Routine to Me Part II

The girl's bath routine isn't exactly routine anymore. Sometimes Kendall showers by herself, sometimes with Kate, sometimes they have a bath...just depends on the night and their mood. This night they opted for a bubble bath together. You know how baths are supposed to calm kids? Well, that doesn't happen here, it's gets mine all riled up.

This little boat has a story of its own, it's a story that I'll save for another time but the short version is that my engagement ring was delivered on it, now my kids play with it.

My sweet little brown babies, the summer was good to us.

I do love these sweet girls. 

This is Kendall's "bunny" he has been around awhile and has had a few surgeries and some serious love in his life.

Some last minute rowdiness with Dad then the girls and I read a story from the Bible together. Afterwards Kendall heads to her room for a book with Dad and Kate and I read together. Each girl says their prayers and have a couple of songs before the lights go out.

The girls always hug before bed, actually Kate is quite adamant that Kendall NOT kiss her. I guess she was feeling generous this night with the camera there.

Oh this arm around the neck snuggle. I can't handle it, I dread the day that these little squeezes stop.

They're prayers are always the sweetest. They pray for Shirley in Peru (Compassion International), they had a long list of things they are thankful for: Daddy's job, our house, good neighbors....sweet little voices being thankful.

It's All Routine to Me

So after a yummy dinner, and some outside playing, it's time for bedtime routine. My kids go to bed prettttty early. We've tried later bedtimes but they wake up early anyway so we stick to what works. On weekends and during the summer we will sometimes stay out later to play but for the most part my kids are in bed by 7:00. The girls are allowed to read until 8 but they always opt to go straight to sleep!

I've blogged similar pictures before. I love these bedtime routine pictures. 

He is always so happy to throw away his old diaper.

More pouring water back and forth

I love this picture, the way he's smiling up at me. I know there will be a day that he doesn't look at me quite the same!

Both of my girls have snugglies that are stuffed animals, Jack prefers his blanket.

Daddy always comes in to kiss him while we read a story, say a prayer and sing a couple songs.

See that brown dot on his foot? That's not a bruise, it's a tan line from his pool shoes :) Jack has never been much of a cryer at bedtime. He goes to bed at 7 then sleeps until 7 or 8. We took his pacifier about a month ago and now he'll talk in his bed for awhile, sometimes he yells for me but he doesn't really cry. Honestly I don't mind going in there when it's quiet and dark. He snuggles me in his chair and we talk for about five minutes then he goes down without a peep. He always asks in his sweet little voice, "Sissy night night? Daddy night night??" over and over until he is completely convinced that he isn't missing out on anything.

Summer Days

 

We've had such a fun summer. 

Today we drew a chalk city that included home, Target and Daddy's work. You know, the essentials. 

Jack crawled around and even drew with chalk but then he tried to eat mulch, rocks and chalk. I decided to put him in the stroller when he went after the mushrooms growing in the yard.

 Kate had her hair in a ponytail the majority of the day. When they put on their new shirts she decided to take it out to be Kendall's twin. She sported an afro for the remainder of the afternoon.

We rounded out the day baking chocolate chip cookies while playing a board game then taking a seriously deep bath. 

Prayer

This is How We Do It

That blog title brings back memories of 90s music, am I the only one?

I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the vacation photos right now so I'll save those for a later post. Here is a short little post on how we've been handling chores lately.

 We have these cute little jars with popsicle sticks in them. Each stick has a chore written on it and a colored sticker on one end. At the start of the day the colored ends are all on top. As the girls finish each chore they turn it over so that the colored side is down in the jar. To have the jobs listed on the sticks is nice because I can switch them between the girls' jars or just flip one over if it doesn't need done that day. It's also easy to add in another chore if needed. These were made with things I already had on hand. We've tried dry erase chore charts with magnetic "stickers" and they were way more of a hassle then they were worth. This seems to work well for us at this point.

