Disobedience Chores

It is always a good thing to have clear consequences for disobedience. In the past, when my kids have disobeyed, I would threaten them that if it happened again, they would be in trouble or I may have...just a few times.... resorted to yelling. I think we have all been there before. Until I had a plan in place for dealing with disobedience, I often got frustrated and didn't handle the situation in the best possible way to teach my kids why it is important to obey. So, I decided to make a plan. This may look like an ordinary mug, but it is not.

It is full of little folded pieces of paper each with a chore written on them.

My kids have age-appropriate weekly chores that they do to earn money like taking out the trash, bringing in the mail and cleaning their rooms. We have chore day on Thursdays when they complete these weekly chores.

When they make a bad choice and disobey, they have to go to this mug and pull out a disobedience chore. There are times when we use other disciplinary actions, but this seemed to be a great quick consequence to disobedience.

They do not get to choose which chore they want to do. So it is the luck of the draw whether they get to wash the windows in the living room or clean the toilet in the upstairs bathroom.

I tried to put chores in the disobedience mug that would be less than desirable, but helpful for me to have done. I must say that since we have been using disobedience chores, I have been much calmer and more effective in my parenting. My kids have been happier because they know the rules and consequences to breaking them. And- my house has been a little cleaner!

For the record- this is my daughter doing her weekly chore, not a disobedience chore!

You should check out Lifeway's Homelife Magazine this month. There are some great articles (one was actually written by moi!) and more family jar (mug) ideas. I can't wait to try out the "Caught Doing Good" jar for my kids this summer. I'm hoping it will help my two oldest see the good in each other!

I'm posting on the Homelife blog this week, so check it out!

Typical

Most days look like this:

The boys are wrestling. Yes, my youngest still has his pjs on in the afternoon.

E is doing her homework. Eventhough she has all week to get her work done, she insists on doing it all in one night so she doesn't have to worry about it the rest of the week. Can't blame her really.

This was a rare occasion when her big brother wanted to help her and she allowed him to. Had to get a picture of that one.

Konnor's Baptism and Easter

A couple weeks ago, my husband had the honor of baptizing Konnor. It was an awesome day celebrating what God was already doing in our son's life. He has been on a journey of learning what it means to follow Christ (and still is!). He came to the point where he was ready to make the public statement of his faith. It has been so cool to see him feel genuine remorse and guilt over his sin. I even heard him telling his younger sister how she could become a Christ-follower, too.

We were so happy to have many of our close friends and family there to celebrate with us. It was truly a day we will never forget!

We had a busy Easter weekend with Secret Church on Friday night and services Saturday night and Sunday morning. The kids and I made resurrection rolls using this recipe. Let me just say, they were YUMMY and so easy! We will definitely make these again!

I mean, who doesn't love a cinnamon/sugar/butter covered marshmallow wrapped up in a crescent roll? I love how once they are cooked, they look very similar to a cave!

(BTW- we used reduced fat crescent rolls, I can't believe it's not butter and splenda in place of all the real stuff and they still tasted awesome!!)

The kids got into their Easter baskets about 5:30 because we all had to be at church super early.

After an awesome day at church, celebrating the ultimate sacrifice made for us, we had a great lunch and came home for some egg hunting.

(yes, my son was running around in his diaper- classy, huh?)

Here they are (+ a few neighborhood friends) digging into their loot.

It was a great day!

Featured Today!

One of my favorite design blogs, Little Green Notebook, is showcasing a few pics from my recent  kitchen makeover!  Wow!  Can't believe it!  Go on over and check it out!

 

While you are there, be sure to browse Jenny's blog and see her amazing design work.  Also, check out this post telling about the birth of her third daughter.  What a cool story!

The Kitchen Details

I am still loving my new kitchen. I said in my last post that I would share more info about how I refinished the cabinets.

Remember our kitchen cabinets used to look like this:

They were really ok as they were. They were in good condition, but I just really wanted to lighten up the kitchen and I really wanted cream cabinets.

So, here's what I did:

I numbered each cabinet.

And I made a little diagram to remind myself where each numbered cabinet door belonged.

