And Your saints shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, And talk of Your power, To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, And the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord upholds all who fall, And raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to You, And You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them. The Lord preserves all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, And all flesh shall bless His holy name Forever and ever.

~Blessings~

Family Service: Our New Chore System Part 2 of 2

This is my second post about our new Family Service chore system. I recommend reading the first post where I talk about how the system works before reading this post. Click on Part 1 to read the first installment.

In this post I will be talking about our "Family Guidelines." These are the blessings, consequences and expectations that go along with our new chore system.

Here is a picture of the whole system hanging on the wall in our hallway next to the boys rooms. It is easily accessible and they see it everyday multiple times a day in walking to their rooms.

I explained the contents of this picture in post one but the only thing I didn't mention was the "Family Guidelines" sheet. That is pictured below the "How To Do It" and "Job Box" boxes. It is a laminated 8.5 x 11 piece of cardstock that states our family guidelines for this Family Service System.

When we first implemented this system my husband and I felt it was very important to sit down with both boys for a family meeting. During this meeting we went over the whole system and how it works and spent a good amount of time going over the "Family Guidelines" page. This helped them to further understand our expectations, know what blessings they could expect and know what consequences would be applicable if needed.  We did this so we could all start out on the same page and nobody could say, "I didn't know that."  It also helped because my older son had several questions and we were able to answer them for him. He also brought up a few good points of things that Steve and I didn't think about and I was grateful for that because I ended up changing some things.

The Family Guideline sheet was not only gone over in person with the boys but it also hangs with the chore system so they can always reference it if they have questions.

Here is what the family guideline sheet has on it:
What time and which chores need to be done in the morning before breakfast.
Rules surrounding that (I will get into in a bit)
What time and which chores need to be done in the evening before and after dinner
Instructions for our Star System which included blessings, and consequences.

Let me explain the star system and the "chore store."

We will start with the Star System. This idea is presented in Vicki Bentley's Book, The Everyday Family Chore System and we tweaked it a bit to meet our needs.

The boys have the opportunity to earn 4 stars per day, Monday through Saturday. No Stars are earned on Sundays but all chores are still expected to get done. I talked about the reasoning for this in my first post. They each have an opportunity to earn extra stars throughout the week as well. They can earn extra stars by doing the following:

Doing their own chores with a happy servants heart with no complaining or grumbling.

Playing selflessly with each other.

Re-doing someone elses chore who did a lazy job.

Doing above and beyond service like seeing someone in need and anticipating how you can help them and following through, etc.

If they do any of the above (except for re-doing the job) then they cannot ask for an extra star. It has to be noticed by us and we will give it. The idea is that they are doing it from a servants heart and not purely for the blessing. Just like in life when we give, we give to bless not to receive but sometimes God does bless us in unexpected ways.

Corbin is expected to keep track of his stars in his planner each week. If he forgets he doesn't get to go back and write them in - that day just doesn't count.  It is kind of like a time clock at a job. I keep track of Cody's stars.

In the morning if the one of them does not finish their chores before breakfast then they have a choice - they can either continue their chores to earn their stars and come to breakfast late or they can come to breakfast and forfeit their stars. We have breakfast at the same time every morning during the week and we start school at 9:00am every day so all morning stuff has to be done by then. The same rule applies to dinner. It works out well.

If either of them (or both) get all four stars each day of the week we call that a perfect performance. 24 Stars = Perfect Performance. Extra stars earned don't count for this. If they achieve this (it has only been done once in the month that we have used this system) they get to choose from the following:

A trip to get Ice Cream with Mommy or Daddy.

A trip to get hot chocolate at a coffee shop with Mommy or Daddy.

Their choice of an activity outside the house with Mommy or Daddy for two hours. This could be going to Toy's R Us, going to the park, whatever they want to do - within reason of course.

If one of them gets a perfect performance and the other one does not then only the person who achieved the perfect performance gets the reward. For instance, they both don't get to have ice cream if only one of them earned it.

We also give a blessing (or reward) for whoever earns the most stars during the week.  The reward for this is that the achiever gets to choose what kind of family night we are going to have. We have a family night every Friday night (or once in a while Saturday) and it is either Movie Night complete with popcorn and candy, Game night with fun snacks or Video Game night with snacks. The winner gets to choose which kind of night and if there is a tie one gets to choose the kind of night and one gets to choose which movie, or video game or game to play.

