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Today was the first day of school for the kids so I took the day off of work to see them off proper and be here when they get home. Boy it will be hard to go back to work when this is the life that makes me smile - taking care of my family, canning, cleaning the house, being on the farm, working in the garden. While I like my job and it is exciting, this is what truly warms my heart and makes me smile. I couldn't wait for school to start, but now that I am home alone I can't wait for them to come home and tell me about the first day of school. I am using my "extra" day to do some more canning and put the house back in order. Later I will run erands while my son is at soccer practice. My preserving is at 56% as of this moment, but I am running out of quart jars. Even the extras I already purchased will not be enough as I probably need at least 200 more just to finish the apples, pears, grapes, and tomatoes around the farm. I can't imagine what DH will say if I come home with 20 boxes of jars! I am really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things and exchanging the lazy days of summer for the routines of fall. Our days are pretty structured and organized so I have updated our morning, afternoon, and evening routines. I also made a few changes to the chores to keep things fresh. One area we seem to be constantly changing, and have again, is allowances. We have tried weekly allowance, monthly allowance, daily allowance, allowance based on completing a certain number of items in a week, allowance based on doing all of your chores for the day, etc, etc. Our new system is a weekly chart that I sign off on for their daily responsibilities. They get a percentage of their allowance based on the percentage of items they should have completed during the week. I like this system because it creates a penalty for not doing it when they should have, but I can also easily exclude an item when our schedule did not allow time for it to be done. Out of a $5 weekly allowance my daughter earned $3.90 and my son earned $3.70. It has created a little competition to see who can earn more. Out of what they earn the first dollar goes to the church, the second dollar goes to savings, and the remainder is their spending money. We tried tithing and saving based on a percentage but it was too confusing so for now the flat amount works better. I am off to put a few things in order, check my task list, and take the tomatoes out of the steamer canner. Hope your homesteading day is happy. By the way, thanks to everyone who comments. It really encourages a blogger to know someone is reading what they write. Also, next weekend I am going to try and post some pictures of my canning pantry, the garden, and the new barn. |
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