The girls work on them throughout the day and I'm trying not to remind them. Usually if there is down time in the morning I suggest they start and then I let them do it on their own time. Once they finish all the chores for one day I've let them add a sticker to their chart. This chart is pretty massive and I use it to encourage them throughout the day. If I notice especially good behavior we'll add one or when they finish a day's worth of "mommy school" they get one. We plan to do a fun activity once it's full: movie, golfing...

Kendall's (6 years) chores each day:
Clean room
Clean sinks in kids' bathroom (she uses little Lysol wipes)
Dust Family Room
Empty dishwasher (she is only responsible for silverware and kid dishes) this is by FAR my favorite of the chores because it really does help me a lot
Mommy's Choice --I pick anything that needs to be done. Sometimes it's cleaning her desk, other times just random things around the house that need to be done.

Kate's (4 years) chores:
Clean room
Clean step stools in the kids' bathroom (there are three so this is no small fete, ha)
Dust foyer
Dishwasher (sometimes her job)
Mommy's Choice

Jack doesn't have his own jar but he's anxious to start helping

Amazon Wish List

I wanted to take a quick minute to share with you one more thing that makes life flow a little more smoothly. In the past I have faced a holiday or a birthday with absolutely no idea what to get my kids and no idea what I wanted either.  I know that throughout the year there are things that we come across and want but when it comes time to get them I can't remember! Recently I started using Amazon.com's wish list. I downloaded the little button for my tool bar (see below on the top left of the screen shot it says "wish list") and now when I come across a cool gadget or toy I can just click that button and it adds  to our wish list.  Now when I face a birthday I can browse through the items that I marked through the year and either load up my Amazon cart or make a list to carry to the worlds most fun place...Target.

Fun things you would find on our list would include:

Pottery Barn Daily System

See the picture, the sun is shining down on it and the angels are singing, can't you hear them? 

Even I could be convinced to drink milk if I could have it out of this glass:

Anything that would make grocery shopping easier:

I'm curious, what's on your current wish list?

30 While 30

I have two days to finish my 30 while 30 list. I need 9 more items to complete it. Here is what I have so far:

1. Visit a local art museum

2. Explore Pittsburgh

3. Expand garden

4. Volunteer

5. Track spending

6. Have a baby

7. Visit Niagra Falls

8. Document a “Week in the Life” before 3^rd baby is born

9. Find a gym class to commit to

10.  Send someone a care package

11.  Introduce kids to a variety of art media in fun projects

12. Find a local Bible study  

13. Hang some stuff on the walls

14. Freeze a few meals once a month

15.  Drastically reduce or omit corn syrup from families diet.

16.  Family game night

17.  Take a tennis lesson

18.  Make jelly or jam

19. 30 random acts of kindness

20. Keep car clean.

21.  Take a picture a day.

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

Got any suggestions for me? I had to delete a few once I found out I was pregnant I had snow ski and water ski both on there but those are gone now.

Overwhelmed

Sorry I haven't been posting. I'm OVERWHELMED a bit. Brian is out of town and we're having a new drainage system put in the basement. This means: five men in and out of the house all day, a pile of JUNK in my front yard, plastic down over our hardwood floor (and on top of that mud that gets tracked into the rest of the house), a mess spread from here to there and best of all--a JACKHAMMER in my basement for the last 4 days.

Cleaning Solution

People think I'm always uber-organized and super clean. But I'm not always, I promise. For the most part my house is usually picked up BUT I have clothes in my room to put away from our Florida trip!!! I put the kids' clothes away but mine have just piled up. My excuse is that I want to purge clothes from my dresser and closet and I don't want to put them away to pull them right back out again. Tomorrow I finally have a day at home without plans so hopefully I can get to that. Another area I struggle with is my office. I like it when it's a crafty mess but that isn't always the cause. My solution usually is to put it all in one big pile. That looks cleaner then when it's all spread out right?! Oh, sometimes I like to shove it under the desk too....this is the carry on bag of stuff for the girls from our Florida trip. SEE, I'm not as uptight about cleaning as you people think I am, ha.