Then, I removed all the doors and began the grueling process of painting them!

I did not sand, but used a Zinser oil-based primer. I had planned to spray the doors, but my sprayer was acting up so I ended up using a brush.

I brushed on about 3 coats of semi-gloss cream paint.

Now, if you noticed, in the before pic, there is a wood bridge that connects the two sets of cabinets on either side of the sink. I HATED it! I desperately wanted to take that baby down and separate the cabinets. So, my awesome husband did!

He was able to cut the existing piece of trim and fit it around the two sets of cabinets.

We had planned to install a super stylish barn sconce (previously there had been a fluorescent light mounted under the wooden valance), but unfortunately, because of window framing- we were going to have to hire an electrician to install a light box.

So, instead, my aforementioned genius husband, reinstalled the fluorescent light and mounted it to the wall.

My valance covers it completely!

It really worked out perfectly, because if we had installed the sconce I had picked out, I wouldn't have had room for my valance!

And that, my friends, is my favorite part of the makeover!

I chose to replace all the doors before distressing them because I couldn't handle the chaos of my messy kitchen any more!

First, I sanded the edges of the doors.

Then, I used Watco Danish Oil (found at Lowe's) to bring out the distressed marks.

I simply brushed on the danish oil, let it sit for a minute or two and then rubbed it off with a rag.

Once the doors were dry, I replaced the knobs. I needed a total of 24 knobs, and I only had 21. I had some pulls leftover from our last home that ended up being the same finish, so I used those on two cabinets. I chose two bottom cabinets that didn't have drawers over them so that having a different pull would make sense.

Since all the doors previously had only a knob, I had to drill an additional hole to use the pulls. This can be tricky. I have totally messed this up before, so here are a few tips.
Make a template. Use a piece of cardstock. I taped on the cardstock being sure that it lined up EXACTLY with the edge of the cabinet door. I then used an awl and poked through the cardstock into the existing hole in the cabinet door. Then, I removed the cardstock, attached the pull to the cardstock through the hole with a screw. Make sure the pull is pushed up flush to the cardstock and then using the awl, again, poke through the cardstock into the bottom hole in the pull.

Now you have two holes! You have to make sure this part is right. If you have your holes marked wrong, the pull will not fit when you try to install it.

You can see that I have x-ed out one set of holes, because they were wrong!

Next, drill through your cardstock. I used a small drill bit first and then used the drill bit that matched the size of my pull screws. This worked perfectly. If you don't use the small one first, it is easier for the wood to split and just harder to drill all the way through.

Here's another great tip that I actually learned from Young House Love. Put a little piece of tape right below where you are drilling and it will catch your little shavings! Makes for much easier clean up!

Then, wa- la:

So, those are the details! Now, I need to go load the dishwasher!

*****Update: I am now blogging over at vanessadolberry.com/blog.  Check it out!****

The Kitchen Reveal!!

Can I just say....I L.O.V.E. my kitchen!! After a lot of work, it is finally done (well, at least for a while! : ) )

So here it was back when we moved in:

And they are my usual bad before pics! :)

Now I did tweak it along the way by painting and changing out some furniture, but I was dying for some white cabinets. So, I broke out the primer and went for it.

And I'm so glad I did!!

Source list:

Paint- Valspar cream oops paint $5, Danish oil for distressing $11
Primer- Zinser Oil based $14
Cabinet hardware- Resale shop $10.50 (21 @ $.50 each, already had the 3 pulls)
Valances- P. Kauffman fabric (Old Time Pottery) for $20, other supplies $11 (used this tutorial to make them)
Accessories- Yellow step stool (Hobby Lobby) $12, small yellow pitcher (Goodwill) $1, 3 glass jars (Target) $6 each, everything else, I already owned!

That's $102.50!! Woo hoo!!

So this post won't be horribly long, I will share in the next few days about how I painted and distressed the cabinets, tips for changing out cabinet hardware and my favorite part of the whole makeover!

PS- If you are visiting from YHL- my blog has moved to vanessadolberry.com/blog!  Please check it out!