A new route

Well it is glaringly obvious I am not a dedicated project life poster....in fact the picture a day doesn't happen.

I thought about deleting the blog completely since I lack the commitment it takes to post regularly, but I do have some good posts on saving money, earning money and family posts I don't want to delete.....so the blog will go on.....it will just be 'life'.   So whatever may come up may get posted.....

Simple Summer Fun List

Summer fun can be hard to come by when both parents work full time...one working every other weekend and the other having summer as the busy time of the year.  

So I asked the kids input for a summer fun list....it consisted of the first 8 items on the list.

I didn't want a list of 100+ items because honestly it's just not possible for us in the summer.

This is my first attempt of making a list....I used PicMonkey for it.

January 26 - February 2

January 26 - eating dropjes

January 27 - being silly eating a yogurt on the desk

January 28 - chilling having a hot chocolate and watching TV

January 29 - posing for a picture

January 30 - grabbing a hammer and putting on dad's boots

January 31 - first night in  the bottom bunk....didn't last it was his only night so far

February 1 - trying to sign up for J's hazmat team

February 2 - multi-tasking (2 lap tops, 2 tablets and a phone) and drinking too much coke

January 21-25

January 21 - the laundry couch does get empty sometimes; but it doesn't last long.

January 22 - playing around. R loves "back pack" rides

January 23 - found A and Lolo sleeping together, the cat is getting used to the kids

January 24 - Gerald started moving furniture and emptying out the bedrooms that need to be renovated.....which means 4 kids will have to share 1 room.  Happy 2 bunk beds fit!

January 25 - A asked for her picture to be taken.

January 15-20

January 15 - look what I did!  Got into paint!

January 16 - Auction time...which means taking pictures of items

January 17 - Looking awfully cute in overalls

January 18 - being lazy

January 19 - being silly and putting the stickers from baby wipes on his mouth

January 20 - reality....we're a couple days behind on folding laundry

January 10-14

January 10 - Movie Night enjoying some snuggles

January 11 - went to my cousin's wedding and stayed at the hotel - the view from the 20th floor where we had complementary breakfast the next morning

January 12 - picking up the kids at Grandma's and playing some rummikub before leaving

January 13 - J & A were chit chatting to much so I told ONE of them to go to our room to sleep; both went and fell asleep snuggled on G's side of the bed.

January 14 - My day off work so we made some Amish Friendship bread together,

Project Life - January 6-9

January 6 - Rainbow Loom creations have been popular here

January 7 - Dad reading a chapter to J. (Ok totally didn't realize Jared had the same shirt on....mom of the year LOL - there was no school anyways)

January 8 - R being silly.

January 9 - (yes he's wearing the same shirt....) R being a big boy and making his own sandwich: bread, bread and fried egg on the bottom

Project Life 2014

Trying again this year at Project Life!  I hope to do better this year.

January 1: R excited to do some crafting/colouring.

January 2: I forgot to take a picture when the kids were up...and C's picture sleeping turned out better than J's.

January 3: Let's do Perler Beads before we get dressed!  Lazy days when home from school.

January 4: Daddy's helper making shelves in the basement.

January 5: Watching a new Barbie movie we rented makes for a really happy girl (and she picked out her own clothes).

On to a new project

Project Life just didn't turn out for me this year....my husband and I went away on a retreat and therefore didn't take any pictures for the weekend and I just didn't find our 'life' varied enough for new pictures...it's also hard when I'm working full time and my morning hours are spent getting ready and evening hours are spent with other things.

Anyways maybe I will try again later.....

My new project is something I decided to try after reading "Cleaning House: A mom's 12 month experiment to rid her home of youth entitlement"

A lot of the items in the book most of my kids are too young but I figured I could start with other things that at this age are habits they need to learn to start.  Like me not having to nag them to brush their teeth!  I also altered it to be based on weeks and then the money will be deposited into their virtual ThreeJars bank.

So Week 1 - we are going to work on Brushing Teeth!  I have told them if they don't brush their teeth $1 will be removed from their jar.

My other items to work on will be:
Keeping bedroom tidy
Practicing Piano
Setting/Clearing the table
Loading the dishwasher
I will definitely think of more but that's my start

Day 45

My attempt at heart hair for Valentines Day.

Day 43

Due to the snow day J's class is celebrating the 100th day of school today.  Here is what J may look like when he's 100.  Complete with white hair and bald on top.  I don't know if his teacher will be able to keep a straight face. (The picture doesn't seem to show the baldness well).  I offered to give him wrinkles with make up but he didn't want me to.

Day 39

C has really been enjoying oragami and looking up youtubes on how to make it.  Here she put the little doll she got at a birthday party tonight into the oragami dress. ETA C took the picture of the day too.

Day 38

I was parent helper today in JK.  It was "d" day so A is putting the dots on her letter d.

Day 37

C was ready in time this morning to get to play on my phone.  Sometimes the phone is a little too loved by the kids.

Project Life Day 35 & 36

Reality is that Day 35 I came home from work, helped setting the table, ate supper, looked at the kids school stuff and talked to them, changed and left for a meeting for the auction.  So I took 2 pictures today.  J happy to have peanut butter cups and C working on a picture for her friend.

Day 34

Watching the Swan Princess on netflix together.

Day 33

We don't take the kids out to sit down restaurants much (honestly I'd rather enjoy a sit down restaurant with just Gerald and I), but tonight we decided to treat the kids.  C has her heart set on Braxtons because that's where we took them for their birthdays, but I had gift cards for East Side Marios so that's where we went.  C has discovered that she also likes East Side Marios.  All the kids ate really well there too which is good.  I think the best part of the meal was I had bought the gift cards on cardswap and got about 8% in swappoints back (which you can use to redeem for another gc - so essentially I could get $8 back from my purchase).  I asked our waiter if he could do the tip on the gift cards, he said he could just bring the change (which was just over $35).  I left a tip after I got my change grabbed the rest of the cash and left; Gerald was waiting in the van with R.  After we got in the van I looked at my change, the waiter accidentally gave me $10 too much, so I went back and told him, he said keep it, it was his mistake and not to worry about it.  I couldn't just pick one pictures so I took 3.  C was totally telling A to pose and pretend to be looking at a menu.

Project Life Day 32

Today we attended the funeral of my aunt who I have so many good memories having lunch at their house and my cousin Liz doing my hair and make up.  Thankful for friends who could take C & J after school for us so we didn't need to worry about leaving quickly and could spend some time with family.  When we picked up C she had made this at her friends house for us, Uncle Paul, Lizzy, Rick & Logan (she did say it was also for Henry & Stacey).

Project Life Day 31

C has spent 2 1/2 hours yesterday and today cleaning.  Since there is no paper route or anything like that here for her to earn money I said she could earn extra money by doing extra chores.  She's eagerly cleaning to earn enough money to buy an ipod.  The floor in the bedroom before was covered in lego and dress up clothes - now you can actually walk & play in there.

Project Life Day 30

A asked me to take a pic of her holding R on the rocking chair.  Later C took a bunch of pics and caught what looks like the start of one of R's tantrums when he gets told NO (it usually ends up with him throwing himself on the floor).