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.

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?

I read this book for the first time probably around 1989/1990. I’ve reread it many times since then. I’ve gone so far as to push it on my kids, although none ever took a real interest. I decided tonight to start it, and lo and behold, all three listened with very few interruptions. I got through the authors preface and 25 pages before I called it a night and my nine year old told me he likes long books when he can listen to them. (which is funny only if you know him and know that he really does like to read on his own)

We learned about Sam Gribley’s first winter storm, and how he learned how to make a fire and caught fish and found his great-grandfathers nature-reclaimed farm.

My kids asked me to read more tomorrow night.

I have a hard time getting them interested in books I loved as a child. Perhaps due to some weird generation gap. Perhaps due to gender differences (I highly doubt this however). Perhaps it’s just that my kids have so much more going on electronically than I remember having and they just don’t read as much as I did. They certainly have an extensive library – full of my and my husbands beloved children’s books as well as brand new books. We can’t leave Barnes & Noble without dropping at least a hundred dollars. Books are definitely not in shortage around here. Yet, they seem to get left by the wayside and video games and the internet prevail.

I got off track there, sorry. I am super-excited to revisit this wonderful book with my kids and hopefully they will enjoy it as much as I remember enjoying it. A camping trip might have to be in the works once we finish it. I’ll let you know I’m a fairly suburban city girl at heart. I grew up in the burbs, but within fifteen minutes of a major city. The most “rustic” I ever really got was playing in the woods behind my house, which I suspect weren’t nearly as big as I thought they were and only divided our pre-planned neighborhood from some older houses on the other side. I went looking for a tree to live in though, just like Sam. My own children will have to make-do with their ready-built “tree” house that came with their swing set – South Florida isn’t really known for it’s old, or large trees. We’ve got Palm’s in the back yard. I loved the idea of running away to the woods as much as the main character of this book did though. A nice quiet, large, deserted forest still appeals to the curmudgeon in me.

Amazon.com Review

Every kid thinks about running away at one point or another; few get farther than the end of the block. Young Sam Gribley gets to the end of the block and keeps going–all the way to the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. There he sets up house in a huge hollowed-out tree, with a falcon and a weasel for companions and his wits as his tool for survival. In a spellbinding, touching, funny account, Sam learns to live off the land, and grows up a little in the process. Blizzards, hunters, loneliness, and fear all battle to drive Sam back to city life. But his desire for freedom, independence, and adventure is stronger. No reader will be immune to the compulsion to go right out and start whittling fishhooks and befriending raccoons.

On the flip side, I can use my amazing commercial grade blender at home and make my own fruitilicious smoothie. I can also moan and groan about the time it takes to prep the food, the fact that the husband and I don’t really agree on what makes a good smoothie and the clean up after. Well, if I’m lucky clean up involves adding water to the pitcher and giving it a spin for thirty second and dumping it out and letting it dry.

I just made myself a coconut (Fish hates coconut), banana, mango (he hates mango), blueberry, probiotic (he’s neutral on this), supergreenfood (oh my god don’t let hum so much as see the SGF container!) smoothie. I think it’s delish. Dorian said it was good. Mal & Esh both made icky faces. Fish won’t look at it, let alone try it. His loss!

His smoothies involve vanilla frozen yogurt and other things I don’t consider breakfast smoothie goods. Probably my loss.

Our main tried and true smoothie recipes call for some mix of milk, blue/purple juice (blueberry juice, grape juice, pomegranate juice, etc..), Greek yogurt, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, mango, peaches and/or bananas. Maybe a squirt or two of honey or agave to sweeten it up if it’s a “dry” smoothie.

For a good while we were making our own every morning, and since the kids recently went on a smoothie kick my blender has been getting a workout again. I’m all about it.

Send me your awesome smoothie recipes!

Last night I put all of our monthly bills and expenses for each pay period from now until January 6 down on paper. I proceeded to flip my shit and look into shutting things off. I then realized I don’t have much to shut off and looked into other things to do.

I’m calling AT&T today to see about dropping our plan down a level. If it won’t cause my contract to reset it will save me 20$ plus taxes a month. I looked into turning our DSL down, but it would only save 5$ and cut our speeds in half and isn’t worth it to me. I looked into turning off the house line, which would save me 13$ but would make my DSL go up 10$. Not worth it. We’re locked into DirecTV for another however long, which is no big in and of itself. We pay that and not rent, so…. we win. I’m running out of options here.

