Day 141: this is what my house smells like

Oh the joys of rural life.

This is where the annoying, stinky creature made it's way around our entire fence until it found a place it could squeeze under & into the yard. I took a couple pictures when it got closer--like right in the kids sandbox-- because it was the big excitement for the little boys this afternoon. It it was pretty funny watching them yell at it while watching out the window. Apparently though, I deleted all those photos when downloading everything from my camera. I think I was subconsciously trying to eliminate the pesk and the disgusting odor that made it's way all the way into my house. And lingered.

At least I don't have cockroaches?

Day 140: MT State Cheer Competition

We went to watch the state cheer competition in Missoula today and then the kids were incredibly sad when Mackenna got hurt in morning competition. Luckily she was back from the ER in time for the team competition, but had to alter the routine a bit to do it injured. The big routines and loud music are pretty exciting for the little girls, but still not quite as exciting as getting to hang out with a high school girl who is always super nice to them and who is a real cheerleader.

Also, after watching a few of these routines, the little girls have an incredibly hard time staying in their seats. At every chance they got Azia, Ahni & Izzy were up putting together their own dances. Ahni really wanted to go out on the big mat. I kept telling her that was only for the the kids actually in the competition. Finally she just said, "I know we aren't supposed to go out there, but what if we did?!"  I told her why might get kicked out of the gym and I guess she figured it wasn't worth the risk, because they went back to their routines on the sidelines.

Day 139: the good part is that propane truck is no longer on fire

1:30ish today was not a great time to try to get through Highway 93 by Mission.  The dispatch for this accident said a propane truck had rolled and was on fire, so the quickly extinguished small flames from a blown tire (on an upright vehicle) were a much nicer scenario.  But in the middle of this there was also a traffic stop with a passenger that potentially needed ambulance transport (for minor pre-existing injuries) and another fender-bender. Luckily no one was hurt in any of this, but it all still causes quite a lot of chaos.  It also eats up hours of your life. . . we've had a whole slew of these ambulance calls the past few days. It's great no one has been getting seriously hurt, but I'm not really good at "standing by."  I always feel like there are too many things I need to be doing (somewhere...) to be standing by waiting just in case something needs to be done.

Day 138: so unrepresentative of the reality

This is not a good photo to represent the kind of day Lex had, but doesn't he seem so sweet all tucked into his little bed for a little nap? It's much nicer than an image of the 12x8 wall of broken glass on one end of my living room.

I think this mid-afternoon nap was only because he was totally worn out from destroying things and attacking people all morning. I was just thinking yesterday how he seemed to be out of his majorly destructive phase. He's been so pleasant and helpful lately. He's interested in colors and numbers and reading books and coloring pictures.

And then I was awakened from my daydreaming by the sound of sharpies scribbling across the wall-- no pictures just purposeful destruction. It's been downhill from there. The worst fallout today was yet other broken window. A row of 4x8 windows seems like a good idea when you have a nice mountain view, but it's much less cool when each of your three boys shatters one of the windows.  I think the loud shattering and fallout of glass clued Lex in that he might actually be in real trouble. He hardly ever cares about getting in trouble but right after the ball went through the window he ran and locked himself in Azia room. When I told him to unlock the door he did, but then he told me he need to go to his room.

The good part was the nearly two hours of calm that followed.

Day 137: cousins vs. cousins (which means family always wins in the end)

In addition to eventually securing a majority wherever we go (our numbers are increasingly impressive) and the weaponry training, the cousins are also learning some grappling should the need for hand-to hand combat ever arise. You never know. It's always good to be prepared.

Azia & Jenna. Jenna won by points. (9-4?) Azia didn't do too bad for not knowing what she's doing! (She just started yesterday.) And Jenna, well, she's just kind of awesome.

It was kind of funny that both Jenna and Azia and Lettie and Zoran ended up wrestling each other. Or not really...probably a hard situation to avoid when you bring half a dozen cousins who are all beginners to one small meet. (Back to that securing a majority wherever we go idea. . .)

