Do you think he’ll get the hint?

As you well know, Mike is not able to stay inactive. He’s always thinking of new ways to keep himself busy. Sometimes these things are impossible for my head to wrap around, but it doesn’t stop him from doing it. Periodically, he likes to take old shotgun shells and reload them to be able to use in a shotgun again. There are several steps to the process which require equipment, so I won’t even try to explain it. However, Mike does like other people to try their hand at it, so he had Annie assist him during his latest reloading session. Annie was in charge of handing Daddy shells and wads. In the end, they reloaded 75 shotgun shells.

In an effort to get the girls more motivated about their jobs around the house I decided to implement a new system. I saw this reward board posted on a blog recently and immediately knew this would be perfect for my short-termed memory girls. I thought they’d be more excited about the new routine if they got to help make the reward board, so we started the project on this Monday’s family home evening. The process involves lots of Mod Podge for the patterned paper on the frame and sheet metal, and I thought they could handle that step. They did pretty good and also handed me magnets to glue to the back of the tin, circle boxes. There were several more steps, and I have been doing those periodically throughout the week with the girls anxiously waiting for the final product. At last, I completed the final steps today which included inserting chores and the rewards for those chores. The original design called for just putting the chores on folded pieces of paper inside the boxes, but I figured it would be easier to control what chores get done and when. We may not need or have time to have the floors vacuumed and what not.

It now hangs on our computer armoire’s door via a 3M hook that I colored brown with a Sharpie marker.

A closer look. As you can see the “rewards” are things such as coins, stickers, candy, and erasers. The stickers go with the more desirable chores such as brushing Sadie or writing Grandma/Grandpa a letter. Whereas the candy and eraser will require a little more elbow grease to acquire such as washing floors, vacuuming, and helping to fold laundry. The harder/more time consuming chores also result in a few more (or higher valued) coins. It may take a few times to see what chores are most popular and easiest for them to really see what rewards fit best.

In case you’re wondering what that thing is in the middle. It’s a large, flat marble that has “Hawley Helpers” magnified through (I know, it’s super cheesy). I only had 24 tin boxes and had a big gap in the middle. This idea came to me because I have too many of those dang marbles and magnets to last a lifetime. I had to use 4 magnets though to get the marble to be similar in height to the boxes.

In other news, Violet gets really lonely during our dinnertime each night. In order to include her, I put her in her bumbo on top of the dinner table. She loves it!

However, this sometimes proves to be a bit too exhausting for her.

Lastly, the girls got have their faces painted again by Cuddles the Clown again the other night. We didn’t get done with swimming until around 6:00 p.m., and Mike wasn’t going to have time to eat with us due to a scout meeting. I remembered that Culver’s has their kids’ night on Tuesday nights and thought it’d be a fun treat for the girls. We were surprised though to see that Cuddles and Billy were there because they don’t do all the kids’ nights. Mimi was so prissy about her new look. When were walking out of the restaurant to go home she put her hand on hip and shook her bum violently back and forth all the way to the door. It caused a lot of people to giggle.

Yes, we did something crazy. We’ve added another pet to our already chaotic lives. However, it had to be done. The girls get so sad when Lily makes an appearance thinking there are no kids around only to run frantic from them when they try to pet her. Lucy, on the other hand, will tolerate the girls touching her, but that’s all it is: tolerance. The girls absolutely adore Violet, and I think they secretly consider her to be a pet. In my opinion, that poses a big problem. Mike and I love to have pets (remember, we used to have a 2nd cat years ago named Harvey, but he was too aggressive for our soon-to-be-born child…poor Harvey). We’ve always known at some point that the girls would want a pet that they could love on, bond with, and make their own. Every time we visit Petsmart we take a peek at the cats/kittens they have for adoption. The girls always beg us to adopt one of the kitties, but we never give in to them and end up leaving with sad, little girls. I don’t know why we put them and ourselves through that torture, but I guess it’s that we love looking at those darn cats so much.

Mike and I decided now would be a good time because it will not only help take some of the attention away from Violet, but the girls are also at the right age to understand how to behave around a small animal. That’s not to say we won’t have the kitten separated and only allow the girls kitty time during designated and monitored times in the beginning. Ok, rather than ramble on about the why/what/whens, let’s just have a look at this darn kitty.

Meet Sadie. Sadie is a Himalayan (Tortie Point) with blue eyes. As you can see, the girls are over-the-moon. Neither one of them have given Violet a second look since her arrival. Let’s hope it stays that way at least until Violet can fight them off on her own. We chose Sadie because she has such a sweet disposition and doesn’t seem to mind the giggling, screeching, and touchiness of little girls, and Himalayans have a wonderful reputation for being great cats like that (I grew up with them as well).

Another project we’ve got in the works are a couple of bean plants growing inside. Mike wanted me to post a picture to show their status. He tied twine to the curtain rod above to let the beans vine up.

I finally put the finishing touches on Annie’s hat and snapped a couple pictures. She wasn’t pleased with the venue since I made her step outside to take the pics. But her hat is complete, and she’s been wearing it to school. Apparently, her teacher liked it so much that she took a picture, too. I will say I’m not completely satisfied with all the yarns because they are so different from each other in texture and weight. However, I didn’t have enough of the purple to make an entire hat, and that was the color that Annie truly desired.

And I can’t leave you without a glimpse of Violet’s daily doings. She is quite busy these days.