Schedule and Chore tips



calendar



I thought I would do a post on how I kept our family's schedule and chore chart organized.  With a family of 7 people, it is a must.  I miss those days (sometimes) when we were a family of three and my husband went to work and I stayed home and played with the baby all day and hardly anything on the schedule!  But that has changed as we have added kids and the kids have aged.  They get more activities to keep track of as they get older.  The first thing I have to help me keep organized is a great big calendar on my wall.  If anyone has an activity or appointment, they write it on the calendar (or they tell me so I can write it on the calendar.)  Once a week, usually on Sunday, we have a family council and we go through each child and both parents and go over everyone's schedule for the week.  The other thing that helps me is the big blackboard that my sister-in-law, Stephanie got us for Christmas.  I write on there important points of the weekly schedule and also the kids' weekly jobs.

A couple of years ago, we really didn't have chore assignments.  My husband and I would just ask different kids to do jobs and we would just assign them randomly.  We did try a schedule for washing the dishes...the two older kids and Scott and I would usually do them once or twice a week (rotating).  Then when Aidan turned 8, we decided to include him in the job rotation and we changed the job assignments.  We took four jobs-floors (all floors in the house, whether they need to be mopped or vacuumed), laundry (everyone's laundry!), dishes (includes setting the table and cleaning the counters) and the last job is both or our bathrooms.  We would assign everyone their job for 3 monthes and then rotate.  We did this for awhile but because they had the job for so long, sometimes it didn't get done very often.  So now we have the job assignments to weekly and it seems to work better and the house is a little cleaner.  The kids are also expected to keep their rooms clean.  The kids have done a pretty good job keeping up on their jobs but more often than not, they find evidence that the dish fairy or laundry fairy has been visiting!  it is interesting the different systems that we do to try and teach our kids work and to also keep our houses clean.  When my kids were young, I used to just clean the whole apartment (and later my house) just by myself.  I find that is just impossible to do it all myself now.   What systems works for you?

another girls night out

How lucky am I?  Two girls nights out in one week.  I have really filled my bucket this week.  Actually, I could say I've had a girls day out and a girls night out.  yesterday, I had lunch with my former roommates at Olive Garden and then last night, Kalli and I went to the Young Women broadcast and then we did a little shopping and grabbed her a bite to eat at Wendy's.  It was such a fun day.  I loved catching up with Angela and Jana and lunch was delish.  Angela is related to Janice Kapp Perry, so we went to my all time favorite store, Sea Gull Book, where she was signing CDs.  That was neat to be able to meet Sister Perry.  She is very nice. I just wish I had remembered to pull out my camera for a picture!  I will just blame being around so many books that I wanted to buy and read overwhelming my brain so I forgot!!!  Anyway, I love getting together with my roomies....it's been 20 years since we went to college together and I'm so glad they still like to hang out with me.  Kalli and I have been getting along great lately and I love it.  We had a lot of fun hanging out at the mall after the broadcast and looking at clothes and jewelry for fun.  I actually found her a really cute shirt for Sunday and got it for her and I found me a skirt.  Very fun.  Just think of what a nice mom I'll be this week because of all the pampering I got with my sisters, daughter and roomies.  :-)

Girls Night Out

My sisters and I had a girls night out and we had so much fun!  The best part of the whole night was just being together.  It has been hard to find time together till now because my youngest sister recently had a baby and I have been recovering from my surgery.  So it was great to hang out with each other.  We went shopping and bought some new clothes which was really fun.  We modeled for each other and found some great stuff.  It's been so long since I have tried on clothes that when we were trying on clothes, I discovered my true pants size.  I have been wearing a size 6 petite in my jeans but have had to wear a belt with them.  My sisters were "mad" at me because they got me a size 4 pants to try on and they were too big for me.  So my sister grabbed me a size 2, which I ended up buying.  The size 2 was still a little big on me but they worked. (I bought a new belt, too, for my pants)  I can fit a size 0! How cool is that! And I never knew. I always assumed I was a size 6 or 8 because that is what I always have worn.  It really has been a long time since I have bought clothes at a department store.  I did buy some pants at Kmart a little while ago but their sizes are Small, medium or large and I have always just bought a small.  Anyway, that was kind of fun for me to find out my true size.  Anyway, enough about that..sorry.  Then we went out to dinner and visited and ended up at our parent's house to watch a movie.  Our husband's were so awesome and stayed with home with our kids and held down the fort while we were out partying....I loved being able to fill my bucket, so to speak, and feel energized and ready to be productive at home. 

