Why Didn't They Break A Mattresss A Long Time Ago?

My children are willingly and happily clearing the table, doing the dishes, folding laundry, cleaning up their toys, making their beds, putting their dirty clothes in the laundry basket...the list goes on and on. They're learning the value of work, they're learning that work is really not that bad, and that is has its rewards. I hope that by the time they earn Alyssa's mattress that these things will have become habits for them.

We have each chore listed at a very low value, like 5, 10, or 25 cents, but it's surprising how it adds up each day. Alyssa is finally understanding the concept of money, and how each coin has its own value. Up until now, money has been some vague concept she didn't quite get, even though we've tried to explain it multiple times. This is very exciting!

Hellians

Yesterday the kids tore apart Alyssa's bed, moved the mattress around the room, folded the mattress in half somehow (permanently bending the springs), pulled on a white string, and kept pulling until the binding around the edges was completely torn off. Brian and I have both looked at the mattress to see if it can be fixed. It is dead. Very, very dead.


So the kids are sleeping on the floor for a while. I was pretty proud of myself for keeping my cool through the whole ordeal, until I called both my mom and mother-in-law to ask, "What the heck do I do with these kids?" There were also some tears shed by the children as they watched me move their beds to the basement. Alyssa said she didn't want to live with our family anymore, that she wanted to go to the orphanage, because she didn't like the way I was treating her. That's when I called Brian's mom, and pretended like I was inquiring about orphanages in the Tri-Cities and did they have any room for a seven year old girl? When I got off the phone, though, she gave me a hug and said she didn't want to leave.


Brian and I talked this morning, and we've decided to make a list of chores that are worth different amounts of money, and all three kids are in charge of raising money to buy a new mattress for Alyssa. Whatever they can raise on their own, we'll match. I want it to take a while, though. I want them to learn that they have to take care of our things, and follow the rules. There are no toys in their bedroom. They are not supposed to be playing in there anyway, and they know that.

Which brings us to my other resolution. I have to be more diligent and stick to the rules in my life, too. Yesterday started out fine, but Brian didn't have to leave for work until around 8:00, so I put off summer school for a while, then summer school got messed up when I found out we weren't registered for K12, and Alyssa had apparently taken the wrong placement test, so we would have to do it again, really fast, then I gave her yet another wrong placement test, since she's really supposed to be in second grade, instead of first, and all craziness broke loose, and after we got all that figured out, I decided to can our routine and work on designing t-shirts for our homeschool. (Our mascot is the jackalope, by the way.) So if I had stuck to our routine, instead of playing on the computer, the kids wouldn't have been left alone upstairs for so long without me checking on them. My new motto is "I'm sticking to it." I'm sticking to our routines, our rules, and I'm definitely not changing my mind when I tell the kids to either do or not do something, and they whine to me about it.

And the kids are now awake, so I've got to finish up and turn off the computer, so we can start our day.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

On Friday we went to Big 5 and bought a 3 person inflatable boat and a pair of oars, then headed to Leslie Groves to take it out on the river. We rowed out to the island, where the kids picked snake grass, and chased after beetle looking things. Alyssa and I went out and swam in the water for a bit, after we found an area not taken over with sea weed. Usually, when we play by the river, Ethan and I have this conversation:

Ethan: Are there harks?

Carrie: No, there's aren't any sharks.

Ethan: Are there hocadiles?

Carrie: No, there aren't any crocodiles.

But this time, he didn't ask any questions, he just jumped in the boat, ready to go. Marcus, on the other hand, was very unsure of the whole thing. He's not a big water person, but he does end up enjoying it once he's used to the idea.

So This Is Why The Pounds Are Piling On

Last night Brian wanted to show Alyssa a song on his computer, so when we gathered in our bedroom for family prayer, he played the song for her, and the kids started dancing. We ended up postponing family prayer for close to an hour while Brian played the DJ, saying such smooth lines as, "You thought that I was BJ, but I'm the DJ," while the kids and I danced all around the bedroom. About halfway through, when I was thinking about how much fun everyone was having (and about how great a workout dancing is!) I realized that it's been forever since we've had a family dance party. We used to have them all of the time; we'd dance in the living room, the kitchen, wherever on a multiple times a day basis. What happened to that? I think it also explains why I haven't been as chipper as my normal self, too. We need to dance more.




*When I wrote the word, "chipper," I thought, "That's a dorky word. I need to use another word." But then I looked it up to find another word, and the definition is, "marked by or being in sprightly good humor and health," and it is actually, the perfect word. So "chipper" stays.

Went to a Garden Party

Today we had a garden party to celebrate Alyssa's birthday. The kids painted flower pots, played hot potato and "Flower, Flower, Weed," had dirt cake, and planted flowers in their beautifully painted pots. We had the party in Alyssa's flower garden, which has marigolds and huge sunflowers that she and Grandma Jacks planted at the beginning of the summer, but sadly, all of the pictures I took were facing the desolate, barren part of the garden area. The kids all got along well, and we had a fabulous time!

Alyssa's birthday was Sunday, but it's stretched for three days, because we had cake for Family Home Evening with the cousins yesterday, and her official birthday party today. We've learned that she is quite the diva on her birthday, but we also taught her about being a good hostess today. We were trying to teach the kids to wait until everyone had their cake before eating, and some of them said that Alyssa needed to take the first bite since she was the birthday girl, but we explained to them that it was because she was the hostess. She had to make sure that each of her guests had a plate of food, and she would take a bite to signal to everyone that it was then okay to eat. Alyssa kept looking around as we served the kids, and all of the others had their eyes glued to Alyssa to watch for the first bite. It was so fun to watch!


Alyssa's birthday always seems to fall at a time when we're really busy and I'm not posting on the blog very often. I haven't been very good at doing special birthday posts for her, but I will say that we love her so, so very much. She is such a sweet little girl who always makes our lives exciting. I'm so proud of her for all of the progress she's made in the last year with sitting still and learning to read and helping so much around the house. I have loved watching her grow from being a tiny, busy baby into the beautiful busy girl that she is now.

Success!

We have little shoots of grass in our backyard!