Lastly, for the star system every star (including the extras) is worth one Mom and Dad Dollar. These are paper money that say "Mom Dollar" or "Dad Dollar" on them. They get paid every Sunday after we have announced now many stars they earned and who was the winner of the most stars for the week.  These dollars get to be redeemed at our "Chore Store" which is open every Sunday after we get home from church.  The store is a plastic bin that is stocked with things like gluten free rice krispy bars (which are treats around here), bubble gum (treats too), yo-yo's, action figures, hotwheels, books they like to read, other various snacks that are rare treats, small denomination gift cards and they also have an opportunity to purchase video game time here. It is usually 1-2 hours for the week that they can purchase. That's all they get to play. They don't purchase TV time because for one we don't have cable or netflix and for two our movie time is usually only about 4 hours per week. The items in the store are priced from low to high and the high priced items require the boys to save their money throughout many weeks. We love that it helps teach them to save. Corbin has gotten really good at saving.  It also teaches the boys that it can be a challenge to buy what you want and it requires hard work to earn the money to buy things. Once in a while the chore store has specials where there will be 1/2 off an item or $1 off something just to make it interesting.

Now let's talk about the consequences. These are much shorter than the blessings.

Here they are:

If the boys have to be reminded one time (after life skills week) to do a chore, they lose one star. I am more strict with Corbin about this because he is older and can read. Cody gets a bit of leeway here because he is 4.

If they are reminded the chore is now open for the brother to do AND earn their star for doing it.

Not doing their best work will cause the loss of one star. They must do 100% work or they don't get "paid."

Any sign of a lazy job and the person loses one star and the job is opened for the other person to do in which they can earn an extra star.

If they are caught lying they lose ALL of their stars for the day and we take other disciplinary action along with this. Lying is unacceptable here. Proverbs 12:22 says the Lord hates it and frankly, so do I.

Disobedience, defiance, and disrespect, etc. my husband and I chose not to make this a part of the star system. We felt like these needed to be dealt with in a separate manner and were not directly related to family service.  We actually love Doorposts products for dealing with these issues.

I hope that gives you a good idea of how our system works. Of course, this system isn't for every family but it works for us here and has been effective in training our boys and helping take some of the burden off me.  I do have to say one side note. God is a God of grace and mercy and while we have these guidelines and this system and we try to stick to it there are times where grace and mercy are required. After all, God gives us these every single day even when we don't follow his guidelines. 

If you have any questions about this system or any additional ideas I would love to hear them. I hear that for some reason commenting on my blog doesn't work very well from a phone (I don't know why) but if you comment from your computer I would love to hear your feedback. If you implement this system or get Vicki's book please let me know I would love to hear about your journey.

~Blessings~

Family Service: Our New Chore System Part 1 of 2

This post has been a long time coming. I intended to get this up last month but school started and pretty much all my free time went out the window. I do get some rare moments but they are few and far between. Originally I intended to tell you about our new chore system in one post but since I wanted to be thorough to help you understand it I felt it would be better broken up into two posts. The first post will be about how the chore system works and the second post will talk about our family guidelines that go along with the chore system as well as the blessings and consequence system we use.

Our family chore system needed an update. My poor oldest son had been doing virtually almost the same chores for 3-4 years! While he was so patient and diligent about it he was starting to get weary (and bored) and needed to be refreshed. He was up for new challenges and my youngest was up for more responsibility. I was also feeling like I had to constantly micro-manage what they were getting done and that the responsibilities among the boyes were imbalanced. I was getting weary with the way it was going.

I had been praying since the end of last school year about changing our chore system. I was asking the Lord to lead me in the right direction because I didn't want to set something up and have it fail or do it all in my own strength. He knows my kids best and me best so He knows how to direct me best. My husband and I were at our homeschool conference in June (I recommend everyone who homeschools or is thinking about homeschooling attends these once a year, they are so encouraging and renewing) and we came across a lady named Vicki Bentley. She created a book called "The Everyday Family Chore System." I started browsing through it and it seemed like it would be a great jumping off point for revamping our own chore system. My husband agreed and we took it home.

We spent some nights during the summer looking it over and coming up with a plan. My husband had some wonderful ideas for the "Star System" which I will get into later and he helped to implement this in our first week of school this year which was "Life Skills Week."

Life is school right? I certainly think so. We spent an entire week teaching life skills to our boys and training them on our new chore system as well as our expectations. It has really paid off as we are a month into it now and I am feeling like I am working myself out of a job. Yay! Sure, I will always have chores to do but they are capable young men and can certainly pull their weight around here - and they do.

