Some fun things pregnancy can teach you.

• Your two year old stinks. You might not have ever noticed that before. Come to think of it, everyone in your family stinks but they're not hanging in your face all day so you don't seem to notice.


• Clutter can literally cause you to have a nervous breakdown and start throwing things so if clutter is a problem at your house you might want to start boxing things up before it all gets broken.


• To be eternally grateful for every moment you spent teaching your seven year old to cook because she is now the sole reason everyone in the house hasn't perished from hunger.


• The love and joy of bringing another soul into the world can cause you to despise and resent everyone around you.


• Going to the gym and working out can actually help you feel better. Until you get home and puke your guts up that is.


• Chickens aren't as cute as you thought they were. They stink and their offensive eggs are toxic to pregnant women.


• Taking Unisom for your morning sickness will not actually help you sleep better. It will just make you have crazy dreams in between the sleepless hours.


• Two year olds adjust amazingly well to having a sick mother. They learn to cut their own hair and then rub a container of foot cream in it that takes a week to wash out, escape from the house twenty times a day to play in chicken poop and roll in the mud and torment their older brother and sister until no one can stand her and she is shipped off to Grandma's house.


• Pregnant women have super human hearing powers. Translation - every sounds your children make will make you want to claw your ears drums out. Or at the very least, tie them to their beds so they stop running through the house. Around here we call that "time-out".


• You are as incapable of handling your pregnancy as you thought you were going to be.
  

I Worked Out!

Twice!

This pregnancy has hit me like a brick wall and I haven't been handling it very well. I was so scared about the whole thing that I started my complaining before I even got sick. When I found out I was pregnant I thought, ok, I have about one week and five days before the puking starts so I'd better get my house clean and finish up some projects. Wouldn't you know it but the very next day I came down with a bad cold that lasted two weeks. There went the clean house idea.

So I hadn't worked out for a month when I decided I had better get my butt moving before I get too out of shape and too pregnant to do anything about it. The hardest thing about my pregnancies is that I'm too sick to work out but I can't carry my ten and a half pound babies if I don't. I made the mistake of not working out with my first pregnancy and I literally could not walk the last two months. I have worked out with my last two pregnancies and they were so much easier.

The few precious hours in the morning that I can actually stand up I guess I am going to be spending at the gym. I had a friend take me on Friday to see if I would survive it and was able to get myself there this morning without any major problems.

I just wish I hadn't gotten so out of shape these last couple months because I feel like I'm starting over. It's a bad sign when the gym pants you wore throughout your entire previous pregnancy are already starting to cut off your circulation.

I almost forgot to include a link to Jamie's Monthly Marathon. Doesn't that sound fun???

Lazy Organizer Affiliates

Since I have had so many people asking about becoming an affiliate I have decided to do a post on it to clear up any confusion. An affiliate is someone who sells Organizing Bags for me. Here is how you know if you are right for the job.

• You understand that selling Organizing Bags will not make you rich. Unless you are some sort of crazy bag selling maniac and get them on Oprah or into the Container Store or Walmart. In that case you will transcend affiliate status and become a member of my family. Not that that is necessarily a good thing.


• You enjoy getting paychecks anywhere from $.50-$50 a month.


• You were planning on ordering the sample pack of Organizing Bags and blogging about how wonderful they are and how you don't know how you've lived all these years without them.


• You like doing favors for people you don't know.


• You want to have a super cool button to post on your blog as soon as I get someone to design me a super cool button.


• You want to be best buddies with Lara and get personal e-mails and birth announcements from her. Don't forget that best buddies bring their sick friends dinner and watch their sweet little hair cutting trouble makers for them. Hint, hint.


• You have at least three friends you can tell about them, then they tell three friends, then they tell three friends...

If you've decided that this is for you then keep reading.

• Affiliates will earn 5% of all the sales they generate.


• All you have to do is order a sample pack of bags and post a link on your blog.


• You can also get a discount on bulk orders for selling bags to friends and family.


• Decide what name you want me to use in your link. It can be your name or your blog name or anything you want. "I Want To Be Lara's Scullery Slave" hasn't been taken yet.


• E-mail me to get signed up today!

Let me know if you have any other questions or if you just have yummy food that you want to drop by.

