Kids and work

Do any of you have this problem, too? Your kids are all playing or watching TV or even not really doing anything and everyone is fine. Then you ask them to help with something or do their chores or homework and suddenly everyone is tired, hungry, hurt, sick, sad, on their death bed, permanently disabled, etc. You get the picture. I get so frustrated with this! Lanny and I are both hard workers and we are trying so hard to instill this in our kids, but most of the time I feel like we are failing miserably in this department. Even when we are trying to get ready to do something fun, they just don't like to work. But I'm not giving up! I think that teaching our kids to work is one of our greatest resposibilities and that being a good worker is one of the most vital life skills one can acquire. I know we're not alone in this dilema. But a few things have happened this week that have given me hope! Lanny and I were both at work on Monday and Emery was home tending everyone. (Why were they home? That's a whole other story which I will share sometime soon!) Everytime I called home to check on them, things were going GREAT! The kids were getting along and were happy. So I called to tell them that I was on my way home and Emery sounded so disappointed! She asked me if I could stay gone a little longer! So I ran a couple of errands and called again to say I was on my way and Emery said, "Really? Okay. But drive slow!" I heard the kids groaning in the background when they realized I was coming home. So I said I would do a couple more things before I came home. Well, when I finally got home, the kids had cleaned the whole family room! They were so excited to show me! It was so awesome to have the room clean, but what I loved the most about this surprise is that they worked together HAPPILY! Emery said that Kayden was one of the best workers which is close to a miracle! Kayden is a great worker when he makes up his mind to be, but that doesn't happen too often. Ashlyn and Emery are always great workers, and Noelle does pretty well, too. But Kayden has a much harder time. So after lots of praise and thank you's by me, I told them how proud I was that they worked together! Later, I pulled Kayden aside and thanked him again. Then on Tuesday, Ashlyn and Kayden brought home their homework for the week. Ashlyn loves to finish it all on the first day she brings it home, even though it's not due until Friday so it wasn't a surprise that she sat down and immediately started working. Kayden usually works for a while on the first day and then fights me every day until Friday morning when he has to hurry and finish before we leave for school. So I was so happy when he sat down and FINISHED all but the last page of his homework packet! Then he took a break for a couple of hours and then did the last page!! He was so happy and proud of himself for finishing it! So was I! So we talked about how if you just get in and do what needs to be done, then it doesn't take too long and you are done and free to do other things that you want to do! We have had this talk MANY times before, but it seemed to click better this time. Now I'm not saying that it is going to solve all our working issues, but it was enough encouragement that I'm willing to keep trying! If any of you have any great ideas that you do with your kids, or that your parents did when you were growing up, please let me know! I guess it's just like anything worthwhile, you don't usually get immediate results. It takes a LONG time! I read a story about that very thing not too long ago. I'll post it later because it really rang true to me! Well, I guess I'd better stop typing and get working! Example is the best teacher!
Have a good one!

Super Saturday!

I love Saturdays! Lanny worked on Saturday for the first eleven years of our marriage so it was never a favorite day of mine until last June when he started working for Cintas. He finally got a Monday thru Friday schedule and it felt like we could start playing together as a family! I am quite selfish with our Saturdays now and I just want to spend the whole day together. Well, this last Saturday we decided to do a garage sale and see if we could clean out some of our stuff, and especially some of my vinyl lettering inventory. It turned out to be so fun! Our good friends and neighbors, the Price's, did one too which made it extra fun. We started at 7:00 am, this after staying up until 1:00 am getting ready (I'm not a procrastinator, am I?). As we began dragging our junk out onto the driveway, I realized that we have WAY WAY WAY WAY too much stuff! However, very little of it actually made it to the sale! I'm also a sentimental procrastinator who loves my stuff! And I'm married to a sentimental packrat who also loves his stuff! And we have five darling, sentimental packrats who love their stuff! So, for all our grand intentions, our garage sale was quite measly! Pathetic was the word I used after we saw all our stuff outside! But we did have a lot of vinyl lettering stuff so it didn't look too bad! The lettering turned out to be the hot item of the day, but we also managed to sell most of our big stuff. The kids had a blast running back and forth between our house and the Price's and they loved finding "treasures" hidden in other people's "trash." The kids also did a lemonade/otterpop/rice krispy treat stand and had fun with that. Their mood changed dramatically and quickly depending on if each person bought a treat or not. Luckily, we had nice people come to our sale so we had very happy kids! Hence, my advice for the day: Buy lemonade from every kid that you ever see, regardless of if you want it or not. Encourage entrepenurialship (yes, I know it's spelled wrong, but I think it's phonetically correct! Speaking of phonetics, have you ever noticed that the very word PHONETIC, isn't phonetically correct? It would have to be fonetik. How ironic! But I digress, back to my advice.) Lanny is very good at stopping at lemonade stands and often says that the drinks aren't very good, but the kids sure get excited when he buys it from them. And I do need to add that our kids' lemonade was SUPER GOOD! Ice cold Countrytime! And ecstatic kids to go with it! Where else could you get all that for a dime? It's a bargain! Anyway, at about noon we pulled out the grill and cooked a bunch of hot dogs for lunch. The Prices came over and contributed yummy, homemeade cinnamon rolls to our picnic (Gee, I wonder who got the better end of that deal? That would be us!) and we drank cold, refreshing lemonade and it felt RIGHT! Being with my family and friends, enjoying the day, making a few dollars, good food and drinks, happy kids, well, you get the point. It was such a fun day! Later that night we decided to take the kids to the movies and just relax. We saw National Treasure 2 and all really liked it. Well, Austin didn't like having to be quiet and sit still, but thankfully he fell asleep about 1/3 of the way through the show. I treasure my time with my family. Maybe the ONLY good thing about Lanny's long work hours is how much we appreciate the time we actually do have together more than if he were home more. However, having said that, I will also say that I would LOVE to try having him home more and challenge ourselves to still treasure our time together. I think we would be successful at that. We are one of those couples who truly love being together and don't ever get sick of each other. What a blessing! And the kids LOVE doing things together. Especially when Lanny is around! The best time of every day is when they hear the garage door go up which means that Daddy is home. I guess that's a good indicator of what kind of Dad he is! THE BEST! Well, I guess that sums up our Super Saturday! Hope yours was Super, too!

Fabulous Fam's First!

Okay, so we finally decided to join the rest of the world and start a blog! I decided to start after having so much fun reading other people's blogs and feeling like I know them so much better! Of course, I'm pretty much an open book so I don't know if anyone will learn anything new about us, but it should be fun anyway! Between the 7 of us, we should be able to think of some fun things to share. What's going through my mind today is how glad I am to be a Mom. I guess that might have something to do with yesterday being Mother's Day!. Our kids are so DANG cute! Austin started saying "Peas! (Please!) when he wants something. It only took once or twice for him to figure out that he gets pretty much anything he wants when he looks at me with those big, blue eyes, smiles his big, cheesy grin and says, "PEAS!!" I can't resist! I'm starting to understand why parents have a tendency to spoil their youngest child. I am so sentimental about everything he does since I know he is our last child. Every one of our kids is such a unique, fun person! Anyway, I'm so glad to be a Mom and I'm especially grateful for Lanny and what an amazing daddy and husband he is. I loved him so much when we first met and got married, but each life experience that we go through together deepens my love for him. I love him most when I see him with the kids! They are such lucky kids! Wow, this entry got a little cheesy (Pass the crackers!) More later!!