Back to School week….:-)
This weekend was spent with the family. Pete was getting ready for a Trip to China and the kids are gearing up for school on Tuesday.
It was time to set some goals for the school year, talk about the summer, and set expectations about organization, and time management skills. There will be band, track, chorus in addition at just the regular school requirements. (Lots of volunteer opportunities for mom. 😛 )
Then it was time to figure out who is doing what chores around then house. Who is getting up and walking the Murph dawg. Who washes the breakfast dishes on what days and the supper dishes on others. Takes out the trash etc, etc. The kids are now at ages where they can wash, dry and fold their own clothes. Had to set the expectation for that. (oh they knew it was coming we do this every school year.)
Then I got asked the question, so what is our allowance going to be. There are some things you must do to contribute to the success of the household. I will not give you money for maintaining your room, washing your clothes, cleaning your bathroom. Taking care of the dog – nope, we all love him, therefore we all take care of him. I told them anything above and beyond the normal everyday household things like helping me iron, or changing all the sheets, mowing the grass, mopping all the floors etc then they would be compensated based on their level of enthusiasm, attitude, skill level (there are still a few things they need some help with) and completeness of the task. I am not asking them to do anything I didn’t have to do growing up or that I don’t do now. Heck I did I lot more (you know walking 5 miles up hill both ways to get to school…:-P, just kidding but I did work a lot as a kid and it didn’t hurt me one bit).
Now I need to post the schedules, chore list and get the school/study area organized. I am not sure who likes school more?
Pete and I spent time just hanging out and syncing calendars and figuring out out plan of attack on what is left to do on the house. More than I thought but it is coming together. woo hoo. I miss going to daily Mass and since the only Catholic Churches are 30 to 40 minutes away I need to plan the days I will go to town for Mass and schedule other “in town” activities on those days as well. 🙂 What day is laundry day (everyday in my house). Plan the menus for the week on Saturday, Sunday paper check the coupons, then check online to see the sales for that week. This may take a week or so to get the details ironed out. The figure out what days to make the extra things to freeze in case we are busy and I don’t have time to cook. I have a ready made meal to just pop in the oven. Stuff like that.
This week – kids in school on Tuesday. They will get the rest of the supply list and teachers wish lists on Tuesday, so Wednesday I will be running to the store to complete those lists. Wednesday eye doctor appointments for the kids and a trip to pick out new glass on Thursday. Oh the dog gets groomed on Thursday is needs a trim, and a pedicure something fierce. Oh Matt will pick out his instrument for band on Tuesday gotta see what that is going to be so we can set him up a practice area. (I cringe as I remember when I was in band and learning new instruments. My parents told me to practice outside. I was so bad when I started that the neighbors called to ask, what was all the racket at our house. I think they said it sounded like an animal dieing, but I got better so it was all cool.)
I hate Pete is missing back to school week. It’s always an interesting time trying to get a teenager out of bed in the morning and motivating them to get up, get dressed clean their rooms, and pack their lunches in a timely manner without me raising my voice to decibels known only to opera singers. (Maybe he planned this trip on purpose to miss the forced routine fun).
I am going to go and enjoy the day before school starts. I am going to finish another quilt today. I only have one load of laundry to finish. I am going to finish ready a book I have been working on and I think I might even turn on the TV. Tonight though I have stuff for the Atlanta Linux Fest and the UbuCon I need to work on.
