Chore Sticks

A few days ago I read this blog post about chore sticks and thought it might me helpful in our household.  So today, I began painting away.

 Painted 8 of blue (for Thing One), green (for Thing Two),

and orange (for household chores).

 Began labeling the sticks, for the boys, with regular chores and

individual school subjects.  Some of these include things like:

~ make bed

~ pick up dirty clothes and put down chute

~ strip sheets and put down chute

~ make bed with clean sheets

~ math

~ grammar

The orange sticks have household chores and group

subjects.  Here are some:

~ empty silverware

~ empty plastic ware

~ empty recyclables

~ empty trash can

 Here are a bunch of them.

 For the sake of getting a blog post up, I used a can to hold the

sticks.  I still may end up using a can or three, but with paper around it.

If I use three, one for Thing One, one for 

Thing Two, and one for school related stuff.
Anyway, put the sticks in, colored side down.  When they are sent off to

do chores or school, they'll pick their sticks and work through them.

When the chore is complete, it can be put back into the can

with the color side up.  They should keep working until all chores

and subjects have been completed and colored end is up.

I will probably end up making more sticks and going over the pen with a fine point felt pen (which I didn't have today). 

A Day of Opposites!

That sums up the day well.  I could quit there, but blogging would be no fun then and I've taken pictures too!  Earlier this morning I prepped some blueberries for something ~ maybe muffins or donuts.  Doesn't this look yummy, even before it's sat for awhile.

Love the colors that berries leave behind, on my cutting board.

Would be nice to find a way to save the color and have the board be clean.

So, the total opposite would be spending a portion of the day, taking

over the dining room table, to organize our quicken accounts.

NOT FUN!! At least I made coffee before getting started.

Well, when I started this post about eight hours ago, I had several opposites to write about.  Now that I have finally gotten the second photo to load, I've lost all recollection of what those were.  Oh well!

Day 2

begins slowly and with the first cup of coffee. This isn't a "couch to 5k" and I'm not necessarily speaking about Creation either.

Yesterday, I pulled the contents of about 4 shelves to the floor, dusted the shelves, reorganized the books, and put them back. I went through craft supplies and purged a few things into a trash can. The floor was left with a few piles of stuff (some of last years school work that needs to be filed) and a few things for the boys to deal with.

Today, more shelves and boxes to organizes and Vacation Bible School (VBS) to work on. Looks like I won't be leaving the fireplace room much today.

Today is the Day . . .

. . . . that the decluttering, throwing out, and stock piling stuff for Salvation Army begins. This is in preparation of adding a 1/2 bath to our basement. It's insane how much we've dumped into our utility room. There is so much stuff, like paint and caulk, that has dried out and is useless. I'm finding winter jackets that won't fit either boy. Stuff for projects that have gotten derailed (from Christmas and way further back in the 7 years we've lived here). Yikes!!!!!

I am hoping to have a lot accomplished by Wednesday evening. Three days of hopefully solid work. That is minus 2 hours of morning swim each day, a swim meet tonight (there goes five hours), and hopefully we'll squeeze in a free movie tomorrow.

Just to give a bit of how much work is necessary, here's a link to the picks I took a few days ago.

One would think

that we had done almost nothing this week, because I haven't blogged or taken photo's.  On the contrary.  It's been a very exhausting week for me.  Here's a run down of what has been gotten to this week:

• school every day (on average, 3 hours of sit down focus type class work)
• nine loads of laundry
• 1 soccer practice
• 2 t-ball practices
• library run
• grocery shop
• household chore list of some 40 items
• scout meetings

It was surprising to me, how some of the things I've gotten to this week took so long.

I am hoping to take a few photo's this weekend of things I've sewn or made and post later.  Halloween costumes came early this fall and of Ian's t-ball banner.  Stay tuned

Summer Vacation?!?

Can it really be called summer vacation?  We took a veg day yesterday, before the "summer chores" get started.  Summer chores, for me, are all those things that are just so difficult to get to during a homeschooling school year.  Yes, there are more hours spent at home, but fewer to get things done while uninterrupted.  Getting ready for the day, school, basic chores, library, sports, hikes, shopping, and meal prep seem to take a large portion of the day.

Top of my list today, neglected computer work.  I have the remains of my morning coffee, at hand, and about ready to turn i tunes on.  Will plug away at computer stuff for the day, before swim team and scouts this evening.  May have to make another pot of coffee or some tea.