shoes on the shoe rack = $0.10/day (or up to $.070/week)
dirty clothes in the hamper = $0.15/day (or up to $1.05/week)
brush teeth = $0.25/day (or up to $1.75/week)
bath or shower = $0.25/day (or up to $1.75/week)
dishes to sink = $0.14/day (or up to $0.98/week)
toys away = $0.25/day (or up to $1.75/week)
room clean = $2.00/week
clean clothes away = $1.00/week

reward points (redeemable for stuff)
homework = 5 points daily
bag up = 5 points daily
read 20+ minutes = 5 points daily

It works out to $10.98/week if they do everything. I am keeping track of it in a fanciful app on my phone called Kids Rewards (no affiliation) so I don’t have to actually pay out every week. It keeps track of what they have “in the bank” and I can deduct when they decide to spend some or when we give them cash. The program deducts money/points if they don’t do something (and I mark it as undone), but I’m not sure how much I’ll utilize that. Maybe if I consistently see things going ignored, but right now I don’t think I’ll bother. Oh, and it can go into the negatives. That might come in handy as well later on down the line.

Eshiva has a slightly modified list going on – she gets cash for having a clean room, but everything else is on reward points. I think she is still at an age where she does better with a tangible reward than an abstract (like cash).

For myself? I downloaded Things for both my mac & my phone. I set up simple daily things to do, as well as weekly. It spreads out my to do list, and I just check it off when it’s done. It syncs too, which is why I went with Things. I can set it up on the computer in 1/5 of the time as it takes on the phone.

I am not as unorganized as needing these systems makes me sound, but they will keep me on a better schedule than I was on before and should help keep the kids on one too.

Of course, the family also claims they aren’t white supremacists, just proud of their German heritage. That’s why one of the other kids is Whatever Aryan Nation Whateverthelastnameis and the other kids middle name is Himler. WTFEver people. He also has swastikas all over the house and the whole thing is just creepy.

You can’t help but feel sorry for the kids. They are going to grow up to believe this or normal behaviour.

No, I don’t want people to forget about Adolph Hitler and the horrible things he, and Dr. Mengele, and Eva and all his cronies did. As soon as we forget, it will happen again. I don’t want to be rounded up and starved and worked and gassed and stuck in a mass grave. I don’t want to be torn away from my babies, my husband, my family. I also don’t want people who still believe in that bullshit to be allowed to breed. Then again, I suppose there are people who don’t think I should be allowed to breed, and I think my kids are smart and well adjusted, so it’s a stand off I guess.

Turns out there was a follow up to the story. Twelve children attended the birthday party, which had a cake, which was supplied by Wal*Mart. Well, good. The kids deserves a cake and a party. All kids do.

We had dinner with my Aunt, Uncle, Gram, Zaide, and the eight of us. My Aunt & Uncle got the kids gifts. Mal got visibly upset because he got a smaller bag than the other two. He is quiet enough and was talking into my neck enough that we passed it off as him being tired. Poor guy. He got over it quick enough (he got a very cool card game, as did Eshiva, but hers was packaged in a bigger box, and Dor got a ball that was not inflated, but it was packaged bigger too) but we felt bad for him. I remember how I felt getting a gift that I thought sucked when everyone else got cool stuff.

We bought boxes today. I am packing up our breakfront full of crap so I can get rid of the breakfront and sub out something much smaller. All the “crap” in there were my folks wedding fits, my moms owl collection, our “Jew” stuff and some misc. tchotchkes. Dad is asking why I am keeping it. I can’t bear to tell him it’s because I’m a girl and I am emotionally attached to anything that I feel still reminds me of mom. It’s getting better, I’m not saving *everything* some of it really is crap.

I told Michael to box up the tattoo stuff and take what he can to work – I haven’t drawn in over six months, and I haven’t set up the machines in almost as long. I went as far as looking through the stencils today and I just wasn’t feeling it.

My uncle is trying to find a cheap way to send me his studio lights, and we’re going to build a backdrop stand from PVC sometime soon after they arrive. I’m pretty excited about that. I also hinted that I’d be happy to take any other old equipment he isn’t using off his hands and give it a good home (he said he’d like to see his lights get some use in a good home) so maybe I’ll get some other surprise goodies too

I think I might branch out into printing some general greeting cards and stuff. Nothing in big batches, little micro batches I can list at my leisure to sell.