Smart Habit Saturday

Welcome! If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

I Googled Smart Habits today and guess what? We're number two around here with our Smart Habit Saturday. Isn't that cool? So who was number one? Jump Start Your New Year with 7 Smart Habits by Kathy Gates.

Perhaps the most important of all the habits is to be consistent in whatever you do. Being consistent is what makes or breaks great people and great lives. Anyone who is organized, works on it consistently, not "whenever". Anyone who is in good physical shape, works on it consistently, not hit-or-miss. It's more about making a new habit, than it is the intensity of it at the beginning. Once the habit is instilled, it will be much easier to raise the intensity.

If you are looking for new habits to work on she has some great ideas. I did a lot better with my scripture reading this week but I still need to work on it again. This has got to become a habit in my life if I ever want to reach my potential. Luckily I have the rest of my life to do that but I'd better start now!

Have fun with your habits this week and don't forget to check back to sign up for all the fun give aways I have coming up. The Organize Magazine subscription give away is over but it's not to late to win a copy of A Life Less Cluttered.

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Mom's Mission Impossible

Here's the update on our project list. Stranger has been working on the chicken coop for the last couple of days and estimates it will only take about one more year to get it finished. He and a friend built the floor and walls at the friends house and now he has it hauled up to our house and he's putting it together.

This is what happens when you ask your husband to build a little chicken coop.

Goodbye Clampett Chicken Ranch

Hello Chicken Palace

start the flowers from seed next spring. Go ahead and ask me where the grass is? There isn't any! I may be fooling myself that this yard is going to be easier to take care of than a lawn but at least it's work I enjoy. I do not enjoy mowing and trimming grass. I do know that it will take a lot less water and electricity once it's established so don't argue with me about that.

• August 07

Build chicken coop Oct. 07
Install house numbers
Design and order Island for kitchen Aug. 07
Put up storage shelves for basement April 08
Clean out garage
Order planting design Aug. 07



• September 07
  Install garage sink faucet Sept. 07
  Design pantry cabinets Sept. 07
  Buy cabinets for pantry January 08
  Order bathroom mirrors
  Shower curtain rod for girl’s bathroom
  Install two curtain rods in Master bath
  Sew curtains for master bath
  Dirt road and driveway May 06
  Cement sidewalk and steps Sept. 07
  Buy trees and shrubs
  
  
• October 07 - Nope, none of it happened!
  Install pantry cabinets March 08
  Paint the girl's bunkbed
  Plant trees and shrubs
  Find someone to put the finished touches on our foundation cement (I guess I'd better figure out what that's called first.)
  Order studio window



• November 07 - Nope, Nope, Nope
  Sand and paint shutters in master bedroom
  Install trim and paint bathtub skirt
  Paint and install bathroom mirrors
  Paint kitchen island
  Order railing for the basment stairs



• December07
  Install new studio window
  Install hood cover
  Start decorating girl's room Dec. 07 - Wow, I actually did this one!



• January 08
  Purchase and install studio cabinets



• February 08
  Build, paint, install shutters for the rest of the windows
  


• March 08
  Install brick floor in sunroom
  Choose sunroom paint or stain color



• April 08
  Paint sunroom
  Design sprinkling system
  Start perennial seeds
  Install clothesline outside



• May 08
  Install sprinkling system



• June 08
  Install sidewalks and patios on the side and back of the house



• July 08
  Plant perennials
  Finish girl’s closet



• August 08
  Brick fireplace
  Install stove



• September 08
  Design and build front door storage space in the corner



• October 08
  Design and build front door storage space on the wall



• November 08
  Design and build master closet

A Life Less Cluttered

This give away is closed and the winner has been notified. Thank you for participating!

Whether we're talking about our homes or our schedules, most of us could live with A Life Less Cluttered and at some point most of us have wondered how, with all our shortcomings and weaknesses, we can make that happen. How do you face those fears? How do you build the kind of character it takes? How do you stay motivated to live the principles you've learned? We can all achieve the uncluttered life we're seeking and my good friend and professional organizer, Christine Rice, the Organizing Muse, is here to teach us how in her new book A Life Less Cluttered; Expert Secrets to Your Own Organizing Epiphany.

