#1 I made bread from scratch--grinding my own wheat and actually making bread.
#2 Finally instituted a chore chart for my kids and was consistent in keeping to it for the week.
BREAD!!
When Stephen and I first got married our first Christmas (2001) we received from my parents a wheat grinder. A nice gift right? I didn't fully appreciate it nor did I use it.
Funny story about that: My parents even forgot they'd given us one and Christmas 2008 they got grinders for Aaron & Laura and Ben & Summer too, only they forgot they'd gotten us one already and got us another one! Christmas morning, Ben and Summer get theirs first and open it up, my comment was something like:
"Oh, cool. That must be the traditional first Christmas as a married couple gift from Mom and Dad. That's what they got us too!" the color from my mothers face drained!
She said, "You HAVE one? But you never use it!!"
"I know, but I have one in case I ever do."
"Well, then don't open your gift from us."
So in 2010 one of my goals was to break out my wheat and this new still in the box grinder and make bread that my family would eat. And you know what, it was pretty successful on my first run! Both Sam and Lindsey (who LOVE to help in the kitchen) participated and this was our end result:
It looks yummy right?It turned out a bit denser that I would have liked, it didn't rise as much. Right now I'm attributing that to the red winter wheat I used and so I'm anxious to give it another go using the golden wheat. I'm also open to trying new recipes, this is a process I know to make great bread. BUT the best part is that my family IS eating it! They love it toasted with butter and jam or honey. And seriously I feel like such a great mom because talk about a healthy breakfast! They eat this and I know they're getting great nutrition and they stay full so much longer! Horray!!
CHORES:
So my kids are 5 1/2, 3 1/2 and 2. Still a bit young to be trusted with more major housework jobs like vacuuming and such BUT baby #4 is going to make his or her appearance soon and if they know how to do a few things it will really help! I've tried doing this before but ended up making the job chart too cumbersome with either too many jobs they were expected to do (with me to help of course) or having them rotate too often so we'd forget who was supposed to do what.
I finally got my game face on and decided that I could handle them each helping with an aspect of dinner and then one other assignment. Here are the jobs we chose:
Dinner: a) help set the table with plates, cups, napkins and silverware and anything else needed. b) help clear off the table after dinner, put away left overs and wipe the table c) clean the floors by picking up larger food objects then sweeping/vacuuming under the table.
Other jobs: a) take out the trash b) unload the dishwasher c) still working on this one. Trying to find a job that needs to be done daily that isn't someone else's specific responsibility....it's all a process
The kids have the same job everyday for a week and we switch at Family Home Evening. And can I just tell you how much this has changed my life?!?! Really, who would have thought? We do the other jobs in the afternoon after picking up Kaitlyn from school, it helps me stay more on top of things that I would let go for a bit too long (like the floors and the trash) and it's starting to get the kids eager to help in other ways. Like they're totally wanting to help fold laundry which I'm totally taking advantage of and when we all work together I feel so less like a maid and more like a MOM!! Horray! Way to go TEAM!!
5 comments:
Good for you Missy! What a great goal that you have accomplished!!!! Another thing that you could do with your chart is showing pictures of what they need to do as well. Mandi had pictures of what the kids had to do and even put particular clothes in what drawers they needed to go in to make it easy for her own kids to put laundry away! Keep it going!
Good for you. Sometimes it easier to just do it yourself, but then you feel like the maid, as you said. These are wonderful ideas.
Another good chore that I do is have them gather the dirty laundry from the various baskets in the rooms and put it in the laundry room. They could even sort by whites, colors, towels, etc.
Way to go! I have a goal to make bread every week. But I actually only make it about once every 4 months.
I have found a great recipe for wheat bread if you want it. I also recommend adding wheat gluten. It does wonders and is healthy too (unless you have allergies). You can find it in the baking area.
So stoked you posted this. I have a wheat grinder and have never used it and one of my goals this year is to figure out how to actually make bread from it, instead of making bread from whole wheat flour.
Please post your recipe!
Also, a great book with tons of ideas about chores (and basically how to organize a plan so when your kid hits 18 they know everything you want them to) is called "The Parenting Breakthrough" - I'm a huge fan of it, although I haven't had the opportunity to try out some of the author's suggestions yet. She's LDS, very funny and realistic.
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