Kids: Chores & Rewards

My boys are 7.5(Donx)  and almost 9, in July (Big Red).  Donx is extremely helpful and genuinely likes to clean and be assigned little chores around the house.  Because of this, I normally don't take issue when he asks for little things like playing games on his kindle, asking for Pokemon cards when at the store or even for a piece of candy or pack of gum.  However my Big Red nearly always gets jealous when I do buy Donx these things.  I've explained to Big Red, numerous times, that Donx willingly helps and when we ask him to do things he does so without complaining.  Big Red usually just growls and stomps away.

Big Red is a lazy one.  He doesn't like to help out around the house and will do so, usually with a lot of complaining, only if there is something he really wants us to buy him or to let him do something.  Big Red loves TV, loves video games and loves his Kindle Fire HD.  The thing is I don't willingly dish out the time to do these couch potato activities, I like to make the kids earn the time.  For Big Red this is a big, fat problem.  When he realized there was no bending the rules he started helping out a little but he only wanted "easy" chores.

This got me thinking.  I wanted to find an app that would be easy for the kids to understand and quick and easy to set up and maintain.  I read  many blogs and websites that had topics on "Apps every parents should have," "Apps for Kids Chores" and so on.  Ultimately I didn't see anything i really liked and just logged onto the Apple App Store and searched on the keyword "Chores."  

So Busy

Life's been busy and I apologize. This whole moving thing has taken up a lot of my time. Honestly after our abrupt move from Portland to Seattle last summer I actually believed we wouldn't be moving for a few years. But here I am about 10 months later packing to move again! FML! 

I'm totally lazy about the packing this time around. I think because we are only moving about a mile away I don't feel I  really have to pack as well since the move is nearby and most things will be thrown into the car and not get manhandled by the movers.  Screwy between this and all the extracurricular a goi g on in my household I'm just drained.

To top that off we have a houseguest with us for a couple of weeks. It's a friend of T's and its not bad her just does his own thing I don't have to entertain or anything.  When he leaves my 20-something cousin is heading out for about to 10-days. So you see taking a break is not really an option.  I hauled ass and packed a tonof stuff yesterday, laid low today and cleaned but  tomorrow i have to pack a lot yet still keep my teensiest little occupied and happy. 

I have so much on my plate that I could totally use a part time nanny.  To bad my sitter is in school until mid-June.  I don't count on T helping much. His work days are getting longer and longer. I don't say anything because honestly it's not worth it. When I worked I still did about 90% of the things I do now so personally I don't see the issue but he sees things completely differently. This is a story for another time.  But I don't ask and I don't rely on him......not one bit. It's just easier for me that way.

So yes, I'm overwhelmed but I'm coping. If I only have myself to count on things WILL get done. Because ultimately I can only blame myself. Until I move posts will be sporatic. My life is crash busy right now. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying.

Life Happens

No sooner did the paint dry on the boys bedroom re-do did we get a call saying the house we are currently renting will be put on the market.  We will be let out of our lease with no penalty if we find something ASAP.  I love how that spin sounds like we are getting thrown a huge bone when I know the owners are the ones jumping for joy since they will get to sell sooner rather then when our lease is up.

It's only been 8 months that we've been in this house.  We moved last summer and pretty much spent the entire summer packing, moving and unpacking.  It was terrible and rushed and stressful.  We do not want to repeat this.

The day we got this news I began looking.  You see in Seattle the rental market is insane.  There is a lot of competition and we faced this last year and now with the school year still happening, and we'll be moving while the kids are in school, we don't want any additional stress and now we have requirements.  You know like school district, neighborhood and community.  We've started creating our life in this area, we've become comfortable and familiar.  Exactly what we all need in this still new city.  

There are about 3 houses for rent in our price range but only one we really like the other 2 or just "eh." One out of our price range which we looked at and is still a contender   There are lots of town homes and apartments but we aren't willing to go there; not yet anyway.

We saw one we really like, its a bit smaller then what we are in now and a totally different style but still beautiful.  I love this mid-century modern and its totally my preference but we are in a rush (again, like last year) so beggars can't be choosers.  We applied for the new home, the selected us and as I type screenings are in progress.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it all works out and i can' check this ball of stress of my list.  

We'll buy again someday but that day isn't now.  I'm not 100% comfortable with where I want to be in this city.  T and I have a dream of what we'd like to buy and now is not that time.

Spring Cleaning: Boys Room

As much as I wanted to put off spring cleaning I buckled up and dove straight into my son's room.  You see about 3 months ago we moved Big Red out of the room he shared with his brother and into his own room, which was our guest room.  It was working out pretty good and the boys really enjoyed having their own private space.  However two things happened, Big Red realized the guest room was about half the size of his brothers room and I think he was getting lonely having his own room.  The timing was perfect.  Big Red wanted back into his old room, we were leading into guest season and it was time for spring cleaning.

