Chores for kids

I'm looking for ideas on chores that may be appropriate for Drake. Right now he sets the table every day and is expected to clean up after himself (and sometimes Levi) and clear his dishes to the sink after supper. He is sometimes required to put his own laundry away and sometimes to make his bed, depending on whether or not I do the laundry while he's gone at school, and whether I remember in the morning to ask him to make the bed. So I know he is able to do these things. I often have him take out the recycling, as well. Oh yeah, and he knows how to fold the clean diapers and dustbust crumbs from under the kitchen table. I was talking to my friend, Cherie, the other day, and she suggested feeding/watering Heidi (the cat) and dusting some things downstairs, like the piano and bookshelf. There may be a few other things, too, but they are not currently coming to mind.

Anyway, I'm trying to plan my days a little better, and I know that planning more specifically which chores are expected of my children each day will foster a more cooperative spirit in the long run! What I am looking for right now is more ideas for appropriate kid chores. I know many of you have kids near the same age - I would love to hear some of your ideas!

Aren't they cute? (I thought this post needed a picture!)

You won't believe this...

I'm surprised that I didn't think to blog about this sooner! This is one of those strange stories that I would expect to hear happened to someone else. Not me.

Three Sundays ago, I think, we came back from church and lunch at McDonald's. (Now a couple of you know where I'm going with this!) Actually, the boys and I came home, while Adam and our friend Dave, who was staying with us for the weekend, went to watch a football game. (Not having cable is problematic when you need to watch a football game...you can't do it in your own house!) Anyway, so the boys and I walk in our front door, and I'm getting ready to take Levi upstairs and put him down for nap. Drake asks if he can play in the backyard. Well, sure. Why not? So out he goes. Five seconds later, he's back. And he's asking, "Mommy, why are all those toys outside?" "What toys?" (I'm confused.) "My cars and Bionicles and some books, too."

Oh...no...

A thought crosses my mind - but I push it out. Impossible. Neighbor children inside our house while we're gone?

Oh yeah.

That's right. While we were out, two neighbor boys from down the street (ages seven and three), not only came into our backyard, but came through our sliding glass door (which I had obviously failed to lock) and into our house, taking some of the toys from the playroom and the living room back out to the yard to play with. What?! Even when the pieces started coming together (including an incriminating eye-witness account from the neighbors directly behind us), I was still in shock. The weird thing is, we barely know these kids! And I had never even met the parents. We'd been seeing a lot of them over the few days prior, which is really the only factor that made the story seem plausible at first. But it was indeed true.

Several questions came to mind. A lot of them actually. Where all did these children go in my home? (Hopefully not through my underwear drawer.) Am I overreacting? Like, is this something one should expect if they forget to lock their sliding door? (Ummm...no.) What would have happened if we had owned a kid-eating doberman? (Could I live with that?) Or what if they had just fallen off our swing set in the backyard and sprained an ankle or something? (Our insurance would be paying for it, I'll tell you that. The US government would make sure of it.) And how about this: Where were Mom and Dad, and did they even have a clue what their children had been up to that morning?

So anyway, I went and introduced myself and (very politely) discussed the situation with the boys' parents (who were both home at the time of the incident, by the way). In the parents' defense, Dad had just returned home from a deployment, and things tend to get a little crazy during that readjustment phase. The boys had been playing outside, and when Dad went looking for them, found them in our yard and made them come home. (The parents had no idea they had been in our house, but the little one readily confessed!)

After that, I immediately called my friend, Cherie. I needed to burden someone else with my bizarre story! And by the end of the conversation I was feeling, well, a little more normal and less shocked. And reallyreallyreally thankful that our "intruders" were little kids who just borrowed toys from inside our house - they didn't even take them. It could easily have been something oh so very much worse!

So anyway, now we have locks on the backyard gates and try to remember to lock the sliding door, pretty much whenever it's not in use. And just in time, too. Because yesterday I forgot to lock the door, and Levi figured out how to open it. I found him happily playing in the yard by himself, with the door wide open. Well, at least he couldn't get out of the yard!

Happy, happy birthday to Cherie!

Today, we’ve arrived at the first "biggie" celebration/occasion since the departure of our favorite Alaskans. Cherie’s birthday is today, and mine is tomorrow. For the past several years, we've always enjoyed a shared birthday celebration with the daddies and the kids, and this year it’s just not going to be the same. (Prepare yourselves to hear me lament at Thanksgiving, too!)

Here is a picture taken last November of both our families together (pre-Makenna, of course!) with the self-timer on their camera. We thought it turned out pretty well, even though Levi and Adelyn thought the sand looked much more interesting than the camera!


So I just want to say this:

Cherie, if you’re reading today, I want to wish you the very best year ever. You are truly a once-in-a-lifetime friend. Thank you for all the memories, and thank you for your part in teaching and shaping me. You are strong, intuitive, insightful, encouraging, uplifting, and truly beautiful inside and out. Happy 27th birthday, my special friend!

(And I still haven’t mailed your gift. Levi did try to unwrap it for you yesterday, though!)

By the way...

...the precious new baby I mentioned a few days ago has a name...

Makenna Grace!

