QuirkyMom» February

Chores. You know I hate em

azxure — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:37:26 +0000

And sadly, so do my kids. So, with the help of Clean Mama (I do not get a kick back from her, I just <3 her!) and PhotoShop, I put this together for each of my kids:

Malachai's Chart, click for larger view

They each have one customized to their needs, but they are all similar. I used her perpetual calendar to save myself some design time and just dropped in my own text. It was pretty easy and I guess I could have used any old calendar layout, but this had the “check boxes” (the date box) and everything already done.

Et voila! Print it out, stick it in a dollar store picture frame, hang it on the wall, give your kid a dry erase marker and it’s their new favorite way to keep track of their allowance!

Well, for my kids anyway. Their allowance is now 100% dependent on how filled out their chart is and how accurately it’s filled out. Mama isn’t stupid. She knows what you do all week long. She just wants to make sure you know what you do all week long.

Time with mom is scheduled, because our week is just that busy. I like to make sure I get one-on-one time with everyone, even if it’s just for an hour while we do something else. Dorian (11) makes dinner with me on Friday, so he is “excused” from tidying his bedroom that night. Mal gets me on Saturday, so he gets to skip tidying that night. Esh gets me on Sunday. It’s totally nice to catch up with my kids, find out what they are into this week and what they want to be into next week (or next month or next year).

Do I freak out if something doesn’t get done? Nope. Sometimes shit just happens, and that’s ok. It’s the beauty of being flexible, but the stuff in the boxes is the minimum expected stuff. The stuff under the boxes is mostly all extra.

(We got the) Hollywood Vibe

azxure — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:11:22 +0000

Remember this post? We survived. We woke up at five AM. We hustled everything into the car and were out the door by 6:30. We picked up another girl and made it to the convention center by 8 and we all ran from there. Hollywood Vibe is an amazing day of classes for the kids (and young adults) and competition after. So our girls worked hard from 8 to around 2 PM, and then got loaded into their costumes and make up and pulled themselves together to put on an amazing show.

Our group won gold for their age group (over all 5 – 8 ) and first place for their dance/size/age group, which is phenomenal considering most of our group is barely six (and a couple that are five, and a couple that are 7) and they were exhausted and it was the first time out for all but three of our eight. Phenom indeed. Oh, and they *might* make it onto the upcoming episode of Dance Moms. How exciting.
Oh, did I mention we had to wait around till something like 7 PM for the awards ceremony? Oh yah. We played twister. We ate. We ran. We rested. We shopped. And then around 8/8:30 we packed it in and headed home. We dropped our passengers off at their home and I decided “daddy is still at work… work is on the way home… let’s visit daddy!” So little miss raccoon eyes and I swung by the shop and hung out for a bit. We made it home around 10 PM. Then we took off the make up, and fed the bellies and crawled into bed. I bet there was more, but really, who needs more?

It took me all weekend to recovered. Kudos to those who had to be there both days. I am decidedly not looking forward to then. Maybe E won’t be participating in Company by then… but I’m not holding my breathe.

No photos please, my raccoon eyes aren't photogenic

Wow, I kind of dropped the ball on my plans

azxure — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:53:01 +0000

I haven’t stopped running this month! I know you know how it is. Whether your kids number zero or twelve, you probably don’t have time to stop and breathe, let alone inhale the lovely roses. This week I am going to try and set aside a half an hour a day to do just that. I don’t mean the half hour I spend reading and replying to emails or the half hour I spend in the carpool line (where I often read and respond to emails as well!) but a solid half hour where all I do is read something of my choice or maybe even nap! An uninterrupted half hour. Beautiful, if only it works out that way.

I have anywhere from one to two hours a day where I am alone, but I usually reserve them for catching up on work, cleaning, menu planning or something else for the “house” (read: not something selfish just for me). I’m all over this experiment, especially this week, because my next almost three months are full of booked-solid weekends. Kenahora! I get chills just thinking about it.

So, 30 minutes reading. Or gardening. Or drawing. Or something that is selfishly self-indulgent. What do you do that qualifies?