Week 3

I have all of my kiddos home! We had a great block party on Saturday that included a huge water fight. The kids filled 300 water balloons and I tied 300 water balloons the night before. Unfortunately we did not get a single picture the entire day. It was super hot outside so the highlight of the day for me was when one of my neighbors filled up a tub of water and brought it to me to soak my feet in. Another neighbor added bath salts to the water and the little girls got spray bottles and a brush and started fixing my hair. I was very pampered, almost to the point that I was a bit embarrassed... almost.
We went to target and got most of what I still need for baby and yesterday Heather came over and we got the baby's room mostly set up. Last night I went into the room with Sam to show him what I had bought and what we had accomplished. I was pointing out different things and when I got to the diaper bag that I had just packed he got this "look" on his face and said, "We have a diaper bag! This just got real for me."
That kind of cracked me up.
Today the kids and I got the house all cleaned up and looking pretty so I feel much calmer now. They also have been asking for extra ways to earn money. We have tried different systems of allowance over the years and haven't stuck to any of them. The kids have their daily chores, and actually do quite a bit of work around here, but I feel like that is just part of being a family and taking responsibility of our home, so they don't get paid for those things. How ever, I love that they are wanting to earn their own money, so I came up with a list of extra jobs that need done and last night Sam and I sat down and assigned a dollar amount to each job. This is what we came up with:


Clean and Organize Kitchen drawers $1/per drawer
Fold Socks for 15 min $2
Dust $2
Clean Trash Out of Car $2
Wash out Trash Cans $2/per trash can
Sweep Front Porch and Side Walk $2
Organize Towel Closet $2
Clean and Organize Kitchen Cupboards $2/per cupboard
Clean and Organize Bathroom Cupboards $2/ per cupboard
*Wash all Light Switches $2
*Wash Hand Rails On Stairs, (including basement) and upstairs hallway $2
Clean Bird Cage- $3
Pull Weeds for 15 Min $3
Cleaning Coat Closet $3
Wash Upstairs Doors $4
Wash Downstairs Doors (including basement) $4
Vacuum Under Couch/ Chair Cushions $5
Vacuum Car $5
Cleaning and Vacuuming behind and under couches $5
Pick up/ Sweep Garage $5
Wash Window Sills and Tracks $5
Sweep Back Patio and Side Walk $5
Wipe seats and all Surfaces in car $5
Clean Kitchen Refrigerator $7
Clean Garage Refrigerator $7
Clean Kitchen Freezer $7
Clean Garage Freezer $7
Mow Lawn $10

*These Jobs are for McKay only



All jobs must be approved by a parent in advance. Dollar amount is subject to change depending on the level of work the job requires at that time. All jobs must be recorded and signed off on by a parent at time of completion.

Then I also made a record sheet so that jobs could be recorded and payment could be made at the end of each week. I'll let you know how it goes.
That's about it for week 3. I am officially in my 3rd trimester and feel very pregnant, but all is going well.