Lettie and Zoran. I find it really amusing how happy they both seem to be about what appears to be Zoran choking Lettie. Probably it would be much less fun if they weren't cousins (or weren't cousins on the opposite ends of the competitive spectrum.) These two might have to wrestle again at some point in the season. I don't think there are a whole lot of kids wrestling who weigh under 40 pounds!

And it may seem a little mean to let the boys pick on the girls. But that would only be the case if the boys were always tougher.

We won't mention how many boys Jenna made cry today.

You Capture: L

LEX:  Lex with his L. (or more specifically Lex Landon LaFrombois with his L...that's a lot of Ls!) Of course little Lex isn't supposed to play with this L. Technically it's a wall decoration, but Mom wasn't smart enough to put it high enough on the wall that it was out of reach. Also Lex has just recently become really interested in letters, especially "his" letters (which seems to mean the ones in his name).  So, basically he is continually getting in trouble for taking down the letters and running away with them and incorporating them into his building. Or turning them into weapons. Except he doesn't get in a lot of trouble because...well just look at the cute dimple and how excited he is about letters!

So basically even when we have them all on the wall, it's always a bit askew. A few jumps on the bed below and he can knock the letters enough times to unhook them--or at least make everything crooked in the process.

LEGS: Some wild legs. The middle two are a bit obsessed with wrestling this week. We'll see if it lasts.

 LASHES. Lex's lashes, specifically.  I'm not very creative so Lex gets most of the space if I'm thinking about L.

Day 136: not the best way to start the morning

Not what you want to see in your rear view mirror first thing in the morning.  Mine is so dirty it's hard to see much, but the flashing lights are clearly there.

I seem to get pulled over at this same stretch right before Ronan about once a year. I think the state of Montana and I have differing opinions about how quickly you need to decrease your speed before entering town.

I liked the old Montana speed limit that was just "careful and prudent." I'm nearly always careful and prudent but I do sometimes forget to pay attention to those speed limit signs in those areas where the speed decreases by five miles or so every hundred yards.


At least the nice officer just let me off with a warning.

Day 135: Wrestling Season

This evening Zoran and Azia got out the only version of mats we have in the house and decided to practice. (They now have approximately 75 minutes of wrestling experience between them so I'm not too sure what they are practicing. Also Azia clearly cannot see what she is doing anyway.)

My plan to not let Zoran know wrestling season was going on didn't work too well since he has about five cousins who are wrestling. They already started a week or two ago and I'm still a bit worried about him keeping his emotions moderately under control. . . he is getting better, sometimes, but you can't easily remove yourself from tough situations in wrestling like he's learning to do in soccer and basketball. My new plan was to just let him practice with the team (no competition) this year and see how it goes. After one practice this plan doesn't show a lot of promise. As soon as tonight's practice ended (his first ever) he yelled at me from across the wrestling room (still not even all the off the mat) "I want to wrestle in the tournament!" He may have no idea what he's doing, but that doesn't seem to impact his competitiveness.

To emphasize this point, both Zoran and Azia are standing behind me as I type right now. Zoran hates this photo and wants to know if I have any of him holding Azia down. "Where are the better photos?! I don't want to look at this one!" He also informed me, "DO NOT PUT THAT ON FACEBOOK!!" Azia told him it's just going on the blog. He was not okay with that either, until I told him  I would also write that Azia didn't ever pin him.

Azia didn't ever pin Zoran.

(Azia has issues with that statement, but regardless of what the true version of the story might be, Zoran undoubtedly did pretty well against someone who weighs 20 pounds more than he does.)

Day 134: sometimes Billy the Kid logs into my entertainment center

and just ignore the Valentines Day decorations...it wasn't that long ago

Or maybe it's just a kid of mine. One of the ones who knows how to program the PS3. (Most likely the one who has a recent obsession with the old wild West.)

IHF: Phone Photo

A little boy with a fever and sore throat and no popsicles in the house. . . what else can you do but make a late night popsicle run to the gas station? In pjs and Elmo slippers of course. 

