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.


 

Another year, new goals

2011 was a busy and fun year.  Matt worked for Sony on the Green Lantern until the end of May then he had a break until September when he started back at Sony this time working on the new Spider-man movie.  We spent six weeks of his break in Seattle with family.  It was wonderful to be able to spend so much concentrated time with them since we live so far away. In October we bought a house!  We've been doing lots of projects with that- mostly painting and then unpacking.  I hope to do some decorating now that we own our own house!  Pinterest is my new best friend.  I've always been good at finding projects I just need to complete some now. 
I have actually been doing some things that I would like to share on here...
My tree!  Our is dark and was covered in dark wood paneling.  No more!  We have painted the family room a light tan color called Desert Fortress by Valspar.   I taped off one section to leave a tree in the paneling.  Here are the photos on progress.

The original room paint swatches in progress

All taped up and with paint covering the limbs

The tree in all its glory. I did then outline it in a dark chocolate brown to cover up paint leakages under the tape.  It's not something that you can see unless you are up close though.

 The tree with frames on the wall.  Now I just need to add family photos!  Love it!  Love my house and all our many projects! 

 Here's my word for 2012: Move!  It's all about action.  I tend to sit a lot and go off in my own world in my head.  So for 2012 my goal is to get up and move... I want to make my house our home, I want to spend quality action time with my boys, I want to become physically fit, I want to be spiritually inspired.  So I need to move on my goals and just do it!    So far this year I have been doing well.  I have been keeping my house generally tidy- now I need to get into the deeper projects- finish cleaning, painting, and decorating.   I have started exercising 5 days a week.  I am sleeping more because my 17 month old is sleeping more.  I am reading scriptures everyday- now I need to start studying deeper.  So my husband and I have agreed to choose one goal a month to be our focus.  This month mine was scripture reading on my own and with my boys.  His was to start using the treadmill we got at a yardsale.  So far so good...

Goal updates, a cute necklace

I took a shower every day. :)
I tried to put Silas in his crib a few times... new goal there...every time he falls asleep I will put him in his crib
I didn't always get up at 7:30 but I think I was usually up by 8 so not too far off.
Pretty good on the food thing and making progress on cleaning every time.

So for next week... Get it more perfect.  And we have friends coming over to play...so
Cleaning schedule- Mon- playroom and entryway
                              Tues- Bathroom and Hallway
                               Wed- front room and kitchen
                               Thurs- bedrooms and  extra pick ups wherever needed
                                Fri- bedrooms and extra pick up wherever needed
Kaden was invited to a b-day party for a girl in his preschool. here's the cute little necklace I made here from an old T-shirt and ribbon and beads I already had on hand. :)  I got the basic idea from this site - which got it from Anthropologie. :)

haha forgot the goals

I have so many!  So I need to focus on just a few and hopefully they will help other goals fall in place.

First- I need to put in place a routine.  It will help me get things done and help Silas sleep. 
Mini goals for this goal

1. Get up at 7:30 everyday
2. Take a shower every morning before Matt leaves (getting trickier since he is now working longer hours)
3. Make Silas take a nap in his crib between 9-10.  Have to wait for him to get better from his current cold but then it will be tough love time.
4.  Make boys pick up playroom twice a day- once before lunch and once before dinner.  They can put ongoing projects/games on the shelf to continue to play with them.
5. eat meals/snacks at regular times and clean up right after


Craft Goals to go with this goal

Make a chore chart with my Silhouette that I got for Christmas!  Woohoo!

Overall goal
I really like V&Co's choice of the word Healthy.  So here's to a Healthy routine with more sleep, more cleanliness, more sanity, and less yelling!  I've already accomplished part of my goal by making some doc appts that I needed to make in order to get me physically healthier.  Yay!  Here's to progress- slow but sure!

Our busy summer and some new goals

SO .....yeah......

We moved to a new state and then I had a cute baby boy- Silas Malakai.

We think the little man is pretty amazing.  We are also loving our bigger place.  We have about 500 more sq ft which means that all the rooms are a little bigger and now we have a playroom/craftroom and a tiny office. YAY!  Here's a little look at our main rooms...

Some thank you gifts

I love the assymetrical necklaces!  So I made some as thank you gifts for some wonderful ladies that I miss in SoCal.