And the bottom drops out...

At the end of last week, the Risdal children were revolting. They all lost their hearing and then thought it would be fun to push every one of Mom and Dad's buttons. A confession: We have been lax on the chores since school started, thinking they needed to concentrate on their school work. The TV and computer times have been watched, but not very closely.

Now they have a chore or two to do every day before they use any of their TV or computer time. They each have an hour a day, with chances to earn more time. O.K., it sounds a bit like prison. However, there has been a significant reduction in the amount of whining and complaining when they are asked to do something (yea!) They are also learning to budget their time. This is a skill I hope they learn to master sooner than later. Life only gets busier.

By the way, the jobs are to vacuum and sweep various parts of the house over the course of the week. They need to pick up the room so they can do their job. Thus, the house is staying pretty picked up!