The last guitar payment is in September. The last fridge payment is in October. We owe camp 390$ by mid-August. Mrs. P’s starts in August and is a partial payment that month but is 185$ on the first starting in September. Then 520$ in recital fees by the end of October.

I need to start selling myself, or at least my wares, to make ends meet!

I’m thinking of selling my snack bags and other small, easy to sew items on Etsy.

All this and I’m still spending it like it’s water. I picked up some chore cards (Etsy, of course) for the kids. I decided it’s time for them to get weekly allowance (and not Bank of Mom allowance, but real cash allowance) and gosh darn it, they’re going to earn it! I got this set, and this set, and this set, and two of this set. I did not get the personal growth set or the blank set or the reward set. There are enough in the other sets that don’t apply to our home that I can flip them over and make my own. I’m also making my own board to hang them on. Why Jenn, why not make your own cards too? Easy. These already have cute clip art on them, are laminated, ready to go, and every other time I’ve tried to make my own they go ignored. Don’t worry. The kids paid for these themselves and will have to replace the money out of their own pockets too.

I’ll let you all know how it goes once they arrive and get implemented.

Which brings us to the kids. Am I a bad role model for cleaning? I hate cleaning. No. Really. I hate cleaning. If I never had to sweep or mop or pretend that everything has a place ever again I’d be in heaven. If laundry could live in baskets (really, what is the point of putting it away? We’re going to take it out and wear it anyway, so why not leave it folded in a basket?) and clean dishes could live in the dishwasher (or in the dish rack) and spills never happened… Oh what a joy it would be!

Oops, off topic. Kids. Cleaning. My kids don’t do it. It turns into a screaming match, drags on all day long and at the end of the day it takes me half an hour to do what they fought doing all day long. I’ve tried bribing them. Once you’re done we can do this thing over here that’s tons of fun! I’ve tried doing fun stuff first. This never works. I’ve tried cleaning with them. I’ve tried directing them. I’ve tried micro-managing them (do this. Now do this. Now do this.) but this is as wearing on me as it is on them. I’ve tried splitting it up and assigning jobs. I’ve tried giving a vague “clean this up” and walking away (always a bad bad bad idea).

So it probably reflects on me and my very real abhorrence to cleaning. I just can’t get around it. I don’t mind the clutter. I know where everything is. I can see the floor. I’m not walking on things to get to other things.

So is it really a problem? I just want them to put their things away. And clean up their trash (there are always crafting scraps on the floor – that I can’t stand, it’s dirt not clutter). And stay on task! I put my things away. I put my dishes in the sink. I put my dirty clothes in the hamper. I hang up my wet towel to use again. At the end of the day, for the most part, my mess is picked up and ready to start anew. Not so much for them.

I let it go this week. The living room was trashed. We started this fight at 8 this morning. It’s 1 now. It’s still not entirely picked up. My only real cleaning rule is you aren’t done until I can mop. Not so hard. Or so I thought. I suspect I will be tossing things out again soon. I already did a bit earlier, but apparently that lesson was quickly forgotten.

I’ve been having this fight for at least six years now. Probably more. How do you get your kids to help pick up?

Any tips?

We’re planting zinnias, peppers, watermelon, carrots, and orange honeydew. I know it’s isn’t “the season” for most of those, but I figured if we started them inside I’d have some strong plants for when it’s time to turn into/grow food

12/20 – Did you know my sister is awesome? For the low low price of 15$ (I’m going to give her more, the kids were suppose to help) she is cleaning the kids room, which includes getting rid of all the crap I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of (I kept tallying it up in my head *sigh*), putting away the stuff they use, and sweeping. ??She is amazing and I love her. ??Lest you think I have done nothing while she slaves away (and earns some dough!), I’ve sorted all the kids clothes, gotten rid of didn’t fit (in bags to donate tomorrow), threw out what was damaged beyond repair, saved a couple shirts to make into patches (the sleeves were holy or didn’t fit, but the design was fine) and put it all away. Now I’ve got cornbread in the oven