It's unexpected moments like this that make me glad I almost always have a camera with me. . . at least when I remember to grab my phone.  

Day 133: Glove Animals

Today Grandma is in the hospital recovering from a fall & yesterday's surgery. I often go to the hospital multiple times a week, sometimes multiple times a day, but it's a lot easier to drop people off and return to your normal routine than it is to build into your routine visiting people you care about. She's doing well, but of course we'd rather visit her at home. Yesterday Yaya made Lex a balloon dinosaur out of a glove while we were there. (Or maybe it was a milkcow? Some sort of creature...) Now he thinks you need one every time you go to the hospital. And how handy that they have the glove dispensers mounted in every room.

I guess as far as hospital associations go, glove animals aren't a bad one to have.

Day 132: Tomy Parker Benefit

Azia-Rain signs the guestbook. Tomy in the background talking to the crowds of people who came to wish him well.

I continue to be amazed by the way people come together in small towns when it matters.
This benefit was a great follow up to the homecoming on Wednesday. The spaghetti feed started at 11:00am and went until 6:00. They were prepared to feed 2,000 but worried by mid-afternoon they might have more people than food. The Ronan community center was packed--like no room to walk packed-- from the time it started till at least around 4:00 when we left. And when the boys came back for the live auction at 6:00 it was much the same story. There were hundreds and hundreds of items the community donated for the silent auction that went on all day. And the line to talk to Tomy, to thank him, just to shake his hand? For much of the day it stretched around the inside of building.

Valentines Day

I just realized I didn't post any Valentine's Day anything. Maybe because I sort of hate the whole idea of it. I spent my day giving midterms, going to the dentist and attending long, not really pleasant meetings. But I'm trying to be less negative these days.  We (Azia, Zoran and sort of Lex) did make little valentines for friends and grandmas. And we had about 2 1/2 valentines decorations...which are still up and now seem a little odd and pink for cold winter weather.

Azia and Jenna made white & pink chocolate suckers to bring for their party. (Well actually they weren't suckers, just heart-shaped chocolates on sucker sticks.) Dev helped Zoran make chocolate chip cookies for his class. Azia also made little bottle cap magnets for each of her classmates with their names on them for her "stuck on you" valentines. She was annoyed my printer was being wierd & wouldn't print the design she wanted so she had to had write them all. I would not be surprised if only 2/3 of her class got valentines from her. Azia gets bored immediately with tasks she isn't 100% into. (Like writing 22 names on hearts with the same message and her name.) I probably should've checked that she actually followed through but often these things only occur to me in retrospect. Zoran made little heart pouches full of jelly-bellies (two dollies sewed together). I did the sewing but he did all the counting of the candy and stuffing. It hadn't occured to me to actually count the number of jellies, but he wanted to know how many each needed. I said about 12. I'm pretty sure there were exactly 12 in each friend's little heart. Zoran likes exactness. And I like little kindergarten handwriting. I love the little name tags he printed out with every classmate's name.

The kids were excited to bring all their goodies to school. Their yaya's birthday is also on Valentine's Day so the most exciting part was bringing her her flowers and a little present to her classroom in the morning before school. There was a lot of bargaining about who was going to actually carry the flowers in to her. Back at home Lex had fun with his little buddies giving valentines to Sage and Ethen and Kanana. When I got home from work Dev was with the boys and they were all at the table with all their cards and candy and the cupcakes Sage brought spread all around them. They were completely wired and excited yelling, "Party! We're having a party!! We're having a party!"

I think kids make all holidays more fun.

Day 131: Some Numbers

4:23  :  Time the day started

   7  :  number of hours my sister took the boys away for me (Yay for sisters!!!)

   2  :  number of ambulance trips to Ronan

   6  :  rooms cleaned and mopped (and I'm not going to count how many I didn't get to...)