Christine sent me a copy of her book and I was happy to read it. So happy that I underlined something on almost every page! I'm sure she won't mind my using it as an outline for my organizing seminars for now on. That's how good it is. It helped me see some things about myself that I didn't even know I knew!

For instance, Christine talks about the labels we use in our lives whether we're labeling containers or people.

"Labels have to be meaningful and accurate in order to be helpful, and "slob'" or your own version of the same, is neither."

Before I first started getting organized nine years ago I probably called myself a slob 20 times a day, every day. It's funny how calling yourself a slob doesn't really help you get yourself more organized! It just makes you despise yourself every time you say it. I finally stopped beating myself up and started giving myself permission to change. Sometimes the old labels you're using don't allow for change, something we should give ourselves, and everyone around us, room to do.

"Becoming better organized is more about creating a new lifestyle than it is about clearing out clutter."

I think we all know that but we don't want to believe it. We want to take a magic pill that changes our life and makes everything easy. This is one of the reasons I don't like organizing shows on television. In what universe can you go into some one's house, get rid of the clutter, organize everything, and expect it to stay that way? It's not happening folks and we all know it so let's stop pretending it is!

Along with getting rid of clutter you have to make changes in your life; changes in the way you shop, the way you schedule your time and the way you handle your things. That is a lot of changing and it doesn't happen over night. It's the reason I started Smart Habit Saturday, a way for me and others to make positive changes in our lives.

If you are looking for your own organizing Epiphany you will enjoy Christine's book. Reading it may just change your life.

Good news! Christine is going to give away a free copy to one of you lucky Organizers out there. Just leave a comment telling me at least one positive label that you are going to start using to replace an old ineffective label. I'll go first...

I am efficient! I'm not a slob, I just like to keep busy and busy tends to get messy. I know if I slow down I can stay organized and work more efficiently.

I'll leave the comments open until some time on Sunday. I will notify you if you are the winner (make sure you leave me with a valid e-mail address) and Christine will mail you a book!

Keep checking back because I have more books to give away and also some fabulous Organizing Bags. You can't wait, can you???

It Was Time

No more fancy Sugar 'N Spice hair styles for us!


And just when I was going to show you a cute new one. This little girl in my nursery class at Church always has the most beautiful hair. Look at all of it! For some reason my girls did not inherit my thick hair.

It all started a few weeks ago when Persistence began complaining that she wanted to cut her hair off. No more snarls? No more of her running around with mangy looking hair? Sounds great to me!



You can only stand pony tails so long before you get sick to death of them and it seems that we didn't have the energy for anything else lately. She took the plunge and loves her new hair cut.



So now we come to our two year old little trouble maker. Haven't I mentioned lately all the trouble she's been getting into? Maybe I thought if I didn't talk about it the problem would go away but that doesn't really seem to be working. She's still here!

I know some of you are shocked because you have never heard me say a bad word about her before but I'm telling you, she has crossed over to the bad side. In the sweetest way possible of course. Look what she did to her hair last week?


Remember that great advice I gave you to cut the elastics out of your daughter's hair? I'm not saying it wasn't great advice because I'm going to keep doing it but you knew and I knew that this was bound to happen. Let's not lie to ourselves. When you take a pair of scissors to a two year old's head every day, eventually she is going to try it for herself.

We're just lucky the damage wasn't worse than it was. She didn't cut the very front of it so it's not very noticeable. In fact I could have just left her hair like it was but she has been looking a little mangy lately too and I needed something easier these days.

"Uh oh. What did I get myself in to?"

"Much better!"

"Could I BE any spunkier?"

It looks very organized to me. And we can still do some fun things for Church if we want. That's one bonus of having fine hair. It looks great in short styles.

The funny thing is that Stranger has been bugging me to cut my hair off too and I think I would have if Margie had had time to fit me in. Yes people. I think it's time. The men in our family love their women in short hair. So how short should I go?

Although Margie had a good point. It's nice to be able to put your hair in a ponytail when you're throwing up.

Flickr With Me

I have new photos! See my Flickr badge over there in my sidebar? Did you know you could subscribe to my Flickr photos in your feed reader? Yes you can and I am still feeling lonely and pathetic that I only have one subscriber in Bloglines and it's me.

Won't you come join me while I take photos and then pretend I'm writing amusing captions for them? How am I going to learn the art of amusing caption writing if I don't practice?

