Play money

The play money system is working well. The kids get really motivated (or at least Doug and Andy do) when they get low on money so I am getting more active participation in chores. As long as I remember to pay them right away, I do pretty well with keeping up with the system.

It has also been interesting to see how my children spend their money.
Doug- he has a little trouble keeping up with his "wallet" (mostly because he sets it down where ever he is standing). He mostly spends his money on computer or TV time. He likes to pay for eating in front of the TV when I will allow it. He doesn't think to ask his brother or sister to help out with paying for something like eating in front of the TV.

Andy- he is a little better about saving up. My "quantity" boy likes the idea of having a lot of money in his wallet, but still gets enticed in to spending. He is probably the most motivated about earning money, but he has been the most interested in "work" all along. He really likes having "20s" in his wallet (right now a 20 is the biggest denomination).

Josie- she likes the money and she will spend it on things. She has a bit of an advantage because I do not make her pay for TV or computer time while her brothers are still at school.

This weekend we pulled out my tent. It is still in good shape....and for $75 in play money they kids got to sleep in it downstairs on Saturday night....well, sort of. They did okay at first, but sometime after midnight Josie woke up and freaked out and started crying. This woke up Doug and Andy and got them upset. So everyone ended up in their own beds.

Roller falling

Andy went to a birthday party at a roller skating rink last weekend. The little boy whose party is was skated well enough to own his own skates. For Andy it was the first time ever having wheels on his feet....

To his credit he grinned every time he went down and he got up and tried again. The rink had a coned off area for people learning and they allowed parents with soft shoes to be on the rink (Which was good because unlike the rink where I grew up there was not bar along the wall).

I was very glad that I only had Andy to deal with, because by the end my shoulders and arms were sore from helping him. I was actually sore for two or three days afterward....

Andy would have liked to stay longer, but eventually the music got to him. For as loud as he is, he does not like loud noise.

Play money

It all started when I was driving back home with the kids. Andy said, "We should make some play money."

So I asked, "What would you buy with it?"

We had a small discussion about how you could not really spend it in a store, but then we decided that it could be currency around the house.
So we started talking about a list of what you could do to earn money and what you could spend it on.

Now each child has a small "wallet" made from construction paper. The "Bank of Mom" has printed out $1, $5, $10, and $20 dollar bills on colorful cardstock. We have a list with suggested tasks to earn money (everything from making your bed, unloading the dishwasher, brushing your own teeth, to doing your homework quickly). We also have a list of things you could buy with the money (TV or computer time, dinner choices, sleeping in your sleeping bag, etc.). I may need to adjust amounts some depending on how much they earn daily and how easy I want it to be for them to earn certain things, but so far they are really excited.
I was never really good with keeping up with the chore chart, but perhaps this will put more responsibility on them and make it more exciting.

Snow days

Some how snow days are quite a different deal when you are the parent and not the child.

We have had two..... I am looking forward to them being back in school tomorrow.

And yes, I was that mean parent who made them do at least a little bit of school-type work on their snow day.

What they want to do when they grow up

It is interesting to hear what my children want to do:
Josie- she informed me the other day that she wanted to be a girl builder (I think she means construction worker), a cheerleader, or a girl police officer. I think she settled on police officer, but within the last few days she fine tuned it to a girl ninja police officer.
She also vacillates between telling me that she will never marry and will always live with daddy and me, and informing me who she is going to marry. I am not quite sure why she is concerned about this at age three.

Doug- He first wants to be a football player for the university I attend. (He has also informed me several times that when I finish my program and am looking for a new job that onr job I could consider is being a cheerleader there.) He used to want to drive trains after that, but due to his current favorite online game (Lego Mars Mission) he wants to be an astronaut (the kind that is in charge and gets to drive...not necessarily a scientist).

Andy- He really has two ideas. He wants to be the first astronaut artist.
Then, you know the Coke Zero commercial that asks why there are not time machines? Andy seems to think that this is an important point and he intends to right this wrong. He is going to invent the time machine.
On his own he decided that after he invents the time machine the first "time" he is going to take it to will be the starting date of World War II and he is going to bring along a lot of fire power so that he ends the war before it starts. I am not quite sure where he got this idea, but he has been quizzing me about World War II whenever he thinks about it. We have also been having conversations about how changing the past might change the future...it might be time to watch the movie Back to the Future.

It's been a bit- so happy 2011!

I have been busy....Christmas has come and gone. We survived.
I did not get out a Christmas letter. I did do a bunch of baking (and my waist shows it). I semi-decorated the house and now have to put stuff away.
I did a bit of work on my dissertation but I seriously need to do more.
I spent a bunch of time enjoying having Jim home for two weeks and I spent some time just being with my children.

We had a few mad Nerf gun battles, I build countless Lego kits (I suppose I could count them but I would probably regret it...had to empty out some bins to make more Lego storage), have played a bunch of games with the kids (since we got a lot of games appropriate for Doug & Andy).

I have hopes for the New Year. I am not going to make resolutions as I like the idea that if you need to change something you should do it right away. I do have a few ongoing missions that continue into the new year.

• Lighten my load (I want to get rid of things I do not need and that just clutter up the house)
• Finish my dissertation (it is the gateway to many things)
• Continue to grow spiritually (God put some serious messages in my life during 2010 so I need to not just pay attention but also take some action)
  

Have a happy and blessed 2011.

It's off!

I went this morning and got the band taken off the back of my teeth from when Andy head-butted me. The dentist seemed to think that it had firmed up pretty well. It is still a bit sensitive and since they have taken off the band it actually hurts a bit more to bite into things. He did a test with a cold swab to see if it was still alive and they also took xrays.

The good news is that the xrays did not show anything.
The bad news is that it has a really delayed reaction to feeling cold.

He said we are at about a 50/50 chance of it living or dieing.
When I go back for my regular cleaning we will check it again. If it is still not clearly alive then he will send me down to some guy who will send a jolt of electricity through the teeth to check. Oh, joy. ..let's hope it does not come to that.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...

I didn't know that it was even loose, but as we were getting in the car after a trip to the grocery store Andy says "My tooth just fell out."

I asked him if he had it.... no.
I asked him if he swallowed it.... no, he saw it fall.

Fortunately I was pretty sure that he was all the way in the car and that the tooth was somewhere in the car. I really did not want to have to compose another letter to the Toothfairy. Of course though, we are talking about a tiny front baby tooth... in a car with crumbs and floor mats and under the seat... who knows where it could be.

So by a miracle of God I managed to find the tooth. Andy finally got to put an actual tooth under his pillow.

So far nothing is budging in Doug's mouth. As a baby he was always exactly a week behind Andy in getting his teeth, but not now. He insists that he will not loose a tooth until he is six.

Score (at least) one for mommy!

I had to drag Doug and Andy complaining to the table to make "candy cane" cookies with Josie and me.

After the first one they kept asking for more lumps of dough to make the cookies and would have kept going except that we ran out of dough to work with.

Of course, on the flip side of my children enthusiastically making these cookies is that we had exactly one that was in a candy cane shape... and that one was made by mommy.
We were already non-traditional from the start in that Josie wanted white and green dough....

The title for the day

I am hoping that the title for yesterday in the chapters of my life is "A penny saved is a penny earned" rather than "A fool and her money are soon parted...."