  11  :  loads of laundry washed (and folded twice...see picture above...I left for an hour and a half on an ambulance call and I guess the 3-year-old was left in charge of himself. )

127  : approximate number of times I considered just throwing all my family's un-mated socks away

3 (or maybe 13...) :  the number of times I had small daydreams of living by myself in a little, clean house with absolutely no cheerios on the floor

  5  :  giant bags of garbage I schlepped out to the end of the driveway

54  :  amount of money in my checking account (in cents)

73  :  dollars in gas I put in my car

7  :  emails answered (Why is this number so low? It took forever.)

 17  :  number of texts I answered from Israel 

  0  :  number of midterms I got graded

3  : things on my to-do list for tomorrow. (I haven't even decided what these items will be, but I just really like the idea of limiting it to three.) 

Day 130: Zoran's Important Documents

Zoran brings me piles like this every day. It is all the important work he does at school. And I think it really is ALL of the work, and of course he thinks all of it is important. I get in a lot of trouble if I throw any of the worksheets or math practice or whatever else away. I've got caught doing this a few times. It wasn't pleasant. Zoran is easily angered. I think, for the most part, he now believes we are saving all the papers. There are a good number on the bulletin board. He also has some sort of filing system (that looks a lot to me like a big pile) in his room. Thankfully, he doesn't yet seem to be aware that the massive amount of paper he brings home every day isn't quite correlating to the amount saved in the various locations around the house.

Currently, since he has once again lost his backpack (#3 this year), he folds everything into small squares which he then puts into his pockets which then get soaked by his hours of playing in the wet snow. He then presents me with the piles of very soggy, very important work. It would be a good plan to get him another backpack but he told me the other day when I asked if the latest one had turned up, "I know you aren't buying me another one and I don't care!" I didn't actually tell him that and we have other bags around, but he's decided he can't have yet another one. Sometimes he doesn't like me to interfere in his ways of doing things.

Day 129: Tomy Parker Homecoming

Local marine Tomy Parker came home to Montana for the first time since being injured in Afghanistan in December.  In that explosion he lost both legs and most of his left hand.

After the big greeting at the airport in Missoula he had an escort of police cars and fire trucks and ambulances (representing all the various services along the way) as well as dozens and dozens of private vehicles.  He took detours through Arlee and Mission and went all the way to Polson so everyone could welcome him and thank him.

And along the way, fellow soldiers and families and kids and community members lined up like this. Some of us for hours because a time frame for something like this is a little hard to figure, with all the people who wanted to greet him along the way and the weather delays on top of that. (We've still got a Montana winter going on! Many inches of fresh new snow today, limited visibility & not-so-great traveling conditions due to the still-falling snow.) People along the streets sent texts and checked facebook updates and every few minutes someone in the crowd would give everyone an update of the current location of the procession. Little kids played in the snow and pointed out all the best messages they'd written on all the posters papering the business walls.

There were over two hundred cars in the line by the time Tomy's procession made it up past Ronan. For those of you not familiar with Western Montana geography, this is a nearly 70 mile drive. Some involved in all this know Tomy personally, many don't. But the whole Reservation came out to support him, lining the streets of our little towns and driving beside him all those miles back to Ronan.

Pretty amazing. Just as it should've been.

Day 128: Bingo for Books

Lettie, Zoran & Jack trying to keep up with Miss Connie's speedy Bingo number calling.

This is such a great annual event the schools around here have been doing the past few years. It's always well attended (the new cafeteria/ multi-purpose room was completely full) and all the kids in the community go home with hundreds of new books.

And of course it's always fun when the elementary kids bring their bingo-crazy grandmas. More than a few adults have five or six of those boards lined up in front of them. You can tell they have some outside Bingo experience...or will be starting up that hobby any day now.

I could almost successfully manage three boards. (I'm fairly sure I completely missed a number or two each round.) I have decided one of the keys to me personally managing five or more boards at once would be to decrease the number of kindergartners sitting all around me asking after every single number called what the last number called was. Or I could figure out how to decrease the number of times they repeated every number called, so that I can actually hear what numbers were being called. I think having said kindergartners decrease the number of times they incorrectly repeated the numbers could also be helpful.

