Loving Those Tomatoes

I see many families living in chaos. They want to have a better family, a more organized home, and a more peaceful life. They just don’t know how to do it. Over the next several weeks I will be giving tips to help you gain control of your family (whether large or small) so your days are more peaceful, and so that in a few decades we don’t wish we had done things differently. Read more here....

Scrapbooking for a large family

I am not sure if I have shared my scrapbooking technique with you all or not. I have friends who do loads of wonderful scrapbooks, both digital and real. I love looking at them. I think it would be fun to do them. But I get bogged down in the details. I have done some digital scrapbooking, and this blog works as a scrapbook, really, but formally I have not done much. I'm way too busy wiping noses to scrap about them.

So at the end of last year, I had a great idea. For 8 cents a print at york, I can get all my favorite photos from the year printed out. Then I go to Stuff Mart and buy a photo album. I then stick all the photos in the album. Sometimes I write notes, mostly I just plain get them in.

So there you have it! My method of scrapbooking. Safe, easy, relatively cheap, and no scissors or stickers to lose.

A friend of mine said that this year she has done a photo book - a couple pages for each month. That is a pretty good idea too. It wouldn't take long, and you could then have a book printed for less than $15 plus shipping. Can't beat that!

It's what Works For Me! Go to Rocks in my Dryer to find out some more things which work!

Keeping Track of Chores and Rewards

Yesterday I started a series on "How I Do It"... in response to people's insatiable curiosity about, well, how I do it! So if you are not a regular reader, go here to read my first installment.

One thing I am not good at is remembering when I assigned a job, if it was done, if it needed to be done again, if someone needed to have another job since they didn't do the first one well, etc. I still can't remember much of it, but I have finally figured out an easy reward / discipline system I thought I would pass on.

We were given a bunch of "Tickets" that the church was getting rid of. You could buy those rolls of tickets, or just cut up paper, whichever works best for you. At the beginning of the week, each child gets 10 tickets. I write their initial on the back of it. If they do not do a job I have asked them to do, they hand me a ticket. I cross out the initial so it can be used again.

Each ticket is worth $.25. Or they can trade some for extra computer time. Or staying up late. Or extra toppings on ice cream sundae night. (I even said that 100 tickets can be turned in for a day off school.)

If they do after meal chores exceptionally quickly the whole family earns an extra ticket each. If they go exceptionally slowly they all lose one. Set a successful mousetrap? Ticket. Change a poopy diaper? Ticket.

This is an easy way for us all to keep track of things. They keep their tickets, and I am no longer responsible for remembering everything. Which is a win win situation all around. They way outnumber me, you know.

It's something that Works for Me!