Chores seem to be a hot topic with the moms. And the dads. And the kids. Do you "make" your kids do chores? Do you pay them? How much do they do? How much do you pay? Should they be paid at all? Isn't work around the house the price for being part of the family? Why do I have to do this?  How much will you pay me? How come I'm the one who has to clean the cat's box? (These last three are kid questions and should be read using your whiniest most annoying voice.)

I'm not going to tell you what I think you should do when it comes to family chore assigning. Your family is your family and my family is my family and what works for mine might not work for yours. But maybe it will so I'll share. 

Our kids do chores. They don't sing rainbow songs and give us kisses while they're doing them, but they do them with a minimum amount of fuss. And they get paid. And here's why:

Scheduling chores for our kids has taught them responsibility, service to others, and time management skills. It has also taught them that Mom is less of a housework shrew when they are on top of their jobs. Seriously, few things cheese me off more than having one of them sigh because I'm vacuuming around them while they're trying to watch the episode of Spongebob that they've already seen a million gazillion time.s AND they're behind on their chores. 

Paying our kids is just a crafty way to teach them money management before they head off to the "real world" and find themselves sucked into a life of debt. It would devastate us to find our adult children losing sleep juggling minimum balances on their 14 credit cards all because we didn't teach them how to budget and live within their means. 

 

We assign chores based on age and ability. We pay enough for them to buy stuff from the grocery store and Target, but not enough to go hog wild at either place. They also donate a portion and save a portion. They do not get paid if their work is not completed. 

Chores change each quarter and are posted inside a black picture frame hung on the wall at our kitchen desk area. This is also where the family calendar is kept and mail is sorted. A dry erase marker is kept on top of the frame for crossing off completed chores. This is then erased at the end of the week. There is a Schedule A and a Schedule B. These schedules get rotated during the quarter whenever one of the kiddos dutifully reminds me that they're tired of being the one who always (insert whine again) gets up early to feed the chickens. Also, we have quite a few garden/flower beds that require some weeding so I've divided the yard into zones and these zone assignments change with the schedule/quarter. Note: It may look like they have to weed everyday, but they don't. They can complete their weeding at anytime during those 6 days. Another Note: While I have/will teach my kids how to do laundry, this is not one of their chores. "Laundry" on the chore chart means they have to bring any dirty laundry down to the laundry room for me. This includes used bath towels, bedding, and all of the socks shoved under the couch. They also have to put away their clean laundry. Yet another note: Re: vacuuming. I'll never forget the amazement of my sweet friend, Liz, when she stopped by my home and "caught" the then-16 year old Chuckles vacuuming the living room. She was surprised to see him vacuuming the baseboards and moving furniture to clean underneath it. One of the benefits of kid chores is that you shouldn't feel the need to go back and redo their work. Teach them how do it "the right way" (when they're old enough/mature enough) and problem solved. 

The posted chores are not the only work our kids do around the house. There are unpaid "you're part of this family" things that come up that need to be done. And they do them. They still don't sing rainbow songs, but they don't whine, either. 

 Every once in a while, Pinterest does me the favor of not making me feel like a completely uncrafty loser. 

When we bought the homestead almost a year ago, we inherited quite a few things: those three chickens I won't shut up about, a drawer full of random plastic containers, the ugliest office curtains ever made, a garden run wild with persistent morning glories, and a giant pile of ancient bricks. I'm calling them "ancient" because every time The Husband and I talk about what to do with them, we keep adding a few decades onto their age and now it's to the point where we don't remember how old the previous owners said the bricks really are. 

So I decided to love the chickens and throw out the plastic junk and the hideous curtains. The Husband poisoned the morning glory and stacked the bricks up neat and tidy in the back part of the garden where they forlornly waited to be put to use. 

Enter: Pinterest

I first "pinned" the idea of making a birdbath out of bricks over a year ago to my "Super Cool Ideas" board (I really must come up with a different "super cool" name for this board) where it was quickly forgotten amid 100+ other "super cool ideas".  Then around three months ago, I came across it and repinned it to my "Great Outdoors" board. I wish I could say that was when I had my "Aha! Moment" and started building this "super cool" birdbath in our "great outdoors". It was not. No, I squirrelled (FUN FACT: Squirrelled has the longest spelling of any standard English word with one syllable if you don't spell it the American way and if you don't use an accent) away this idea until it popped back into my consciousness a couple of weeks ago. 