Day 127: And where is your car parked at 3:04am?

Please do don't decide to park it in a big frozen pond. My feet are still thawing out from this early morning expedition. 

Of course I chose to park my own car in the middle of town and leave it running for approximately two hours. I think I may have been distracted thinking about the people who decided to park in the frozen pond? Hard to say, but thank you to everyone who did not steal my running car.

Tonight I plan to leave it completely shut off and totally locked up at home....for all the night time hours. 

Day 126: Yaya's birthday dinner and cake (a day early)

I don't know what amuses me most about this photo. That Gwen tells the children that they must line up for dessert or that they do it immediately and without questioning (and orderly and single file no less). Or maybe it is that there is a representative from each branch of cousins there to celebrate their Yaya's (or Qene's or Katiti's) birthday in the little line.  Or that for once even one of Gwen's own girls is listening to her. (Gwen usually has the whole world in order while her own three little girls are somewhere just beyond her circle of control, giggling loudly, smiling and boldly doing whatever she has just told them not to. . . with so much positive enthusiasm it's easy to be tricked into believing maybe they're right about what should be happening after all.)

Day 125: Valentines Day...in progress

This little square foot or two is a pretty good representation of what my entire office looks like right now: hearts and flowers and ribbons and candy and tissue paper and sorts of other supplies for about twelve different projects covering every counter and couch and littering the floor. I think my plan to have all valentine-related things finished this evening might not quite work out.

Day 124: Winter War

I think they probably spent more time building their respective barricades than they did actually conducting the snowball fight.  After they had all the odds and ends gathered up to make each defensive wall they began filling in all the holes with packed snow. And then stuffing smaller toys in all the gaps. I was beginning to think the snow would all be melted by the time they started. As you can see in the photo one of the teams seemed to have a much more defensive approach. It was probably better this way since KaNana was apparently a piece of the barricade wall for the opposing team. Nothing like using a small one-year-old child for a human shield.

Day 123: why I should be better at planning ahead

I always hate going to the store. I think grocery shopping is one of the worst jobs I have to do. . . and I do it nearly every day. It is surpassed in awfulness only by also having to make meals with all that food and then cleaning up the mess from all those meals.

Sometime I just don't do it. But then it is morning and there is only a little food and after mid-morning a little less and all the milk is gone and by the time lunch is over it's clear I'm not going to be able to scrounge up enough of anything to satify the always-starving after-school crowd, so I end up shopping with this crew. They're cute and all and generally amazingly well-behaved but they don't really make the shopping experience any easier. Even when they're amusing themselves by eating all my celery.  Or throwing all the onions on the ground. (I'm pretty sure Aodhan thinks they're some smelly version of a ball. . . because he thinks really almost everything is some version of a ball. )

And then there's the added problem that I can't really fit any food in this cart with I start out with this whole load of boys.

You Capture: Cold

 Cold is pretty easy to find around here lately.

ice on our wire fence

frozen canals and snowy fields

 Everything is frozen.

A little snow on the trampoline? No problem. This is Montana.

 Except for the kids. They don't seem to mind the cold much at all.

Azia excited about taking some snowy photos for Valentines Day cards.

Day 122: I think some of the best places are just beyond these signs.

At least that's what I decided after they put one at the end of the road that leads to my house.

Driving on this road today I decided the theory clearly holds in more cases than just my own.

Day 121: Hearts

 

Day 120: tired and achy

This is my photo for February 7th because it's the only photo I took. And I'm posting it a day late because after being completely miserable all day and only half conscious I went to bed at 6:30. For the night. If I had more energy I should have taken a picture of a Theraflu package because that was the only high point of my day. Apparently that stuff actually works because it was after I took some that I feel asleep after just being so achy and sore and miserable all day I couldn't accomplish anything. After the medicine I was no longer achy, but I had zero energy. . . to the point where it seemed way too much work to get up and turn off the light even though it was so bright it was bothering me.

