"I said, GOOD MORNING GIL!"

"I said, GOOD MORNING GIL!"---Bill Murray in "What About Bob."

I've had that quote running through my mind a lot in the last few weeks as I remind myself that it is baby steps.  (For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about it's time to watch that movie.  Hilarious.)  I have to keep reminding myself that it is the little things that lead to big changes--baby steps.  For example, we have started our new allowance system.  First, we started with our weekly jobs:

Basically each kid has their own hook--see how there are six together on the left?  I figured they were smart enough to know that it goes from oldest to youngest starting on the left.

I was wrong.

Each kid has asked me which one is their hook--some of them have asked me more than once.  I probably should label them or something but right now I'm too stubborn to do it.  I mean seriously--there are going to be harder questions that this one on the SAT--if they can't figure out which hook is theirs then we are in trouble.  The hook on the far right holds a number of different jobs that any kid can do for more money.  Each kid must do their weekly job first before being able to do any extra ones.

I have to say that overall, this has gone really well!  Not only are the kids finishing their weekly jobs (mostly) but they are also doing the extra ones.  Jordan did an amazing job organizing the pantry--and it took far longer than I anticipated so he negotiated a higher price but I was happy to pay it.  McKay has really taken advantage of the new system to do a number of jobs around the house--I came home today to find him cleaning out our pond.  And for those of you who have been unfortunate enough to view the pond lately---I'm sorry...But come on by now 'cause it looks fantastic!

Baby steps...

With that, we are onto the first week of the reverse allowance system.  This is what we came up with:

As I explained, each month I put 30 $1 bills into each jar.  Every morning I check to see if their beds are made, rooms straight and dirty clothes picked up.  Since we just started this I don't have much to report other than I will say, ALL the kids had clean rooms and neat beds today!  

Baby steps!

(Someone asked me where Jordan's jar is.  We started out without him having one because, let's face it, the kids is 20.  However he wanted something to be accountable to so he has one now but his works a little differently.  For every day his room is NOT clean I put a marble in it.  Each marble equals a $1 he has to pay towards gas money for the kid's car.)

My laundry room is still a mess, my tub still has a (smallish) pile of clothes on it and I can see a couple of pairs of socks, but overall I think we are making progress!

I'm going to see how the next couple of weeks go because I have big plans once summer starts.  This involves three different areas:

1.  Cooking--I could seriously do like a million posts on how much I hate cooking/shopping/meal prep/clean up.  I think involving the kids will only make it worse but I think it's a necessary skill they need to master on our quest to make them productive members of society.

2.  Volunteer Work-because we want them to sometimes work for the greater good.

3.  Apprenticeships/Job--I'm actually excited about this idea and have some things in the works so I hope to have some exciting things to report in the next couple of weeks.

Until then--I'm off to create flashcards so my kids can remember their birth order.

Have a great night!