Posted in The Fun Stuff
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I've loved reading about what everyone did for their Mother's Day, so here's mine. We celebrated mostly on Saturday. The day started with a wonderful crab quiche (one of my favorites!) with strawberries. Then Hubby packed a lunch, and we headed to the local farmers' market to check it out. From there we went to the zoo. MIL gave us money for a membership last fall, but for various and sundry reasons, we didn't get to use it until now. The day was beautiful as you can see by the pics below. We had a great time, grabbed a few inexpensive souvenirs (Yes, they exist) and ate dinner at Panera on the way home. They also gave me my first gift - a Christoga DVD. It's yoga postures with cute Christian names (angel's breath) and scripture readings while you're holding the pose. Sunday, Hubby made me one of my favorite dinners, stuffed chicken marsala with salad, bread, and broiled asparagus. YUM! Thanks sweetie! Then they gave me a book on preserving the harvest and a beautiful top as my final presents. (No, he didn't blow as much cash on this as it probably sounds, and it was all in the budget. Let me just give a little plug here. Hubby never bought me clothes until I finally got around to making an Amazon wish list. I put about 30 things on it so I'd still be surprised, and Hubby didn't have to guess about what I wanted.
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) Posted in A Method to the Madness?
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Sheila asked for more specifics on the point chart I'm using to make my older boys earn their sand/water table, so here goes! Note: I wrote this on the day I said I would, but somehow I hit save as draft instead of posting it. Oh well! I got the general idea from the book Child Wise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam. They have a whole series of books from pregnancy through the teen years. Although I don't follow their approach exactly (I'm a tweaker; I can't help it.), these books most closely reflect my general parenting philosophy. How it works is super simple. Basically, I pick an area in which one or more of them need improvement. Then I decide on a reward. Ezzo and Bucknam talk mainly about giving points, but I've found that my kids are helped more when I combine positive and negative reinforcement. The main problems we're working on right now are ignoring instructions, bickering, and whining. We're offering a reward mainly because John's and my attitudes have definitely contributed to these problems. We've been distracted and stressed, so we didn't think straight punishment was appropriate. To help with the bickering (or maybe making it worse), we've made them work together on the chart instead of each of them having their own. Here are the points: To earn 1 point:
To earn 2 points:
To lose 1 point:
To lose 2 points:
Other points can be added or subtracted at parents' discretion. I don't usually take away points without ample warning. For example, I added a point when "George" remembered the first stanza of "Mr. Nobody" after only one practice session and another when "Paul" spontaneously shared something special with "George", but I took one away when after 3 reminders the boys were still playing more than they were working. We track the points with little fridge magnets throughout the day, and then at bedtime we add them to the chart. Once a point is on the chart, it can't be taken away. If they are in the negative numbers at bedtime, they'll be back at 0 the next day. That way one bad day won't leave them trying to dig their way out of a hole. We don't use this method very often, so it stays fresh when we do use it. The biggest thing we've used it for up to this point was to help "Paul" earn his first two-wheeled bicycle. He needed one anyway, but we wanted it to be meaningful for him. He was 4 or 5, and we called it his "heart chart". We listed all the fruits of the spirit on the top and put smaller hearts inside a larger poster of a heart every time he displayed a fruit of the spirit. When the heart was full, he got the bike. Honestly, he was so proud of himself watching it fill up that we probably could have used it without the reward. I hope that explains it ok. We love charts and posters, so it works well for us. Feel free to tweak it anyway you want! Jennifer |
Posted in The Fun Stuff
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Yes, I've finally decided to share this blog with the grandma's. I have a habit of starting this kind of thing only to stop a few months later, so I wanted to make sure it was something I was going to continue with before I let them in on my secret. Attention Mom and Mary: This blog isn't really about the kids. This blog is more about me (Jennifer). There will, however, be entries about and pictures of the kids from time to time. Note: Their names have been changed to "Paul", "George" and "Ringo" (oldest to youngest) for safety reasons. This blog will be replacing the MySpace that I let drop last summer because, well, it was a pain and you only looked at the pictures anyway. There will be a different place just for photos, but you'll have to wait till your birthdays for that. So without further ado, pause the music player that's down and to the right, hit play on the video link, and enjoy a Mother's Day greeting from my little zoo!
Note: Usually as soon as a child has a recorder in their hands the dogs begin to howl. This time, however, they decided to be pains in the tail by waiting several minutes before singing along. This was the best editing job we could do because we're still learning how to use the camera's video function and how to edit on photobucket. It ain't Spielberg, but it'll have to do. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! WE LOVE YOU! Jennifer, John, and the boys |
I wouldn't bother going on the photobucket link because it only has pictures that are on the blog. Oh, and you can't copy them by right clicking because I've disabled that function. (Try it and see!)Posted in A Method to the Madness?
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I've been nominated for the Mean Mommy of the Year award.
You see, we bought this cool sand and water table for the boys to use in the backyard because, well, there isn't much for them to do back there. The only problem is the boys have not been behaving very well lately. I know that at least some of that problem behavior has been because of my burned-outedness, but nevertheless, we need to do something about it. SO this was the answer we came up with:
The two older boys have to accumulate 116 points (1 point per dollar spent) before they may play with the table. We're just finishing up the 2nd week, and they still have a long way to go. We're mainly focusing on ending the bickering and whining and reinforcing 1st time obedience. Ringo does get to play with it because he's still too young to understand a point system, and it helps to motivate the big boys. But he doesn't really gloat . . . much.
So yes, I'm mean Mommy, but I'll be a lot meaner if we can't all start getting along a little better. Have a great weekend and an awesome Mother's Day! Jennifer |
Posted in Homekeeping
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Well, we did really well eating dinner at home this week. The problems came with lunch. For dinner Tuesday we had an impromptu hot dog roast for Cub Scouts, and Wednesday's dinner was our usual midweek program at church. The reason that's a problem is that we didn't have any leftovers for lunch, and the fast food nature of those meals set our taste buds to "grease" and turned the safety off. I've found that we will eat lunch out if I don't preplan lunches for those days. SO, this week I'm really going to focus on planning breakfast and lunch each night before I go to bed. That'll also give me a chance to check the menu for things that need to be defrosted, etc. Here goes: Monday: Soccer practice (5:30 - 6:30ish)
Tuesday: Cub Scouts (7-8pm)
Wednesday: Midweek program at church (dinner provided). Thursday: George's last soccer game (6-7ish)
Friday: Lovely time @ dentist getting crown.
Saturday: Mother's Day! We always celebrate Sunday holidays on Saturday because of church responsibilities. It also avoids the crowds.
Sunday:
Lunch ideas: leftovers, tuna sandwiches, bean & cheese quesadillas, pb & banana, egg salad sandwiches . . . ummm . . . Any ideas? Have a great week, and don't forget to check out my new blog Losin' the Fat Suit! Jennifer |