And then it snows!

We have rules.  We have rules that the boys come home and empty their bags, get their lunch dishes in the dishwasher, put their school homework on the table and then we start homework.

But then it snows.

The boys LOVE snow!  And I'm very glad they do.

Today the went outside for a half hour to play before dark.  Before doing any of their jobs after school.  Before anything was play.

I'm not calling them in until it really gets dark.

Sometimes snow is more important than school.

Work for Hire

Work For Hire!!

We are now on week 3 of our "Work for Hire" board on our fridge.  It's great!  The boys have been focused on their new bank cards.  And with that, their way to make money.  We have them on an allowance at our house.  It is a dollar for every grade you are in ($5.00 for K and $3.00 for Q).  10% must go to Tithing or Donations.  40% is for spending on whatever they want and 50% is for saving (directly into their bank accounts).  We used to have everything in ziplock bags but now we have it all in the bank.  And I won't lie... Being able to transfer everything to their account is awesome!!  It takes us about 10 minutes every Saturday.  We write down in their accounts book what is going in and why and then we write the totals.   Now the boys can write about their work they do around the house. 

Kyler and Quinton are both saving for something.  What it is?  Who knows!  It changes daily!

Right now they are both working to get as much money as they can.  Each of our "Work for Hire" jobs are worth $2.00 unless it is stated otherwise.  So for things like cleaning the car.  That job is $2.00 except if you vacuum, to Mommy standards, you get a bonus $5.00.

You should have seen their faces when I told them that!  Kyler was so excited for bonus money.  I read them every "job" and told them what they had to do.  We talked about bonus money.  So for example the car thing.  They were excited to hear about the bonus $5.00 for vacuuming.  Then I said, in the summer you can get a bonus of $10.00 for waxing the car.  

K and Q " WOW!!!  $10.00!!!"  A few minutes later... "What's waxing the car?" 

I guess we have to teach them that first!

But for now the inside jobs work great!  I've had my doorknobs and light switches disinfected.  I've had my cupboards wiped down on the fronts and the handles wipe down.  I've had my fridge cleaned inside and out.

This week I'm looking forward to having things cleaned up again.  The boys are doing so well with being responsible with cleaning and getting work done.  It really has been good for them.. And us!

Laundry Room Declutter

This past weekend I was lucky enough to have a house to myself for a while.  Arnold took the boys out on Friday night to a Jr High thing.  They had a blast shooting nerf guns and hiding behind cardboard!

Me... I dove into the basement. 

It's horrible.  I need to declutter if we ever want to do anything down here.  And to be honest, I kinda hope that will happen sooner than it really will!

I attacked the laundry room.  I keep telling myself I'm totally going to do this but I really did!  It was great.  I filled up 2 bags of garbage, one huge container of recycling and 1 and a half LARGE bags for donations.  I couldn't believe how many sheets we had.  I mean really, how many sheets does one family need.  We had 6 sets for our bed.  One set was from our wedding... Over 12 years ago!  Wow right?  Someone could use those for rags now!

Anyway... I should have done this before as our school had their annual clothing drive but I just couldn't find the time.  Instead I had the motivation of the Canadian Diabilties Assoiation coming the next morning and that was more than enough!  They do a free pickup at your door.  You just have to place stuff outside (or I put it in my front porch if raining) and they come and pick it up and bring it to the drop off.  I love it!  I do, however, miss the discounts you can get for dropping it off at Value Village.  So sometimes we do that there too.  I was just glad to have a motivation for getting this done.  Below are the pictures of my success!  I was wonderful to get up in the morning and know I wasn't going to trip on anything, or I wasn't going to have any problems getting to the bathroom in the dark.  It's so pretty!

My Linen Closet

Storage Corner

Washer Area

Bottom of the stairs

AFTER:

Linen Closet

Storage Corner, completed now with everything you need for laundry.  And everything on those chairs is for recycling!

Washer Area

Bottom of my stairs.. Those are the donation bags (clear) and the black garbage bag.

I'm really proud of how it looks now!!  One space down, a million to go!