One day last week while my husband was out of town and the boys were at school and I had enough ammo to keep Crash busy so I could go into full on OCD cleaning mode I jumped right into cleaning the boys shared room (prior to moving Big Red back in.)  You still with me?  I got everything off the floor and did a preliminary vacuum.  I then started moving furniture away from the walls and lugged my step ladder in.  With my home made vinegar cleaner    in hand I started cleaning windows and walls, top to bottom.  It's amazing all the little bits of grimey hand prints, dirt and pencil marks you come across when you are that close to your kids wall.  I scrubbed the sh*t out of those walls and baseboards!  I dusted shelves, toys, knick knacks and books.  I moved things around and finally got rid of a constantly shedding carpet and most importantly I purged a ton of toys (some broken and some they just didn't care about anymore.  I then moved some furniture around and vacuumed again!  Since Big Red was moving back in I wanted the room to feel new and fresh and not like he was just moving into his brothers room.  We brought up painting the room for the boys and they were super stoked on that idea.  Since we didn't have the paint already picked out I knew that we were going to be moving some, just moved, furniture again so we can paint a couple of walls.

Wordless Wednesday - First Signs of Spring!

Spring Cleaning - Staring down the long, dark tunnel

Spring cleaning is something I both loathe and love.  I loathe it because it has been, historically, so daunting and time consuming and not to mention I never know where to even begin.  On the flip side I also love it because it allows me to purge things we haven't used in a while and to get rid of knick knacks that have accumulated over the last 6-12 months.  And who doesn't love a good purge of junk?

Well, Spring is officially upon us.  (And here in Seattle we have had a truly magnificent first couple of weeks of spring but that is a post for another day.) I have been thinking how I will tackle this years Spring cleaning.  Because I'm always looking for more efficient ways to do things I researched Spring Cleaning and have decided that tackling this annual chore "room-by-room" will be the most effective and least daunting way to get this done.

I found that the checklist at the Imperfect Homemaking to be the most compatible with my comfort level.  I took the list she created and copied it into Excel adding and removing items that did and didn't fit into my home scheme.  This week i'll be surveying my cleaning supplies and get started at the end of the week or over the weekend.  I'll be starting with my boys bedroom and the guest room.  Ideally i'd be doing one bedroom at a time but currently my two boys are in their own rooms and have requested to share a bedroom again so in the process of cleaning i'll also be moving Big Red, who is in the smaller room, back into the big bedroom with Donx.  If I have time I'd also like to a wall in their room to make it feel new and fresh.  

I'm giddy about this.  I love big projects like this.  Especially projects that allows me to purge & organize!  I get the feeling most females enjoy these sort of things.  With Spring upon us here in Seattle I'm looking forward to a fresh, clean house.  Less clutter.  And lots of organization!!!!

Field Trip: Ballard Locks

The Ballard Locks is located very near me, just over Salmon Bay an is officially named the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks.  We love exploring the city and since we moved here in August we've visited the Ballard Locks numerous times, but summer is the best when people are out on their boats and the locks really fills up.  My kids (ages 3 through 8) love this spectacle so much and i'm not going to lie I love watching it as well.  Prior to visiting the Ballard Locks I never realized just how dramatic watching locks in action can be.  

If you're new to the area or visiting I would highly recommend checking out the Ballard Locks.

Living Simply 2013: Update 2

I've been incorporating the ideas of living simply into my daily life and honestly it makes me smile when I have a moment to sit back and reflect on how my day has been going.  I mena really, they are no longer ideas, ideas are things we think about doing when these ideas are put into motion they are now a part of your lifestyle.  This is the lifestyle I have fantasized about over the last couple of years and it makes me feel so warm and fuzzy seeing, no living it.  Making it my reality.  

As I've covered the first five points covered in Zen Habits I wanted to talk about how I've worked on the next five, points 6-10.  These points are:

1. Learn to say no
2. Limit your communications
3. Limit your media consumption
4. Purge your stuff
5. Get rid of your big items

These points totally make sense to me and are areas of my life that I had been working on for a while, especially when I took the opportunity to really shake off the dead weight when my family made the move form Portland, OR to Seattle, WA.  But I'll touch on each item individually.

Learning to say no is huge.  I feel like so many people, myself included feel an obligation to satisfy everyone around us.  It's as though we are afraid that saying "no" will disappoint our friends, coworkers, neighbors etc.  So we say "yes" and then dread every second of our decision.  Okay, so maybe that's not everyone but i'll be honest here and say I have on many occasions and I get so angry at myself for saying "yes" and making a commitment I really did not want in the first place.  Sure we don't want to disappoint others, or even come off flakey or an uncommitted friend or employee but shouldn't we care about our own happiness and well being first?  When I started realizing where my priorities should be and making time for me ad what is important to me saying "no" was no longer hard.  I don't make hard and fast commitments unless its something I truly want to do or something I am truly interested in doing.  I'd much rather say "no" now then saying "yes" only to back out later with some lame excess.  So really learn to say "no" and you'll be amazed by the amount of time you gain back in your life to do the things that are important to you.