Alright, let's get in to the chore system, how it looks and how it works. Our Family Service Chore System was inspired by Vicki Bentley's book that I linked above. We made it our own so not everything you see in the pictures are in her book. The idea is in her book. The design is what we came up with here. Her book does contain many pages of prewritten chores and chore cards that you can simply copy and laminated for your own use as well as ideas for implementation. You don't have to create your own system or cards if you get her book. I chose to create my own cards, chore labels and pictures because I needed our chores to be a little more specific to our family and the way things run around here.

Here is what the system looks like:

The left side is Cody's board. The middle is our Family Service verse - Colossians 3:22-24, "How To Do It" card box with the "Job Box" and the right is Corbin's board.

I purchase the teal boards at Target in the dollar bin. They are magnetic and came with the little flower magnets. I covered the magnets with what I wanted them to say - "Daily," "Weekly," and "Monthly."  I also purchased the middle organizer boxes at Target in the office supply section. They have worked out perfectly. The clothespins were purchased at Hobby Lobby and I didn't intend to do different colors for daily, weekly and monthly chores but Hobby Lobby ran out of clothespins (the ones I needed) so I had to improvise. I like it better this way anyway.

Here is it on the wall in our upstairs hallway by the boys rooms:

Here is a close up of both boards:

Here is how the chore system works.  There are clothespins for daily, weekly or monthly chores as well as two on each board for their morning routine and their evening routine. Each clothespin is color coded - yellow is daily, orange is weekly and green is a job that will only be done monthly (one a month.) 

On any given month they will have around 13 tasks to complete so what you see in the picture is a little sparse on the amount of chores I give them. They are of course age appropriate chores too. You would be surprised what your little ones can do though!

They boys morning routine will almost always be the same until they get older.  The chores on the morning routine are: have quiet time (we don't consider this a chore but it is a good reminder for the boys each morning), get dressed, make bed, put pj's away, wash hands, wash face, brush hair and brush teeth on it. The evening routine is: take a bath, brush hair, brush teeth and floss, put pj's on, put dirty clothes in the hamper, pick up all toys around the house, and make sure all surface areas of your room are clean. These will probably also change as they get older. For now though the evening and morning routine do not rotate each month. The rest of ALL the chores rotate each month. That means that Corbin and Cody will have different daily, weekly and monthly tasks for October than they did in September.  This helps them with boredom and helps me train them in all the chores not just certain ones. Even though they will grow up to be men they need to be capable to cook and do household task such as cleaning and keeping things orderly. It will hopefully greatly bless their future wives and will give them skills they need if they don't get married.

Daily Chores are things like sweep dining room after dinner, give water to the cat, empty the trash, help carry groceries, unload silverware, etc. These are things that almost always need to be done daily in our house. The weekly ones are things like sort laundry (yes we only do laundry ONE day during the week), vacuum couches, fold and put away laundry, etc.  The monthly chores are things that need to be done but not as often like sweep the front and back porch, mop the floors, organize book shelves, sweep in trash area under sink, etc.

Each week the boys also have a weekly clothespin that says "Job from the Job Box." This means that they get to choose a job to do from the white job box hanging on the wall. It is to be done on Friday or Saturday when we do our weekly chores. The "Job Box" jobs are things that I consider "spring cleaning" type of chores. Things like cleaning the front and back glass doors, wiping all switch plates int he house, wiping walls and baseboards.  They really like the "Job Box." Not because they really like the chores but because they really the surprise element of not knowing exactly what is in it.  This can also be used a disciplinary tool because even though they like the job box they don't always like to do what chore has to be done from the job box. I can assign them an extra job if needed. 

Poor Corbin, the first time he chose from the job box he was so excited. He smile quickly turned into a frown when he chose clean ALL trash cans inside and out! Awwwhhhh. I am such a mean mom.  Actually we helped him with that but it was a doozy.

In hindsight I may make choosing from the job box a monthly thing rather than weekly but we will see.

Here are pictures of the clothespins:

I typed the chores in Microsoft Word and printed them on colored cardstock. Then I laminated all of them and glued them on the appropriate clothespins with Tacky Glue.

Let's talk a little more about the "How to Do it Box" and the "Job Box."

 First we will start with the "How to Do It" Cards.

These are basically step-by-step instruction cards for each chore we have in our home.  They are reference cards. I am pretty particular about how things are cleaned here and want it learned "right." If they can do a thorough job and want to do that thorough job in their own way once they have learned my way then they are free to branch out a little.  For life skills week we went through a good portion of these cards and each chore to train them of what I expect for each chore. The cards are 4x6 cards laminated and filed under "Daily," "Weekly," and "Monthly" tasks. Each set has a "D," "W," or "M" written on the back of them in case I forget where each one goes or someone dumps over the file box and mixes them up.