Mom thinks my new Facebook profile pic looks like I'm sad. I think she isn't used to a picture of me where I'm not making a funny face. Here is one just for you mom, is this better!?

Christmas Count Down

Simple Mom has a great countdown starting. Officially 12 weeks until Christmas. Here is her list to help us prepare.

12 Weeks to a Peaceful Christmas

• 12: Solidify the Christmas budget
• 11: Organize your mailing addresses for Christmas cards, and explore alternative ideas
• 10: Start (or finish!) gift shopping
• 9: Research ways to donate gifts or time as a family
• 8: Inventory your holiday decor and list the items to look for on sale
• 7: Finalize the holiday calendar and schedule dates and events
• 6: Prepare a a new family tradition, such as a Jesse Tree
• 5: Design, buy, or order your Christmas cards and stamps, and address envelopes
• 4: Decorate for Christmas
• 3: Make meal plans; batch cook and freeze meals for the next few weeks
• 2: Make and freeze cookie dough, and prepare any food gifts
• 1: Clean the home, prepare for guests, or prepare to be a guest

How We Do It

This is what Kendall was doing instead of napping. This is why I pick out her clothes the night before on school days.

I like when the blogs I read show how they manage the running of their household, par

ticularly how they organize all the information that has to be juggled. I decided to show how I try to stay organized.Being married to Brian it is only fitting that I utilize Excel--Brian's undergraduate degree is Engineering, he is way more organized then me and the word Excel gets his heart beating faster much like paper products and art supplies do for me. I have kept multiple spreadsheets for organizing but recently combined them all into one large file with different tabs. Here is a screen shot. The first tab has my budget tracking, (I've removed the actual numbers).

Basically I try to spend within a certain amount in each of the categories, I can input expenses and see what I have remaining for the month. Everyone would have different categories, Brian pays the bills so those aren't shown in my expense tracking, he has a 'budget' just like me that looks differently (but we share the same allotment for the fun spending...clothes, cash for eating out). Next tab is a register, juggling two kids I don't have time to write down every time I use the debit card, I just keep the receipts and input them here to keep a running account of what is in my checking account.

Other tabs include calorie tracking and a grocery list. Usually I will print off this grocery list each week, plan our meals and then make the list. Only recently have I added this tab to the spreadsheet so I can add items as I notice we need them during the week.

I also like to collect images (digital images from various blogs and websites and physical images from magazines and books). They actually make software that you can scan all your images and organize them all on the computer but I like my binders so will keep using them. On the computer I keep different photo folders, I organize our folders by year and month and the downloaded images in folders as well: fabric projects, scrapbooking, cards, home ideas, holiday/party, teaching and "not mine" includes paintings, and various other things I want to make.

For physical binders my favorite is the Russell + Hazel Signature 3 ring binder with the 8 tab index dividers. I keep a binder for scrapbooking ideas, recipes, house ideas, and children crafts and learning activities. Actually right now I only have one of the Russell + Hazel binders but I have others on my Christmas Wish List so all my binders will be matching (the others right now are just regular ones you find at Target).

I

would love to use an online calendar system that can be shared between people (Google has a good one) but I'm too attached to my actual planner to do that. I do usually write our meal plan on it and what Kendall is doing in school that week in addition to the normal appointments and such.

Finally I use this little chalkboard in our kitchen so I can look at our meal plan at a quick glance and so Brian knows what to expect (although I don't think he ever looks at it).

That's it in a nutshell. I think this will be fun to look back at when the kids are out of the house. I would love to hear if any of you have a different system that works for you.

Cleaning

Today I'm trying to get my office cleaned (well, that and we had a little trip to the pool, and craft time, and lunch together...). It's going great so far, check it out.

First I did this area, I spent a lot of time folding fabric and organizing supplies.

Next came the paper rack, it has never looked so neat.

I can say with absolute certainty my desk has never been so bare.

Wouldn't you say it's going well. 

Wait, stop right there, don't look there...

Oops, I guess I still have some work to do.