The Day to Day stuff.

Little Man cracked me up today! I had a headache and Emily told me I should put Abby and Thomas down for a nap and I should take a nap while she did her grammar. Thomas looked at us and said, "I have an idea. How about you take a nap and I don't."

Totally cracked me up!

Abby wants so much to be big like her older siblings. She wants to stand but she can't stand on her own. YET! Finally, tonight she pulled up on the coffee table to a standing position. She is getting too big too fast. Slow down baby girl.

Emily has decided she wants to be a Memory Master. It just might do me in. Memory Master is part of Classical Conversations. She knows about 14 out of 24 weeks of the math. She knows all 24 history sentences. All of her Presidents. 18 out of 24 history timeline. However, we need to work on ALL of the science and geography and latin. Our plan is to study, study, study, study for the next two weeks solid. After that time we will see where she is at.

I have also implemented a new way to keep up with the house. We were becoming a family divided and focused on what we alone had done instead of realizing we are a family of 5 and it takes more than one person to keep up with it all. In the past we have tried allowances. We have tried lists. We have tried giving each person certain chores. It all failed practically before it began. The hubby and I are the worst about not following through. This time though I got everything we needed and set it all up. It is SIMPLE. Simple works for us. It also relies on doing it as a FAMILY. We made a chart of 13 tasks that need to be done on a regular weekly/daily basis to keep up with the house. I wrote the tasks down the left side of the posterboard. Then across the top I wrote the days of the week then drew the lines to make boxes. Inside each box I put a piece of velcro. Emily cut out strips of paper and The Hubby put velcro on the back of them. When you complete a task put a paper in the corresponding box. We have a juice bottle that we are going to be filling with lego pieces in at the end of every week. You total up all the boxes that were filled in for the week and that is how many lego pieces go in the jar. When the jar is full we will do something fun as a family. We are debating between Busch Gardens or Universal Studio. We have all agreed to give it two full weeks and then we will discuss how it is working. Nothing negative can be said until we have truly tried it.

 This weekend and today were a success. Some tasks one person can do and mark off for the day. Several though require us ALL to do some part of it. I am hoping it brings us together on keeping up with daily tasks. Specifically the hubby and me. To remind us to work together and to set an example for the kiddos to follow.