12/13 – Really, Everyone? Eshiva brought some kind of stomach bug home from school last Thursday. She didn’t go to school on Friday. She had a fever and was vomiting and diarrhea, you know, classic stomach bug. No one else had it all day yesterday so I thought it wouldn’t spread. ??I was wrong. Malachai got it, and he didn’t understand at all that even though he was so thirsty, every tiny sip made him vomit again. Poor kid. I have something like ten towels, five top sheets and three fitted sheets to wash. He also didn’t quite reach the trash bin at all – I get that, he didn’t want to move, but I hate sick laundry.??Michael got home around 11 – he was queasy and he has it too. Yep, he has some bedding to wash as well. ??So far, knock on wood, I don’t have it. Let’s keep it that way. Neither does Dorian. ??I am going to try and take him to the Channukah festival at shul today. The other two can’t go, and I feel a bit like Typhoid Mary and I I’d rather not get everyone around me sick, but… they were really looking forward to this. We’ll see what happens I guess. ??I had also wanted to go out today with the fam, but I suspect my biggest baby will be in bed all day. Understandable, and I am “glad” he only gets sick on his day off, but why the fuck does he only get sick on his day off??? It also magically coincides with when I Have big chores to get done. Grrrr

12/12 – Kitchenaid Mixers are the bomb. I totally said that. So, I picked up a slicer/shredder attachment for my Kitchenaid instead of buying a new food processor and ohmigodyay! Not only did it mean one less gadget in my kitchen, but I think it works better than the processor did! We shredded ten potatoes in no time last night, plus four onions. ??So if you’ve been thinking about getting one, do it!??I also have the grinder, which I don’t use even weekly, but when I need it it’s amazing. Fresh ground chicken and beef as a fraction of the cost. Plus it’s awesome for chopped liver, which is also stupidly expensive to purchase pre-made. ??I’ve been eying the pasta maker, but I don’t think I’d use it often enough to warrant buying it

So Michael pulls this classic up on YouTube and they watch it. Then the giggles start. Then comes the full blown belly laugh. Yes, even Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck can still entertain children who think things like SpongeBob are funny. I don’t really have any room to talk, I thought Ren & Stimpy was the greatest thing ever.

So the rest of us sit down to dinner, and every 6 or 8 minutes we hear the Warner Bros. intro music and a few minutes later the laughter erupts.

Some days being a parent is the most amazing thing ever.

Today the boys came home with some papers. I have dutifully scanned them so we can discuss them. Actually, before I start ripping them apart I want to say this. I know a lot of people who have contracted H1N1 in the past few months. NONE OF THEM ARE DEAD. NONE OF THEIR WORKMATES OR CLASSMATES OR CHILDREN ARE DEAD. NONE OF THEM HAD MUCH MORE THAN A PLAIN OLD COLD/FLU VIRUS. Makes you wonder.

The first one (front, back) is your basic HIPPA info. I don’t care about these really. It’s pretty standard, and I just had to sign that I received them and date them.

Then comes the colourful pamphlet. The one they hope parents will skim over and not ask too many questions.

Let’s break this down into three panels on each side. front

Panel one – TAKE 3 Steps to FIGHT the FLU: These actions will protect against the H1N1 Swine Flu too!
Ok, I’m down with preventing the flu. Three (3!) easy steps? Rock!

Panel two – For more informations, phone numbers and URL’s to the local county health department, the start health department, the CDC, the CDC in Spanish, and Dept. of Health & Human Services. So far so good.

Panel three – Flu-like symptoms include (fever, usually high; cough; sore throat; headache; runny or stuffy nose; muscle aches; extreme\ tiredness; vomiting; sometimes diarrhea) and a note saying if you have any or all of those symptoms or think you have the flu, call your healthcare provider and discuss whether you need to be seen. OK, I’m down with that. Most of those can describe a common cold, or a man-cold, but as you get down the list it gets worse (around the muscle ache area) and I’d totally be concerned. Maybe not enough to call a doc, but these are new times, with magical flu virii that are a zillion times worse than plain old flu virus’. Or so they are trying to say, even though the H1N1 hasn’t presented with any more death and destruction than a typical flu.

back
Panel one – Take Everyday Actions. If you’re sick, stay home. Cover your moth when you sneeze or cough with a tissue and throw it out after. Wash often. Alcohol based cleaners are effective. Don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth. Avoid sick people. I agree with all of this except the alcohol based cleaner bit. Maybe if we weren’t so goddamned obsessed with cleanliness and killing germs our immune systems wouldn’t be so out of whack and a cold wouldn’t so easily turn into a flu. If you don’t let your immune system practice it’s job, it’ll freak out when it has to work and it will shut down.

