Project 365: Week 8 - Crazy House on the Prarie

This week started out with money. Lots of money. Well, lots of money to a 6 and 8 year old.

Daniel and I have never wanted to give the kids an allowance, and have always required regular chores from them. But, the sense of entitlement that is so prevalent in our country has been weighing on my mind. I am determined to raise hard-working children who do not have a sense of entitlement. And, as that has weighed on my mind, it has become more obvious how little my children do to contribute to our household. They are fairly regular about making their beds and cleaning their own rooms but are not interested in anything further than that. I have not been able to find a way to encourage them to take their responsibility beyond their bedrooms. After haring author Kay Wills Wyma on the radio show Focus on the Family, I picked up her book at the library. We have immediately begun putting her program into action in our home. The kids loved the kick-off with started with money. I gave them each a $1 for every day remaining in February. Each morning, I check their rooms (unannounced) and will remove $1 from their respective jar if their room/bathroom is not clean, tidy and bed made. The key difference in what I had been doing is that they are solely responsible for taking care of this. I do not ask or remind them to take care of their chores. It is just expected and punished if not done. So far, I've only had to take $1 from Abigail's jar once. Cooper has been on point every day. It's a rare time when his OCD comes in handy.

I've also posted a list of chores on the refrigerator for each child. Any time they find themselves with free time and think about asking me what they can do, they have to go to the chore list instead. So far, they've each chosen to complete a few of the chores... Abigail has vacuumed the first floor of the hour and scrubbed some of the living room furniture clean. Cooper has picked up dog poop in the back yard. Each of the "Bored Chores" have a monetary amount that can be earned if the chore is completed to my satisfaction, and for the first time ever the kids are getting on board the chore train. I think it helps that they feel more in control. They can choose the chore as well as when it is completed. I'm interested to see how long we can keep this up.

Monday was a homework day and the kids hit it hard. I love seeing them be so diligent in their studies.

Cooper's geography lessons this week are centered on Italy and he learned about Michaelangelo. After studying the Sistene Chapel, he created his own "Sistene Chapel" by learning how difficult it was to paint while laying on his back.

As if you weren't already clued in to the lack of excitement in our week... the most excitement came from a trip through the car wash. The kids are always begging me to drive through the car wash and I delighted them with this run through. You would be amazed to see how fascinated they are with this normality.

I guess there was a bit of actual excitement this week. The kids had their first rollerskating experience when they spent an afternoon at a local rink with friends.

I hesitated to let the kids take on such an endeavor without me there to help. But, they did not hesitate. Maybe they should have. My friend, Carrie, texted me this photo of Cooper looking as special as he could while learning to skate. It's okay to chuckle. I did. The important thing is that he had a blast.

On Wednesday, Abigail headed out for her sewing class.

She is having a blast learning to sew. So far, she's made a few drawstring bags, a denim skirt and a square-neck blouse. She has definitely surpassed my skills. I have a rudimentary machine I picked up at a consignment store and have used to teach myself to sew basic things. But, I'm still partial to repairing hems with a stapler and scotch tape. So, yeah. This girl can sew. She even gets her machine out at random times just to "play with the decorative stitches".

I recently finished a project of my own. I'm not Martha Stewart with a machine like Abigail, but I can take a Pinterest craft and make it my own.

When Abigail begged out of her pastel, flowery room decor and bedding recently, I had to come up with some new wall decor. Daniel made three 3'x3' wood canvas board for me and I had these massive engineer size prints made at Kinko's. Thanks to scrap wood and leftover craft paint, this project cost a total of $14. I'm especially excited because it will be easy to replace the prints as she grows.

Our weekend was the craziest weekend. For three days, we had no agenda. Except for church on Sunday morning, we were without a plan. We found a way to fill it with bowling...

... and two trips to near-by parks...

... and a stop at a cupcake bakery in the Georgetown square...

... and Abigail weirdly took up looming and made a few pot holders.

Things got real crazy when she didn't know how to finish the pot holder and remove it from the loom. We read the instructions and searched YouTube for explanations. I was unable to help her. But, the manly engineer in the house came to her rescue. Thanks to YouTube, Daniel was the featured looming artist in the household Saturday night. What can I say, we're crazy on Saturday nights!

 

Stay tuned for next week's updates when Abigail takes up pottery and throws me a new set of dishes. Ha!

Valentine's Day 2013

Valentine's Day just happened to fall on a school day this year, so that meant singing and parties and Moms at school. It was a full day of non-sense, err... I mean, fun. Yeah, fun. :)

Abigail snuck out of class to watch Cooper's kindergarten program with me. You can't beat cute, little kids smiling and singing songs about love.

Seriously, just try and beat this...


Since Abigail missed lunch in lieu of kindergarten cuteness, she was forced to be seen with her mother. Can you imagine the embarassment? We stayed on a picnic table behind the school. Hopefully no one saw her.

