Black Board

This has been a good little thing for us - I simply call it "the black board"

It is a simple wood board, painted black, with colored clothes pins on it. This is where we put invites or important papers that we need to act on. I've had this up for a few years, but it was held up by Command strips, and they keep coming loose because the board is slightly warped, so if we push on the top clothes pins, it pulls the board off of the wall at the bottom. So it's been falling off the wall for the past few months and the clothes pins have broken apart or gotten lost as it falls. Tonight, I decided to be productive and finish this as I waited for people to go to bed. So now it's up and should stay - I painted new clothes pins yesterday and drilled holes in the board and repainted it. Now it's nailed to the wall and ready to go. Yay

Getting Kids to Help

I'm struggling (again) with getting the kids to help with chores. Maybe I'd do better if I was checking in here daily/weekly. I've also been thinking I should ask around my neighborhood to see what the other parents are doing that works. One of our neighbors (a dad) said that he hasn't done the dishes in years or something like that. We need to find out what they are doing. It's like the kids avoid me. When I start telling them to help, they either go hide in their room and draw or read (good things to do, but not good to avoid my instructions) or they start running around playing with the toddlers, which I also appreciate but again, they are avoiding my instructions. They are going to want help today or tomorrow with Valentines... I will try to remember to use it as an opportunity to teach a lesson: You guys want helps from Dad and I, and we need help from you.