Blowing me kisses or hitting himself in the face? You decide.
While I realize that for some people having a spotless house is the norm, I shamefully admit that I am not one of those people. Not that that's any surprise to you since you've probably seen countless pictures of our messy house in other blog posts. A few months ago I just felt heavy with the burden of it all and I realized that I was the only person in our house doing anything to clean up. It made sense, though. Two of our kids are really too young to do anything and the other two were only occasionally asked to help out. Ben works all day and has mutual and temple appointments and if he ever wants free time, it's in those evening hours or on weekends (which is also his family time). So it has been just me. For years. I'm surprised I didn't lose it earlier. When I finally realized it, I sat down and talked with Ben and told him that we were going to have an FHE about chores. But then other topics were more pressing FHE subjects and then the holidays kicked in and it kept being pushed back. But at the beginning of the year it happened.
It was life changing I tell you!
The kids are expected to do 4 things each day without reminders: 1- brush teeth, 2 - make beds, 3 - keep the bonus room clean, and 4 - keep rooms clean. If they do all four things all week, they get $1. Any additional chores (sweeping, washing windows, cleaning bathrooms, dusting... all things they know how to do...) get additional compensation.
Ever since then it has made my load easier to bear and I've been able to do a better job myself since I'm trying to be a better example.
You wouldn't be able to tell from this picture that he has the flu. If his nose didn't explode every time he sneezed (about every 5 seconds) I would love all these extra snuggles he's giving me.
Although yesterday he sneezed straight into my mouth. So my prediction is that I will be getting the flu sometime in the next 24 hours. Maybe Ben will be feeling better by then and I'll be the one quarantined instead?
Speaking of sickness, we haven't had all 6 of our family members healthy at the same time since before Halloween. There have been many days when I think I could just sit down and cry from it. I'm so sick of being sick. But then I tell myself it really, truly could be worse and I try to be grateful.
But if we're not healthy when Becca and Preston are here during spring break...... so help me.
If I could describe Thad in one hyphenated word it would be "Mini-Ben." He is so downright adorable and charming and oh so mischievous (or as Ben would pronounce it, mis-CHEEV-i-ous). Every day I get Thad and Ella sippies. He quickly abandons his and goes for Ella's as soon as she has her back turned. Every. Single. Day.
Since he has the flu, I told Ella she needed to be especially sneaky with her sippy. I told her to hide it so that he didn't spread germs. See her rain boot she's holding in that picture? Well look even closer:
I can happily report that he didn't find it today, a first.
High five to Ella for her brilliance.
In other news, 8 out of the last 10 school days have been cancelled because of 4 snow/ice storms. Remember how in my last post I talked about how much I loved all this time with my kids? Scratch that. This snow has got to go. Cross stitching this would seem appropriate right now:
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