Job Chart

Good Morning,

Nate started preschool yesterday and it's time to get him into a morning routine.  In order to get him started we made a chart on Monday to help him remember his “morning basics” that need to be done after breakfast.  He wanted a picture chart, which I normally do at this age, but instead of doing the basic clip art we decided to actually take photos of the jobs he needed to do.  I turned this part over to him and he loved it.  I gave him the camera and he took the pictures of his bed, toothbrush,  toys on the floor etc.  This gave him something to do and he really enjoyed the process.  Then it was my turn to create the chart.  He loves his new chart.  It now hangs on his door and he’s been very consistent in completing his “morning basics”. So far it's been perfect!

Summer Jobs for the kids

Kate,
We are still hoping for a little spring here in Utah. The weather has been crazy...70's one day, snow the next. I never know what the weather will be!! The kids get out of school on May 27, so summer is coming whether we've had spring or not! I love having the kids home in the summer, but it is very different that just having N. home. So I'm starting to plan for it now. Besides doing some cleaning of closets etc. I am thinking about their summer schedules and chores. I have already been asked when we will pick summer jobs. Yes, that's right, my kids get to pick their summer jobs and they love it...at first anyway. Even though your boys are young, they will grow quickly and you may want to give this a try.
I have made some 3x5 cards with jobs listed on them. During the summer, we break jobs down. For example, instead of cleaning the bathroom someone will clean the sinks in all the bathrooms and someone else will clean the tubs etc. These cards have jobs ranging from mopping the laundry room to emptying garbage to even watering the outside planters. The kids take turns picking a card for a job they want to do. I always keep some separate that the younger children can pick from. They all need to pick a vacuuming job, a bathroom job and a dusting job. The older children also get to clean out a drawer each week. I do feel that I need to teach my children how to clean and the variety of jobs gives them different experiences. After they pick their jobs, I make sure I feel that they haven't picked more than they can handle and then I make a chart. This chart is put on the fridge in a sheet protector so they can mark them off. Here's an example of last year. The top line is for the oldest child going down in age to the youngest. Even though it seems that they are required to do a lot every day, the most they ever spend is 1/2 hour.

The first week after school I help the younger children with their jobs so that they can learn how to do them and what is expected. I also have a binder that has all of the jobs and what is expected. These are in sheet protectors so that they can be marked off with a dry erase marker and then erased for next time.

I do save the cards and reuse them every year. This has worked well for us and you'll be thinking about chores before you know it.
Enjoy the bike trailer!
Amy

Turning Antique Boxes into a Headboard: IT’S FINALLY FINISHED!

Dear Amy,
We’ve been talking about this for months. And yes, IT IS FINALLY FINISHED! When we first agreed back in January to take our tiny house off of the market and stay here for awhile longer, I was forced to find some creative space-saving solutions. We had just moved our bedroom from upstairs to the main floor. Although we now have an attached bathroom, which is nice (even if it is the smaller than the average closet), our bedroom is a mere 9’ x 11’. The master bedroom closet in our 1930s bungalow is VERY small. In fact, I think I have only a couple of shirts and a few pairs of pants in the closet. It is completely filled with Rit’s clothes. And she really doesn’t have that many clothes either. I dream of the day when I can actually keep my clothes in my bedroom. For now, there simply isn’t enough space.
I digress. So, I had to find a way to fit a queen-sized bed, chest of drawers, large dog bed and a nightstand in this tiny space. Add to that the fact that there are two windows, a freestanding radiator, the bedroom door, the double closet doors, and the bathroom door to contend with when arranging furniture. A nightstand seemed to take up too much space, but I’m a reader and I really want some place to put my many books I'm reading simultaneously, a clock, a lamp, the baby monitors, the phone, etc. Hmmm…dilemma.
Then I came up with an idea. I have long collected “stuff"…old stuff that most people would term garbage. Not “vintage” stuff, but really old stuff from people’s garages, basements and barns. And we do have a lot of barns out here in Wisconsin. I think I got my collecting gene from mom. I remember the first time she came to visit me here. She was like a kid in a candy store…looking around wide-eyed and gasping at my many finds. Yep, it’s in the blood.
I have a rather large collection of old wood boxes…beverage boxes, fruit and potato boxes, etc. I pictured a type of shelving mounted on the wall above the bed. My vision was awesome, but how to make it into reality. I assigned Rit, the family problem solver, to figure out how to firmly mount the boxes to the wall. The last thing I wanted was to be knocked unconscious by a falling box while sleeping. She came up with a great idea involving mounting strips used for closets. Two mounting strips, with a 150-pound weight limit each, are anchored into the wall and the other two are mounted along the bottoms of the boxes. We cleaned up and disinfected the boxes. And magic!