Once Abigail was safely back in the comfort of cool third graders, I checked out Cooper's party. Y'all, this is where it got non-sensical. Seriously. I had missed the first part of the party and stepped into a group of people awaiting my arrival. What?! Why do they need me for a kindergarten party. I sent my obligatory paper goods in Cooper's backpack that morning. (I've learned to pounce on party planning sign-ups as soon as possible to secure the coveted paper goods slot. They can be purchased weeks in advance and sent via backpack. Paper goods require no baking, parent visit to school, last minute trip to store, etc. In other words, it's the holy grail of classroom party sign-up slots.) Back to a kindergarten class awaiting my arrival...

I was asked to read a Valentine's Day letter I had previously written to Cooper. Out loud. What?! When I sent this letter to the teacher, it was never explained that I would be asked to read it aloud. Oh, well. I read the letter to the class and Cooper responded with his usual kiss on my cheek. It was weird because everyone stared at me as if I hadn't finished. I had nothing else to offer. A few minutes later, another mom showed up (later than me, yea!) and read her letter. She didn't get but three words into the letter and started crying. She ugly cried through the whole letter. When she apologized for her emotions, everyone dismissed has saying that they had all cried through their letters. What?! Not me. No crying. Just usual words of how funny and sweet Cooper is, and how much I love him. I say those things every day. It's not anything to boo-hoo about. I can't imagine the words said about me, the heartless mom. Oy vey!

After all the hormones were out of the way, we played Valentines' Day bingo...

... and dug through the day's loot...

... and ate too much candy...

... and then I moved on to the third grade party where there was very little fanfare, and I was much more comfortable. I help Abigail assemble her heart wreath craft and then we jetted out of school and on to calmer environments. Ahh...

The best part of Valentine's Day came the day after when Cooper's class took their program on tour. Okay, it wasn't  Pepsi-sponsored tour with an opening act. But, they did assemble at a near-by nursing home and performed their songs as the residents ate lunch.

After performing, we handed out cards, hugged necks, and visited with the sweet residents.

I LOVED doing this with my kids. I would take this activity over a party any day. Really, these kids are in kindergarten. Every day of their lives is a party! They don't need another day to celebrate themselves and eat candy. They do need an opportunity to serve others, hug necks and hand out smiles.

Project 365: Week 7 - Lots of Love

Cooper's geography study this week featured France so the obvious item of interest was the Eiffel Tower. One of his projects was to build a model of the tower. He was so proud of this item he constructed on Monday that it became the traveling tower. Every time he went to a new room of the house this week, he took the tower with him. I never heard him say a word about the tower. I never saw him holding the tower. I just noticed that it was perched at random places every time I saw him in a room. When he was doing homework, the tower was on the dining table. When he was in the kitchen or living room, the tower was on the bar. When I stepped into his room in the mornings, the tower was on his dresser. Needless to say, I wasn't sad to see the tower fall and deconstruct on Friday.

After school Tuesday, Abigail helped Cooper decorate his valentines collection box for school. I was happy to know they weren't wasting class time on a silly craft project like this. And, the kids had fun working on it together.

While sitting at practice Wednesday night, I assembled the kids' class valentines. I had previously designed these "iPhones"  and printed them onto adhesive backed paper. It was a quick project to wrap the Nerds boxes in the "iPhones". Yes, I know the shape of the box isn't the perfect iPhone shape. A box of conversation hearts would be perfect, but my kids don't like conversation hearts. Truth be told, neither do I. So, we opted for a case of Nerds ordered from Amazon so the kids could hand out candy they would have been happy to eat. Obviously, candy preferences take precedence over design specifics.

Thursday was the featured day of the week. The kids were elated to wear regular clothes and not uniforms to school. And, they were super excited about their Valentine's Day gifts from us. I don't recall ever getting them VDay gifts, but I was in the gift-giving mood this year. Abigail got three suits and two caps. Cooper got two pairs of sunglasses and a new gorilla shirt. His orange aviators broke last week. It was a travesty because he wears sunglesses everywhere. Day or night. The kid loves shades. And, he has a collection of primate-featured t-shirts. There's not explanation for the kid. He's just odd. But, he makes it work.

Of course, there were Valentine festivities and a program. I'll post a special entry this week to show off all the classroom festivities.

Because a holiday, even if it's fake, calls for a fun swim team practice, Abigail was elated for the holiday extravaganza practice. This time, the featured event was synchronized swimming. I know I enjoyed it. This isn't Abigail's group, but she is seated along the pool deck in a pink suit and pink cap.

Except for a special sewing class Saturday morning, church Sunday morning and a quick trip to the library, we had a lazy weekend. Those don't happen very often, but we always throw in movie time when we can seize it. And, just to solidify Cooper's weirdness and follow up with the picture of his movie watching last week.... Here's another view of his movie watching position. I have no explanation.