Enter: The Husband

Because I can sometimes be more of a dreamer than an actual transport-bricks-across-a-long-expanse-of-yard kind of gal, I delegated the building of the birdbath and used promises of chicken-fried steak to lure compliance. And The Husband did not disappoint. (Neither did the steak)

Here is a close-up:

No mortar was needed; the bricks were stacked in a random pattern that ensures stability. He placed an old saucer on top and added a couple of broken terracotta pieces so our feathered friends will have a place to perch. A few ferns and some Lily of the Valley were planted at the base and should look nice and lush soon. And once we decide on what we're doing with the rest of the bed, this should all look "super cool". 


Now I just need to revisit my Pinterest boards and figure out what to do with the rest of the bricks... 

Waaaay back in January, I listed "Start Blog" at the top of my 2014 list of goals. I should have added "Keep Up With Blog". But then winter happened.

After spending the last two decades in warmer, more southern regions, my first winter back in the Pacific NW was rough. It rained (which I didn't mind for awhile). It snowed (which I loved). It iced (which was a pain, but I hunkered down and endured). There were some health "issues". The sun developed Dissociative Identity Disorder. The chickens stopped laying. Dieting happened (and if that isn't enough to put you in a right ol' funk, I don't know what is).  And around February, we all got the homeschool winter blues. 

So here's what I've been doing since my last post:

1. Netflix 

Short list, I know. And rather pathetic. Obviously, I've done more than this, but catching up on outdated tv shows is how I spent an embarrassing amount of time. 

Whew! That confession felt good! 

So now that Spring is right around the corner, here is a peak at some of the posts you can look forward to in April (in no particular order):

1. How to get your veggie beds up and ready for spring planting
2. Homeschool Co-0p news (we finally joined one)
3. Starting from seed
4. A recipe for The Husband's Top Secret Soil Mix
5. Videos starring our curriculum
6. Our newest Pinterest Project
7. A video tour of my Home Management Binder
8. The Attic: A Before and After Story of Redemption
9. How to make a veggie trellis on the cheap
10. A baby chick update....they're still alive!!!

For those who are still with me....thank you! I will post with more regularity and have put myself on a blogging schedule since I obviously cannot be trusted to use my free time responsibly. : )

Just ten short days ago, The Husband and I celebrated Valentine's Day and our 21st anniversary by adding to our little homestead family. We woke up bright and early and headed to the local feed store to pick out two Ameraucana pullets. We came home with three and this is why: Apparently, these itsy bitsy cutesy balls of fluff are quite fragile and if you want two to live, you'd better buy three...just in case. We are new to this whole homesteading way of life and baby chick mortality rates are just one of the things we learned that day. We learned that the word "pullet" is just another name for "itsy bitsy cutesy ball of fluff that's also a girl". We learned it would be months and months before we could introduce them to the three hens we inherited when we bought our home seven months ago. We learned that we had to buy a heat lamp that would turn our laundry room into the Planet Venus. And we learned that these tiny girls who could fit into the palm of my hand required a 50lb bag of medically enhanced food. So we bought all of our supplies, took our babies home, and named them Betsy Ross, Molly Pitcher, and Martha Washington.....because they are Ameraucana chickens...get it? 

We chose the laundry room as their temporary digs as it is a room I'm constantly using (much to my chagrin) and it has a door we can shut to keep our dog and cat from treating our newborns like chew toys. Now I have not earned the nickname "Martha Stewart" for nothing, and so when we had to decide on a container, my antique galvanized produce bin from an A&P was the obvious choice. Babygirl and Beans were put to work tearing newspaper into strips, I fixed up the food and water containers, and The Husband put together the heat lamp from hell. And then we all sat criss-cross applesauce on the laundry room floor and acted like poultry paparazzi.  

