Pintrest Project of the Week!

This week we made a chore chart for Luke! I used a file folder, some Velcro pieces, paper and markers. As you can see, Luke did the art work on the inside indicating his chores! He loved doing that!

Basically we will start the day with all of the flaps down, and as Luke completes the task he will lift the flap. We are hoping this helps us be a little more consistent with chores!

BTW, his daily "to do's" include:
Make bed/pick up room
Feed Pacey
Pick up toys
Set the table
Empty trash when needed

He loves it now...we'll see how it goes!

My One Word

sim·pli·fy:

to reduce to basic essentials

 Phew...a tough word for me to embrace.  I like to be busy.  I like to be involved.  I like to stay up late.  However, these past few months, during my quiet time (and let's be honest, it's not a set time!) I have heard the Lord saying,  "Simplify."  

I fought back a little...But I don't have time to simplify...I have a young family, we have lots of family and friends in town that we want to hang out with, I have shows to choreograph and shows to watch on our DVR, etc.  And finally it came time for new year's resolutions...SIMPLIFY came to me once again!  (Why was I not surprised?!)

 myoneword.org is a site that guides us to choose one word that centers on our character and creates a vision for our future...thus replacing the "New Year's Resolution."  Check it out if you struggle keeping your resolutions but want to try something new this 2013!

 So far simplify looks different than I expected, but here are some ways in which I am making it happen in 2013!

1. I am going to bed by 10:00.  Sleep is important, and I have to get up early...this late night stuff had to go.  (Tear...and more tears.  I love staying up late!)

2. No phone use in the car.  I had gotten really bad about needing to talk while driving, and checking my email/facebook/texts at stoplights.  I need to relearn how to sit at a stoplight and just be.  Plus, I want my kids to see me having good driving/phone habits.  

3. We use cash for almost everything now.  (Thank you Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University.)  This seems to simplify our finances...once the cash is done, we're done spending!

4. This week I went to the grocery store in the evening...without kids.  That made life so much easier on Wednesday morning.  We weren't running from place to place in our short time between kindergarten drop off and pick up.  

5. I have been content to stay home...not feeling the need to go somewhere or do something every day.  

I am looking forward to the journey that my word will bring in 2013!  I know one of my biggest challenges will be saying no...I'm ready!      

3 Christmas Traditions

When I was a new mom I heard Amy Davis, from Inspiring Moms, speak about creating traditions in your family.  I love a good tradition, and I obsessively started to think about what traditions I would start with my little family.

Christmas is an easy time to start traditions...it's just that sort of holiday.  Mike and I decided we wanted to make the month of December family focused.  It's so easy to make it about parties, gifts, and the schedule. Last year we started the advent envelope countdown...and this year, Luke asked when we got to start the envelopes!  (Yay!!!  A family tradition!!!)

Tradition 1!  I decorate envelopes with fun paper and number them 1-24.  In each envelope I put a short activity for us to complete each day.  The activities vary from making a Christmas craft to family movie night.  It is not anything super complicated, and we make it work with our schedule.  For example, Ryan had a Christmas program at school, so that was our activity for the night.  Our goal is to make sure that it is not an added stress to the month!

Christmas Countdown begins!

I hang the envelopes around our dining room door way...and as you can see the boys were excited to begin!  My favorite part of the tradition is taking a picture of whatever we did with the envelope.  I then make it into a photo book!  I set our book out from last year, and we all loved looking through it!  

Our family at Ryan's Christmas program!  8 days until Christmas!

Tradition #2!  One of our activities involves going to see Santa.  We always get a photo and frame it.  I have an individual photo of each child on their first Christmas and then the family photos.  I then started framing the photos and displaying them.  It is so fun to see the kids with Santa through the years!

It's small...but you get the idea!  Our Santa pictures!

Tradition #3!  We started "Elf on a Shelf" this year after Luke saw it at a friend's house.  It was a fun addition to the month!  Our elf is named Dash, and the kids were very excited to see what he was up to when they woke up in the morning.  He never did anything naughty...we figured our kids didn't need any help dreaming of naughty things to do!