The Posters

Yesterday I spent some time writing up some posters for the children. They are nothing fancy, I assure you. I made 3 so far. The first is Routines, listing out Morning and Evening Routines. The second is Chores, and the third is the Daily Schedual. The posters need more work, as they are only written out in pencil. I'll take pictures later.

Some of my friends are already expressing curiosity as to what's on the Posters, that is working so well. I will write ours out for you :)

Routines:

Morning~
*Make Bed

*Get Dressed

*Dirty laundry to hamper
*Hair, hands, face, teeth

Evening~
*Final clean-ups
*Pjs on
*Dirty laundry to hamper
*Hair, hands, face, teeth, last drink, and potty

Chores:

• Put away clean dishes
• Wash dirty dishes
• Trash out
• Laundry hampers to wash room
• Fold and put away
• Wash table & highchair
• Pick up LR floor
• Pick up K floor
• Pick up H floor
• Sweep up entry floor
• Rabbit care
• Dog care
• Bird care
• Clean up bedroom
• Clean up playroom
• Clean up nursery
• Clean up bathroom
• Clean up outside toys

Now, now, don't freak out on me. These are things the children all work on together as a team, and we manage to get them done in a very reasonable amount of time, as long as we are doing it EVERY. DAY. I work with the children, sometimes helping with the task they are doing, other times doing the next step or a bigger part of the picture along side of them. 99% of the time, they are cleaning up messes they made :D So it's not impossible.... unless we don't bother doing the work after the play.

Daily Schedual:

8 am Wake up, Morning routine

8:30 Breakfast

9 am Morning Chores

10 am School -or- Project time

12:30 pm Lunch time

1 pm Recess Outside

1:30 School -or- Project time

3 pm Afternoon Chores

4 pm Recess time

5 pm Start Supper

7 pm Evening Routines -and- baths

*** 7:30 pm EARLY BEDTIME (consequence only)

8 pm Final Clean-ups -and- Feed Dogs

8:30 Story time

9 pm Lights out. No excuses.

Yes, I have Final Clean-ups in there twice in the evening. Jacob is as fast as greased lightening and as destructive as a hurricane when he's in a mood. LOL When it's not needed, they get that extra time for other things. We're not there yet.

Yes, I have 2 hours of chore time. They just wasted 37 minutes building forts behind closed dorrs while I typed this up for all of you. :) I need to go deal with that. ;)

Busy days

Things here have been rather busy. I wonder, if there is any other kind of day, really?

This last week has been rough with the 48 hour Flu slamming into our home and wrecking havoc with each person in turn. Jacob's first bout with the flu has been a doozy, to say the least. He was the first one to come down with it Monday morning and was the last one to finally get the tummy fully settled (yesterday).

Sometime during all that, my neighbor blessed us with a TON of tomato plants. :) I planted 28 and passed the rest onto a friend. We also planted corn, carrots, onion, and garlic. I still have TONS to plant. I'll be putting in raised tiers in the front yard along the house, for planting with mellons, squash and cucumbers... I may even set up a raised bed in the side yard. I have LOTS to grow!

As my friends are inspired to get their gardens going, I come across random questions. Things like "What are you going to do with all of the Harvest?" or "Aren't you going to do _______ for your ________???" You know, those are great questions!! Let me think and research some, and I will get back to you on that ;-)

I have a dehydrator sitting on my shelves, collecting dust. I have knowledge of canning, even if I don't (yet) have all the proper equipment. I have a small chest freezer out in the garage, just begging to be filled with flash frozen vegetables. I have a family of 6 people who LOVE to eat. I also have a network of friends local that can also benifit from any over-bounty :-)

Mostly, I am "gardening by the seat of my pockets" ;-) I've helped with a few gardens here and there over the years and, for 3 of the last 6 years, I have attempted to get some kind of benificial harvest from the little plots of earth around my caves. I have the world wide web and all of it's information at my fingertips, and I have picked up a few books. I do not know everything, least of all what I am doing. My plan is to have fun while we try and we'll learn along the way. If I'm REALLY lucky, the harvests will offset the funds I have poured into the soil so far.

I've passed out water guns to the children. They are happily shooting eachother, while the littlest one shouts POW-POW and shakes his. Hehehee

Oh! Weights and Measures!!

I weighed and measured Jacob and Kayleigh today. Jacob is 23 pounds and 31 1/4 inches tall. Kayleigh is 25 pounds and 35 1/2 inches tall. She's still the "bigger" sister to him for a little bit longer. LOL

Have a Blessed week!

Bucket Training

"Shhhhh" I tell the big girls, as thier studies in the kitchen get a bit loud. My little K-bug is sound asleep in the chair and bundled up. She and I were up most of the night, as she learned a new part of becoming a big girl.... Learning to spit up in the bucket, instead of all over everywhere. I still don't know why she's not feeling well, but for now, I am dealing with helping her feel better.

