Minimal Mondays

There are few days that I dread more than Minimal Mondays. What are Minimal Mondays you ask.... a mom's worst nightmare!!!! Every Monday my kids get out of school 50 minutes early, why... heck if I know! Then every once in a while they get out 1 hour and 45 minutes early! I hate these days, with a half day kindergarten program it is way more trouble than it could possibly be worth! I already miss the all day kindergarten my older two children had, I mean how much could my 5 year old be learning in 2 hours and 52 minutes??? So each day is chopped into roughly 3 hour increments already, but on minimal Monday I have a 2.5 hour block between drop off of the older kids and drop off of the kindergartener and a 2 hour block between then and pick up time. When is my 1 year old supposed to get his afternoon nap in???? If they really feel that they need this extra time why not add it to Friday afternoon? Then at least I could leave town earlier when I want to go visit someone or my 11 year old could have an extra hour with his best friend from school that lives 20 minutes away! Do we really need to make a rough day of the week so much worse by screwing up the schedule we can barely remember anyway???

Baby Steps!

Sometimes it feels like no matter how hard you try you just never get anywhere. We had been feeling that way about getting our children to do their chores and simple things they should do each day. Our new solution? Fuzzy pom poms. Last night I went by Hobby Lobby and picked up a bunch of pom poms, a clearance pitcher, and 5 clearance tiki cups. Each time they do a chore without being reminded or do a good deed, or do a good job on a chore, or anything that we feel makes our home a more loving place they get to put a fuzzy ball in their tiki cup. When the cup is full they will earn something. So far they are excited about it and it is easier to remember than stickers on a chart and we can reuse them so it will save time and money in the long run. I'll let you know how it goes. I hope this works cause I'm out of ideas!!!