And all was well....for around 24 hours. I noticed that while Betsy and Molly were racing around like speed addicts, Martha was looking a bit lethargic. And (hold up here...it's about to get icky) she had a rather large chunk of poo stuck in her fanny. So we did what our homesteading ancestors would've done and googled "poo stuck in fanny". Huge mistake. HUGE. We tried again with a more generic search term of "chicken ailments" and found that Poor Little Martha Washington had a common baby chick condition known as "pasted vent" and, yes, that's every bit as gross as it sounds. Basically, she was dying of constipation. I then called the feed store, talked to the Chicken Expert On Duty, and was advised to give them the feed only during the day, add some sugar to the water container, and use a warm cloth to gently remove/wipe away the stuck poo. Done. Done. And, ew, done. I was also told to hand water Poor Little Martha Washington as often as I could by using my fingertip to drop water into her beak. So that's what I did....for hours. And I talked to her, and I prayed for her, and I held her tiny little body in my hand as she died during the night. 

Before we left for church the next morning, we all said goodbye to Poor Little Martha Washington, and The Husband buried her under the crab apple tree. 

It is now a week and a day later and I'm happy to report that Betsy Ross and Molly Pitcher are thriving. They suck down an entire bottle of water every single day, they are quickly going through that 50lb bag of food, and are twice the size they were a week ago. Their sweet little "cheep, cheep, cheeps" are the cutest sound ever. I love sitting on the floor of the laundry room and watching as they eat from my hand and peck at my fingers. I wish they would stay this size forever. And although we are throwing ourselves into the homesteading lifestyle with abandon, I cannot foresee a time where my new babies will end up in a stew pot. 

And now here's the truth about the demise of Poor Little Martha Washington: 

She didn't die. She's alive and well. Poor Little Betsy Ross is buried under the crab apple tree. We just liked the name Martha the least, so we changed Betsy's name. Awful, I know, but I'm guessing that, in time, Betsy will forget she was once a chick named "Martha". 

The bathtub is my sanctuary, my lavender-scented escape, my Fortress of Solitude. When the children were young, The Husband skillfully kept them from breaching my hideaway and now that they're older, abject fear of seeing me unclothed is all that's needed to keep them from invading my "me time". 

This is where you'll find me at 8pm just about every single night. I make no apologies. I have no guilt. Why should I? My much-adored family has 20+ hours a day to ask questions, make demands, add to my ever growing grocery list. So, no, I don't feel the least bit selfish for taking an hour or two for myself. That's right....an hour or TWO...sometimes it's three. It depends on the day. I have heard strange tales of people taking a bath in 30 minutes or less. Frankly, I don't believe them. It takes me a solid 30 minutes just to unwind and get my thoughts in order. And I don't consider a good soak a success unless the tub has been refilled with fresh hot water at least twice. 

Do I think every parent should use this as their way to unwind and regroup? No. Absolutely not. Babygirl, for instance, will never use this method of relaxation. She simply cannot fathom how I can "soak in my own filth". Her words, not mine. I am truly a hygienic person. I swear. But I do think you need to find something that is yours and yours alone. Find a place to "clean" yourself of the worries and frustrations of the day. Find your own Fortress of Solitude. Just don't find any guilt in it. We all need a moment of silence and reflection. For some, it's 15 minutes of quiet. For others, it's an hour at the gym, a walk around the neighborhood, time in the garden. I don't know what it is that relaxes you and helps you unwind. I only know mine. And mine makes me a better wife, mom, teacher, and friend. And there's no guilt in that. Now if you'll excuse me, the bubbles are calling my name....

I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. Only Martha Stewart and every single one of my ex-boyfriends can make me feel more inadequate. Just when I think I've got my crap together....BOOM!!! I find out that the "good" moms are making Monet waterlily paintings out of broccoli and kale for their kids. And buying $30 bento boxes for carrots and string cheese! A life-sized replica of Westminster Abbey made out of empty toilet paper tubes?!? Are you freaking kidding me?!?
However, every once in a while, I come across something that doesn't take an advanced art degree to make. I present....Laundry Soap. This is by far the best idea I've seen on that soul-sucking site.. 

1. It's economical.
2. I'm capable of making it. 
3. It actually works.

To make four batches, you'll need less than $12. I make this much at a time and it lasts for around 6 months. 

