A few months ago the girls favorite kitty died and they have been asking for a new one every day since then. My husband promised to take them to the kitty adoption center this morning and they came home with a spunky, 4 month old, orange tabby named Fritz.
Fritz is playful, curious and very entertaining already. Something tells me this is going to be one very loved kitty! And something else tells me he is going to provide me with many LOLCAT photos!
Friday after school, I decided that something had to be done - I couldn’t face the weekend with a totally messy house (and the cleaning ladies don’t come until next week), but looking around I realized that most of the mess was created by my three kids. I wanted them to help clean up, but know from experience that there is the hard way of getting this accomplished - screaming, yelling, demanding, and general dictatorship - and there is the easy way!
The secret is MAKE IT FUN! I devised a plan and when all was said and done, it took us about 2 hours to really make this house shine. 
The Ingredients:
The Plan:Â
We started by having my youngest daughter pull a slip of paper out of a bowl - this let us know where we would start. Once we knew the room, my oldest set the kitchen timer for 20 minutes and my middle daughter picked the tunes on the iPod. We all headed to that room and started picking things up, putting them away, wiping down surfaces, and getting the room clean.
When the timer went off, we stopped - no matter where we were in the process. I added a twist to the fun. As a reward I had planned on letting the kids get a movie off Pay-Per-View and having a family movie night, so I gave them a clue for the reward. I have never seen my kids so excited to get something done (especially my 6 year old who normally refuses to help with anything)!
After the 20 minutes was up, everyone got 5 minutes of free time before we started the process over with a new room. I switched up who got to pick the room, set the timer, and pick the music each time so that the kids felt like they were in charge.
You would be amazed at how easy this was and the kids were so proud of their work. I even overheard one of them reminding the other to pick up something in the bathroom because we had just worked so hard to make it clean!
With spring break right around the corner, I will be pulling out the Chore Chart again as a warm up for summer vacation!
PS - we watched The Game Plan as our reward. It was such a cute movie and totally appropriate for a family movie night!
Kris Abel of CTV.ca (a Canadian network) just published his list of 100 websites to help keep the kids busy during spring break or any other day for that matter. There are some really cool sites included in his list, many I have never seen before. My favorites from his list include:
There are 96 more fun sites to discover (he even included my Printables4Kids site on his list) - that’s sure to keep everyone busy, having fun and even doing a little learning, too.
Can you guess what today is? Yep, it is the first day of school. I am now sitting at my desk in my home office listening to … nothing but the gently hum of the dishwasher.
My son started Middle School today and he felt very confident about his schedule, opening his locker and the new independence and responsibility he will be given.
My older daughter started 4th grade with the same teacher my son had for 1st and 4th grades. She is awesome and Miss M is so ready to resume her social butterfly ways.
Little Miss N headed onto the bus with a mix of hesitation and excitement. She is more than ready for Kindergarten but not 100% sure what to expect. She’ll do fine and will be directing the class by the end of the week.
I have been looking forward to this day for 11 years, but am grateful for every day that has passed in between. I am truly grateful that I have been able to work from home so I could be there for all the milestones, tea parties, story times, preschool field trips and all.
What am I going to do with all this uninterrupted time now? Hmmm… I have a stack of work on my desk waiting to be dealt with, I want to paint Miss N’s room, I am going to start walking a few times a week with friends, and I have already been talked into volunteering at the school one morning a week. Something tells me the time will fly by!!
A few years ago I created a go-to resource book for our house and it has saved me so much time, effort and frustration. This week we are going to create one together. It will cost you very little, you can customize it to fit your needs, and it will only take a few minutes a day to get it going. Your family will thank you for it!
What you will need:
Place the protector sheets and dividers in the binder. Use a label maker or permanent marker to put a title on the spine. Call it what you want - but make it something your family can relate to. We call ours the Ops book - meaning it is our operations manual.
Next, download and fill out, or print out the master phone list.
Put all the phone numbers you need on a regular basis in one of two columns - friends and family or important numbers. Don’t forget to add school office numbers, dentist, doctor, nail salon, hair dresser, etc.
Slide the phone list into the clear pocket on the cover of the binder and you are ready for tomorrow’s task!
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