26 Jun - Master Bathroom

So I didn't get the before and after pictures today.  But suffice it to say, that we deep cleaned and reorganized the drawers and medicine cabinet in the Master Bathroom.  They all look so much better.  We didn't take away too much from Cody's ROR (which the bathroom is his this week).  My goal for Elmo's World is do to the unseen and the eyesores.  Doing above and beyond the everyday chores.  One day we will be caught up so that life runs on maintenance mode instead of chaos and get working or else modes.  As my friend calls it - We are going to do the Scream and Clean - I Scream, You Clean!!

Brandon and Kristen stuck with me pretty much the full hour.  Spencer and Cody would come in occasionally to help.  Therefore, after we got home from lunch, Spencer and Cody had to clean the living room, including the corners that they usually like to stash stuff into.  Spencer got mad and started throwing fists and so he got to fold and put away some clothes also.  He did it.  The living room got cleaned. I think the kids are finally realizing that mom means business with getting the house done.  When they fight they get a chore. When they don't help they lose a privilege.  Oh, another opportunity that Spencer and Cody lost was after lunch Kristen and Brandon were able to walk to the library, the two boys got to stay at the park and take care of Tamra and Aimee.  They still had fun, but they also wanted to walk to the library.  That is definitely a privilege for them. 

Mom is so mean - the meanest mom on the block!!!  And one day they will thank me for it :)  And one day they are going to become the meanest mom and dad on the block!!!

25 Jun - Soccer Field

Today was the Soccer Field.  As you may have noticed, we have named all of the different areas of the yard.  The Soccer Field is the yard right behind the house.  The many tasks in this area is cleaning up excess grass and weeds.  Cody worked on the grass by the fence with the weed wacker until the cord disappeared.  He still hasn't figured out how to fix that problem and I am not successful with that task.  He got most of the fence done.  The rest of us worked on the flower garden next to the house getting out grass, etc and finding old rose bushes that didn't grown (ouch!!!  found the hard way :)

 

 

 BEFORE

 

 

AFTER

Now to figure out how to get the grass to look a lot better - green for instance!!!

22 June - Garden

Most of these pictures don't show the majority of the weeds.  They are the small purple weeds that spread everywhere.  There is a lot of empty space - more then we have ever had and so there is no plant competition and the weeds take over.  The only bonus is that we can just run a hoe through it and not worry about pulling up a plant.  It goes a lot faster then weeding around carrot seedlings.  Overall - there were not tons of weeds except in the hardest area to weed, so it wasn't too bad.  I ended up spending most of two hours weeding, but got it all weeded.  I have noticed some spots that I have missed, but they are few and far between. 

 BEFORE

This was the toughest and longest place to weed.  But the ground was still moist and so it was easier.

AFTER

See if you can match up the pictures with the before.  Most are in exactly the same spot.  One definitely isn't :) After putting in two hours out here and then running off to a doctors appointment, to come home bummed about the outcome, I didn't get to the inside chores.  This is the extent of the day. 

21 Jun - Master Bedroom

Kids come by clutter habits rightfully, but just because it is the Master Bedroom it doesn't mean that it is all my mess.  A year or so ago I moved all of the girls clothes down to my bedroom because I got so tired of them constantly emptying their drawers and closet.  Then when I would go upstairs I would find the clean and dirty clothes all mixed up.  It got really frustrating.  I was able to keep this under check for a long time, but in the last while it has fallen apart.  Clothes have now become my hate relationship, there is no love/hate in this relationship, just hate.  We are constantly looking for shoes and clean clothes. I tire of hearing every morning, "I can't find any clothes".  My response is always, "Look on the floor" and make them go back in and look.  Imagine this - they always come out in clean clothes!!!  But they have to search for them.  During that search the room gets messier.  This is also the case with in the boys room.  I am getting tired of washing clothes 5 times to the 1 time that they wear it because the clean and dirty clothes are all mixed up together.  Hopefully with them helping me they will someday take some pride in what they own and will eventually learn to take care of it.

It has been a really challenge to get the kids to help today.  They have there moments and they all help a few minutes at one point or another, but it was like pulling teeth to get them to start helping.  Taking that one day off is causing us to go back and retrain them in how to help with being prodded.

I now have them doing their ROR.  They have pushed it and pushed it.  They have tortured and teased each other. Mom is at her whits end.  The timer is now set and they have 20 minutes left to get the living room done (they all have to help because they all helped pick on each other, especially picking on Kristen who has the living room, and her whining and crying in return).  If they get it done in the 30 minutes they were given then they get to go to the pool on this 90 degree day.  If they don't, then they get to sit up on their beds for one hour, preferably with their eyes closed.  So far there is some progress but there is still too much fighting and bickering.

Back to the Master Bedroom - here are the before and after pictures.

 Before

(Those two baskets were full of clean clothes.  

