Do You Picnik?

Do you use Picnik.com? I love this site. Picnik is going away forever. That's sad. In the meantime, though, all the premium features, which have cost money before, are now FREE. I love free. Go here to try it out!

Wash Day

I'm not the most organized person. I like to have an orderly house, but, I just don't see the big picture sometimes. Just this week I was doing laundry. I do laundry every day. Every day. Usually, I just wash it and dry it and leave it in the "clean basket". Once the "clean basket" has become Mt. St. Laundry, we dump it all - about eight loads - on the couch and we all sort it into piles per person and put it all away. This takes a while, everyone dreads it, and it's just a big hassle. This week Rachel said, mid-fold, How about I do my laundry on one day, then Samantha, and so forth? That way we don't have this mountain every week?

And with that, we bought a few extra laundry baskets, set up a chart and instituted a few rules. The rules are: each family member gets one day to wash clothes. On your given day, you must wash and dry and put away all your clothes, towels, sheets, pillowcases and blankets. If, for whatever reason, you do NOT do your wash on your wash day, you have to wait until the following assigned wash day.

So far, it's going well. I went through how to work the washer and dryer with everyone, how to time it so you have your sheets back on your bed by lights out, and the general concepts of laundering your own clothes (stain sticks, overstuffing the washer and cleaning the lint trap. Laundry is complicated!) The ladies seem pretty excited; not because they are doing laundry, but, because they only have to do their own. The size of their individual piles is surprising them. Sometimes they have two loads each, due to school clothes, sports practice clothes, towels, sheets and blankets. It's been a learning experience all around.

I've learned that I took way too long to assign wash days!

April, no, wait, it's February?

It's February. I have to remind myself because the weather outside feels more like late April!

We headed to the park - that's me swinging and Charlotte and Josephine on the twirlie thing with Rachel impersonating a bat! Shorts and tee-shirts in February! Gorgeous weather!

Hair Cut

I love the curls, but, they will grow back. Jay Michael loves it when James cuts his hair. Luckily he sits still, on our bathroom floor, while James trims his curly locks. I think he looks older, too.

Dork Diaries

The big ladies had a forensics tournament this weekend. Well, Rachel did. Since Samantha is in the seventh grade intro class, she can't compete, but, since a few kids on the JV (eighth grade; Rachel's) team moved over the Christmas break, the coach asked Samantha to step up to the JV team for this tournament. Samantha has only one line as a solo, but, Rachel was a main character - the middle one of the three narrators....Enjoy!

(pause the tunes at the bottom of the page)

from the book, Dork Diaries, by Rachel Renee Russell

Do you Amazon?

If you Amazon, or if you have a Kindle, or if you even read (which is evident by your visit here today...) please check out my little brother! He published a book! Here's the amazon link.

Congratulations David!

Sunbeams?

First day of Sunbeams for Jay Michael! January 8, 2012

Jay Michael is almost 4, Josephine is 7, Charlotte is 9,

Samantha is 12 and Rachel is 13.
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It is amazing to me that Jay Michael will turn four next month. I started this blog just after he was born. It seems like yesterday. He is such the little man of the house.

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This year is a landmark for him, even though he doesn't quite grasp it yet. He moved up, in January, to the Primary at church. This means he is now too old for nursery, where he played with his friends for two hours, while the adults and "big kids" went to classes. He is now one of the "big kids", too. He loved nursery. He had snacks, singing time and coloring pages. He played with his friends, and the adult leaders who were in there with all the nursery kids, and Jay Michael considers these adults his friends, too. This week he asked me why he couldn't throw the fish anymore. Throwing the fish is a game he loved to play in nursery with Brother Smith, who literally tossed a small plastic fish back and forth with Jay Michael - no doubt for the whole two hours. Such sweet service and a valuable time for our little man. I told him that Brother Smith is still there, playing with the younger kids, because now you, Jay Michael, are a big kid and you go to Primary. He misses throwing the fish, but it's time to move on.

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Now he is a Sunbeam, the youngest class of the Primary, which is the church organization for the children, ages 3 to 12. He sits in his chair, with his class, listens and sings. There is a lot of structure, as opposed to Nursery, which was less structure and more play. So far, I hear good reports of his behavior and he always says his teacher is goofy. (That's a compliment, Cherstin. Goofy, to him, means you play at his level and he likes you.)

Ready for nursery - July 2010 - and crashing cause it was so fun!