Kids doing Chores...could it really be?

Hello Everyone!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was a bit slow and boring but by the end it ended on a good note..(even though my kids were almost an hour late to bed!!)

The weather was nice this weekend and the kids did alot of playing outside. I also made my 2 week menu for the next two weeks. I am hoping that helps me to cook more regularly. I dont mind cooking per say, I hate the what am I going to make TODAY, that drives me crazy. Nick being on nights doesnt help much either.

So, this last week I gave the kids chores they are responsible for. Its been an intersting week, but for the most part they are doing well. I did learn that money doesn't motivate my kids much. I think food or priviledges may work better, haven't decided on that yet, lol. So, I thought it would be a good idea to DOCUMENT my kids doing their chores. You never know when you might need that kind of thing for evidence, LOL.



As you can see on the left, Cameron has vacuming and he practically BEGGED for this chore. Which is fine with me, cause this house needs to be vacumed ATLEAST once a day. He loves it and asks 500 times when can he vacume. Not sure what Sydney is so puzzled about, lol.


Cameron is also in charge of trash, dishes and the every popular job, dog poop (once a week). (Its ok I had that job when I was his age and I turn out, well close to normal, lol)


Sydney has dusting as one of her chores and she has also been looking forward to it. I forgot to get the little dusters that go on the sticks but she was content with a swifter sheet, for now. She was a bit upset that she couldn't reach the TV. But she found plenty other things to dust.

She also has making sure the dogs have water, and helping Ben collect dirty clothes and shares the duty of Bathroom Detail (just making sure its picked up) with Natalie.


Natalie is the table cleaner. She is quite good at it but she likes to over do it with the spray, lol. So, she gets to use the cleaning wipes or mom sprays the table and she wipes it down.


Mind you this is the child that REFUSES to clean up toys or her room. She hides or all of a sudden falls ill with a belly ache or other ailment of the like. I am loving the hand holding her hair off her face while wiping with the other. I mean, I would be happy to put her hair up and off her face but that is something else she refuses to let me do unless its school cause she knows there is no way out of that. She also is responsible for making sure the dogs of food. Also as i mention before she has bathroom detail. She has one less since Sydney's dusting is not an everyday thing but the table and dog food is.

And you may ask where is Ben when all this cleaning is going on. Well he is assigned one chore, he has to make sure all dirty clothes are in the laundry room. Though everyone is suppose to make sure its taken there, there are times of running late or being forgotten that he is suppose to pick up. Sydney is his mentor on this task since he is still young and learning this whole chore thing.

Well, here is .......

Asking for apple sauce, no no, BEGGING for apple sause though he just had a Corn Dog with ketchup. You can see the evidence on his face.

So, yeah, Ben is still work in progress,lol.

I hope everyone has a good start this week. I have a bit of excitings news on the photography front but that will have to wait till tomorrow, I am falling asleep at I type this.

Hasta Manana!

Do you know what 2 things in common this pics have in common?

The show two of my most favorite things. Photography and scrapbooking!!! This was a couple of days ago when I was going with The Big Picture approach. Sorting and putting my pictures into my picture files. I ended up going from the pioneer spiral albums to 2 inch binders with 3-4x6 picture page protectors. That way i have the options of adding more pictures without have to rearrange it all. I had to do that more then once with the on in the picture. NOT FUN!! And in PhotoFreedom, Stacy's main message is that its not suppose be hard, it suppose to be stressfree once you have your system set up. Then you can concentrate to scrapbooking your most favorite and meaningful memories and enjoy the creative process. And once I am at it, let me tell you, LOVE that book. The system makes TOTAL sense to me and its packed with AWESOME Ideas. Its one of those books that keeps inspiring you. lol!! (these statement is made volutarily and free will with no recompensation of any kind. )

Anyway, then there is my 1st passion of photography. I have am taking Karen Russell's The Photographer's Workshop. Not only can this woman and mom of 4 take some awesome, kick butt, fabulous pictures, but she can teach. I have been trying to get the principles of photography for a while. I have read books, taken a class here and there. But this is the first time I got !! Nothing went over my head. She explains things in different ways to make sure you understand the concept. And her voice has a calming effect on me, I have thought about putting it on for my kids and see if it stops them from acting like zoo animals. Or maybe I will just keep it so when the kids are driving me nuts, I dont fall off the deep end, lol. She is positive and ecouraging. I have learned so much, and my class is awesome too, we learn alot from each other. I am a bit behind because my parents came the second week I was in class. But I should be caught up by the end of this weekend, cause that is my first priority. Well, besides the usual, children, husband and all that stuff, lol.

Anyway, back to the pictures. As you see how dark they started they got lighter. I raised my ISO and kept adjusting my aperture. Its far from perfect, but I got the concept and I wasn't shooting in auto either, big deal for me.

Well, this has turn into a novel, I hope everyone has a great weekend. I hope to be blogging with pictures of my scraproom and my scrapbook page of my newly wed meal I preparred for my husband. There is a funny story that goes with that. Ok, really I am done now.

Things that make me happY!!!

Love, how everything is finding a place. I saw this idea with foam stamps on a blog. I have been organizing for a while, and I really think its going to make a difference. Now, I think I will reward my self with some creating tonight. I am itching to do something but just dont know what, LOL!!!