Beginnings

This is a picture of my honey, Scott and myself at the Sweetheart's Ball at Ricks College in February of 1993 just a few short months before we were married.  I found some of our dance pictures the other day and I liked this one the best.  The other ones, I just look weird. Anyway, it was fun to think back when I first met Scott and our courtship.  We went to Ricks College and met in my sophomore year.  He had been to Bozeman MSU for a year before his mission, went on his mission and his parents signed him up for Ricks.  So it was his 2nd year of Ricks also but his 3rd year of college.  I lived in Dorm 3 and his apartment was about a block west of the dorms.  We were in the same ward and in the same Family Home Evening group which was were we met.  He would come hang out with me and my roommates.  He helped me with my classes and eventually, I asked him out to a girls choice dance (I think Preference).  We had a great time and he ended up asking me out to Caberet which was a really formal dance...we got goblets that have the date on them and we have a set since we each got one.  He would walk me to my classes sometimes and we would study in the library.  We spent a lot of time together and just clicked.  Our first date was the last week of October but by Thanksgiving, I knew we had something special.  He came down from Montana after Christmas and spent a week with me and my family.  New Year's Eve, he proposed to me and we married in May, a month after spring semester got over in April.  A whirlwind romance but we spent nearly every day together after we met in September.  I am so lucky that I met such a wonderful man.  I think back at how young I was when I made such an important decision. I didn't know anything! But, I think having guidance from the Lord helped and He knew that Scott was a wonderful man and would be a great husband.  I don't believe in soulmates in the sense that there is just one person meant for another. I think that you must work hard at being the right person yourself.  But, I am so glad that I married Scott and I love him so much.  We have had a good life together and we continue every day to work on having a good marriage.  It is not something that you can neglect.    I am so grateful for my family and know that we are not perfect but every day I try the best I can to be a better person.  There are bumps in the road sometimes but that is to be expected.   I am entering a new phase in my life and it is sometimes really difficult.  I have a child that is almost an adult and my youngest children are approaching school age.  I thought that life would get easier but it has turned out more busy and just different.  I look back on posts when my boys were babies and I was in survival mode.  Those were fun days :-) but each stage doesn't get easier, just different.  I love my family so much!!! 

The New Westmore

what westmore will look like when it is done!

This is the school I went to when I was growing up...kindergarten through sixth grade and now my boys go there.  A few months ago, we found out how that it  wasn't up to earthquake code, except for the new gymnasium.  The public voted for a bond that made it possible to tear down Westmore and rebuild it so that it will be a safe place for our kids to be.  So we just have to live in the construction mess for awhile while they build it.  The gym will stay and the school will be built in phases so that the kids can still go there while it is being worked on.  So if you drive past, you will see the entire south field dug up in preparation for the construction. Pretty exciting.  But I just found out that the playground is not included in the building costs so the PTA has a big job ahead of them raising money for a playground in the next two years. Knowing the wonderful patrons of Westmore, I am not worried. Anyway, it is quite the project and since Aaron started preschool last week, it has brought me to the school more often and so I have paid more attention to what is going on.  Next year, Ammon will be going there too (hopefully) and so I will have a little more time that I can help more at the school and I am excited about that. it will be strange to not have little ones at home and nice to not have to arrange babysitting when I'm at the school!