Last night, just after bedtime, K-bug started spitting up. After cleaning her up, changing bedding, and setting her up in a recliner, I went into the kitchen to find a little bucket that was just her size. I also went and grabbed a few fresh towels, blankets, and rags~ better to put away unneeded supplies, then to need them, and be unable to go get them!

I know this little girl is very bright, so I explained what the bucket is for "When your tummy is sick, you grab the bucket, lean over it (showed her) and put your spit in there. Don't Spill it, and momma will take it away to clean up." I put the bucket in arms reach of her (her OWN arms) and had her practice a few times. {"Oh no! Your tummy is sick! What do you do?" She thinks, and grabs the bowl. "Oh no!! Need to spit!! Where will you put it?" She leans over the bowl and dry spits *p-tew* "Oh good girl!! Now where does it go?" She hands it to momma.} Ok all set.

She drifts off to sleep~ only to wake up and need the bucket a few minutes later... She used the bucket! Yea! She decided that spitting also meant that Daddy needed to hold her again. Daddy cuddles her for a bit~ he almost looked ready to try to help me through this one.

She starts to get sick again, and starts refusing the bucket! EEK! I quickly realize that she thought having the bucket ready MADE her spit... ahhh I quickly explain the bucket is for IF she is sick, not to make her sick.... It just helps with the mess. She understands, and goes back to using the bucket. Back into daddy's arms. Poor baby. I cleaned up, and prepared the LR for tummy battles, and then scooped up K and told DH to go to sleep. He had to work today.

Once she is settled, I make her some tummy tea, and she has a sip or 2. She drifts to sleep again, and stays asleep for a while. No tummy yuk since 2 am. She didn't have a fever last night, but just before she fell asleep, she was freezing cold and warm to the touch. Her little brother was warm too.

Both are napping now~ and the big girls are working hard on their studies. :)

Garden Pictures

The Garden Takes Shape

I've been turning my garden area by hand, one shovelful at a time. I've learned a lot! Gardening MIGHT be a great anger management, as it gives you purposful destruction. Gardening can be good for an exercize routine- you're doing repetitive muscle movements for long periods of time (Heart rate up? Sure! Work faster!). Clay is not soil. Clay with BIG WORMS is good, but still not soil. Grass and sod turned under with out newspaper shavings smell like funky swamp rot when turning the soil the second time. I'll have to try the newspaper shreds trick next year and debate which plan was better.

Since the last post, I have finished turning the soil and clay for the second time. I've remeasured the perimeter and I have 220 sqft gardne area. My path has been stamped, kicked, and shoveled about and is rather clear in the dirt. Yesterday and today, I've been stabbing the clods of dried dirt and clay with my shovel, breaking them up smaller and smaller and shifting the resulting mounds into position.

Today, DH gave me a $40 dollar budget and took me to the Nursery. :-D

I got 11 packets and 1 meshed bag of seeds and things to plant, 4 cu ft of (some kind of "super soil fixer") ______________________ and 1 cu ft of chicken poo :-D DH found the 2nd Farmer's Almanac for Kids and picked that up for some lesson material for school.

He didn't he me trying to tell him how I was trying to bring down my total. The book was 10. I figured the seeds out at 2 dollars a packet ($22 -25) the soil was 16 and the poo was 6. I asked him if the book was seperate from the garden budget ("Huh? Yea" as we are walking to the really long line) Ok... I'm still about 5 dollars over.. "Ok, I'll go thru and put a few of these back for now" I chirp as I start sorting thru the little colorful packets in my hand. "No. Don't put anything back." He says to me :) I love this man!! "Ok Honey, Thank you!!"

$57 dollars later (Hey, I was REALLY close in my estimate) He had to think thru the sequence of events, closely to see how he agreed to almost 60.... hehehe

OH! :( The (really cool) watering can I had found! Ugh!!! I was horrified to discover it was TWENTY-five ninety-nine, not the mere 6 dollars I had thought I read. I must learn to wear my glasses all. the. time. *sigh* I quickly took that back inside! My thumb over the hose end or milk jug with sprinkle holes will work just fine!! LOL

I would LOVE to take a pic of the back yard right now, but the webcam on the computer likes the sun to be a bit lower first. I will snap pics before and after I spread the soil booster. I'll even take a picture of the bag, incase you want to use it to break up your clay and supplement the soil. They have another one for raised bed gardens too. :-)

Seeds that we have now include: Garlic, Onion, White Lisbon Onion, Rainbow Carrot, Rainbow Tomato, Cucumber, Lemon Cucumber, White Corn, Golden Corn, Radishes, Strawberry, Cantalope, Red Grape Tomato, Slicer Tomato, Spear mint, Basil, Carrots, Shrot carrots, Green Bean and Sweet Pea.