Personal Jornal Prompt: Chores

I just decided that that is the last time Im going to label my personal Jornal prompts as such. 

This journal enrty is all about chores. Chores I had as a kid and chores i have my kids do now. Chores have been on my mind the last few weeks.  With the start of  a new school year I always try to reorganize our families schedules and make chores part of that schedule.  I feel like this year we might be able to stick to the schedule i've made.

As a kid I didn't hate chores. I did hate the house to be a mess or dirty. From what I remember, we basically just did chores on saturday or when my mom asked us to during the week. I have fond memories of Saturday chores. The whole family would work together while my dad played Kansas, CCR, and Crosby Stills and Nash on the stereo. I still know a lot of songs by those bands and belt them out like my dad did! The chores i remember most are cleaning my mom's bathroom and dusting my room.  My mom had many perfume bottles on the counter (Gorgio and Liz Claiborne) that seemed to really collect dust. I remember polishing them. I remember my mom teaching me how to shine a foset and clean a toilet. I remember her bathroom floor having so much hair on it (sorry mom- mine does too).  I had the bedroom set passed down from my great grandmother. I spent a lot of time dusting the intricuticies of the them. I still have one piece  of the set in my room today and think of my childhood every time I dust it.  My mom is a good house keeper, I was never embarassed by our home (I was actually proud of it. it was always decorated cute) but I was never happy with the job my brothers did on their chores. I used to re-do some of their chores, or tattle on them. I even used to make chore charts and give them to my mom to hand out to all of us kids.

Now I have kids that are old enough to really do chores. I want my kids to be hard workers and I feel that doing regular chores will help teach them that. They are busy and school starts so early so they don't do as much as I would like them to, but we're working on it. We have a schedule that goes basically as follows:

Before the bus comes at 7:15 everyone has to get dressed and ready, help each other make lunches, Shine their bathroom, have family scripture study and prayer, and make sure their room is tidy and ready for inspection. We have a list of chores that the kids rotate through (it changes weekly). Some of these have to be done in the morning some are on a needs be basis. These chores are empty dishwasher, empty kitchen garbage, empty room garbages, feed the dog, scoop dog poop, plan family home evening, empty the recycle bin, set the dinner table, be Tess helper. Then after school they have to do homework, practice piano and sports, evening tidying of the house. One day a week we have extra chores like scrubbing floors or cleaning toilets and sinks.

If everyone really tries, doesn't get distracted or piddle around we can accomplish all of this list. In the first week of school we only got everything done slightly more than half the time. I'm determined to get this house running like a newly oiled machine (is that the expression? It doesn't sound quite right- fine tuned machine?)

Right now I just have a list on a piece of paper with the jobs written on it. I'm still researching a way to track and remind everyone of the jobs they do that is practical, cute and the novelty won't wear off to quickly.

I love a clean and organized house and will keep working until I find a way to have it running perfectly!:)

Tess Starts Discovery Club

A few days after the older kids started school, Tess did. She will be going to Discovery Club this year. We are really excited and have heard its super awesome.  She has one friend Colton Wood who is going with her, but I'm sure she will make many new friends there. She'll be going 3 days a week for 2.5 hours.  I love the pose is is doing in this picture.  its all of her own making. She tried a few other positions before she decided this was the one and it was OK for me to take her picture. Work it girl!

We got a Puppy!

I did it. I let my kids get a dog. And this time he's here to stay! This time it wasn't so spur of the moment. Well there was a little spontaneity, but it wouldn't be me if there wasn't a little craziness in the decision.  First, let me introduce you to our newest family member. 

Oliver (Ollie) born May 29

Here's the story behind how we got him.  It started when a friend of mine got a dog, a three year old dog. When I told her she was the best mom ever, she said there's never a good time so she just had to decide if she wanted her kids to grow up with a dog or not.  That made me think.  Then we went up to Utah to visit my parents. Maddox and my parents dog, Jack, are pretty inseparable.  So I started researching dog breads (thanks to an App my brother introduced me to called perfect dog).  After our last dog experience, I said I wouldn't get a tiny dog or a white dog again.  I wanted a dog that Maddox could really play with.  My list of wants was pretty specific. Non-shedding, dark around eyes and mouth, not so big that we would have to take it running or to the park every day. It would have to be inside at least in the summer. good with kids and easy to train.  And I wanted to think it was cute. (there are some weird looking dogs out there). Turns our there isn't a dog bread that met all of my criteria.  I had to compromise.  I thought I had made a decision.  I wanted a beagle. It was the perfect size and looks like a little boy's dog.  The thing I was going to have to deal with was the shedding.  After bumping into a neighbor's dog and getting hair all over my skirt, I decided that shedding was one thing I couldn't compromise on.  So I went back to the app to look at the non shedding dogs.  They are all smaller. After much deliberation, I decided that a Havapoo (worst name ever) was the breed for me. Its half Havenese and half poodle. there were really cute ones that have black white and brown fur and that is what I wanted. (this story is getting to long, so I'm going to start leaving out details)  I found some on the Internet (they are fairly rare) and went to check them out.  They had some little all black ones that weren't ready to bring home and two little brothers from a different litter.  The kids fell in love with one.  He was darling, but was white. I did not want all white!  You can probably tell from the pictures who won.  The kids. We bought him and took him home that very day.

Its been a week and a half and we love him.  The kids have been really good about helping out with him and I learned about some stuff called Angel eyes that will help with keeping his white fur from looking so gross around his eyes and mouth.  He isn't fully potty trained yet but will go on demand outside.  He very rarely barks and is so mellow and sweet.  

A New School Year Begins

Ahhh! I have a 6th Grader

4th Grade

Starting 1st grade minus 3 teeth. In his new favorite shirt (not mine)

Were pretty excited about this new school year.

Toothless Wonder

Within a week and a half Maddox lost 3 teeth! The tooth fairy had to visit him in Utah, Lake Powell, and home in Arizona! I hate when kids loose their two front teeth. They don't look little anymore. AND the dentist said when Maddox's teeth come in they are going to be in crazy directions;)

Maddox wrote some awesome notes to his tooth fairy and three different tooth fairies wrote him back. He even asked for extra money (because he pulled them out him self and they are front teeth) and got it! Lucky kid.

I also need to mention that Reagan lost a tooth in this same week.