Cliff Bar brand put out organic twisted fruit leather things – I picked up a box on impulse today. They worked out to about fifty cents a package and the kids love them. One full fruit serving in there! Score!

I am back on my “mostly raw” raw diet. I put on a pair of size 10s this morning. I got them on, and had disgusting muffin top BUT I got them on and buttoned. I could not do that even last week. I took them off and put on a comfy pair of size 16s that fall off unless I belt them down. A few more weeks, I think, and I can dig out at least six pair of pants that I haven’t been able to wear for longer than I care to admit.

I’ve been food shopping at the WalMart food store. This should go in confess I guess, but I spent 200$ where I’d normally have spent over 300$ so I don’t care that bad. It’s not like they are putting Publix out of business or anything.

I <3 my dreads. I feel bad putting wax and crap in them, but I need them to look good and not like I am wearing a rabid mop on my head. All in all, it’s working and I am pleased with them and have not threatened to brush them out or cut them off. Yay!

I think that’s it. I am feeling restless and I want to be doing all these things and I just can’t pick one to focus on, so I am kind of doing like, 5 – 10 minutes of a lot of things. It sucks.

Thanksgiving was nice – my gram and aunt came over, we had a feast. Ham, roastbeast, brisket, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, green beans, macaroni & cheese, garlic potatoes, party potatoes, and I can’t remember what else. We recently ran out of leftovers (rightovers).

I went in and had my hair done up in dread-twists on this past Monday. These photos are from today. They took 7.5 hours from start to finish (minus a 20 minute break).

Yes, they are small – they will bulk up a bit once the twist lets go a little, and I wanted the smaller ones for better coverage. I have them sort of pinned back in these photos.

I have been busting my ass over at azxureDawn to not only get work done that I have, but bring in more. I can’t win – either I am too idle for my own happiness, or I am too swamped to keep up. I wish I could find a happy medium.

I am going with my dad in two weeks to finish the kids holiday shopping, but most of it is done. I didn’t stand by not spending any money this year, but all told I think we spent under 150$ on all three combined. We got some inexpensive little stuff, and Michael got some good black Friday deals. They each got a metal slinky, a mini gumball machine and legos. We also got a SpeedRacer Wii game, Guess Who, some other Wii game (I can’t rememeber – it was a collection of mini games), the Ladybug Game, Kung Fu Panda (10$ @ CVS!), HotWheels Wii game, a dinosaur game and a sea monster game. Eshiva is getting one more thing picked up this evening, and my dad will get them each two more things (I try very hard to give one thing every night of Channukah, so they each get eight total). Dor asked for more Star Wars books and another Didj game, so there are his two, and I have no clue what to get the other two. I also need to pick up a cord for my brother and one more gift (they’ve outgrown needing eight things… I hope!), and something for my sister, and something for my dad. I am thoroughly stumped on his gift. Michael got a new tattoo machine and a GPS for his holidays gifts (he totally got them both himself, but both were splurges).

I got a tidy paycheck today, so I bought myself a present. Ritz Camera was having a sale on filters (I know, it’s kind of a waste, since I can do it in PhotoShop, but I wanted to experiment without using PS) so I got

Seeing as I had gone to price check a Nikon F/1.2 50mm, I didn’t do so bad. I came away with the less expensive lens (which does the same thing) and three filters for less than the Nikon brand lens. I just wish I wasn’t too cheap to pay for over night shipping lol  Eh, it wouldn’t have been here by tomorrow anyway. I guess I could have seen if the local Ritz had it in stock – I just thought about that. No worry. I’ll have plenty of chance to use it, and the lenses I have are perfect for the trip anyway.

We picked up a Wii Fit – the kids are loving it and I am hoping it does some good. I’ve done more yoga in the past two days than I’ve done in the past two months (longer even) and I’ve had fun doing it. Yay!

