#2 on 30 List- Our Second Honeymoon!

Well here I am, almost 31, and my list of completed things on my master list is seriously short. But I have done a few of them, so I'm going to try to catch up on them!

The second item on my list was to go on a second honeymoon with Caleb. We were very blessed to be able to go to Dallas for our 12th Anniversary in August!

We had a really good time, it was really nice to be able to get away. We decided to spend the bulk of our money on a nice hotel and I was able to get a good deal on a room in the Westin. Unfortunately when we got there we realized they were hosting the Dallas Clown Convention in the same hotel! What luck. If any of you know me very well, you know that I had deep Coulrophobia (fear of clowns). This isn't just a "clowns are freaky" kind of thing for me. When I see one in real life I can't breath, and all reason goes out the window. Sitting here now I know that clowns are just normal regular, um, clowns are just people who for some reason find enjoyment in dressing like freak shows clowns. But get me near one and they're instantly freaks that are going to wrap me in a pink cotton candy cocoon and slowly suck my blood out. We were able to avoid them for the most part, and the hotel staff was very understanding and allowed us to use the back elevator and entrance when we needed to. The clowns we were unfortunate enough to encounter were mostly civil. There was only one clown who decided it's his purpose in life to convince someone they're not afraid of clowns by following them around, trying to hug them, and talking to them in general by saying condescending things like, "You don't think I'm scary, do you? I'm a nice clown!" Psh, as if any logical person could think such an irrational thought.

Side Note: Let's see if this logic applies to any other phobia. Let's say someone is afraid of drowning. Would you put them in water, hold their feet so their nose is barely above water and say, "You're not really afraid of drowning, that's just something you say to be different or cute. You just saw a movie where drowning was portrayed in a bad light. If you just tried to be more reasonable, you would see that drowning is perfectly normal." Um, no. That person would be considered a freak. So don't try to convince me that I'm not afraid of clowns.

The rest of our weekend was great. We went out for dinner, went to the outlet mall, I got a Coach wristlet, and a massage, we went swimming in the roof-top pool that we practically had to ourselves, and we just enjoyed not having five children around us complaining, fighting, and needing something. We tried to sleep in but somehow only managed to sleep until 8am.

It was a delightful weekend and something we both agreed we needed to do again. It really didn't cost us a whole lot of money, but we had a good time just being together. After 12 years, we've still got it!

This is us trying to get a picture in our luxury bath robes. We tried to prop the regular camera up with books and things, but could only get a picture of our middles. Then we tried to take a selfie, but we were both laughing so hard because if Caleb held the camera, I couldn't reach the button to take it. But if I held the camera, I couldn't get the robes in the picture. We were both laughing so hard neither one of us could keep the camera still. So this is what you get! Happy Anniversary to us!

Our New Schedule

We are on our 8th week of homeschooling and by all accounts and purposes, it's going great. Everyone is still enjoying school and are still motivated. There's a little bit of frustration over new topics as we're starting to move past reviewing the last year, but overall it's going smoothly.

But we were having this horrible problem of a chaotic morning. It all starts because I am a night owl. I love the quietness of the nighttime, and I would go to bed after midnight every night if it didn't affect the next day. But it does, and we weren't waking up until almost 9am every morning. Which meant breakfast was close to 10am, school didn't get started until around 11am, and we weren't ready for lunch until 2pm. Which messed up nap-time, afternoon subjects, snack time, cartoons, and pushed dinner and even bedtime later, which then started the whole mess over again. That may work for some people, but I'm a traditionalist and I think lunch should be at noon, so it wasn't working.

Because of all of this, I decided to get serious and start a new schedule. I made a list of everything that needed to get done during the day, and divided it into "morning", "afternoon", and "evening" sections. Most of these things are pretty simple like meals, chores, naps, etc, usually happen around the same time everyday. Then I figured out how long each of these things should take, and kind of worked around set times like bedtimes, lunch (of course at 12pm), and favorite cartoons. Our kids love Wild Kratts and it's really the only cartoon they HAVE to watch everyday, so I wanted to make sure they were able to watch it.

I wanted to have set times for each subject because I found myself having a pile of workbooks to check, and by the time I checked something, they were already halfway done with another subject, and we were going back and forth from subject to subject, and I really didn't feel like they were grasping the concepts, they were just getting the work done. So with set subjects for set amount of times, they don't have to rush and make mistakes, and there's plenty of time to check work and fix mistakes that do happen. There's also not the competition of "I got done before you did!" and "What subject are you on? I only have one left." that breeds discontent and causes others to hurry and not concentrate.

So here is our daily schedule:
Carter Family Schedule
7:30- Wake up, Get Dressed, Read your Bible, Start Chores
8:00- Eat Breakfast, Have Family Devotions
8:45- Clean up breakfast, Finish chores
9:30-10- Handwriting
10-10:30- English
10:30-11- Math
11-11:30- Reading
11:30-12- Spelling
12:00- Lunch
1-2:30 Rest time
2:30- snack
2:30-4- Afternoon Session
Monday-Library
Tuesday- Art
Wednesday- Music
Thursday- Science
Friday- History
4-5:30- Free Time
6:00- Dinner
8:30- Anna and Elsa bedtime
8:45- Kayla and Lela bedtime
9:00- Noah bedtime
10:30- Mom and Dad bedtime

There are a few times on there can be moved or changed, depending on what we have going on (or what went on the night before), but for the most part, if we stick with this schedule, we will get everything done.

Points System

For about 3 years now our kids have had specific daily chores to do, and at each birthday another chore would be added to their list. They have one chore for each year old they are. They've always been fairly good at getting their chores done in a timely manner, with a few reminders and redos. But since the older kids are getting older, we wanted to teach them responsibility with money, saving, etc. We've always taught them to tithe with birthday money and we involve them in offerings by giving them change to put in, but we wanted to step it up a notch!
This is when I came up with the points system. It's quite simple! They get points (in increments of 5) when they do extra chores, or have exceptionally good behavior. Every other Saturday they are allowed to use their points to "buy" prizes out of the prize bag.
This prize bag has things that we collect when we go to dollar stores, walk down clearance aisles, and even things we find at garage sales that are in good condition. We have nail polish, notebooks, cute pens, toys, stuffed animals, small games, etc. We keep track of the points on our dry-erase board in the kitchen.
So on Saturday nights we pull out the prize bag and according to the amount of points they have, they are allowed to buy prizes. We try to do it early enough in the evening that they can play with or use the things they buy. We go in the order of who has the most points gets to go first, and go down the line.
This system has really improved morale around here. They don't get points for doing their daily chores because those are expected of them. They get points for changing a diaper, washing the dishes when it isn't their turn, getting the clothes out of the dryer, fetching something for a parent, you get the idea. We also give points for good scores on test, and other school accomplishments. They also get points for Bible verses memorized.
There are a few exceptions. If they ask how many points they'll get, they have to do the assignment and not get points. And if they earn points and constantly remind us/bug us about giving them their points the said points are diminished or eliminated.
Since we're usually pretty tight with our money, and kids lose money all the time, this system has seemed to work really well. I hope it can give you an idea of how to reward your children for working without breaking the bank!