Chore Chart- Morning Routine

We will start with the morning routine and then add routines from there.  They each have 6 things that they need to do to be ready in the morning.  When school starts again we will add having their backpack and shoes ready too.
The routine-
Get dressed
Put Pjs and underwear away properly (drawer or hamper)
Eat breakfast and drink milk in your bowl
Put dishes in sink
Brush teeth
Say a personal prayer

I saw this idea on pinterest for a sequencing learning activity and decided to turn it into a chore chart.
http://handsonbibleteacher.blogspot.com/2012/04/paint-paddles-turned-bible-facts-review.html

Each of my boys has their own envelope with each of their daily routines in it.  I have only finished making the morning routine so far but I think it will be good to introduce the routines one at a time.  
Next we will do the evening routine. I'm not sure how to make the daily/afternoon routine work exactly so there will be some experimenting with that.  I may just stick with the two routines and leave the daytime more flexible and changing. It will need to take a different form I think. I think I need to get some 3x5 frames to keep track of each boys' weekly progress with their routine charts. Those will hang next to the bin with the envelopes. Anyway... here's a photo to show you what I made. :)

 

Heart and Treasure

So this summer is the last before my second child starts all day kindergarten. Time is running away from me and my kids are growing up too fast. We only have one trip planned so this will be the summer of us.  My treasure is my kids so I want to focus on doing two things this summer: playing with them and teaching them how to clean up after themselves. I think those two goals go together pretty well. 

We will start on Thursday of this week since that is the first official day of summer break.  I am in the process of making chore charts for each of the kids. I want us to get into a morning routine, afternoon routine, and an evening routine by the time school starts again in August.  I want us to get up and get dressed each day so that we can be ready for fun at a moments notice.  But I think I will plan one wake up and watch a movie in our pajamas day into each week too.  Gotta keep it real and downtime is real and necessary.  Despite putting routines in place there will be plenty of free play time each day too.  I don't plan on scheduling every moment of every day.  I just want a loose structure so that cleaning gets done and so that we have a general plan for fun most days.  I will post the chore charts as soon as I finish them. :) Hopefully tomorrow.

For activities I hope to do a pin a day with my kids.  I have tons of kid activities pinned that I have never tried!  I want to work on alphabet and number recognition with my soon to be kindergartner and my soon to be second grader needs to work on his math facts.  My youngest will benefit from these activities too.  He gets to be potty trained this summer!  I'll post my resources as we go.


 

Progress

So the week started off slowly due to the Stomach flu hitting Asher and I over the weekend.  Even so I managed to start to put a daily routine in place.  My kitchen has been clean more this week than in a long time.  As the week ends I feel myself losing momentum and motivation.  Matt will have this weekend off but then he may be working 7 day weeks for the next three weeks.  This will be a true test of my endurance with my goals.

To keep me on track I need to:
Make a checklist of chores for the week.
Go to bed earlier
Catch up on my laundry

I am pregnant with our third. :) Which means I have less energy... which also means it's important that I concentrate that energy wisely.  If I keep up this mild routine I will have more energy to focus on having fun with the kids and I will be able to take a day here or there to relax without the whole house falling into disaster. I have definitely seen the benefits of the routine over the last week.  Just gotta keep that momentum going!

New Year's Resolutions

So obviously I tapered off in my posts last year.  I just didn't make things simple enough I guess.  And I am lazy.  I did continue throughout the year to work at my goals and they were not an entire failure but I certainly wasn't consistent.  So this year I thought I would build some consistency.  Here is the basic routine so that I will get some basics done around here!

Morning routine
Make bed
Shower
Matt: sweep floors, empty dishwasher, take out trash/recycling
D:  make breakfast, wipe counters and table, fill up dishwasher, clean bathroom, prepare for dinner


Afternoon routine (or midday more like- during Asher's nap most likely)
Do a weekly chore(ie laundry, menu planning, etc...)
Do a monthly chore( ie clean out the fridge, clean the baseboards, vacuum under the couches)
Declutter monthly focus area
Evening routine:
An hour before Matt gets home pick up all toys, then boys can watch one show- every other day it should be a shorter show and they will take a bath(while I clean the bathroom). 
Matt: put food away, sweep, make lunch
D: do dishes, wipe counters and table

So I think this is a reasonable routine.  Once we get the hang of it I won't feel like I am cleaning all day long(I have a lot of catching up to do!) and I will enjoy Matt's participation.  His responsibilities have not increased too much but it will be of great help to me to have us cleaning together.  We've been kind of easing into it and I think it will work.  Tomorrow will be the first full day of trying it fully.  It will have to adjust depending on Matt's hours but this should work for the job he has starting tomorrow.  I will have to adjust and pick up when he can't due to long hours.  Hopefully I can overcome my rebellious attitude toward cleaning and make a nice home for us.  