I will give you 3 guesses where they now are and the first 2 don't count.)

After

(What you can't see is that there are few more clothes to be hung up and put away, but the majority of the clothes are now put in their proper places - dirty to the laundry sorters, clean to the closet and drawers.) Take a look at the before picture - did you even know that there was a chair there - I didn't move the chair - just the clothes :)  I can now go to bed tonight without having to climb over a mountain of clothes!!!  

21 June - Greenhouse

It has been really sad that we have a greenhouse and don't use it.  We put boards in there last to protect them from the weather as it was a quick dry place to put them.  The kids have decided it is their club house and so have taken dishes, blankets, toys, etc in and left them there.  Somehow a pane of glass got in there and was broken all over the boards and then fell all over the gravel.  Weeds had taken over and were growing rather well, imagine plants growing well in a greenhouse :).  Enough of the words.  Let me show you the before and after pictures and let them tell the story. 

We again forgot the camera before we got going.  We had all the wood taken out before we remembered the camera.  Therefore we have an extra picture of the majority of the wood so you could see what was in there.  The boards were too long so we had to put them in diagonally and therefore it took up all the walk space available.

Before

 The stack of boards in the greenhouse.  How did we fit all those in there?  Oh, also those blankets, etc on the picnic table were in there also.

After!!!!  Yeah we could actually use it now.  

To finish the greenhouse, we will need to clean up the outside of it and fix the vent that was blown off and broken by high winds while we were gone on a trip in March.  It is such a wonderful feeling looking at these after pictures.

Another Step - Hopefully Proves Successful

Last night, after a very lazy day of playing on the computer and doing anything but working,  I was prompted to take drastic measures.  I played a few more games on the computer before heading to bed.  Went to get ready for bed and had this feeling that it was time to delete the games off of Facebook.  I started to question it, but got right up and went immediately into the computer and deleted ALL the games on Facebook that I play on the computer.  It is hopefully going to help me learn how to be more effective in my daily tasks. 

Look - I already have got myself caught up on this blog!!!  I now need to get going on the work for the day.  See you on the next go around!!!

19 June - Berry Garden

 We were able to start and finish a project today with a few minutes left in the hour.  We worked on the Berry Patch.  It is called that because that is what we hoped to have growing in there.  We have planted strawberries and raspberries several times and the raspberries you see are all that have survived.  Still trying to decide what to do with this spot.  Any suggestions would be much appreciated.  The herbs survived over the winter - YEAH!!!

 

 BEFORE (working today) - You didn't see all the weeds before they were pulled up - there is a vast difference from the before the before picture look :)

 

AFTER

Not the greatest looking, but the ground is now ready to do whatever we want to do with this spot.

18 June - Just Peachy and Pine Tree Point

We started cleaning up around the pine tree.  There are a lot of pine needles, pine cones, etc under the pine tree.  The kids started raking it up before I got over there so we continued doing this job.

 Before

 After - but still with piles of the pine needles. As you can see from the piles, there was a lot there despite what the before picture showed.

 I didn't get a before picture of this area, thought of it after the fact.  We are in the effort of cleaning out the area to make a straight line across the front.  After the grass is removed then we will put a weed barrier down and then make it a rock garden.  If you could have only seen the before picture before I really started going on it.  It has made a drastic change.  One day it will be completely done and easy to manage :)

The area above the writing is the section that we cleaned out today - approximately 2.5 to 3 feet long.  We also cleared out the grass that has popped up since I have worked on it before.

Inside pictures to be coming later on today. :)

18 Jun - Elmo's World

We worked in the dining room today.  We mainly focused on the plants. We cleaned up the dead and moved some of the plants outside to give them a different environment and give more space in the bay window.  We worked hard and the kids enjoyed doing the work.  It is nice to enjoy the not so cluttered bay window.  Ignore the clothes, they still need to be put away, but at least they are folded :)

This picture was taken a few weeks before, but as usual, we keep forgetting to take a before picture.  Mostly focus on the bay window.

Revamp For Summer

So now that the kids are home it is is time to enlist them in the help of getting the house in order.  I have discussed with them what needs to be done before Tatsuki arrives in the United States.  I told them of everything needs to be done, inside and outside, and the habits we need to develop to make this time with him fun without getting too far behind on the everyday chores.

I gave them the choice of making each day a spontaneous day or scheduled day so they know what to expect when they wake up.  They chose the spontaneous approach.  Therefore, we have a Wheel of What on the iPod.  I made a list of everything that needs to be done outside and inside (the deep cleaning part inside).  The Outside and the Inside have their own wheel.

