New school year organization...

If you've ever been in my house, you know it looks like a classroom.

~Each kid has their own chore chart.

~I make a big home made calender each month for the back hallway, so when the kids ask "Mom, when are we ______?" I tell them, go look at the calendar.

~I have a big poster board right next to it, called the "Square Chart". Every time the kids go above and beyond normal duty or are extra nice to a sibling, the earn a "square" of their color. Once the chart is filled with 60 squares, we get to go do a fun family activity. And the child who has the most squares filled with their color gets a week off from chores.

~We have "I can play" and "I can not play" sticks/cups. Each morning the sticks are put in the "I can not play" cup. Each child has 3 sticks. They must earn those sticks before they can play. They do so by doing their chores without being asked, helping a sibling do a chore, getting dresses and brushing their teeth without being asked, anything along those lines. Each time they earn a stick, it goes in the "I can play" cup, once they have all 3 they are allowed to play for the day. But watch out....if mom or dad catches them doing something they aren't supposed to, being mean, having an attitude, not doing what you're told, a stick gets taken away and you must earn it back.

~We have reading marbles. For every 30 minutes that the kids read, they earn a marble in their jar. One marble equals 15 minutes of video game time.

~I get the kids' clothes out before bed each night. I went and bought one of those shoe organizers that is supposed to hang in a closet. It's perfect, it has 6 slots, and I have 6 boys in one room. So I hung it in their bedroom from a shelf, and each morning the kids just get their clothes out of their box, and put their jammies back in it for bedtime. Wall-ah, no more clothes thrown all over the place.

~We have a chore jar. Did something extra bad? Did your chore half way? Pull a chore from the chore jar.

~We have a swear jar. Called your brother/sister a name? Did you say "stupid" or "idiot" or some other not nice word? You owe a dollar to the swear jar. That money will go to sponsor a family at Christmas time. I'm ashamed to say, I've put alot of money in that jar....

~Every school year, I buy a 3-ring binder for each kid to keep in my room. All paperwork goes in it. Newsletters, art work, report cards, and the like. Once the school year is done, I just put the binder in their plastic tub in the basement.

~My kitchen is plastered with hanging folders, color coded calendars for the kids, ect.

Anyway....with the new school year, it's time to get new folders in the kitchen. I did that tonight! I think they turned out nice, what do you think?

You like that? Don't you just have "crap" (by the way "crap" is a swear word for the kids in our house, but not for mom and dad) laying around that you just don't know what to do with it? I have lots of it. At least now all my crap is organized and in one place! The kids thought it was hilarious!! Mr. Goose Poop got a kick out of it too.

One more thing, Christian has taken to helping me make dinner every night lately. He hops himself up on the counter and helps out. Tonight's dinner called for onions. So I ask him to go get me an onion, I get the cutting board out and start chopping the onion. Christian hops off the counter, goes and does something, and hops back up on the counter. I pay him no attention. But then I turn, and I see this.....

He said he can't stand the smell of the onions being cut. That they always make his nose snot and his eyes water!! That kid is so hilarious sometimes!

I know I still have to get to the kids' first day of school still. I'm trying, I really am. It's been a busy week. I'm actually really not sure how I got through it. Oh yea, the grace of God, that's right.

(Insert some appropriate bible verse, that I'm too tired to look up right now, here! Thanks!)