Job Rewards System

The job system I have set up for my kids had grown stale; I would assign points with signatures on the refrigerator and then award prizes out of a box.  Unfortunately, my daughter tried to sneak some of the prizes, so I put them in a cupboard out of reach.  Out of sight, out of mind. :(

I used my husband as a sounding board.  What would work?  Should I hang them on a clothesline?  Should I stick them to the outside of cupboard?  What if I displayed them on the wall a la Chucky Cheese?  (We'd been to two birthday parties last weekend, both were at arcades with prize walls.).  I liked this idea, but where would I put it so that 1) it didn't take so much work I wouldn't upkeep it 2) the kids couldn't sneak things easily and 2) it needs to not look tacky.  This is my home after all!

My exhaustion-induced OCD babbling continued until about 12:30 a.m. when I finally struck upon the idea that I'd go with:  I'd tape poster board to the inside of a cabinet's glass window and affix prizes and coupons to it with mounting puddy!  This particular cabinet is on the side of our TV and isn't used as much as the other side so I wouldn't be blocking anything vital.

Peanuts Strike Again!

Last week was Spring Break.  Not only were my kids home all week, but the kids I daycare for were here all week as well.  I had the whole week planned for to keep them all busy so they didn't eat me.  (You know that meme where Chris Pratt is keeping the raptors at bay?  Yeah, that's my home every day.)  The week went rather well.  Yes, there were mild disasters, but nothing unexpected.  Paint got everywhere as we all made treasure boxes (tutorial is coming soon!), popcorn got all over the floor, many cookies were eaten, and several episodes of Gumby were watched.

My kitchen was a wreck all week.  But not for the reasons you would think.  Sure, the kids used a lot of extra dishes but I was running the dishwasher three times a day.  The problem was that I was running another peanut purge.  Yup.  Tuesday morning we had peanut butter in the dishwasher again.

Sigh.

Spring is here!

While Oregon teases us and lets us see the sun every once in a while, I know that more sun is coming.  It is already much warmer and after such a harsh winter we are ready to get outside! 

I’ve been working a lot in the garden this week, cleaning, setting up, and repotting the plants that the kids started over two weeks ago.  I live in an apartment so I don’t have and ground to dig in, but I do have a good space for a potted garden.  

Really I have a brown thumb.  I have killed so many plants it isn’t funny.  I have been trying to learn over the years what works for me and what doesn’t.  For the longest time I couldn’t have indoor plants and my ferret would dig them up, or my kids would knock them over.  My kids will ever be a danger, lol, but I’ve learned better placement when I have plants indoors.  TV trays in the corner by the sliding glass door work pretty well.

On the porch I’ve had realize that I have FULL SUN all day long and certain plants don’t do so well, or don’t do well if I don’t keep them *really well watered.*. (Cough) Sorry tomatoes! (cough). So I’ve skipped the more delicate plants until I improve with my diligence of caring for the plants.

Last year I had a *gorgeous* succulent that I unfortunately lost to an insect invasion in the fall.  It spread to a few other plants I had, too, which was really sad.  I’ll have to get another one of those.  Besides desert plants, I have a spider plant that my sister gave me from her Mother Ship.  I’ve named it Satellite (hehe) and it has done extremely well both on my porch and inside the sliding glass door.  She’s produced many of her own satellites over the last year and a half that I’ve had her. 

Marigolds always do well on my porch, but this is the first year in several that I don’t have any.  This year a friend gave me a bunch of wildflower seeds so I’m trying those out.  I also got Teddy Bear sunflowers as my kids really really really wanted sunflowers.  These were the smallest I could find, and they’ve planted so many seeds that they’re going to take over my garden later this summer.  lol. 

Besides flowers, I really like to have an edible garden.  Peas are excellent; they’re pretty, provide some privacy screening, and are a yummy snack. 😃. Thomas loves to grow carrots and eat them fresh out of the garden, so I always have some smaller varieties of those.  I have spinach, basil, and rosemary too!

I have a little shelf connected to my house where it gets some shade during the day.  I’ve decided I want chives (they did extremely well before) and cilantro there.  I’ve not gotten those in yet, probably get to it this weekend.

A few weeks ago my daughter decided that she’s in love with worms.  She kept begging me to go on a walk so she could say “Hi,” to all the cute pink worms.  Haha!  Some friends encouraged me to build a worm bin and let her have pet worms.  I reluctantly have agreed but I am *not* going to be the one taking care of them. lol

I repurposed a rubbermaid bin that I had in the other room.  I drilled some air holes in the sides and drainage holes in the bottom.  The kids shredded newspaper, soaked and squeezed it out, and I fluffed it up as they put it in.  Then they threw in some old fruits and veggies we had, as well as some coffee grounds.  Then we had to wait for it to rain again.  The instructions we followed to build a worm bin are here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/garden-yard/make-worm-bin-ze0z11zhir?pageid=1#PageContent1

My daughter was so cute with her shovel and pail.  We walked the older kids to school and she was saving worms in the parking lot.  She talked to them and tried to encourage them to get on her shovel!  Haha.  I think she saved about 15-20 worms that day.  We’ll have to gather some more again soon.  I don’t see much activity in the bin yet, but maybe we’ll see some castings soon.  They’ll be really good for our garden when they’re ready.

Today I bought some bricks to boost up the garden pots off of the concrete, and while I was at it, I bought some big bricks for the worm shelter, too.  They’re going to live on the porch so I’ll have to block the sun from roasting them.  I’ll get you a picture of that when it is complete.  As you can see, my daughter is NOT shy about playing her pets. lol

 

My.HomeRoutines

Yay, I’m getting this blog posted on time!

I know it sounds funny but this is a big deal to me.  By nature, my life has to be flexible to do all the things I need to do.  I have three kids, two with special needs and one still very young.  They need my attention 24 hours a day.  I know a lot of people in need of Tender Loving Care that God regularly brings to me to care for -  He made me a heart-healer to help these people, and I go where he calls me to.  This often calls for cancelling or rearranging my plans to meet their need which sometimes makes getting my own things done difficult.  I have happily done this for many years but lately it has grown too difficult as my life has increased demands.

So I’m cutting back on my flexibility and increasing my schedule.  I have two home businesses and I cannot manage them without set hours.  My daycare hours are already set, but Rachel’s Cozy Knits & Designs kept getting neglected, as did my house cleaning.  So I pulled out a tool that I’ve not used in a while. 

Stretched Thin

I've told you before that this is a blog about my life just as much as it is about my art.  My artistic efforts are one segment of my life, and an important one.  Without creating, I wouldn't be me.

Some days its been hard to have enough brain power and inspiration to create.  My husband and I have been struggling to keep up.  Not with the Jones', but the bills - the demands of life.  He has his regular job which pays most of the bills, but those bills keep increasing.  (i.e. Rent just increased in the fall.)  He has a creative mind, too, and