I have no idea how people with ongoing health issues lead normal lives. I was being annoyed because it was just six months ago that I had a sore throat--and that didn't bother me much or stop me from doing anything, it was just really annoying because it wouldn't go away. I'm lucky that I rarely even have colds (which is why I didn't even know about over the counter meds...the only thing I've ever taken before today is ibuprofen) but every time I don't feel normal I realize two things:

1. I need to begin only doing jobs where I can call in sick at the last minute without any preparation and without screwing over a dozen people's schedules. I have had this plan for about 20 years now but have yet to have even one of these types of jobs. (Thank God I have a sister. . . I had to show up to teach, but she took all the kids for me all afternoon, yesterday and today.)

2. I am incredibly lucky to be incredibly healthy. I don't realize how much I do an a normal day till I can't get it all done.  It doesn't seem like  a lot when it's just a part of my routine, but after one day of not doing anything I feel like my house is a disaster and I have piles of work to do.

And now I'm off to take more drugs and see if I can get ready for tomorrow before I fall asleep again.

Day 119: Superbowl Sunday

Really, it's probably not hard to figure out why my boys are competitive and have little mercy for others when it comes to sports. 

See that poor boy, soon-to-be flat on the ground? My sweet little teenager. The smallest one out on the field today at the all-in-fun flag football game. The game that was basically all adults, many who outweighed him by 100 pounds. Or 200. 

And the one who laid him out without a second thought? Yeah, that's his dad with the ball headed for a touch down.

Day 118: superhero cleaning powers

 

One of Azia's jobs today was to scrub out her shower. I'm about 95% sure she wore this Wonder Woman outfit while getting the job done. It was hanging in there drying out after she finished. 

Whatever works I suppose.

I do have an out of control laundry room that needs some serious attention tomorrow. Maybe I should dig out my Ms. Incredible outfit.

Day 117: sight words

Found this paper when I was building a fire today. . . evidence of Zoran's new way to practice sight words: the sports page and a highlighter. I doubt it will be very long before he's reading this section of the newspaper on his own, regardless of all those bizarre team and player names. After all, there is information he needs to know in here and he doesn't have the patience to wait for other people to fill him in.

And maybe it will help his pronunciation once he begins to sees how things are spelled. There are a few sounds he still has a little trouble saying exactly right. I'm tired of him heckling me about the "Boston Fallsticks." (Some of you might know them as the Celtics.) I don't even especially like the Celtics but he knows they play in the same city as the Red Sox and he's always up for a reason to start something.

Day 116: 100 Days

Tomorrow is Zoran's 100th day of elementary school. Of course the kindergarten classes are doing the 100 things activity. His class is doing a big trail mix with everything the kids bring. He picked Cheerios to add for his 100 things. (What kind of crazy kid picks plain old Cheerios over chocolate?)

I always give Zoran a hard time about his quick temper, but he's obviously a quick-tempered little boy who has lived with many small people his entire life. As he was counting out his 100 Cheerios he had not only his little brother right in front of him taking a Cheerio or three at a time out of the pile he was making, but there was also a two-year old to both his left and one to his right also taking things out of his pile, taking his box away, and "helping" him count.  Lex just kept babbling, "Mmmm... these are delicious!" and popping handfuls in his mouth..."DE-licious! de-LISHY-ous! DELICIOUS! Mmmm...." (I don't know that I'd ever heard him use the word delicious before today.) Ethen and Sage were helping him count. Ethen just repeated "OneTwo, OneTwo, OneTwo, OneTwo...." the whole time. Sage counted along too: "45! 45! 45! 45! 45! 45! 45!" Both of them occasionally stole Cheerios for their own piles throughout the process.

It was a slow process:

One. 

Two. 

ONE-TWO! ONE-TWO! ONE-TWO!

Three. 

Four. 

"45! 45! 45! 45! 45! 45! 45!"

Lex give me those!!

These are delicious!