The schedule for the day is:

Morning

• One hour outside (Daily Outside Chores Wheel)
• One hour on the inside deep cleaning (Overcoming Elmo's World Wheel)
• ROR (Room of Responsibility)
• Breakfast Chores

 Afternoon

• Lunch Chores when necessary
• Play

Evening

• Dinner Chores
• Get Ready for Bed

When Needed

• Fold and Put Away Clothes
• Extra Chores

The rules for the wheel is that we role in order of age (oldest to youngest).  We go to that spot, evaluate what needs to be done and then work on it for the hour or until completed.  If Mom feels that we have done enough and that we need a change then we can reroll for a new spot.

We will post pictures of before and after of the two one-hour jobs so that we have a visual of what we have done and how far we have come by the time Tatsuki comes.

My hopes is that

1. The kids learn how to work together.
2. They learn the importance of a team
3. They learn the importance of responsibilty
4. They learn that if they take care of their stuff when they get done with it then clean up later is a lot easier.
5. They learn that if they take care of their chores everyday then it will become easier to do the next day.
6. They learn that if they get in and get going first thing in the morning, without being prodded, then work will get done faster and they have more time to do whatever they want during the day and Mom doesn't pester them as much.
7. I am sure there is more that can be learned from this, but I think this is an adequate list so far.

For those of you that read this - you might find this entertaining and hopefully motivating.  I am using this as a motivation for each of us, and possibly for others.

The motivation - at this point of time - is the person who works the hardest that morning gets to choose which location we go to summer lunch.  That is huge motivation for right now.  It may change as the summer goes along.

Just for those that don't know our system that is already in place for ROR.  We have a wheel that we change every week (or day).  The two big wheels are rotated each week, the third wheel is changed everyday.  The outside wheel is their ROR.  The next wheel is their neutral ground upstairs - bathroom, hallway and stairs.  The third wheel is their meal time chores.

Each ROR has a check list in each room that has their responsibilities to be done to complete that room for the day.  It is laminated so they can use dry erase markers and then erase at the end of the week so it is fresh for the next week.

 

Week #2 - June 4-9

This week isn't starting off with a bang.  Didn't sleep all that well last night and so I am very tired.  I have got a load of dishes going this morning and reported on last week.  I know I can do it, just take the first step. 

Here are the rooms for this week:  Boys and Girls Bedrooms

Break down of the rooms -

Boys Room:

• Clothes picked up
• Beds made
• Tub emptied and taken out of their room
• Shelves cleaned off and organized
• Walls washed
• Window cleaned
• Floor vacuumed
• Clean out drawers of too small clothes
• Clean under Spencer's bed

Girls Room:

• Toys picked up
• Remove toys from room
• Go through baby toys and pack up to give away or yard sale
• Go through sheets
• Clean out closet on east side
• Organize blankets
• Wash walls
• Wash window
• Wash kitchen toy
• Make beds

Now off to work.  The biggest work today is going to be keeping Tamra entertained as this is her first day without school.  They always had something for the kids to do every minute of the day.  I am just not that organized or energetic.  It will take time to switch gears of how life is going to be everyday (for all of us)!

Completion of Week #1

Well the week got started off on the right foot.  I got lots done Monday and started going through some boxes in the back room.  That is until I had a reminder of being at a certain place - 5 minutes after I was supposed to be there.  I did get rid of a handful of boxes and filled another x-large box up about half way with garbage.  I seemed to have ended there on that project for the rest of the week.  I did notice that the kids took a lot better care of the back room.  If somebody made a mess, I could guarantee somebody else would tell me that it was a mess.  If I caught someone back there, with any kind of mess, they would jump (because I caught them) and then promise to clean up their mess (which they did).  I think my cry/sobbing and yelling at the kids on Monday because of the disaster made an impression on them. 

I decided not to do the garage although I thought about it a few times, but there was always something more pressing that needed to be done.  I will get to it, when I don't know, but I will!!!

Church - now that was a chore!!!  We had two cleaning assignments.  We had all the bathrooms, mother's lounge, cultural hall and the hallway around the cultural hall. Over 2 hours later we were finally walking out the door.  I was exhausted.  Granted this came after working out in the yard all day.

That leads me to the last - Garden.  We were able to plant more in our garden this weekend, only to find out that it is going to freeze on Tuesday.  That is later then most years.  UGH!  I have beans coming up, and sure more - just didn't look.  We planted the tomatoes, peppers and a few starts of cucumbers and zucchini that we had.  It looks pretty good.   To top off the garden work (no pun intended) we put up the top railing to the fence.  It is finally 6 feet tall.  Hopefully this will keep the deer out!!!  We just have one more row of railing in the middle to put up.  Next paycheck and it will all be built.  We will need to put a coat of oil stain on it so the wood will last a long time.  Many years of wanting it built and it is now close to being done.  YEAH!!! Now to figure out how to keep the plants from freezing tomorrow night.

I didn't get everything done that I wanted to get done this week, but I made some progress.  Pat on the back for what I did get done!!!  Hopefully that pat is hard enough that it will move me forward onto the next tasks for this week.