Oh, and did you know it's dishonest to steal my photos and publish them on your website or blog without my permission? Plus it's not nice. I like to share my toys but I don't want you running home with them and never bringing them back. I'm just sayin...

I have some great photos coming up for you tomorrow. They're not so much about organizing but they are kind of. They could be about getting organized to make your sick pregnancy a little easier. Until tomorrow...

Win a Free Organize Magazine Subscription

Edited - This give away is closed and the winners have been notified. Thanks for participating!

Your Organizing Bags are finally here! Stranger picked them up for me today so my kids and I are going to be doing our best getting all your orders boxed and shipped. It's going to be a big job but hopefully we will get it all done this week.

To celebrate I have some fun things to give away this week. To start with Organize Magazine is giving two of my readers free subscriptions to their fabulous magazine! Can you stand it? All you have to do to be entered to win is leave a comment on this post telling me what kind of features you would most like to see in an organizing magazine. I will leave the comments open until Friday at noon or some such time that's close enough.
I should have done this a long time ago but I am finally getting some photos taken of my bags in all their organized glory. How am I doing this while I'm sick you ask? It's easy when you have two helpers to send scouting around the house collecting treasures to stuff them with. We're only getting started but take a look at the new Flickr badge in my sidebar to see what we did today.

Now I hope you'll have sweet organized dreams tonight knowing your bags and hopefully your Organize Magazine subscription will soon be on their way. And if you haven't ordered yours yet, (the magazine and the bags) what are you waiting for!

P.S. If you are interested in making money on your blog by becoming a Lazy Organizer affiliate, please e-mail me, lara at lazyorganizer dot com. If you get signed up in the next few days you will be able to participate in my Organizing Bag give-away that's coming up. Don't miss out because all the popular girls are doing it, don't ya know? Check them out...

I'm An Organizing Junkie
Dare To Get Organized
Tyler's Triumph
An Ordinary Mom
Desert Diva

How Do You Organize Your Online Photos?

I have been thinking a lot about this subject lately and I guess I want your help figuring it out. I know people who upload all their photos to Flickr and have them all organized and labeled and that sounds really great but I honestly don't need one more thing to do. I spent a lot of time organizing my Flickr photos several months ago because I get a lot of blog hits from them but I just don't have time to keep up with it.

Another problem with Flickr is that anyone can use the photos you post there for any purpose. Isn't that a little scary? Stranger just told me a *story about a big company that used some one's photo in a national ad campaign and the people can't even sue them because apparently once you upload photos to Flickr they are fair game. I know someone could steal my photos right off my blog but at least I could sue someone, if I wanted to, for taking something that's copyrighted.
In fact my photos have been stolen at least once that I know of. An organizing site that I won't name used one of my photos in an article without asking me. I just happened upon it by accident so who knows how many more of my photos are being used without my permission? It doesn't completely ruin my day because I'm not a professional photographer, or anything else for that matter, but it still feels funny.

I know some people watermark all their photos before they post them so I played around with that one day. You can see the results here. I suppose someone could edit the watermark off though unless it covers the whole photo and it makes it that much harder to post photos. That's not good when you're as lazy as I am.

Then there's the whole issue of posting photos of kids that I've chosen not to think about. Or I've thought about it and decided to post them anyway. Not to mention the completely insane urge I have to organize my photo file on my website to remove all the unused photos and watermark the photos that I am using. I know. It's crazy.

I guess I just want you to figure this out for me and while you're at it make it all easy and convenient. I appreciate it.

*Edited - I looked up that case with the Flickr photo. You can read about it here. Apparently the photographer added a Creative Commons license to his photos so the company was within its rights to use it. I just went to my Flickr page to edit the Privacy & Permissions page to reserve my rights to my photos and I didn't have any CC licenses on them so no one should be using my photos but me. If you are concerned then you might want to check your photos as well. There are different kinds of Creative Commons licenses so you can choose the one that works for you.

Week Seven

You guessed it. I'm pregnant! The baby is due some time in May. Everyone has decided it's going to be a boy and I don't really care either way so I'll just go with them on that.