I was so blessed to speak with her mama on the phone the other night and catch up on all the details of life. Just thought I'd update, since I said I'd let you know her name when I found out. Can't wait to meet her someday!

(Still missing them like crazy, but you're all well aware of that...)

A new baby!

Our dear friends, Dave and Cherie, have welcomed their third daughter into the world today! They had a relatively quick labor, an uncomplicated and completely unmedicated VBAC delivery, and a healthy baby girl! We are so excited and proud of them!

I got to talk with Jaedyn (age 4-1/2) and Nana (Cherie's mom, who is "Nana" to our boys too) on the phone this evening - what a blessing to know that it's over, and that it went so well. Cherie and Dave are still choosing just the right name for their precious daughter, and I'll let you know what they decide upon at a later time. Apparently, she was born with a beautiful head of hair! If I have my facts straight, she's 7 pounds, 4 ounces, and 20 inches long.

I look forward to someday when I will be able to meet her and hold her too! Missing them so much, but very thankful... We love you, our special friends!

My other hobby (well, one of them)...

...besides blogging, that is! Tonight I've been sewing. A little stress-reliever for me! I finished another fitted diaper that I started last night or the night before, I can't remember. Anyway, it's not for Levi, but for my friend Cherie's daughter. I'm doing a small stash of these cute little ducky/bubble flannel ones for her, and I really like how they're turning out. Cherie bought the fabric - isn't it adorable? I modified (a lot actually) a free pattern I found online, and I think I've finally got it just how I like it. Hopefully they'll fit little Adelyn as well as they fit Levi, my "model." (I just have to add here that before our favorite Alaskans moved in June, Cherie made six, yes six, oh-so-cute newborn fitteds as her first sewing project - well, first in a long time anyway, and they turned out really nice. I wish I had taken a picture of them, but I forgot to.)

So anyway, Cherie and I have both decided we're getting disillusioned with Aplix (the Velcro of the diaper world) for a number of reasons, so I got some plastic snap tape to try as closures for these. I have high hopes for it, as it's very similar to the snap tape in a very durable boughten all-in-one diaper I've been using for a long time. Metal snap tape is just not heavy-duty enough for the rigors of home diaper-washing; we've learned this from experience. The prongs are too short and the snaps rust and fall out. And I don't have a snap press (yet anyway!) to add resin snaps one at a time. So, like I said, I have high hopes for this snap tape.

I don't use fitted diapers myself - well, for Levi! You know what I mean! - but many mamas love them. They are awfully cute, I have to say! Especially when made with print fabric. And functional - hold it all in nicely!

I took some pictures so you can see how they're turning out. Sorry if I'm putting you to sleep. I know that few of my readers are as obsessed with sewing cloth diapers as I am! Probably just one. (Hi Dawn!) So here are the pictures. I'll try and remember to take one of Levi modeling for you tomorrow. They're even cuter on a baby!

Here ya go:

Heidi likes to be near me. Like, all the time. She seemed only slightly irritated that the diaper I was making was ruffling her fur. Certainly not irritated enough to move off my sewing table!

All done! It's a bit stiff now, but just picture it much softer and fluffier after a few washings...

Here's the inside - I "recycled" a really thin, blue prefold (provided by Cherie) for the inner layer. (There's also a pad of 6 layers of flannel and 4 layers of birdseye between the flannel outer and the prefold inner. Yes, these take awhile to dry, but they're very absorbant.)

This is the snap tape that I was talking about...you can kind of see it in this picture. It looks like it will be snug and durable. I guess we'll find out after a few months of wear!

*****

Okay...yes, I know that there have been no pictures of my kiddos for, what, like almost a week?? And many of you read this blog solely for the pictures of the boys. So I'm sorry. My next post won't disappoint you. I promise to post pictures of my children, not just words and/or pictures of diapers! (As beautiful as cloth diapers are.......)

End of a journey...

Our very dear friends and former next-door neighbors have been traveling for 3 weeks - since the 19th of June - and have finally arrived at their new base in Alaska! Watching them leave was heart wrenching; our families have been very close for 3-1/2 years, since about 3 weeks after we arrived here.

Anyway, after leaving here last month, they spent 6 days with their family members in another state, and then RV'd all the way up through the US and Canada with 2 little girls (and one more on the way next month), 2 dogs, and a cat. Wow! They have been a great testimony to God's faithfulness, trusting in Him to provide and choosing joy and acceptance of their circumstances, even through some trying "bumps in the road." (No pun intended - well, okay, I guess it was intended!)

We miss them so much and grieve the loss of day-to-day contact and mutual support. I spoke with this dear friend, Cherie, just a few minutes ago and I miss her even more upon hearing her sweet voice. She likened the trip to childbirth (her analogies are priceless). She said something like this:

"It's one of those things that you can look back on after it's all over and say 'Oh, yeah, that wasn't so bad.' And then maybe a few years later, you'll even be willing to do it again. But the Yukon, that was transition * - right there at the end, and you're saying 'I just can't do this anymore!' But then, suddenly, it's all over."

That's great, isn't it? It made me laugh. I love Cherie dearly. May God bless their every moment...today, this weekend, and always. We praise Him for their save arrival.
(*Transition - the last, shortest, yet most difficult part of labor just before delivery)