Wii Time

We bought a Wii for the family this year for Christmas. We also bought each of the kids one game each. Then, some of our friends got wind of it and bought each of the kids a game, too. So, we ended up with quite a selection. Well, needless to say, it was a big hit! They love it and wanted to spend every waking hour of Christmas break playing. Although it was a vacation for them, there were still things that needed to be done, but they were ignoring everything else. Nate especially would get up in the morning and literally haunt me until I gave him permission to play. I have a problem with that. I started making them take care of their responsibilities first , but they kept trying to fudge on them in an effort to hurry. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that they loved this gift, and I'm not one of those moms who really hates video gaming of all kinds, but when bickering over who got to play next ensued, and no one had gone outside in days, I knew something had to be done. Here's what I came up with. Not only did I use the Wii as an incentive for doing chores, but I also decided that I could take away time, too. You can click on the first pic to enlarge it enough to read the rules. Nate helped me come up with them. Hard to believe, I know, but Nate has always had an overdeveloped sense of what is fair and what isn't. I was very pleasantly surprised with how much he was on board with it. I guess he figured that I was GOING to set limits, so he might as well make sure that they were good ones and applied to everyone. We wrote an amendment about three minutes after printing up the rules.:) Taking my new found knowledge of lap booking, I made a folder for each child to have a visual of time earned. For every chore( aside from personal responsibilities, i.e, schoolwork, room cleaning, music,etc.) they get 15 minutes of Wii time. This has really made things peaceful...and CLEANER around here. :) Responsibilities get done so that they can spend their time earned when they are finished. They don't always have time to play on a given day. For instance, Tuesdays we have youth group and Wednesdays we have Bible Study and Prayer service. Sometimes there is just too much schoolwork and projects to do. When this happens, they don't get upset because they know that they have earned the time and will get to spend it when there is time. One of my friends told me that she allows three hours for weekends and that meant that it was hard to make plans without a major bargaining session. Not happenin' in this house! That would drive me insane! Sometimes they are interrupted and as you can see I added a rule about attitude. No bargaining aloud! Also, Dad has overruled several times for a family game night. The kids get a big charge out of this. :) For the eldest(14 1/2 going on 25), who is wanting to chat online with friends, check emails, and blog, and doesn't really care quite so much about the Wii, this works well, too. Just one of my ideas for a peaceable household, even though I will soon have TWO teenagers ( Nate will be 13 next month :0). Sometimes you just have to get creative as the kids get older. Now, I realize that the visual folder and little quarter hour pieces of pie may seem silly for older kids, but hey, it's working and they're happy. I'm ecstatic! What could be better?

I Faked It.

Well, I got three different emails from people asking me where I bought the wall art for my girls. When I said I had made it, the natural question was how. I faked it. Haha! I guess you could call it faux vinyl lettering. So here you go, Gals. First, go to Wally World, or any other such store. Buy some contact paper that you like. I wanted black, but had to settle for white which actually looked better with the color on the wall after all. Second, find a font that you like on printshop or whatever program that you have and print out the letter(s) that you want. Next, use your copier to enlarge it. This will make a pattern for you to tape to the contact paper, so cut this out and tape it down to your contact paper. Lastly, just cut around your paper pattern, take the pattern off, and there you go. Don't peel away the backing of the contact paper until you are ready for placement. I have to say that I only did one letter at a time. It might be too hard to cut out a long saying, but it worked great for the flower and first initial that I did. I got the flower shape out of an old coloring book. I flipped the flower over for Alana's side of the room to make it opposite. This little project only cost me $3.99, the price of the contact paper, and my daughters were ecstatic. And I have a lot left over for other things. I want black, though. Next time I go to the big city, I will have to keep my eye out.

A Fave Gift

Well, I should have pictures of our Christmas by now, but I used my Mom's camera so it could be awhile. :) Mom came up and shared supper with us on Christmas Eve. Then we opened presents from the Grandparents as tradition dictates. hehe. The next morning we called Mom as soon as the kids were stirring and she came up to enjoy Christmas with us. Carey and Marie showed up in time for Christmas dinner and spent the afternoon with us, too.

This is a picture that Mikayla took of one of her gifts. I got the girls matching bedspreads. I also made some wall art for them, so she took a pic after it was all fixed up the way she wanted.

Outreach into the Community

Every year for the last four of five years, we have been asked to tell the Christmas story at Lincoln Paper and Tissue's Christmas party. We have told it with Terry flipping pictures. We have told it while having children from the audience come and help act it out. This year we had our children act it out while Papa told the story. Nate was both Joseph and a shepherd and you can tell from the picture who Lanie and Mikayla were. The picture was taken by a local photographer who requested it and then she emailed it to me. I thought it was kind of cute, so decided to share. We feel blessed to have this opportunity for another outreach into the community. The first year the people seemed very rude and talked loudly throughout. The next year they were better and many sat with their kids. Last year, just about everyone sat down and listened and then commented on how nice it was afterwards. This year people greeted us like they knew us, listened well, and thanked us for doing it again. It's interesting to me how long it takes for some things in this area. But, with Terry working at the local Sears I think they recognized him better. So that is a good thing, too.