Project 365: Week 6 - Visitors

Our week was a bit discombobulated because we had visitors. Daniel's mom and aunt were here five days. We love to have family visit, but it is difficult when we need to go about our regular school and work schedule while entertaining family on vacation. The kids definitely enjoyed the distractions!

On Monday, Daniel's mom took the kids to the Waco zoo. It's an awesome zoo and, although I had to sacrifice my car, it was nice to have the kids out of the house for a day. The three muskateers didn't honor my request for pictures of their adventure, so you'll have to be appeased with pictures of our family trip to the same zoo in October.

Tuesday night, Cooper entertained Aunt Deb with her first viewing of the movie Cars. It's his favorite so he probably could have given her a live enactment of the flick, but that would have kept him from his favorite movie viewing position. Yes, this confirms he's a weird kid.

It was difficult to keep juicing while cooking hot meals for our visitors, but I kept on. I won't lie that I did splurge one night on a turkey sandwich and another night on baked cauliflower. Sorry. I couldn't take it any longer. The smells of yummy roast cooking all day in the crock pot was what led me to the turkey sandwich. I couldn't take it any longer.

Since our visitors had no vehicle, I had to be out more than usual so I was forced to stray from my home juicing with a Jamba Juice on Tuesday. It was after a long viewing of the movie Lincoln and I still had to be out a few more hours and was starving. But, the carrot and strawberry juice hit the spot. I didn't feel as guilty as I did with the turkey sandwich.

On Thursday, Cooper had too much fun with a project Abigail brought home from school. Abigail and Daniel made this powder horn for a colonial history project a few months ago. Cooper insists that they need to make another one because he needs a pair of horns. He's not interested in being a unicorn.

Friday was a nice, calm day at our house. Daniel enjoyed a day off work with the kids. I do believe they enjoyed the great outdoors for some time, but I know they spent a great deal of time with Mario.


Saturday morning started off early when I picked up my Bountiful Basket. It's a food co-op that my parents introduced me to. If you haven't already, check it out if it's in your area. It's the best deal on produce! I got two baskets and 20 pounds of oranges for $45. If you just want the weekly basket, it's $15. You never know what you'll get but it's always fresh and in season. The only thing I wasn't thrilled about in this week's basket was eggplant. It makes almost no juice. Not helpful to me right now.

Abigail went off to a sleepover Saturday night with a swim friend. She and Emily are two peas in a pod. They had a tea party Friday night before going to bed by 9 p.m.

And followed it up with some Harry Potter cookbook baking before we picked her up for church Sunday morning.

When I say they are two peas in a pod, I should say they are two nerds who like to be nerdy together. But, I'm not complaining. I love that she has friends who like to sleep and read books as much as Abigail does. It keeps me from worrying. I wonder how long that will last.

While Abigail was gone to her nerdy sleepover, the boys were out for a boys night at the monster truck races. Cooper loved it!

There is video of him riding this truck behind him. His face tells the whole story. They had a redneck blast!

Now, we're in the midst of another week. I'm sure next week my pics will be full of hearts and crafts. Get ready to be amazed! Ha!

Project 365: Week 5 - Juicin'

Daniel and I started the week by watching the movie "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead". It was interesting and in the same vein as "Supersize Me" almost a decade ago. We were inspired by the movie and our post holiday obese-ness to get a juicer, a butt-ton of fresh fruits and veggies and start juicin'. The goal is a 30-day juice fast. No chew. Check it out.

This week is void of many images. So sorry, but there just wan't much going on. I didn't realize until today that there was so little excitement that I have little proof it happened. I guess the juice has sucked the excitement out of us. Oh, well. Maybe it will suck all the fat out, too!

I saw a lot of this cup this week. This particular juice is grapefruit, carrots, ginger and cabbage. It's super yummy, and I mean that sincerely. Another of my favorites is kale, cucumber and mint. We are aiming to juice 80% vegetables and 20% fruit. Of course, fruit is the yummiest, but the veggies are necessary. Juice on!

Wednesday, the kids and I ventured to Hobby Lobby for Valentine's Day necessities. While waiting in line to check out and chatting with Abigail, Cooper amused himself by jumping out and "scaring" us with this... Nutjob.

Friday night was an anomaly with no swim practice and an evening at home. The kids made it a game night and fired up the Kinect. There's nothing remarkable about this photo of them playing. But, just after I snapped this, I heard Cooper singing Gangnam. I looked up to see him standing in front of the TV, mooning his sister with his bare butt, dancing and singing. Oh, goodness. The bare butt has been a regular way to annoy her lately. I'm just waiting to get a call from his teacher that he's shown it at school. It's going to happen.

Saturday was a fun, inter-squad meet in a small town about an hour from here. We ventured up to Burnet and Abigail got her swim on.

Cooper enjoyed the ladies. And video games.

As for Daniel and I... We're still juicing! 7 days of the juice fast and we juice on!