Titus 2 Tea - Quick organizing!

Because I was cleaning my furniture and the living room was a lot more empty than normal, I decided I wanted the kids to sort their toys.  It seems that though they usually only get one type of toy out at a time, their toys get all mixed up.

So my solution was to bring the toys from the nursery/guest room, and dump them on the floor.  They had a blast, playing for awhile while I did something else. 

Then it's "You grab the Lincoln Log box, and you grab the bin for the blocks, and you grab the train box. Ready, set, go!"  The race is on to see who can fill their box first.

And we did one more round of the same with some of the other toys, cars, mega blocks, and odds and ends.  You can see the baby in the middle isn't quite sure what to think of everyone rushing around.

At the end, I was left with a more manageable amount of sorting.  This required my help, and a little more supervision, and a lot of "The movie will not be starting till this is done." 

It's fun to go out of the ordinary and let them play with all their toys at once.  They could hardly believe it when I asked each one to go get a box and dump it in the living room.   What bliss!  A huge mess and all the toys I haven't seen in years.  They were in heaven. 

Little did they know that I was going to turn on them and get them to do the sorting rather than me.   But they loved that too, till the end. 

God can definitely help us find ways to make our journey joyful.  It's up to us to be on the lookout for those things.

Keep pressing on,
Steph

Thursday's Thoughts - a verse I've been pondering lately

Wednesday's Household - chores

I have been a bit concerned about making a chore pack for each child when in less than a month all of them will be away at school.  I was planning on re-working the packs to give them the majority of their chores in the afternoons.  This concerned me because I'm afraid my boys will have a bunch of homework after school every day. 

But today, I found that most of their chores, aside from mowing and garden work can be done before the babies arrive.  So now, this is our goal.  To have all the chores done before the first child arrives for the rest of the summer. 

I plan to give rewards for finishing quickly.  This will help them to stay on task and keep moving, even when they're feeling sluggish.

So we're already starting to practice for school.   Oh, and bonus!!!!! I won't be re-working the chore packs much.

Keep pressing on.
Steph

Cooking Tuesday - French Toast

Because I only have about 20 minutes to prepare breakfast, French Toast is one of my favorite meals.  It's also Carpenter's favorite breakfast because when he heads out to do his self-employed work (physical labor) he doesn't get hungry soon, like he does with say, oatmeal. 

French Toast is easy because you just have to whip up the eggs and you could do that the night before.  Homemade bread doesn't seem to work as well with French toast, but it can be done.  Because of that I prefer to use store-bought sandwich bread.

My favorite way to eat French Toast is with peanut butter and syrup.  Yum!

I have a busy day ahead so this post is super short.  Oh, and just a heads up next week I will be taking a much-needed break from the computer.  

Keep plugging away,
Steph

Project Monday - continued outside projects - the Fence!!!!

Finally, we're started on the fence.  Well, technically we've been working on it all along while we were splitting wood.  But now we're done with the wood and we're just putting up fencing in the cedar trees.  This fencing is so that the dogs won't be able to get out.

No more wood to split!!!! Yay!!!!

This is where the chicken house and duck house were.  The wood is stacked in the back in the cedar trees.

More stacked wood.  Plenty for a few winters.

The fence is started in the trees.

Got this far.

A long way to go.  All along the yard at the north end, but when that is done we'll be ready for the picket fence out front.  The fence is unseen back in the trees.  It will be a great place for the dogs to lay in the cool shade and the kids enjoy playing under the trees.  It will be safer once we get it cleaned up.

Steph

Titus 2 Tea - The evolving chore plan

My chore plan is evolving, slowly.  But that's the best way, actually. I have known about The Maxwell's  for a long time.  I even tried making my own chore packs, but that didn't work very well.  There is so much in the book that is so valuable, I can see why they want you to have a book.

So this week, we worked on Daily chores, with a pack for Morning, Lunch (which is just dishes) and Supper.  It's worked fairly well, though we are all still in training.  So many times I don't check their work very well and then they get by with doing less than their best.

Next week we'll add Weekly chores for their bedrooms, their room on the main level and other chores that need doing - like cleaning the van or the car.  After that we'll add Monthly chores.  By that time, I'll be re-working the list because they'll all be in school.

Keep pressing on.
Steph

Thursday's Thoughts - Inspect what you expect!

As parents, if we really expect them to do something, we need to check it to make sure that they have done it.   This will save on frustration.