Rainy Nights and Bright Lights

I went out for a walk tonight.  It's raining.  It is not that bad actually!  I thought it would be pretty gross but let's face it, sometimes you just need to walk in the rain.

I didn't need steps.  I didn't need the time off of the boys.  I didn't need to "take a break".  I just needed to walk in the rain.

I got to enjoy the beautiful weather.  The +4C weather, with a sprinkle of rain.  I got to enjoy the dark of the night.  I got to enjoy the bright lights.  I got to enjoy having some time out of my house and enjoying some time alone.

I got to see some awesome Christmas lights.  And I'm currently obsessed with taking pictures that make the lights look like circles... Mainly cause you can't see how beautiful they look without taking my big camera out and getting people to look at me funny!

#vscocam

Today was one of those days.  Ever had one?  I have.  ALOT!  Hey now!  You can't tell me that you have never had one of those days.  I'm positive you have.  And if you haven't then.... I'm either bowing before you or... I'm ducking to not get hit when your nose grows!

My battery in my phone seems to die faster and faster so I brought it upstairs and then put it right on the charger.... Which meant.... I left it at home again today.

I got to school and realized I was about to photo copy something for the kids to bring home that said "I'm easy to wrap, just take a crap"...... Yeah.... Back to the computer to fix that one!

I skipped down the stairs and felt my back "pop" on the landing.  One of those funny steps where you can just feel something wrong.  And it's continued to bother me all day now.

I found out a dear friend of mine had a miscarriage and never said anything.  (Oh trust me, she got lots and lots of hugs!)

I worked out in hopes that my back would feel better and my muscles would stop hurting... And it didn't work!

I spent $12.00 on 3 bags of chips cause I was too tried to stop at the grocery store and went to the corner store instead.

I got home to no Diet Coke.

I had to remember grade 5 math!  Ugg....

I had a son come to me so scared because the bbq hood was stuck down and when they started the bbq the lid jumped up *he is fine and his dad was with him*

I have 2 never filling boys... Seriously they are eating more chips now after we finished 12 burgers in our family of 5.

My TV wouldn't work today.  For some reason it kept blanking out nod we had some serious net problems!

My popcorn popper broke.  WORST DAY EVER :)

PLEASE don't get me wrong.  My day had some amazing points!  Kyler informed me his marks had him in the top 5% of his class.  My co-worker got me some amazing lunch, my all time favourite!  Another co-worker shared her amazing coffee with me.  I got home to a dog that wasn't upset for being caged for the morning.  I got to play some online games.  

I got to go for a walk.

Sometimes all you need is rainy nights and seeing bright lights.

Are we Hibernating?

Did you make any New Years resolutions?  Our family did.  Nothing too crazy but we did.

Now I'm told that making New Years resolutions in Janurary is a BAD idea.

Apparently we are like animals and need to hibernate.  So this means we don't want to get out of the house, or be more active, or make big changes.  We want to stay at home and do nothing.  Just sit around and binge watch tv shows and eat comfort food. 

Studies have shown that if you make a big change in your life, it is better to make it in the Spring time.  

That being said, changes that need to be made in the winter are things that deal with your house, or being inside and not doing to much crazy work.

To me, this makes our decision to declutter even better.

We have a huge box at home that is for donations.  There isn't much in the donation box right now, a few dishes from the kitchen and some odds and ends we don't want.  I'm hoping to fill this box and even more in the next little while.

We also have a few clothing bags ready to go at our house.  Our school is going to do bag donations of clothing and shoes.  This is to help people overseas.  I'm excited about this one and we always try to fill up as many bags as we can.  Last year we did some serious downsizing of our stuff before the kitchen Reno.

I'd like to say our main floor is done.  And it is... Well sort of.  We have the Kitchen, Pantry, Living Room, Dining Room, and the Main Floor Bathroom.  What still needs to be done is the Front Hall, Main Hall, Boys room, and the Outside Decks (front and back).

My hope is to get through those rooms in the next month.  Hopefully I can!  I just need to organize and declutter.

In the mean time, my new goals are to not hibernate so much!