Here is an example of a card:

It may seem a little excessive at first but our children need instruction. They need to know how. If they are not taught then they will not know your expectations and chances are they will not do a thorough and effective job. By the end of he second week the boys did not need to refer to the cards any longer because they knew the expectation. It has also helped when the boys don't do it properly to be able to refer them back to the card in order to remind them of the expectation. It eliminates the possibility for excuses as to why it was not done correctly and it eliminates laziness. When chores change again they will have a period of time that they will need to start referring to the "How To Do It" cards again to refresh themselves on the newly assigned chores.

The "Job Box" has less cards in it because it is just jobs that are "spring cleaning" type jobs. Each card in this box is 4 x6 and laminated as well. These also have a "J" written on the back of them so that I know they go in the job box.

These jobs are filed alphabetically in the file box. They are also step-by-step reference cards for the boys to use while doing each chore.

Here is a sample "Job Box" card:

I used Vicki's idea of clothespins because they are easy to rotate and add to. Each month I will change the boys assigned chores. They will likely have a few of the same but some news ones too. The use of the clothespins make it easy to switch things around and I can easily create another clothespin label if I need to add another chore to our system.

The boys are expected to have completed their morning routine but 8:30 AM each morning when we start breakfast. If they don't, they have a few choices which we will talk about in the next post on family guidelines, blessings and consequences.

Their daily chores they have until 5:30pm to complete which is before dinner time. There are some daily chores like giving the cat water that have to be done before breakfast and they know that. THey also have a half hour to complete any unfinished chores after dinner (like any dishes that need to be done, etc.) If they don't complete their daily chores by the time specified they have a choice too. We will talk about that in the next post. The weekly chores we do on Friday or Saturday and they must be completed by then or they get some consequences. Sundays are rest days for us. It is not that we don't have chores to do but our reward system is not implemented that day and it is a bit of a "lighter" day. The monthly chores are done at the end of each month right before rotation.

Since we have boys we think this system will be very effective in raising them to go out and submit to authority (their bosses someday), follow detailed directions and do a successful job using a good work ethic with integrity. We also like the blessings and consequence system because it parallels real life ahead for our boys growing into men. They will one day (like Daddy) go out and have a job where they get paid to do a good job. They will also continue to work without getting paid on the weekends (most likely.) In my next post I will talk about blessings but so you know, we do not pay our children real money to complete Family Service jobs. It is just that - Family Service. They do have one day out of the week (Sundays) in which they do their work without possibility of blessing (reward), much like a Daddy comes home to his family and continues to work without getting a pay check. I hope that all makes sense.

The last part in this post I am going to quickly talk about using this system for non-reading children. My youngest is not a reader yet and so obviously he can't read the cards. I decided to draw him pictures for every chore. I still go over the card with him orally and will continue to go over it with him until he does the job according to the card. I also went over each picture and what it meant. He almost knew all of them but my drawing skills have regressed to he couldn't tell some of them. Also, for things like setting the table I have drawn pictures on the back of the "How to Do It" card for him to know properly how to set a table. During training I make both of my boys participate in each chore so they know how to do it according to the card. After that, if it is not their chore for the month, they do not have to do it.

Here are what the pictures I drew for Cody's board look like:

I know this was a lengthy post but I hope that it has given you some ideas or inspiration for a chore system at our house. This system has been effective in redeeming the time, easing my need to micro-manage, nag and remind 500 times a day. It has given the boys some ownership over their daily tasks and abilities to have blessing or reap consequences depending on what they sewed that week. It has also helped a great deal in homeschool because we are able to start on time every day (unless something unforeseen happens) and we have been able to implement dinner at a certain time and usually have an hour to and hour and a half of family time to play or read at night.  We are not slaves to this schedule and we do have flexibility but this has created a great guideline for our family and I consider it an answered prayer.

Part 2 of this post talking about the blessings, consequences and family guidelines will be up on this week. Stay tuned....

**Updated** If you would like to read Part 2 please click here.

~Blessings~

My BIG Summer Project

Usually when summer hits I have a long list of fun projects I'd like to do as well as a list of summer activities. This year, since I was so sick most of the first part of the year, I think I was making up for lost time. I put a lot of the project plate and when all was said and done some projects have moved to the "fall project" list. I managed to finish one really big (to me) project on my list though and our family will benefit from it for years to come. Yay!