My other goal is to do more projects and preschool time with the boys as well as at least one play date a week. 

My plan and routine is inspired by this site: Just Mommies

There are days on her monthly calendar that are catch up days. If I am all caught up then I will reward myself by doing a craft on those days. :)  Now there's motivation for me to stay caught up, right?  I have a huge list of crafts I need to do!

Goal Check in

Budget- We go up and down with this one but I am doing better at not shopping for random stuff. I am doing better at cooking from the pantry and using up ingredients. Our biggest weakness is eating out but we are meeting our savings goals(mainly because of all the OT Matt is working). WOOHOO!

Kaden is potty trained so I will change this goal to sleep training Asher. The kid still wakes up every two to four hours. It's driving me batty and makes me grumpy. I am not getting enough sleep and then I use it as an excuse to stay home and watch tv or be on the computer all day. NOT GOOD! This weekend- hopefully he is done with his cold- will be tough love weekend. He can cry cry cry or Matt will pat him on the back but no more mommy milk and snuggles in the middle of the night.

Spiritual- I need to plan my lessons earlier in the week. I have started reading the daily sunday school lesson scriptures again. I rarely stop praying during the day-I always need something(patience and calm!) or I am thankful the boys are asleep, or playing nicely, or asleep. :) I do need to make time for some more thoughtful prayers(ones where I sit and listen too) though instead of all the in the moment ones.

No TV and getting out more with the boys- We tend to get out of the house 4-6 days aweek. So that's pretty good. The Mom's club I joined is wonderful! We love our first five classes! Kaden is doing really well participating in circle time. He still has his freak out moments but they are lessening(at least when it comes to preschool time). Now I need to do more with the boys at home. I think I will plan 4 activities for the boys each day (each activity lasting about 15 minutes each) So between that and us getting out to the park or class we should be doing good. So starting next week I will plan activities and post links here. Check in on me and make sure I follow through!

Cleaning house- man I suck at this one. I have made progress but I still need lots of work. Since Matt is working 6 days a week right now I have hired my cousin's 11 year old daughter as my mother's helper once a week. She comes for two hours and plays with the boys (no tv :) ) while I clean house. Sadly so far I have had to use this time to get my kitchen under control and laundry and so far I have not been able to do further deep cleaning like I had hoped. Today I have made the goal that I will have the dishes and basics done before she gets here so that I can clean out my fridge and mop my floor. I accidentally dumped a bunch of kool aid in my fridge last night so, yeah, it's time for the sticky nasty deep cleaning. And Asher had a blast splashing his juice on the floor on Sunday so it's mop time too. Hiring a mother's helper was the best decision I have made in a long time. She's great with the imaginative play with my boys. I love hearing it as I rush around trying to get everything done. :)

Update on Goals

Scrapbook page made with Karla Marano's February 365 kit available at KKD or Divine Digital- both are in my sidebar.

Goals...
Budget- we are still spending too much on food but we are meeting our savings goals as of January.
Menu planning- I have done it I just forgot to post.
Not watching TV and doing other activities- We are still watching too much TV but we are watching less. We are doing lots of activities! Park, Kids club at the mall, Chuck E Cheese, Farmer's Market, letter craft projects, dancing/jumping on an extra crib mattress, playing with cars and animal figurines, flashcards....
Cleaning house- Still need tons of work here. I am doing better at getting the front room tidier each night. Not perfect but better. I give myself this week of focusing on just that and then I will add the bathroom next week. I think there will always be some toys out in the front room - at least until Asher starts going to bed earlier. But at least I am vacuuming regularly and cleaning out extra toys regularly. That counts as clean right? I do have some more photos. I tend to do better at the beginning of the week and terrible on the weekends. I always think I will do better on the weekends since Matt is home to help... yeah... not so much...

Upshot... We are making progress.

Scrapbook pages! and New Year's Goals!

All scrapbook pages made using Karla Marano's January 365 kit
Currently selling for $2.00 at Divine Digital

Bet you thought I forgot about my goals and taking pictures of my messy house, right? Nope. I just thought I'd post them a week at a time. I have even decided to scrap my journey. Gotta give myself lots of accountability. I have also decided to do one room at a time and add a new rom to focus om every two weeks. building habits is the goal. I am starting with the front room. This room gathers toys, clothes, trash, ellectronics... So the goal is to have kaden help pock up betwee toy choices and do one final clean up as part of the bedtime or DH coming home routine. This room should be emptied out and vaccumed each night. I need to find a place for blankets. As you can see my progress is the front room has been middling so far. I cleaned it up really well for the first photo shoot day. Then the next day I did laundry all day and ended up with some not put away at the end of the day. But most of the laundry was gone by the next day so I consider that a success. :)

What should I consider cheating for my goals? LOL! As long as I am actually cleaning then it's not cheating. I can't just move things out of the way and take the picture. I have to put it in its proper room. Sometimes just getting it in the correct room is all I can handle right now. But that is ok for now. Once I've added the proper room to my list of "to dos" those piles will show up and I will find new homes for them. For example, I am discovering that I have too many blankets in my front room. Only two are ever in use at once- so I need to find a place for the rest so they can rotate in when the others go out for laundry. :)

What a nice long vacation!

