A Plan!

I was extremely blessed last week to have an amazing woman come to my house and help me prepare for the summer. She is the childrens pastor at my church and she is one of the most awesome Godly woman that I am privileged to know! She has a passion for helping people and for organizing and that is what we set out to do last week. Get organized! She helped me clean out the kiddo's rooms and closets. They are now rearranged and are so much more efficient! I also purged and was able to make some moola Saturday at a garage sale. :)

One of the most influential and helpful things we did while she was here was implement a new family system. To be honest I wasn't even aware at how disorganized I was around here until I sat down with her and came up with a plan. Here is a little run down of what we will be doing differently around here:

We will have our "family wall". It will consist of 4 main things; a calendar for mom, a calendar for the kiddo's, a chore chart, and the house rules will be found on the "family wall". The calendar for the kiddo's will be used to track good behavior. Each time the kids use their manners, do their chores, or do something I find deserving they will receive a stamp. This will be our rewards system. So many stamps a day means a small special treat for that day. So many stamps a week will lead to a  "big reward". Each day will also have either a J or an H, this indicates whose day it is. Whose ever day it is gets to make the choices for that day. For example they get to chose where we eat lunch, or who gets to sit next to dad at dinner, or what book we read at bedtime. The other kiddo will always know that while they might not get to make the decisions today, they will always have tomorrow. It helps with fighting and arguing because if it's not their day than it's not their day and that's that. The calendar for mom will be there to help me remember appointments, plan menus, events, etc. pretty basic stuff. The house rules will be posted there, as well as the kiddo's chore chart that will help them remember to do their daily chores. (I.E. tidying their rooms, putting away clean clothes, etc.)

Every week we will have a family meeting to go over the rules, and to discuss how the kids did with their chores, how many stamps they received, etc. We will use this time to praise them for the efforts and remind them of the rules and why they are there.

it might be hard to believe that I didn't have a family system in place before. Sometimes I find it hard to believe myself. You know though, I'm not alone in this, there are lots of moms out there that don't have a structured plan. Some need one, some don't. I need one for my family. I think the frustration and stress that we have dealt with are proof of that!

I will keep everyone updated over the summer as we learn to adjust to this new system. I'm excited and I KNOW I will have good news to share! ^_^