personal blog
My true love gave to me…
A little boy ready to go shopping at Mom’s Christmas Store.
For more of the twelve days of Christmas visit Sprittibee’s blog.
Have you entered my giveaway for the Motivated Moms 2009 Planner? Click here to enter! The giveaway ends Sunday.
My true love gave to me….
A toddler on a sugar high!
For more of the twelve days of Christmas visit Sprittibee’s blog.
Have you entered my giveaway for the Motivated Moms 2009 Planner? Click here to enter! The giveaway ends Sunday.
my true love gave to me….
A MESS!
For more of the twelve days of Christmas visit Sprittibee’s blog.
Have you entered my giveaway for the Motivated Moms 2009 Planner? Click here to enter! The giveaway ends Sunday.
On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me….
Twenty-eight kids and a cookie frosting party.
For more of the twelve days of Christmas visit Sprittibee’s blog.
You can find more Wordless Wednesday here.
Have you entered my giveaway for the Motivated Moms 2009 Planner? Click here to enter! The giveaway ends Sunday.
On the second day of Christmas…
My true love gave to me, a house full of poinsettias and 13 silly kids….
For more of the 12 Days of Christmas stop by Sprittibee’s blog.
Usually I try to think of one specific thing I am thankful for each week for Gratituesday. This week there are so many I decided to list them all, well at least the ones I am thinking of right now.
What are you thankful for this week?
Hi and welcome to our home!
We usually keep our outside decorations simple. (Translation- my husband doesn’t like to hang outside lights) This year we picked out a wreath from our friend’s greenhouse. It is beautiful.
I usually only decorate a few rooms in our house. I once had many decorations, but after many moves, my decorations are dwindling.
I am very excited that this year I have a hutch to display some of my breakable decorations. My favorites are the snow globes.
Someone else likes them too.
My oldest son loves Nutcrackers.
One new addition to our decor this year are fresh poinsettias. They are so gorgeous, I am not sure why I haven’t purchased these every year.
Since we don’t have a chimney I am always baffled as to where to hang the stockings.
Some of the kids love our Little People Christmas decorations. I love them because the kids cannot break them.
We also have some Playmobil decorations because we are equal opportunity around here.
Our piano is decorated with a some lighted village scenes which my kids love! I try to buy one every year after Christmas when they are on sale.
The Christmas tree sits in our living room and per the kids request can be seen out of two windows.
And yes, the tree is leaning.
We don’t put gifts under the tree until Christmas because we have a two-year old.
My favorite thing to do in December is grab a cup of hot chocolate, put on some Christmas music and sit by the tree before bed.
For more Christmas tours visit BooMama and for more Christmas decorations visit the Homeschool Post.
Next month we will be taking a family vacation. While I will have access to the internet, I do want the majority of my time to be spent doing vacation-y things. I also do not want to neglect the blog while I am gone. So, I thought I would ask for some help.
First, would anyone be interested in guest posting here at The Happy Housewife next month. The requirements are pretty basic, I am looking for posts about frugal living, kids, homeschooling, craft tutorials, cooking, healthy eating, recycling, or military life. The only other requirement would that it would need to be original, not something you have already written and published somewhere else. You do not need to have a blog to write an article you just need to be a good speller (or know how to use spell check like me!). If you would like to guest post just click on the “email me” button at the top of my sidebar and send me an email with your post idea.
Second, I thought it would be fun to do a little Q&A with my readers. I know that many of you leave questions in the comments section or email me and I try to respond, but I don’t always remember or the email gets lost in my inbox. So, if you have a question for me, leave it in the comments section of this post. I plan to write up some posts before I leave answering your questions. Feel free to ask any question on any topic from personal to practical and I will try to answer it. The only two items off limits are my weight and real hair color ;).
Happy Baby (to be) #7 is officially a GIRL!
That will make 3 boys and 4 girls around here. I’m seeing PINK!
Every year I face the same dilemma, my kids (who are normally broke) want to buy Christmas presents for their siblings. My dilemma is two-fold, one I don’t like the idea of giving the kids money to purchase gifts, I think they should earn the money. Second, I hate extremely dislike standing in the dollar store with 5 kids trying to help them pick out Christmas gifts for each other.
This year I had an idea. For several years we had a points store at our home where the kids could pick out prizes based on completed school work, good behavior, etc… After mulling over my Christmas quandary, I thought, why not create a Christmas store? I sort through my gift stash and do a little extra shopping then create a “store” in my bedroom. The kids will all have the opportunity to visit the store a few days before Christmas and purchase gifts for one another.
The only problem that remained was the money, so I decided to create a Christmas job chart. Each child’s jobs are color coded with dollar amounts next to them. When they complete a job they are paid immediately with Christmas dollars. The dollars are put into a Merry Money jar and on December 23rd they can go shopping at Mom’s Christmas Store.
I am thrilled to see my kids trying to find more ways to earn money so they can buy more gifts for their siblings. I am also thrilled that many of my household projects are getting done thanks to my new commission system. For my little kids, their jobs are ones that they would normally not be paid for, collecting laundry, picking up, etc, because I had trouble finding big projects that they were capable of doing. But my big kids have tackled some lingering household projects. So far my dishwasher, fridge, stove and microwave have been cleaned out, my couch has been vacuumed, my coupons sorted, walls washed, laundry done, and plants watered. I don’t even have to ask them to do the jobs.
If you are interested in using this idea for your kids here are a few tips. Pay kids for jobs completed immediately. This is especially important for little kids who thrive on instant gratification. Use clear jars to store the money so the kids are able to see their earnings and are motivated to do more. Make jobs age appropriate. There is no reason to give a 14 year old a dollar for unloading the dishwasher or ask a 3 year old to clean the stove. When stocking your “store” price items clearly. My little kids don’t understand the concept of money too well but they are able to count. Items in the “store” will all be priced at an even dollar amount. The child will be able to count out how many dollars they need to purchase an item. There is no tax and no change. (We can save that lesson for another time)
The Merry Money jars are filling up, my house is getting cleaner and I have avoided taking six kids Christmas shopping!
For more Works for Me Wednesday visit Rocks in My Dryer.