Just so you know, this whole thing was Stranger's idea. I don't just mean the getting pregnant part but the having another baby part as well. Don't get rude with me because I will love our new baby when it gets here but until then I am hating its guts because I am VERY sick and I probably will be until it's born. If you want to read about how bad it can be please visit my friend Stephani's blog where she has been blogging about HG. She describes what it is here. I wasn't even pregnant at the time but all her posts describing her suffering made me bawl my eyes out. I cried for her pain and for the pain I felt through my sick pregnancies and because I knew Stranger was going to make me go through that all again.

Don't get me wrong, he loves me and hates to see me suffer but in the end he loves his babies more so he is willing to endure any amount of suffering, on my part, in order to get them here. Isn't that courageous of him? He's a baby lover. It's pathetic. You should see him when we see cute babies in the grocery store or at Church. He can't take his eyes off them and is always the first one to run over and pick the baby up. It really is embarrassing the way he drools over them.

So this is our fourth, AND LAST baby. Do you hear me Stranger? You are not talking me into this again!!! I don't care what promises are made. Speaking of promises. Do you want to hear what I got out of it this time? Anything and everything.

That's right. Stranger has to do everything I tell him to. I get whatever I want, when I want it and I always get to be right. Frankly I think he got the better end of the deal because he's not the one that has to be sick but it's too late to turn back now.

BTW Honey, did I mention that we'll be bringing the baby home from the hospital in a new van?

Smart Habit Saturday

Welcome! If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

I hope everyone did beter with their habits this week than I did! I'm going to be working on my scripture reading again this week because last week was a big failure in that department. We were out of town for a few days but that's no excuse for the rest of the days. I am promising myself that I will do better this week!

Now it's your turn. What is your habit going to be this week?

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Life is Moving Too Fast

I'm afraid I will never catch up. We did get our cement poured last week and it's lovely.

We're now the talk of the town. I can just imagine what everyone is saying, "Can you believe they finally have sidewalks at that house?"

"I know. I thought it was abandoned but I guess people really live there!"

Come on people! You can tell from the fuzzy sheep blanket hanging in the window that someone lives here. And these aren't wild chickens running around don't you know.

I would show after photos of the cement but the chickens pooped all over it as soon as we let them out of their cages. That kind of thing doesn't make pretty photos.

Remember how I was worried about chicken tracks in our cement? Did I happen to mention the cats?

The workers fixed the cat tracks but we decided to leave the sweet little troublemaker's hand prints.

We ended up with a chicken print after all.

Can you guess who the little foot print belongs to?

Quilt Raffle Drawing

It's finally time for the drawing and only a week late.

I did everything very scientifically as you can see. Every ticket holder was assigned a number. If #4 donated $5 then she was given 5 tickets with #4 on them.

I cut all the tickets up.



Into microscopic pieces.



I promise I didn't sneeze and lose any of them.





And the lucky winner of the quilt is #38, Mary Ellington! Congratulations Mary!!! I will get your quilt in the mail this week.



Thank you for helping us raise $720 with all your donations! I really appreciate all your generosity for our little service project. We are going to take the money down to the Christmas Box House as soon as possible and I'll let you know when that happens.

Thanks again!!!

I Swear I Didn't Write It

And you can tell from the rude comments about me.

"Well, you know how Mom’s don’t always keep their promises? Mine doesn’t always
either."

Read the rest of the story about How A Boy Got Inspired to Play the Piano.

The wierd thing is that I think the piano is something Victor really is interested in. He's not just playing it because he thinks all his friends are. He loves it. He hears piano music everywhere we go and most of the time I'm not even aware of it playing in the background. After a beautiful song was played in Church today he said, "Wow, she's really a good piano player." "Yes, you're going to be that good some day," I replied. "No, I'm going to be better," he corrected me.

It gave me chills.

Smart Habit Saturday

Welcome! If you are new to SHS find out all about it here: Getting Started with SHS. Click here to read more SHS posts. Please don't forget to link back to this post so your readers can find out more about SHS.

“Today I will surpass every action which I performed yesterday. I will climb today’s mountain to the utmost of my ability yet tomorrow I will climb higher than today, and the next will be higher than tomorrow. To surpass the deeds of others is unimportant; to surpass my own deeds is all.”