Panel two – Take time to get vaccinated. A yearly flu vaccine is an important step in protecting against seasonal flu. Can I interject? They just lost me. I have never had a flu vaccine, I never will, and I can count on one hand how many times I’ve had a “flu” and I bet what I thought was a flu was a real bad cold. Back to the paper. Vaccination is expecially improtant for people at high risk of flu complications including young children, pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions, and people over 65. It is also important for health care workers, and others who live with or care for people at high risk. A seasonal flu shot will not protect against H1N1. A special vaccine for H1N1 is being developed. People at greatest risk for H1N1 are pregnant women, young people (6 mo – 24 yrs) and people with chronic health conditions. Hi there, me again. First of all, this years flu vaccine is based on last years strain. The strain mutates so quickly that this years vaccine has a small chance of being effective. (Only about 20 percent of all “flu-like” illness is actually influenza and only three strains of the many strains of type A and type B influenza that may be circulating during the year are actually included in the influenza vaccine).

Panel three – take flu antiviral medicine if recommended. If you get a seasonal or H1N1 swine flu, you may get meds. Take them. Isn’t America pill happy? Don’t we take every pill we can get, and then some? Does panel three have to be a reminder to take your meds? Couldn’t it be instructions on how to properly wash your hands or where to find free or low cost healthcare if you suspect you are sick but can’t afford your regular doc (or don’t have a regular doc)?

Giant pamphlet page one – Please review and reply. It’s boring. It basically says review and reply.

Page two is telling us enclosed we will find info on the H1N1 vaccine that is being provided by the CDC and the form needs to be filled out by Oct 22. It’s telling us that the vaccine is recommended for all children aged 6 months to 24 years (this is uber important later on, so remember it). It is advising us that all children will receive the intra-nasal live attenuated vaccine unless your child has an underlying health condition (such as asthma, diabetes or is immune compromised). They will be getting the intra-muscular killed virus injection. It says how it is important to fill in the paperwork correctly so they get the correct vaccine and if they are younger than 10 they get a second dose in 4 weeks, which is also free and will be provided at school. There are some phone numbers and stuff too.

Page three tells us about the live vaccine. Let’s skip to point four, which is what really got me. Point four states that LAIV (the live vaccine) is approved for people from 2 – 49 years of age. People who are 2 – 24, or 25 – 49 and live with or care for infants younger than 6 months of age or are health care or emergency personnel. Remember back up there it said 6 months to 24 years? Double talk much? There is a box that states while certain groups should not get the LAIV vaccine, it is important they be vaccinated. They should get the flu shot.

Page four starts with people who should not get the vaccine. You should not get the LAIV if you have a severe, life threatening allergy to eggs or any other substance in the vaccine. Except it doesn’t tell us ANYWHERE in this paperwork the other ingredients. Other groups who should not get the vaccine include children younger than 2 and adults over 50, pregnant women, anyone with a weakened immune system, anyone with long term health problems (such as, but not limited to heart disease, ling disease, asthma, kidney or liver disease and some other stuff) oh and it goes on. But wait, didn’t a page or two back it say EVERYONE 6 months – 24 years old should get the vaccine, and it’s important for people with compromised systems to be vaccinated? I am so sick of the CDC/Health Dept. double talk.

Page five and page six are more of the same, except for the injectable dead virus, not the inhaled live one. The page with people who should not get the vaccine is limited to those with severe allergies and Guillain Barre Syndrome.

My biggest issue is, we don’t vaccinate. If there is an outbreak of anything vaccine preventable I am required by law (and I’d do it anyway) to remove my children from school and keep them home for the duration of the outbreak plus two weeks. Okie dokie, no problem. But what about this? It’s a freaking live version of the H1N1 (weakened or not, it’s still there) and they will be in a school with hundreds of little walking incubators. Do I keep them home? For how long? I am going to chat with them tomorrow morning int he office to figure this out. I am so not happy about this, you can’t even imagine. This isn’t like a handful of kids likely having their regular live vaccines. This is likely 99% of the school. I don’t want my kids getting sick because everyone else is in a snit.