To Do/ Done Chart

I'm taking a risk posting this, don't you think?
I'm a little bit chart happy.

But charts comfort me. They also fill in for my parenting a little bit. The chart tells them to do things in a much more fun way then I would, and it's actually more likely to get done.

So I came up with this chart idea after I did that movie night chart.

I am sick of repeating myself 1 million times a day and of the whining. But this chart actually got them a little bit excited. They know they have to complete all those things by the end of the day and as they complete each one they move it down to the "Done" section. Once all the little squares are down there, they've done everything for the day... No nagging, no surprises.  I know people say it over and over again, but I do find that when my kids know what's expected of them, they are a little less whiny.

While I was at it I decided to do one for my husband, and one for me. There are so many things we want to do, and we never do them because there isnt time. I figured if we each had a chart of things we wanted to complete in a week, it would be a more fun way to hold ourselves accountable. Weekly chart seems to make more sense for us, and daily charts seem to make more sense for the kids.

And yes, I even gave the baby a chart. More so because I felt superstitious leaving him out of the family project, but I think it's cute.

First I just printed the charts on the printer, and then I laminated each one. Laminators are amazing and you can get the one I have a target for $25. I use it all the time. The brand is Scotch. Next I made little squares all 1" x 1" and then over a couple of days thought of 5 - 12 tasks for each family member. I printed that up and laminated that. Then I cut it all up, and used little square Velcro stickies on all of them. Tacked them all up by the front door, and done!

Print charts and add velcro
(make sure it's all one type, and then the squares are the opposite type)

Cut the squares

Everyone's chart by the front door

Preventing the summer slide

As much as I wish it, my almost six-year-old is not inclined to pick up books on her own and start reading.

Her school is awesome, and has sent home a lot of materials for them to work on over the summer. She also just learned to read this year, so it's more important than ever that she keeps it up over the summer so she's ready for first grade.

I made her this little chart as an incentive to go do some of the work and read some books every day.

My hope is that she finishes one chart a week at least, that way she's doing about three things a day, which really only adds up to about 30 minutes a day at most. Anything else is a bonus.

I also figured out how to check out library books on my iPad because she's much more excited to read on the iPad.

Movie night

Movie night is how we get a little time to ourselves.
We let our two little girls sleep in the bed in the loft and watch a movie.
It avoids all the bedtime struggles of more water, more lights, more books, more songs.

Basically, it's a treat for us parents.
But, if we let them do it too often, they never want to go back in their room.
Now that summer is here, we knew we needed to figure out a way to not let movie night get out of control during the summer.
Here's the chart I came up with.
I think It is self explanatory.
Basically they get three movie nights a week... they can pick whether they want them three nights in a row, every other night, whatever, but this way we won't accidentally let it happen 60 days in a row.

Too many arts and crafts?

It's too much.
I love all this stuff my kids are doing in school, I really do, I love it.
But if I think about 54 years worth of arts, crafts, writing, and everything else – which is how many years combined my three kids will be producing things while they are living here---and all I see are episodes of "Hoarders". 

I forget where I first heard the suggestion to take pictures of your kids' stuff and then put it together in an album. Brilliant.
So this is what I have been doing.

My oldest just finished kindergarten, and my middle who is 3 years old just finished her first year of preschool. Even only going two days a week I cannot believe the mountain of stuff she created.

I know there are sites specifically for this, but I'm sticking with Shutterfly because that's where I have all of my photos since 2003, and I love their albums.

My dining room table is where I lay everything out, and then using my iPad mini snap a shot. I haven't made a Shutterfly photo book yet out of it, but I guess I just will aim for every 2-3 school years. I just keep one album in Shutterfly labeled "Zoe'sschool portfolio" and another labeled "Teagan's school portfolio".

Clarification:  So...yes.  After I take a picture, it gets recycled.

Here are some of the recent things I snapped:

One of those days

Today I had one of those days. I spent the entire waking day with my seven week old baby boy and my three year old daughter. And now it's bedtime and I feel like I haven't seen them all day.

What is it that can fill a day with so much noise that you barely notice who you are with? We did an errand, a playgroup, lunch, trip to the pediatrician for a persistent diaper rash, and then the chaos that is Friday after school. How is it 8 o'clock at night and I feel like I'm just looking into my son's eyes for the first time? Thank goodness for the iPad mini's dictation tool so that I can talk right to his face as I write this blog. He seems to like it, because he's smiling at me right now.

I'm too tired to lay out a deeper message in today's blog post, but I know many of you have felt the vibe a day like this has on your mommy soul.

This is why I like to keep our calendar nice and bare looking. I feel like regular days get filled with noise even if you don't plan lots for them, let alone smashing your calendar full of play dates, Activities, extracurriculars, get-togethers, and appointments.

I'll take a day at home watching My Neighbor Totoro with my family of five all in pajamas any day.

Full disclosure: this picture is from yesterday

Bye, bye Maternity

Yesterday I had my last postpartum visit. Ever.
I can't believe it.  That's it.
Three children is the right number for us, I know it, I feel it, but it's still sad.
I'm moving into the next phase of my life, out of maternity and into... I don't know.

I will really miss my birth center and my midwives.
I got them these really fun bags on Etsy, and burned them CDs of music I listened to while I was in labor, and filled the bag with snacks.

I am excited that my family is complete. I love my three children both as my children and as people, I think they are going to add goodness to the world. I'm excited for new adventures will get to have as they get older and we don't have a baby who needs to nap, nurse every two hours etc. But right now I love this stage, and I love having a small baby.

I just hope that in my future there will be new moms with little babies that are generous enough to let me hold them and won't be too weirded out if I get a little teary.