By OG Mandino in The greatest Salesman in the world

Are you feeling Smart Habit overload yet? I am! I don't know how many habits I've worked on since January 1st but it is a lot. There are some habits that I don't think I will ever attain, like going to bed early, but most of my other habits have pretty much become a part of me. At this point I'm wondering how much more change I can stand in my life! I know I have a lot more room for improvement in so many areas but all this changing hurts! It's difficult and exhausting to always think about changing and becoming a better person. But I know I, for one, will never give up. Call me unsatisfied, but I am never happy where I'm at. I always want more! In case you were wondering, yes, that is what my husband loves so much about me. Right sweetie?

My habit this week is going to be reading my scriptures every day. I think I've worked on it here already this year but I need more help with it. I would like to work up to thirty minutes a day but for now I'm going to study for ten minutes a day. Instead of just reading, like I've always done, I am really going to study. I think I'll pick a topic every week and look up scriptures on that topic. Then I'll write any insights or inspiration I receive. How's that for a plan? Now I will go and do!

*Important - Please link to your individual SMART Habit post instead of your home page or else my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will have to spend time fixing the links. Here is how you link to an individual post if you’ve never done it before: Right click on the date at the bottom of the post you want to link to (or the post title depending on where you blog) click “Copy Shortcut” and then paste it into Mr. Linky.

Children's Chore Carnival

Chilihead is hosting a carnival today on chores and allowance for kids so of course I have to participate because this is a subject of great interest to me. In fact it's been our family "project" for the last year and a half. I'm not sure if it will ever stop being our family project because there is so much to learn on the subject but I will share what has worked for us so far.

This is a series of articles I wrote about teaching kids to work. The bonus is that it has taught me to work more efficiently as well. My nine year old wrote the last article for me.

Part I, Whose Job is It?
Part II, Getting Rid of the Clutter
Part III, Let Them Help
Part IV, It Takes Time
Part V, Work Together
Part VI, Learn to Practice
Part VII, Make it Easy
Part VIII, by the Gallagher Boy

He also wrote an article describing his allowance and how he saves and spends money.

How a Nine Year Old Would Spend $50

Here is my article describing Mom First Credit Union from my perspective. I cannot tell you enough how great this system is. IT'S EASY AND IT WORKS!

Debt Proof Your Kids

We have changed a few things since that article was written. The kids don't write checks to me anymore. They just keep track of their spending and earning in a checkbook register that they keep in a small Organizing Bag along with a calculator and pencil. But the deal is the same. If they don't have their register, they don't spend any money.

I have also raised their allowance considerably and they have many more responsibilities than before. For example, now they have to buy their own socks and shoes because I think paying for them themselves helps them take better care of them. Eventually I will have them buying all their own clothes as well. Victor has to pay for all his own Scouting costs. I pay for the kid's art lessons but they have to buy their own supplies. Basically, anything they want to do or buy that's not family related, they have to pay for themselves.

They are paid their allowance once a month and according to Janine Bolon, the kids can use 40% on their expenses, put 20% into long term savings, 20% into short term savings, 10% goes to tithing and 10% they give away to anyone as philanthropy. Of course they never spend 40% so most of it just stays in their "checking" accounts. They have so much money in their savings accounts that Stranger is going to take them to the bank this week to buy some CD's with it so they can start earning a higher interest rate.

You really must check out Janine's books, Money...It's Not Just For Rich People, and Cash Cars and College that was written for kids. She is fabulous! In fact I like them so much that I contacted her and she is going to send me some to give away! As soon as I get them we will have a fun give-away here on my blog so make sure you check back.

My kid's allowance is not tied to their chores in any way. They do chores because they're part of our family and they do them every day without complaining. I mentioned this in one of my articles but I think most parents want to know how I get my kids to do chores without complaining. The biggest key to having cooporative kids is consistency and habit. If they are doing chores every day then they know what to expect and there is nothing to complain about. Kids whine and complain when it is effective. If you have kids that act like this then they are getting what they want by this behavior. My kid's lives have never been improved by whining or complaining so they almost never do it. Of course they have to try it occationally just to make sure it still doesn't work but then they go back to being their sweet selves.

If you would like help building positive new habits for yourself or your kids then please join us every week for Smart Habit Saturday. It's been an amazing experience for all of us who have participated in it this year.