For you nosy types, here’s the description:

Here is a brand new Nikon 52mm lens reversing ring for extreme Macro close up photographs. Macro-photography is one of my favorite forms of photography. You will be surprised to see what is lurking just out of site. You will have so much fun you will hardly be able to stand it! To give an example of what this will do, I will use this illustration, results may vary depending on your lenses, this is just a ballpark figure from what I have here. If you use a 55mm (focal length) Macro lens that has a 1:1 ratio capability and take a photo of a dime you will get almost a full frame of the dime. With this ring attached to the camera the lens mounted in reverse you will almost get a full frame of the date on the dime. This is for extreme Macro and if you use longer lenses with Macro capability you will get ultra close to the smallest subjects! The threads are 52mm so the front ring of the lens you want to mount in the reverse position needs to have a 52mm front ring. You can also use step up or down rings to make this fit other lenses that are bigger or smaller than 52mm. The ring is brand new in the box made in Japan. This is not a Nikon brand item but it is very high quality. This is for the Nikon manual focus cameras and will also fit the Auto Focus Nikon cameras.

Fun stuff, I can’t wait for it to get here! I almost got a macro/fish eye instead (also cheap as fuck, so how good could it really be, right?) but I can’t see using a fisheye more than a handful of times for the sake of using it.

Malachai had a dental appointment this morning. First of all, it’s around a half hour drive. Not so bad, but not great either. Then we wind up parking on the top floor of a six story parking complex, elevator down, figure out where to go and sign in. The doctor was great, tried to help calm him down, good with kids. It’s already better than the last dentist we tried to see. I barely got him in the chair – no xrays today either – and he was papoosed into the chair. I held his hands (they didn’t get them in there lol) and his legs and they used one of those doohickeys to keep his mouth open while she did a super-quick exam and cleaning/rinsing/brushed on the fluoride.

He has a cavity in the top front teeth (it’s smack in the middle of both, I guess technically it’s two) however, as he is six, she said we’ll just let them fall out on their own instead of treating the cavity. He isn’t in pain, which is why this visit got put off so long, so I wasn’t super worried anyway. I wanted it looked at just in case, and it has been, so good.

He has another appointment in six months.

He screamed the entire way out to the car (I carried him, heavy boy!)  and continued to do so in the car. Turns out he looooves music – I realized just how much in the past few days – so I was playing pseudo-DJ in the car to find stuff he likes.

We decided to take a quick trip into IKEA. Had some lunch (it had been long enough between the fluoride and getting there to eat) did some shopping, dropped Mal off at school as he was suitably calmed down and came home.

Our internet was down this morning, so I am catching up on email and some work that needed uploaded. Decided to take a blogging break.

This afternoon Mal has therapy, Michael is headed down to Sunrise to get some more work done. Meatballs and rice for dinner. Yay IKEA lol I need to get my camera out and take some photos. I’m not even participating in my own photo contests *sigh*

Michigan Messenger » Lose your house, lose your vote.

Michigan Republicans plan to foreclose African American voters

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

State election rules allow parties to assign “election challengers” to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.”

You have to read the whole article. They are targeting people who have lost their homes, and who have no proof of address. Perhaps they have moved outside of their voting area, or in with family and don’t have proof of address available (such as utility bills in their name).

Featured Windows Download: Mazzick Puts Mouse Gestures on Your Thumb Drive.

Neat little thing. Too bad it’s Windows only but I use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, so I don’t know that I’d find it especially useful… I just think it’s neat. I’m sure I’d have a plethora of shortcuts, especially since I use a trackpad on my laptop. You know, if I could use it on a Mac. I also expect it would lose that “new” pretty quick, so it might not get used all that much afterall…

I stand by it being neat.

Took Malachai to therapy, got a flat tire on the way there. Took care of that, therapy went well. I was shown hot to do joint compression with him and he worked on strength and whatnot. Fun stuff! He also started speech today.

Came home, did… something. Played MouseTrap somewhere in there with the kids. Michael is making sloppy joe for dinner. I dyed my sisters hair, I haven’t seen how it came out yet. Ordered a couple of new machines for myself (a rotary machine and a craptastic cheap one to use as a learning tool). And that pretty much wraps up my day! I so want to go out, I don’t want to be home. Oh well.