Ugh. Now I have to start again!

One. 

Two. 

ONE-TWO! ONE-TWO!

45! 45! 45! 45! 45! 45! 45!

Lex!

Mmmm. DE- Lish-ous!

Eventually Zoran got quicker at counting and adding and recalculating continuously as each of the three boys stole away his Cheerios. Once he had them all, he recounted twice to make sure he had it right. He didn't lose his temper once. All four boys were still happy and enjoying de-LISHY-ous Cheerios when he was done. I don't know many adults who could have made it through the exercise with all that help as calmly as he did. (That includes me.)

Getting Organized

It's taken me like two weeks to get all the pieces together, but we finally are testing out version 1.0 of our new home and family organization system.  For some reason it's taken me more than six months of trying to figure out how to fit everything I wanted to include together.  In looking for something that would work for us, I  couldn't find anyone else's system to copy! Very annoying since stealing good ideas is much easier, but this is where we're starting. It seems very basic once we finally got it all put together, I'm not sure why it took me so long to straighten it out. Hopefully when I have time to give my kitchen a much needed paint job this summer, I'll update the setup to make it nicer looking (Since the 4x6 area does take up an entire kitchen wall!) I'm sure by that time I'll have chunks or the organization of our organizational system to revise too.


Elements we needed for our house to run smoothly:

1. Schedule of daily tasks:

This is a pretty heafty spreadsheet, but if we keep up on things, none of the jobs take too long. We have six people and a lot of rooms. If we don't keep up on things throughout the week, we are quickly living in chaos (which makes me grumpy) or I end up doing everything (which also makes me grumpy).  The kids (except the preschooler who I help out) are getting old enough to be responsible for a few small jobs every day.

2. Phone List
Phone numbers and directories (like school extensions) we don't necessarily have saved in our phones.



3. Master Family Calendar
I like that this looks totally empty since this photo was taken right after we swapped out the old one for a 2012 calendar! Usually every day is packed with appointments and reminders of all sorts which is exactly why we need something like this. It is where we try to keep the central record of how all our various schedules overlap (and of course conflict) so everyone knows what everyone else has going on. It keeps track of practice schedules, lessons, games, meetings for kids' clubs and parents' work, travel plans. It's the simplest way I've found to attempt to keep everyone's events in one place.


4. Bulletin Board Space 
This particular place has been keeping track of invitations, notes home from school, and an occasional recipe the kids want to try.  I also covered cork-board tiles with fabric to create a few other bulletin board spaces in order to make the entire area one large cohesive square. 


5. Shopping list area
This is cut off in the picture, but there's a little shopping list area on one side of the dry erase board.


6: Monthly Meal Menu
We do better at actually having regular meals if we have a plan ahead of time. Each family member is responsible for planning, cooking and kitchen clean up one night a week. The other half of the deal is that (within reason) that person gets to decide what the meal will be. Rather than just printing this out (as we've done in the past) I cut a vinyl menu template and stuck it to the dry erase board.

Since kids get to pick many of the meals, we don't really have a huge variety.  (Working on it. . .) I made magnets of our most common meals. If kids switch nights they can just swap magnets.

Or, if someone wants to try something new, they can just write it in with the dry erase marker. 




7. Checklists for jobs
This is a new piece of our family system that I'm going to try to get the kids used to using.

Until a year or so, we had simple magnet boards for each kid with two columns under their names: one "to do" and the other "done." We had a magnet with a picture and the name of each job they needed to do. Once they did it, they'd just slid the magnet from one column to the other.

Now, they kids are getting older and they need to be getting better and doing a more thorough job for their various tasks.

I made a card for each job which explains what is expected for each job to be considered "done."

The kids all also each have a fabric pocket on the bulletin board where I can stick the checklists for the jobs they are responsible for the day.

They have dry erase markers to check off things as they go. There is a hook on the board for job checklists not in progress and another hook for kids to hang up ones they finish.

Now, hopefully it keeps us all on track.  We'll see. . .