One of things I have been wanting and looking for for quite a while has been a school room table. It couldn't be too big or too small. It had to be the right shape and durable. It also had to fit the decor in the school room. I looked and looked and the tables I was finding were either too much money or not exactly what I wanted. I tend to be pretty picky with certain things. This was one of them. I ended up going to some thrift stores and that gave me the idea to buy a low cost table and refinish it.

Bright idea right? I thought so. I had never refinished anything like that in my life. I have built a full size bed frame out of wood before (of course with my Dad's help) but never stripped paint, sanded and repainted a piece of furniture.

I thought that this would be a quick two week project and really that it would take no time at all. I mean after all I saw pinterest ideas everywhere and it only took them two weeks to do a project like this right? No way. I was deceived!

I purchased the table from a person off craigslist and I think it is actually an antique drop leaf table. It also came with four chairs. I will tackle refinishing those in another lifetime! No really I will try and get that done in about a year. No rush on those. Here is the table before. (I had already started disassembling it when I realized I needed to take pictures.)

 These puppies will be getting refinished at a later date. I just could not do them this summer. It would have taken me 300 more hours. I picture these to be the same color as the finished table with fluffy red tie cushions on them.

I started by stripping the white paint off the bottom portion of the table. Easy job right? NO! It took forever. The person who painted this table before painted over dark brown paint that was already there. Because there were two layers of paint I essentially had to go over the table two times with jasco paint stripper, a putty knife (for a scraper) and steel wool. To strip the paint off this portion of the table it literally took me over 40 hours!  The little rings on the table legs (that are decorative) took forever because I had to get into every nook and cranny to strip it otherwise the new paint would show the imperfections. I realized after stripping the first portion of one of the legs this is no two week job! Part of it is my fault too because I just can't do a half done job. I couldn't have painted over what was there. The finished project would have been cheesy. I felt like this truly was an investment and wanted to do it right.

Here is the beginning of the table being stripped of it's paint. Many, many hours went into sitting on the concrete floor of the garage with goggles and mask on stripping away at the yucky white paint.

Thankfully, my husband was feeling physically up to helping me sand the tops of the tables. He has previous professional experience restoring Corvette's so he knows all about sanding as well as refinishing. He did an excellent job sanding and I am so glad. I tried it once when I discovered a section that needed to be done and stunk at it! He helped me out soo much. I was praising God that his back was feeling up to that kind of work too.

Once those were sanded and the table was stripped of all paint, then I had to take tack cloth and get all the fine debris off so it wouldn't get into the new paint.  I knew the colors I wanted to paint the table because I wanted it to match our school room and the shelves I made covers for last year.

One of the funnest parts was picking out the paint. I had never done that before either. I learned A LOT. I was so grateful for my Dad's help (who was a general contractor most of his career and is an expert in all things building and more.) He guided me through what I would need for this project. He also helped me to choose paints that he knew would be durable (for little boys sitting at a table and doing school work on it almost every day) and wipeable. I know marker or paint was bound to get on it and I wanted to make sure I could just wipe it down with a damp cloth and it would not be ruined.

I started the project in May and finished it one week before school started at the end of August! I didn't work on it every single day but pretty much every week of the summer I was doing something with the table. I learned a lot and it felt like a wonderful accomplishment in the end. For the red I had to paint three coats on everything and the blue needed two coats. It really required some perseverance and there were many times I was thinking, "What did I get myself into?" However, now, we have a sweet table we can use for our school room for years to come and when the school season of our life is over I can use it for a craft table. I don't think I will ever get tired of the colors because blue and red are my two favorite colors. I also really love the drop leaf part of it. It works so well in our school space because we can make the table big or small.

Here I am putting the table back together in the school room

Cody was really excited and being the builder that he is he helped my put all the screws in. He's good at it too. His dexterity at 3 amazes me sometimes. I realized as I was putting it together that I forgot to paint three of the bottom portions of the table. I plan on doing that in the next few weeks in all the spare time I have (right.)

Here is the finished table with both side leaves down 

The paint is latex enamel and it is truly really strong and I think it will last for a long time.

I love the size of the table too. With one leaf up we can all sit at it and have enough room. With the other leaf up it will be great for bigger projects. I am so pleased with the finished product. So if anyone ends up pinning this or trying this, know that a refinishing project is truly a blessing but it is A LOT of work, especially if you are going to have to strip paint off first. I knew if I just spray painted over what was there it would peel off in 6 months or the minute it got scrapped by one of the boys.

Here are the before and after photos:

Before

After

Thanks for reading! Sorry for the sarcasm but I really did think this was going to take two weeks. I am a bit cynical after it taking the whole summer. I am grateful though because through hard work comes blessings.

~Blessings~