Buy:
1 box of Borax
1 box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 
4 bars of Fels-Naptha laundry soap
2 large bowls

Using a food processor, grate the 4 bars of laundry soap. They will resemble cheddar cheese. CAUTION!! They do not taste like cheddar cheese. I was making this just yesterday, went into the laundry room for something, and heard The Husband exclaim, "Oooh! Cheese!" I stopped him just in time.
Put all of the shredded soap into a large bowl and add 4 cups of borax and 4 cups of the washing soda. 
Change out the shredder attachment on your food processor to the regular metal blade and add your soap mixture (in small batches), process, and add to second bowl. You will have a powder that is slightly more coarse than store-bought powdered detergent. 
I use 1 - 1 1/2  TB per load of laundry....2 TB if I'm washing The Husband's stinky gym clothes. 

Questions you may have:
1. Is this *really* that much cheaper? Yes!! Yes!! A thousand times Yes!!
2. Will it work in my HE washer? I'm not a Whirlpool or Maytag expert so I do not know if the manufacturers would recommend this detergent. I do know that I use it in my Maytag and my mom-in-law uses it in her Kenmore and we have yet to experience a problem. In fact, I don't have that musty smell in my washer that so many HE owners complain about having. 
3. But what if I'm making a monster batch of this stuff and I lose count and accidentally add in an extra cup of washing soda? The Horror!  I've done this and noticed no difference in cleaning performance.

So will I continue to "pin" on Pinterest? Yes. Because for every 100 times that I feel like a failure, there's that one time that makes it all worth it. 

The end of our first semester is in sight!! Could I *be* any more thrilled? (You simply must use your best Chandler Bing voice for this) No, I cannot! We have been rather loosey-goosey with the schedule this year and are now cramming everything into these last few weeks. One subject I've been rather pleased with is our morning "God Class". 

We homeschool for many different reasons, but religious ones were not a huge factor in our decision. I don't even remember it coming up much at all except that homeschooling does allow us to add some God into our regular studies.
Having said that, we actually do begin each and every morning with Him. Now Babygirl and Beans have gone to church since birth....Sunday School, Children's Church, "Big" Church, VBS, etc., and while they have been entertained, they have not learned a whole lot about why we are a Christian family. And because I firmly believe that one of the best gifts God has given us is the gift of choice, I want them to make their own choice and not just blindly follow along with the choice The Husband and I made for ourselves. 

I found out about this book (the one in the pic up there) at CurrClick.com one day as I was looking at all of their lapbooking resources and deciding whether or not cutting and pasting a bunch of tiny things in folders would be a good fit for a teen and tween. This book contains 10 chapters or lessons that do an excellent job explaining who Christians believe God to be. There are also a ton of side stories, mini-biographies, works of art, and worldview info. And CurrClick had a $24.99 lapbook on sale for $5.00 (score!!!) that went along with the book. (To be clear, they only sell the lapbook printables on their site....I bought the book on Amazon) We had never done a lapbook before and I wasn't sure if it would be too "babyish" for my kids. It wasn't. We covered a LOT of information using this book and the lapbook provided a way to organize all of that info into little colorful bites instead of it just being a long list of boring facts scribbled in a notebook and quickly forgotten. 

I'm thrilled that we remained true to our schedule for this class and I'm excited for them to begin next semester's work.

Below is a pic of Babygirl's nearly completed lapbook:


 

I've never followed a blog from the very beginning so I have no idea what that first post normally looks like. Do they start off with an introduction? Or do they just jump right in with their existing thoughts, ideas, projects? If you've stumbled upon my little blog, then I presume you're more interested in the latter. But if I'm wrong, and you want to know about me, click the About box. If you want to contact me, click the Contact box. If you click on any of the other boxes, you'll be disappointed as they are currently empty. 

My prevailing all-consuming task is keeping on top of the resolutions that I made on 1/1/14.  Deals you make with yourself are tricky. You start off with good intentions and then somewhere around Day Two, you begin making side deals. "Exercise Every Day" becomes "Vacuuming Counts". "Eat Healthy" becomes "That Cookie Counts As A Grain". "Read The Bible Every Day" becomes "I Read That Scripture On The Highway Billboard....That Counts". And on and on.... However, here we are on Day 21 of the new year and I have kept up every. single. one. of. my. resolutions. Countless books, articles, and internet tales have told me that it takes exactly 21 days to form a new habit and my biggest fear is waking up tomorrow and finding out that they're all a bunch of liars. 


Thank you so much for taking the time to read this short maiden post. I told the one person who agreed to follow me that I would regularly update this blog and I will remain true to that promise.