PROJECTS FINISHED!

I finished the two projects I've been working on this week.  I saw some ideas on Pintrest and decided to create and modify them to fit our family.  One is a chore chart for Nicholas, and the other is a menu board.  They aren't 100% done because the hooks need adjustments (especially on the menu board) but they're done enough that I can finally clean up the living room... AND post pictures.  I never thought they would take so much time, especially making about 40-50 meal cards for the menu board.  The pictures are from my phone because I can't find the adapter for my camera (which I'm giving up on and buying a new one because Jon's poor grandma has been waiting WAY WAY WAY too long for the pictures from Christmas :( )

Nicholas Chore Chart

He has 8 "chores."  It sounds like a lot, but many of them are so basic that I don't feel guilty.  He has to put his dishes in the sink (morning/night), brush his teeth (morning/night), do his homework pages, practice his memory verse, pick up his toys, etc... As he gets older they will get modified to more difficult things like vaccuuming and dusting.

When he does something for the day, we turn the card over and it has a star that says "I did it!"

The bottom right lists the rewards he can earn.  This is something we struggled with a LOT.  Chores are his way of helping the family, which he should be doing WITHOUT reward because he's part of the family.  But we decided that the other things he does when we ask, like help with dinner, sweep the kitchen, etc... are things he needs to do because he is told to do.  The other things are things we ask of him because they will make our life easier when Baby Brother comes.  So for each day that he completes ALL the items, he gets a sticker.  5 stickers get a Jamba Juice or Yogurt; if he decides to save them instead he can earn a Hot Wheels for 10 stickers; if he has a LOT of patience and can wait for 15 stickers, he gets to go to Boomers and race the go-karts with daddy a few times.

Behind the card that tells his rewards is the blank one where we'll put his stickers as he earns them.  We let him have one sticker to get him started :)



Our Menu Chart

I was excited to see ideas on Pintrest for making the menu something that could actually look nice on a wall, insetad of something I wrote down randomly.  I also liked the idea that these could be easily changed as life changes, and that I start out with a box full of ideas to pull from.  This is adapted from about 5-10 that I found and liked, and I changed it to make it work for me.  You can see that some of the hooks aren't quite right, so I'll have to go back and fix that later.

Each hook can hold at least 2 menu cards, so I can actually use this for two week menu planning.  I always plan for two weeks so I think this will work better for me.  One of the Pintrest ideas put the ingredients on the back of each card to make a shopping list easier, but cutting out the red part, white part, gluing, laminating, etc... took enough time that I didn't want to mess with that.

The box holds the menu cards, minus the 14 that will be on the board at any given time.  I placed the sticky part higher up on the hook for this because I thought it might need a bit more stability.  I don't like that you can see the white, but I also don't want the box falling down.  Some cards are doubled because they're things I do often, especially in the summer... like I might grill chicken 2-3 times using different sauces and marinades.  I also made cards for leftover night, eating out, and date nights :)

The menu cards aren't painfully specific, because even by being vague ("veggie") I ended up with almost more cards than I could handle.