Yes, the cords are an issue. We’re working on that. And things still need to find their place, but I love the look of it. It’s EXACTLY what I wanted! and it has freed up so much floor space!
Next on the list: I just ordered matching chests of drawers. Cheap, but useable. They will replace the one chest of drawers we have. They will fit flush with each other along the short wall by the door, hopefully appearing as one piece of furniture. I’m hoping that the streamlined look of the chests won’t overwhelm the small room. That should give us the extra clothes storage we’ll need.
I’ll keep you posted! Beautiful day today! The bike trailer arrived Friday and I’m in love. We went on a ride this weekend and I swooned the entire time.
Have a great day!
Love, Kate

Metamorphosis Monday

It’s Worth the Wait

Dear Amy,

“For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice.” 

John Burroughs

I truly believe that anything worth having is worth waiting for and working toward. Remember that saying we had on the kitchen tile growing up? “What we achieve too easily, we esteem too lightly.” So true. And so apparent in my life. I have found that I do appreciate more things I wait for, save for, work toward. They hold greater weight.

R and I have long wanted to move. We live in an absolutely adorable house full of charm and unique attributes. With all of the landings and stairways in this house, there are 11 different levels! However, having been built in the early 1930s, our house is small and chopped up into tiny rooms. They are fabulous rooms, mind you, but small rooms. It’s not a lot of square footage we seek, but a more spacious house—larger rooms, etc. Our house is technically considered a story and a half, which means that the entire second story floor has slanted ceilings that follow the roofline.

It was inconvenient, but very doable for two people. Then the boys came. Now we feel packed into this tiny house with it’s tiny spaces. Since the boys arrived so suddenly, we really didn’t have time to think through where to put their rooms, where to fit their cribs and toys and clothes and assorted sundries.

So, we placed their bedroom in the most convenient room, the room that was the most easily replaced—the guest room. As we soon discovered, the new kids’ room was found lacking. For starters, it was directly inside the front door…NOISY. Second, it shared a wall with the kitchen…NOISY. Third, it was on the ground floor…COLD. Fourth, it’s 9’ x 11’…TOO SMALL for two cribs, a rocking chair and a dresser. Last but not least, the boys should not share a room at this point. They keep each other awake.

So, we put our house up for sale. I suffered through months of last-minute showings and interrupted naps, scrabbling to clean for the curious non-buyer. In the meantime, we could not find a house we wanted to buy. We were not falling in love with any standing structure within our town or the surrounding area. Huh.

So, we took our house back off the market. And we began working toward our goal…to build our dream house. We have made the decision to make this tiny house with no storage to speak of work for us for the next year and a half. With our low mortgage and new goal of living on half of R’s salary, we are saving toward our goal. We have always wanted a barn house….the kind of house that grows from within the structure of an old, salvaged barn that has been deconstructed, refurbished and reconstructed. I can’t wait! A green house built to our specifications…small, but spacious, with a place for everything.

Hence, my lack of posts recently. In an effort to make this house work for us for the next year and a half, we are moving all of the rooms around. The boys have moved upstairs. D is now in our old room (and has moved up to a toddler bed!), while Eric’s crib is in the small bedroom upstairs. We have moved downstairs to the 9’x11’ bedroom. It’s so small. With our queen bed, we scarcely have room to walk around. We have an attached bathroom that is the size of an extremely small closet. I’m still trying to sort through things and find a place for everything. For now, we are surrounded by piles and half-furnished rooms.

It’s been a hard adjustment, but I welcome the challenge of coming up with some creative storage solutions without adding to our “stuff.”

Before and after pictures to follow.

Wish me luck!

Love,

Kate