A Spoonful of Sugar

This week I decided that it's now or never for laying down the law!  Haha.  But seriously -- if I wait until everything is unpacked and in order before getting back to a regular routine and schedule, it's never going to happen.  So on Monday, I created a new chore chart for the new house, along with a daily schedule for the rest of our summer, and you know what?  It went down MUCH better than I was expecting!  I guess we all do better with structure.  :)

And since a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, I have also officially reinstated the possibility of earning allowance.  Grace in particular is thrilled.  ;)  In order to earn said allowance, however, they have to complete a weekly chart of responsibilities.  We've done this concept for several years now, but we've been a bit lax for the last little bit.  The chart of responsibilities has slowly been whittled down to just doing their chores every day {which they don't always do anyway} and I was getting frustrated with the sense of entitlement that was creeping into all of their attitudes.

So, for our Summer Schedule of 2018, we've gone back to basics and they have the following items to check off on their charts every day:

• Morning ✓ -- being awake to participate in Scripture Time (which we've now set to 9 AM); making bed; and helping with a morning tidy up of the family room and kitchen.
• Zone -- the house has been divided into 5 zones that Ethan through Alex are assigned to clean for the week (Family Room, Piano Room, Bonus Room, Upstairs Hall, and Downstairs Hall).
• Assignment -- we discovered YEARS ago that no one will clean the kitchen as a zone if it's assigned to them (it's just too overwhelming), so we split up kitchen jobs into "assignments" and that has helped to do the trick.  Additionally, this summer I decided to do an experiment and see if we will have better luck in having someone besides me or Scott do the dishes if we split it up into loading and unloading the dishwasher, and so far it's been working pretty good!  But then again Ethan is on unloading duty and Sophie is on loading duty, and they were the only two kids who ever did the dishwasher even when the assignment was to do both, so who knows?  (Current assignments for the summer -- Morning Dishes (unload dishwasher), Evening Dishes (load dishwasher), Kitchen Counters, Kitchen Table, and Sweep the Kitchen).
• Quiet Reading Time -- this one is a MUST.  I have to have at least an hour of relative peace and quiet during the day if I'm going to stay sane and live through the summer.  12:30-1:30 has officially been declared "Quiet Reading Time" and it gives me a chance to read my scriptures with minimal interruptions and it also allows Isaac a chance to potentially fall asleep in his room for nap time.
• Evening ✓ -- brush teeth; go to bed on time (and for Alex and Jane -- go to bed and to sleep without having me or Scott need to stay with them until that happens).

(These post-it notes have been the perfect way to keep track of their checklists!  In order to get full allowance, they have to get at least 22 out of the possible 25 checks for the week.  Half allowance goes for 18-21 checks.)

We're only 3 days in, but already I'm feeling much less stressed and that's a good thing!  Screens are still going on more than I'd like, but the changes we've made this week are a good baby step to what I'd ultimately like to have happen in an ideal summer.  The younger three are up before anyone else, so I've decided to stop fighting it and let them have screens until everyone else is awake.  As I said before, Scripture Time (our scripture for the month, plus a song, and prayer) is at 9 AM and then the kids help with the tidy up and go make their beds.  

 I don't know why I always forget to take Before pictures of yard projects, but with the kids occupied with a morning routine now, I've been able to tackle some more projects!

Pictures don't do justice to how much pruning the crepe myrtle and hydrangea bushes underwent.

The other addition to the Summer Schedule this week is my own version of "summer school."  Hahahaha.  Ethan and Grace are refusing to participate, but I've been surprised to see how willingly Sophie, Jane and sometimes Alex have been.  Each day I've given them a couple of ELA assignments (a journal entry and one other thing -- the last couple of days it's been vocabulary work and I'm loving it) and a math assignment and then once they're done they can have Free Time (including screens) until Lunch which is at 12.  Quiet Reading Time is from 12:30-1:30 and then from 1:30-3:30 is "Play Time."  Which basically means Free Time without any screens.  Hahaha.  So, game, puzzles, hanging out, playing with toys together, etc. are all fair game.  It's also a good time of the day to head out on any fun expeditions.

 Some new friends at church invited us to go bowling with them yesterday afternoon -- it lined up perfectly with yesterday afternoon's Play Time.  ;)

Chores (zone + assignment) need to be done at 4 PM and then it's just play some more until Scott gets home and then we can eat dinner, do Book of Mormon, and once the younger three are down for bed, the older 3 have their own free time with screens (if they want) until they head up for bed.  Nothing ever goes PERFECTLY smoothly, but this week has been so much better than the last few that I'm not complaining!  

Anyway, I'm sure this post is completely dry and unexciting to anyone else, but that's what's happening around these parts, so there you go.  ;)  The only really exciting thing of the past week is that we finally got that trampoline that we promised the kids for finishing last year's Book of Mormon challenge!  The previous owners had left their trampoline here, but there were several springs missing and we thought we'd want one that was slightly bigger anyway, so Sam's Club made all their dreams come true yesterday as Ethan (with Jane and Scott's help) put together our brand new trampoline!

(Ethan was in his element.)

And that's a wrap!  Fingers crossed that this Summer Schedule continues to make my life a little bit easier.  :)

 (Unrelated, but Scott and I were able to attend a "Garden Party" Fundraiser on Saturday night for work.  It was lovely-- even if I did feel super out of place! 😉)

 Seriously so lovely!

Until next time!