MAKING A HAPPY HOME MONDAY

It's Monday....it always comes back to Monday, doesn't it?

I have quite a bit to blog about. I am finally a bit more released to blog on something I have been wanting to for a LONG time.....now I just have to write it. I'm sure it will make some folk mad, but you know....it's what I do. LOL!

So, as most of you know, Making a Happy Home Monday is a sad little blog carnival that Catey and I post on in hopes of encouraging and inspiring others to make their homes happy. You can pick a little project or a big project. You can make it pretty, more organized, decluttered, or clean. Whatever you do, any improvement is bound to make you happy, thus making your home a happy home.

I have been working on my kitchen for the past few weeks...I'm not done. I have a few more weeks that I can do on my cabinets. For today, though, I wanted to do something a bit more timely....for my household, anyway.

Today, school started. Three of my boys are in school. I did several things to get them ready. The parts that apply to MHHM are as follows.

First off, is school lunches. Hot lunch will not be served in our school until mid-September. Even when they do have hot lunch, my boys will almost always take their own lunch. For today and hopefully the rest of the year (if I don't get too rushed or lazy) I will pack their lunches the night before. It sure does help to have it done. The boys will help me. It is listed on the next portion of MHHM.

CHORE CHARTS!

Personally, I love chore charts. My oldest who (bless his heart) is a LOT like me, loves them, too. He is wanting to take a picture of each brother to attach to the top of the chart so we know who needs to do what. Isn't that cute?

We had some chore charts that I posted on not too long ago. Now that we are back in school, some things must change. Here are the new charts. I think you can click on them to enlarge and see the actual chores. (If you can't, and you are interested in a break-down, let me know.) They went into effect this morning. Each child checks off the appropriate box when chore is completed. They are in page protectors (Monday - Friday on front, weekend on back). They check them off with dry-erase markers so I don't have to reprint every week. Each Friday, they get their allowance, with a slight deduction for chores NOT completed.

Let me know how you are getting your household into school-mode! 

OK....ONE MORE

If this is the first post you are reading, then you have 3 more new ones to read. If you are reading these in order of posting, then this is the 4th! WOW! FOUR POSTS IN ONE DAY!

This is a quick installment of Making a Happy Home Monday.

Chore charts!

We have created chore charts for all our kids and I wanted to share what we did and how we are working with this system.

I created 3 different charts. One chart is shared by the 2 older. They each do the same chores, I just printed an extra copy and put each kid's name on his chart. The younger 2 each have their own chores. The chart with the sun is for my oldest 2. The chart with Veggie Tales is for my 6 year old and the one with Thomas and James is for my soon-to-be 4 year old. (Sorry it's crinkled.) I placed a strip of paper over their names.

I created these from here.

Instead of reprinting the chart each week, we just have the chart in a page protector. The kids then use a dry-erase marker to check off each chore as it is done. My 2nd LOVES it.....he woke up, saw the chart and got everything done before I even got ready for the day. My first will have to be ragged and nagged constantly. Oh well.....

The little ones love to help and will adapt, I think, quickly. (Heh....I say that, my youngest was the one that crinkled his chart.)

Anyway, another way to Make a Happy Home.

*if you click on the picture, you can make it bigger and see the actual chores