Raisin' 4: On boredom and baseball weather...

Ok, baseball practice officially starts for the older boys next week, so this cold weather needs to get out of town ASAP. Otherwise, I might have to break our "no-movies-in-the-van-unless-it's-a-long-trip" rule to pass the practice time with the little ones while we wait. And let's just say that this momma does NOT like to break rules unless she has to.

So we continue to get creative indoors, and this might just be my favorite idea yet. You guessed it, I'm letting my kids watch way too much TV putting my kids to work!

With each addition to our family, the love has certainly increased, and so has the workload around the house. We have a family mentality around here. We help each other. And it's not for pay...usually. It's for what we like to call a "happy heart."

Now before you get the wrong idea, check this out. Work can be fun. And I mean lots of fun. It's all in the presentation, I like to think. I can demand in a grumpy voice for my kids to pick up their toys, and it'll get done, but not without some attitudes (and probably some compromised work). Or, I can turn on some 80's Gold worship music really loud, set the timer, and challenge the boys to some sweet dance moves while they pick up and try to beat their previous record in the "cleaning time challenge". Hmm... I know which one I'd respond to better.

I've been going through the kids' clothes sorting out sizes and seasons (those tubs are a bit overwhelming, aren't they?!), and came across lots of things Chase had outgrown that needed to be returned to the ever-so-generous Costello family. When I say generous, I mean that we're spoiled. Big time. Only the Costellos would let us borrow, not one, but three pair of the same size Crocs for a two year old to run in all summer long. Nice.

So because we try to be responsible (ok, so really we just have a two year old who likes to get really dirty), we had some scrubbing to do before the Crocs went back to their home. I stuck Jack and Chase on the job, and they took their job seriously. We played music really loud, they talked and laughed together, and they got to use as much soap and water as they wanted. My OCD wanted to monitor the soap and water amounts, but you can't spoil all the fun when you ask your kids to work. And we talked about responsibility. About how when you borrow something from someone, you want to give it back to them in just as great of shape as when you got it. And instead of that turning into a lecture, it turned into a great conversation about how much we love Cade and Jace and want to bless them. Ah, can you feel the love?! They might have even forgotten momentarily that they were working...

Clean shoes and "happy hearts," and everyone wins, right? Turns out they're getting smarter by the day, so I'm not sure how long I'm going to get away with this method. Here's another news flash: I'm not always patient and creative when it comes to getting my kids to accomplish a task (heh, I had you fooled, didn't I?). Sometimes the work just plain needs to be done, no questions asked. Kids dilly-dally and days get long. But we're family.