Friday, July 16, 2010

Chore Charts

I probably don't need to tell you that I am not a naturally organised person, neat and tidy, with fabulous time management skills. No. My blog (un)maintenance probably speaks for itself. Going in to the third term of school most mornings still consist of me running around barking things like "Hurry up, go, go go!" "Move fast or we're going to be late"
It's happened more than once that my kids leave the house without having had their hair brushed (actually that's most days for Clary), and even (gasp) with unbrushed teeth. Disgusting, I know.
So in an effort to try and sort the lot of us out I have made the kids little charts for their rooms, reminding them what needs to be done. You could hardly call them chore charts because we are really tackling the BASIC basics here. Like make your bed and brush your hair, lol.

I would have liked these to have been made from fabric with little pockets for the cards, but once I decided to make these I just wanted them DONE. So I did them the fastest way I could.

I got photo frames from Big W, framed some scrap booking paper then put the hooks onto the actual glass (Command Adhesive hooks).
I had photographed the kids doing their little jobs and made them into little cards and laminated them.

Once they've done whatever it is the card tells them to they can just flip the card over to show that the job is done.

I have made them one each for the super easy mainly-in-the-morning jobs, which is in each of their rooms. I am making another joint one which will go in the living area which will have other things on it, such as feed the chooks, set the table etc.


Will probably be one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time but really doesn't change anything, I'll let you know how we go.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

I've fallen behind with the blog again, I know. Plenty to blog about, not enough time to do it, blah, blah, blah.
Anyway thought I would do a quick, although somewhat lame with completely no planning to it, post before I go to bed. I have just quickly taken these pictures with my little point and shoot to go with this so they're not too spectacular.
This first one shows, in addition to the mess of my house, the globe I just couldn't let go of when it broke from it's stand. A pretty cheap globe so I wasn't too surprised that it didn't survive my kids, but I couldn't fix it back to the stand and just couldn't think of anything else to do with it so I strung it up with a ribbon and it has it's new home up there with our hula hoops.

The top of that cuboard is not normally so cluttered (I mean it does have a lot of stuff on it, just not that much, lol), but it has some frames waiting to go up on the walls. I framed a strip of photobooth pics from our wedding, some of Ruby's art work and also a 'Second' ribbon awarded to Ruby in the school cross country. (as Ruby is one of only two girls in her age group for sports at school she will be lucky enough to always score a First or Second ribbon in sports events, lol. So far she has three 'Second' ribbons)
Also in the picture above you can see over on the right, on the wall down below the tutu which hangs from the curtain rod (hmmm, just typing that out makes me think that maybe I could do with some help from an interior decorator), the calendar I made for the kids.

It hangs low enough so that the kids can change it each day. It's a baking tin hanging on a ribbon, with magnetic dates, days and months, easy to change. I just printed everything out, mounted them on cardstock, laminated them and added self adhesive magnets to the back. I know it's very plain but it's practical and functional and that's what I wanted. With my never ending to-do list I really pick and choose now, what tasks I'm going to spend my time prettying up. Ugh, so boring I am. I already had the magnets which I've had for ages but I used them all up and would love to get some more so if anyone can tell me where I can get my hands on some that would be great. It came in sheets which could be cut to any size, peel off the backing paper, and you're done.

The other thing I'm on the hunt for is dishes that are both freezer AND oven proof. Cooking most of the time for myself and two kids that don't eat huge amounts I ALWAYS have loads of left overs. So I'm putting portions in the freezer to give to my mum, and occassionally my neighbour. As neither of these two own microwaves I need to be able to put the food into something that can, preferably, go from the freezer to the oven.


At the moment I'm using these things but I don't like them because they are disposable crap and I need another option.
Can Pyrex go in the freezer? Anyone got some other brilliant freezer-to-ovenware they can let me know about?