Aaaaannnnnddddd.....we'er back!

Whew!  What a week!  I hate viruses, and we had a booger of one!  That's all over now though, and we are back!  Back to school, back to making messes, back to going to lunch at camp!  I love normalcy.  I think that is different than, say, I like things to be the same.  Isn't it?!

Anyway, we started our school day off with a short viewing of the inauguration. (The unofficial swearing in, as the official swearing in occurred yesterday; did you watch it?  I did!)  Then we watched two short films about Martin Luther King, Jr.  Did you think about this fact...today our country swore in the first African-American President (yes, I know it was the second time around) on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day?!  That's pretty cool!  That is history in the making!  That has never ever happened before.  I love things like that!  History!

We also get to start our new chore plan today.  We are super excited about this around here!  Okay, so maybe I am super excited about this, but the kids are playing along nicely!  I have wanted to work on getting them to have more responsibilities (age appropriate of course), but when I worked I did not take the time or energy to really teach them how to help me.  You know what I mean?  So, I just did all of the cleaning and picking up myself, which really meant not too much got cleaned or picked up!  Anyway,  we have some daily chore cards now that will allow the kiddos to have explicit directions for each chore.  They will earn some money this way, and then we can begin teaching about giving back to God and saving.  I know that my kids are a bit old for me to just be starting this, but it's never too late.  Right?!  We will see how it goes.

These are our little chore cards.  We did some tonight and we all lived through it!  Each child only does one card a day.  They each also have a daily card that consists of simply picking up things off of their bedroom floor and making their beds.  Very doable, don't you think?

These are their money jars.  They decorated them themselves.

Our paper money!  I decided that this would work better since I never seem to have cash in my wallet.

The whole kit and caboodle!

You're gagging right now aren't you?  Well, let me just say that we have needed some of this structure in our home for a long time, and now it is actually fun for all of us!  Yay for getting to be home with my sweet kids!  (Okay, no one ask me in a week whether we are still on this plan.  Okay?!  Promise! LOL!)