Don't forget that I'm not an expert but if you have any questions for me I will answer them in the comments. Thanks for visiting!

What I've Been Crying About for Two Years

This is a before picture of my front yard. The chickens like the weeds but I don't so much.

This makes me very happy. Goodbye weeds.

This makes me even happier. Hello steps! Remember that dinner party I was going to invite you to? Soon you will be able to make it to my front door without forging a path. I've never seen a more beautiful beginning for a side walk have you? Maybe you have to have lived in a mud hole for two years to appreciate it.

This is our back yard where we are pouring an RV pad. I'm not sure why we're doing this because we don't own an RV and we never will. It's difficult to tell from the photo how confused the chickens are. "I see an RV pad going in here but no RV. Yum, bug."

Thou Shalt Not Overschedule Thyself

A couple years ago I was tired of making bad scheduling decisions and my husband was tired of hearing me complain about it so he finally laid down the Law.

Thou Shalt Consult Thy Husband Before Making Any Plans with Friends and Family

Of course I don't always follow Stranger's Law but I save myself a lot of frustration when I do. Stranger isn't a controlling husband, he just wants my life to be as happy and stress free as possible so here's how it works.

Alice calls and asks if I would like to use her extra tickets to take my kids to the Symphony the next day and by the way could she and her kids catch a ride with us because her car is in the shop? I would love nothing more than to go to the symphony and Alice's life might end if I don't take it upon myself to drive her there so instead of checking my planner to see what I already have scheduled for the next day I say, "Of course!"

But then I looked down at the *tattoo on the top of my right hand that says "Thou Shalt Consult Thy Husband First" and say, "Oh wait a minute Alice, I need to talk to my husband to see if that's going to work for us."

So I call Stranger and he says, "What else do you have planned for tomorrow?"

"Oh, I didn't think of that. (Because that would be too easy.) It looks like I'm having a root canal in the morning and then I'm babysitting the neighbor's two year old triplets for six hours while she has her hair and nails done. I guess I can't really fit the symphony into any of that." Apparently I didn't consult with Stranger when I scheduled babysitting after a root canal. See what I mean?

So I call Alice back and tell her that the symphony isn't going to work for our family tomorrow. (Who can argue with that?) She cries for a minute and I offer to pay for her to rent a car to ease my guilt about not being everything for everybody and then we're both happy again.

Now that's just one scenario. The other one would be where Alice asks me to join her six person team in running 157 miles to raise money for some great cause. After I tell her I need to talk to my husband about it first, I sit and think about all the good that will come from raising money for such a great cause and then I think of all the good that will come from my staying alive to raise my three kids and I don't even have to call Stranger. I just call Alice back and tell her that my premature death isn't going to work for our family this week. She cries for a minute and I offer to pay for the ambulance should anyone need it during the run. This eases my guilt about not being everything for everybody and then we're both happy again.

Discussing and planning my life with my husband works for me. If you don't have a husband to consult I suggest a good friend or buying a **parrot named Bill. "I would love to Alice but I need to talk to Bill about it first." Hey, you'll never know what good advice Bill might have for you if you never ask.

*I don't actually have that tattoo yet but I seriously considering it.
**I'm not suggesting that a parrot is as useful as a husband but in some cases one may be. Don't tell my husband I said that.

More posts on planners and schedules.


If you're here for WFMW you might want to move along now before things get out of hand but if you want to read footage from an actual conversation to see how Stranger's Law really works in our family keep reading.

Stranger - We're going to call that lady to tomorrow.

Lazy - Kay.

Sranger - Are you just saying that?

Lazy - Yes.

Stranger - No you're not. We really going to call that lady tomorrow.

Lazy - Kay.

Stranger - Are you just saying that again?

Me - Yes.

Stranger - Don't get mouthy with me because I'm running the show here and we are calling that lady.

Me - Kay.

Stranger - What?

Me - Kay. You run the show and I'll run the mouth.

Stranger - That's not funny. And you're not blogging about this either.

Me - Kay.

Apparently Stranger's Law is easier made than followed.

Project Deadlines

We have been working on our unfinished house projects and have actually accomplished some of them! I have to tell you the truth. I didn't really think that writing dates next to these projects would help us get them done any faster. I was just doing it to humor