When We're Helping We’re Happy

Really? It didn’t last long with my boys.

Actually it started out so great. I asked them if they would please help me with a special chore today and I was delighted that I didn’t get a single complaint!  Not a single one!!  I thought to myself, this is going great!! I explained how dad had worked hard at cutting back the ivy yesterday and I needed their help bagging up all of it. They seemed to act like, piece of cake. They all pitched in and it was going swimmingly.  Then Josh asked me if this could be his chore for the day and when they were done could they go play with friends? I proceeded to explain that this was a Special Saturday chore and he still needed to do chores inside.

And the complaining and whining began :( boo.

At that point I left and helped Jeffrey out front with the flower bed weeding. Amazingly I only heard one other outburst out back and the next thing I knew they came out joyfully explaining that they were done. I asked them to get a rake and finish by raking up the rest of the leaves on the ground. They explained that they already had done that!!

Wahoo!! I was so impressed and they were SO HAPPY again!!

New Schedule, New Routine

Herriman City decided to give us a “more flexible work schedule” which allows us to have every other Friday off. Yay ~ I likee!! Thought it was definitely worth giving it a try. With that, however, comes extended work hours. Our hours at work now are 7:30a - 5:30p. So each of us will work 9 hours for 9 days. Nine 9's. AND we  have every other Friday OFF. Oh ya, we get a long weekend EVERY OTHER weekend!!

Today was my first trial run. This morning didn't run as smoothly as planned. Most days the boys are up around 6:00a they get dressed and have breakfast right off the bat and they are usually done around 6:40 ish. We generally leave the house around 7:05 - 7:10a. I take them to school and come back home to finish up with whatever else Hayden needs and finish getting ready myself.

I thought I'd just wake up about a half an hour earlier, get myself ready first, then get Hayden out of bed about 10 min. earlier than normal to get him dressed and eating before I left with the boys for school. Then I'd go straight to work. PERFECT!! Right?

Wrong!  The boys were up late, and by the time I was dressed, I came out to check on them and Josh was curled up on the couch with his blanket. Wha? Oh dear, now the rush was on. Zac was already dressed and eating breakfast, Whew!! When I went to get Hayden his alarm had already gone off. (which meant I was running behind with my brilliant plan). No worries I still had 10 minutes before I had to take the boys to school. I could do it. Hayden usually takes a while to wake up all the way. He often wakes up a but ornery. This morning was no exception. He said, "Mom, it was so loud this morning I woke up before my alarm. Then I fell back to sleep and my alarm was SO LOUD it woke me up!! I couldn't help but smile a little bit and give a little laugh. I told him that was good that's exactly what it's supposed to do. That did not make him smile or laugh, not even a tiny bit. It just seemed to make him more ornery. But I just helped him choose an outfit and helped him get dressed. Took him out in the dining room and helped him choose a cereal to eat. By then Josh and Zac were ready and off we went. This was about 7:15. Only 5 minutes late, hopefully I'd still pull it all off. Dropped the boys off without too much sweat and on to work. I got there at 7:27a. Wahoo - had just enough time to unlock the doors and turn on my computer by 7:30a.

I made it through the first day and I must say, I thought that 9 hours would feel so long. But, it wasn't as bad as I thought. There were times during the day that I'd look at the clock and think, Really? it's only 9AM? when it felt like it should be 11:30a or when I got back from lunch I thought oh dear, it feels like it should be 4p and it was only 2p. However, overall, the day still went by pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised.

Hopefully I still feel like that on Friday. :D