Matt just had a week and a half of of work. It was heavenly! I had all kinds of plans...potty train Kaden, reorganize the house, do preschool activities with Kaden, get Kaden to sleep in his big boy bed, sleep in, complete crafts for presents, go to Chuck E Cheese, go to the park, and lots of general playing....
It was a very successful vacation though not quite as successful as that huge list.

success #1
We locked Kaden in his room and now he sleeps in his big boy bed!!! Woohoo. We put a cover on the inside doorknob to his room. The outside doorknob is free so we could get into him quickly he just can't get out. Pretty soon we will take it off too since he seems to be adjusting the bed well. Next step...Asher in his crib in the same room as him.

success #2 Lots of playing
We had great fun on Thanksgiving, and going to Chuck E Cheese, and playing with our main Christmas gift ( a Wii). Yes, we spoiled ourselves and opened the Wii when it came in the mail the day after Thanksgiving. We got Outdoor Challenge from Costco and it is a blast. Kaden loves the jumping games and Matt and I are getting a good workout. This will be the last year we can open presents early since Kaden will know the differencenext year...

success #3 Sleep in
Well we took turns and also took naps. Sleeping in wasn't always possible but we gave each other lots of turns to sleep. We also stayed up too late watching lame movies(all of the funny parts from the Adam Sandler move about Zohan were in the previews) and fun tv shows.

Partial success #1 Reorganize the house
I sorted through most of the boys clothes and got the right sizes in the right places. We cleaned the main living areas and put up Christmas decorations. We still have a lot of organizing to do. I think it will have to wait until our Christmas projects are done since we make a huge mess with those every day.

Partial success #2 Do Preschool activities with Kaden.
We went to our classes and did lots of coloring. He definitely watched less tv. When I had him tell me what shapes to cut out of the snowflake I was making he busted out with "a hexagon." I think that means he is a genius. :) I need to work with him on recognizing letters. I need to do preschool time with him everyday and keep the tv off.

Partial success #3 Complete Christmas crafts
3 down lots more to go. Many are in progress. My goal is to finish and mail them all by the tenth. That will give them more than enough time to get to their destinations.

Failure #1 Potty training Kaden
He is still not really interested. He'll do it if we force it but doesn't come up with it on his own.

So life continues and hopefully I will maintain the cleaning and deepen it a little more each day

Sunday Insights

My Plan is to review my week on Friday. I will be going over the things I did during the week that worked and those that didn't. I have various goals for myself and habits I want to create. On Fridays I will just lay out there what happened and then I will take two days to think about it. On Sunday I will make new specific goals for the week ahead.

This last week was rough. It started off poorly with a sleepless Asher night and just never righted itself. This is of course my own fault. I let it stay a down week. I have plenty of excuses for why I let it stay that way but the reality is I don't want this next week to be the same. So I will set some goals to change this week. They say writing goals down helps them to happen. My mission president was a firm believer in writing down goals and I trust him. I know it helps me to sort out my thoughts and focus my energies. I tend to get overwhelmed by my messy house so this helps me to refocus my stressed out energy and get the work done that I need to get done.

My Goals for this week:

Potty Training: Institute a potty chart and prizes. Kaden will get a sticker on his chart every time he uses his potty. After 5 times going "#1" he can pick out a prize. After going "#2" once he will get a prize. I will encourage him to use the potty every half hour. He will wear underpants except during his nap and at night. I will not buy anymore diapers!
Exception: Tuesday morning will be off because of a doctor appt. for my DH

Kids: Kaden needs to be outside or do a physical activity everyday. It helps him behave and sleep better. My goal is to have him play in the backyard or at a park every day- weather permitting. Since we are potty training this week we will stick close to home. So this week the goal is to have him outside in the backyard (at the very least) every day from 9-10 am. If we can't go outside then I need to set up a physical activity for him in the house i.e. an obstacle course, jumping on the mattress, dancing, rolling balls (or bowling)...

House Cleaning: I will do dishes every day.

Budget: I will not spend any money this week except on neccesities like Milk. No justifications! We don't need it!

Spiritual: Read scriptures and say prayers everyday.

Creative: I will finish one of my christmas projects and do one Digiscrapping Blog header.

So hear goes... A new week....