These 2

These two are quite the pair these days.

They're like little puppies.

Constantly in motion.  Laughing.

Rolling around.

I love it.

And them.

Whistle While You Work

I'm about to tell you about my high-tech chore system.

Isn't it pretty?

Basically, I assign them a couple of areas that they are in charge of for the whole week.  When it's time to pick up, every one cleans their area.  It doesn't matter who messed it up.  If someone's job is overwhelming, then I assign him a helper.  Although, usually it's best for them to work alone.  When they try to work together, it often turns into a fight about who's doing all the work and who's not.

That's it.  There's nothing magic, but for right now, it's working.  And it gets the house cleaned pretty quickly.  We clean about 2-3 times per day.  To be perfectly honest, the house is not picked up most of the time.  We spend a lot of the day at home.  And while I home school the bigger kids, the little kids make a huge mess.  I would rather deal with the mess than have my kids in front of the tv or some other form of media.  Or that's what I tell myself when Jopie and Cry Cry pull all the pillows off every bed in the house and build a huge fort in the living room.  Or when I go in the playroom and it they've dumped several bins on the floor, so they can "find something."

I'm sure I'll have a different system when this one wears out.  But for right now this is simple, requires no maintenance, and works well for us.

What works for you?

Five on the 5th

Well, I know it's the 6th, but let's just pretend it's the 5th, okay?

I found this idea here.  I loved it immediately.

It's a challenge to get a decent pic of the boys.  But I'm inspired by this to make more of an effort.

I especially like her collage of her photos from the entire year.

So here is my first attempt to get my five in a picture all together on the 5th of each month.

Are you impressed that they are wearing matching shirts?  

I was an extra-good mother that day :)

Thanks, Sallie and Judy, for the fun shirts!

Messes

Most of the time their messes annoy me.  

But every once in a while, they just make me laugh.

Have a great weekend!

Embrace the Camera {Curious}

I started reading a "baby book" to the younger ones.  But don't you love how the bigger boys still can't help but gather round for some Curious George?

Embrace the Camera here.

New Blog Design!

Didn't she do a good job?  I'm so thrilled with what Danielle did!

The whole process was quick and easy, like I could barely keep up with her emails.  I told her the colors I liked, that I wanted her to incorporate plaid, and a few things I didn't like... and this is what she came up with.  I was nervous that I wasn't going to like what she did.  And then I might have to hurt her feelings, and tell her to try again.  But I loved it immediately.  And it's done!  It's something I've wanted to do for awhile but lacked inspiration.

  Who knew I didn't need that much inspiration.  I just needed a good blog designer.
Thank you, Danielle!

I'll leave you with these pictures.  Not for any particular reason except that I'm missing summer... Sonic happy hour, days at the pool, long evenings at the ballpark.  Good thing here in Texas all of that begins in a couple of months.

Happy Monday to you.

Embrace the Camera {Snuggling}

I think one of my kids took this photo.  Cry Cry was especially snuggly and I had to capture it.  Blurry picture and all.  

He had just woken up from his nap... still a little sleepy.

Love this boy.

Embrace the Camera here.