Kael's Eagle Banquet

So last night was my first night out in public since my surgery and it felt good. I was a little tired when i got home but it felt good to be out and about and out of my pajamas. I am so excited to get back to life and back to normal.  I have a doctor appointment in two more weeks and that will mark six and half weeks from my surgery. Anyway, I am so proud of Kael that he got his Eagle.  The banquet was wonderful. I got to see a lot of people that I know and haven't seen for awhile.  We sat a table with our neighbors the Pretes and that was great too. They are such awesome people! the dinner was wonderful, turkey, potatoes and gravy, rolls, stuffing and salad. It was fun to see (Chef) Kent Anderson there...he was in our ward before we moved to our house and he just recently sold his house to our former neighbors the Cryers.  Such a small world!  Anyway, they had Sam Cardon play a couple of numbers for us on the piano and that was really awesome and then Br. Larry Gibson, a counselor in the General YM presidency for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints spoke to us. It was really great. He told us that only 6% of the YM in the church earn their Eagle award. He told us some great stories about scouting and also how much President Monson loves scouting.  Did you know that Pres. Monson has been on the Executive council for Scouting the longest of any of the members? Over 40 years.  His favorite merit badge (the prophet) was the pigeon raising one and he is always trying to convince the Scout Council to bring it back (which they won't)! :-)  Brother Gibson told us about his 5 Eagle Scout sons that all did the rabbit raising merit badge (Scott did that one too when he was in scouting). Br. Gibson's wife was so excited to be done with raising rabbits...they had two female rabbits and one male rabbits and  a lot of bunnies!  She said she didn't really see the merit and use of raising rabbits but Br. Gibson said their boys must have learned something good because they are on their 38th grandchild! That was pretty funny.  Anyway, it was a fun night and I am so glad for Kael and proud of Kael.  Only three more Eagles to go......

Scott's Jean Quilt

I have really been inspired by some great blogs on Pinterest so I thought I would write about a jean quilt that I made 10 years ago for my husband.  I had saved a lot of pairs of jeans (and I mean a lot) and my sister-in-law gave me a huge bagful of jeans that were worn out too badly to really be fixed into shorts or anything. So what I did was I drew a square on a paper for my template and I went through the jeans and cute a bunch of jean squares out. I didn't put any pockets but one on the back for the label but you could even use the pockets. I used many sizes of jeans, boys, girls, woman, men sizes.  Then when I had about 130 squares, I laid them out on the floor in the design I wanted. I went 13 down and 10 across. This fits my queen size bed but I wish I had made it a bit wider so next time I will do maybe 15 down and 13 across.  Then I sewed the squares one by one to each other in rows and then sewed the rows together so I had a nice quilt top. For the back I just used a sheet. I put a slim piece of cotton batting in between (not too much because this is a heavy quilt).  Then my grandma (who helped me sew the quilt top together and she helped me sew the quilt top, batting and sheet together) put my quilt on her quilt frames and we quilted it together.  It really turned out nice and I gave it to my husband for Christmas. I wrapped up the quilt top for Christmas and then I finished it by the end of Jan 2002. I heard somewhere that is a great idea to put labels on your quilts so when you hand them down to your kids, posterity will know who quilted it and when. Next time I make a quilt, I will take pictures step by step so I explain it better than I did in this post! But I don't know when that will be. I'm pretty busy with my kids. When I made this quilt, I only had two kids ages 7 1/2 and 3 1/2 so I had quite a bit more time on my hands than I do now!

Pinewood Derby 2012

the Pinewood Derby was last Saturday and all the boys had a great time. I wasn't able to go...I just didn't feel up to going out in public yet and I'm a little sad that I missed Aidan's first Derby but I know there will plenty more. Aidan's car did really well and Scott and he had a great time building it so that is what matters. We'll be in cub scouts for quite a long time so I know there a lot of derby's in the future! I'm glad that Aidan had such a good experience.