Anyway, long story short, I asked Chuck for help and he did something called Poker Planning and I loved the process so much that I thought I’d share it. Everyone in the family got UNO cards with a 0, 1, 2 and 4. (Remember that my kids are 12, 10, 5 and 3 so my youngest played with ponies while we did this, but she felt involved.) I made a list of everything that needs to be done in the house. Everything from vacuuming floors to laundry to walking the dog. Chuck then took my list and called out a chore such as vacuuming the stairs. We would all then lay a card face down on the table of how difficult we thought that chore was. 0 is easy and 4 is extremely difficult.

It was so cool to find out what the older kids thought was easy. Jason apparently has no problem vacuuming the stairs every day but hates doing dishes because it hurts the eczema on his hands. Jocelyn doesn’t mind loading the dishwasher but hates unloading it because she can’t reach everything and has to use a stool. I learned that if I buy several items then I can make it easier on the kids to do different chores which would allow me to not have to row 6 extra arms. So…Chuck and I went shopping. I bought toilet scrubbers for each bathroom with disposable scrubbers. I bought Lysol wipes also for the bathrooms. I bought a second broom and a Swiffer Wetjet for the basement so the kids can sweep and mop down there easier.

I have tried a LOT of chore charts, schedule charts, to do lists and none of it has worked. This wasn’t like that. This was listing everything that needs doing, deciding on how difficult it is for each individual and then making it faster and easier for everyone to do that chore. I am excited to see the kids feeling involved and I loved the feeling of family togetherness that this exercise created! It was fun to see the kids enjoy the attention of Chuck and I listening to them explain why they decided that one chore was a 4 or a 2.

I will try to write about how it goes but so far the kids jumped right into doing their assigned chores. They may not keep it up but being involved in the discussion and the planning of how the house runs helps them feel like they have some responsibility for something important, I think. We’ll see how it goes.

I have been asked to take some pictures of our newly constructed basement and thought that I better do it now, while everything is in it’s place. I took the camera with me while I cleaned and then wouldn’t let the kids come in the room until I had cleaned it adn then documented that I did in fact do something today.

Our new playroom

My storage room

The boys’ room

The main floor

Bonus room

Girls room

I was tempted to take pictures of my linen closet and my laundry area but that isn’t going to be interesting to anyone but me. I just wish I could have stayed on top of things better so I wouldn’t have to invest an entire day to cleaning but on the bright side it’s done now!

Well, now my kids can do the same thing because we finally moved our piano from the unfinished basement to the family room upstairs. I couldn’t believe what was involved for the poor guys that moved it. It was a LOT of work!

It’s already been a blessing because the kids and I each play the piano every day! It’s a blessing that keeps on giving.

I was terrified of canning. I would go out of my way to have something else to do when the ward would do some canning or if a friend invited me to join her. I thought it would be too difficult and not worth all the effort involved. I was also sure it would supremely expensive.

My garden this year produced so many beets that I had no other option but to throw fresh beets into the trash if I didn’t can them. I bit the bullet, bought a canner and some jars and called my sister Amber. Using Skype she was able to walk me through it and I loved it!

That was less than a week ago and I have now canned 8 qt beets, 8 qt applesauce, and several different types of jam including Christmas Spiced Cherry, Cinnamon Peach, Raspberry Peach, Vanilla Spiced Peach and Peach Ginger.

I’m super excited about giving away jam for Christmas gifts this year but there’s a part of me that’s nervous that the gifts won’t be as warmly received as they were loving created. We’ll just have to see. In the meantime my kids are eating their weight in jam!

I thought that I would show you some pictures of our month before we get too far into June.

To make it easier to be outside we have bought bikes for anyone who needed one. This is a picture of my new bike with our old bike trailer on it. Laurelyn loves riding around with me which makes it a whole lot easier to jump on it and go!  There’s a ton of hills around our house so hopefully I’ll be able to take advantage of the terrain and shed some pounds this summer.

The kids and I jumped on our bikes and made a caravan down to the park. Once we were there Jason decided to try riding my big bike. It reminded me of that old line from Black Sheep, “Fat guy in a little coat…”

Jason surprises me all the time with how athletic he is. He’s able to do anything that he wants when it comes to physical stuff. I love that boy!

Speaking of boys that I love…

David climbed into bed with me this morning and snuggled me into wakefulness. What a perfect way to start the day! He’s such a sweet and tender boy as long as he gets some time to run off all his excess energy!

The last couple of days he’s been burning off energy by helping some landscapers build a patio in our backyard. BEfore they started it looked like this.

My kids wait anxiously for this truck to show up in the driveway so they can run outside and ‘help‘. At first I told David that he couldn’t dig with the guys but the landscapers said they didn’t mind the help. They talked with him and laughed their heads off when David started bossing them around. They were digging the dirt down to a flat level all around and filling a wheelbarrow with the dirt that they would then run up the hill and load into their truck to haul away. David kept telling the guys that they were taking to long to bring the wheelbarrow back! They thought that was hysterical until one guy got complimented on how fast he was and for some reason after that they were all vying for a 4 year olds approval. I think David is my new backyard foreman!

Before I bombard you with pictures of Laurelyn’s birthday I wanted to show you our science experiment. It isn’t something that grew in our fridge although they did live in our kitchen for a short time.

BUTTERFLIES!

We raised caterpillars into butterflies! We impatiently watched as caterpillars turned into chrysalis and chrysalis emerged into a butterfly! It’s such an amazing transition! This weekend we released the butterflies and took pictures as they used their wings for their first long flight.

Speaking of beautiful butterflies…my baby butterfly had a birthday yesterday. We had all of her favorite things! Decorations, pinata, candy, cake and her friends. She didn’t even notice that I told all of her friends not to bring gifts. Laurelyn likes a party and she kept talking all night about how fun her party was and who was there. A girl after my own heart!

That was our month of May. Wild, busy and a ton of fun! I can’t wait to see what June has in store for us!