Sophie wins...

There are times, as a mother, that I feel like I'm winning.

I don't know WHY I ever let myself settle in!?

It always comes to an abrupt halt:

We have a new chore system.

I've renamed them "Helps" because they live here and helping out is just part of our flow.

When I say 'ok, let's clean up' it's a known thing around here you aren't allowed to say, 'but I didn't make the mess' - you find a need, you fill it.  you see a mess, you clean it.

yours, someone else's, doesn't matter.

But, I was wanting some sort of real life money lesson and real life paycheck lesson and real life daily responsibility lessons so....

(basically I was trying to bribe them to have a good attitude...see the heart smiley face! and OH BOY is it working!)

I made these little calendars that are month neutral so I can print them off once-a-month.

I searched high and low for one that was already put together and all I could find were weekly charts, so, they get these little silly things instead:

They have to accomplish all of this everyday and some of them twice a day.

$1 a week for all smiley faces in the row.

$.50 for a week if there are two sad faces in the row.

$.00 for a week with three or more sad faces in the row.

$.50 to Jesus a month.

$.50 to savings a month.

$1 intrest if you don't spend any of your remaining money, added at the beginning of the next month.

I keep the money in wallets they picked out and can only carry when we go to the thrift store to spend their dough.

We'll save up the Jesus money all year and do a special gift to Jesus under the tree with the money saved.

The savings they'll get when....I don't really have a plan for that yet, but that's reality, right?

So, we've done this for one whole month and it being March 1st we headed to the bank and then to the thrift store!

(I told them next month they weren't going to be allowed to spend any of it until the following month so they could see what the 'intrest' would do to their money...but for the first 'paycheck' it was burn baby burn!)

Nora picked a stuffed animal dog and lipgloss (oh yeah, we went to Dollar Tree too, no used lipgloss please!)

 Samantha got what she calls 'mommy make-up'

Lydia picked out another polly pocket house...because we don't have enough?

:-) she loves it though

so, up until this point, I'm feelin' pretty dang good.

one of the girls even wanted to give MORE money to their Jesus stash!

I was winning...I really was.

They all accepted their money, even if they did all get different amounts (those darn sad faces!) and even if part of it did go to some obscure (to them) place called 'savings'.

They had picked great prizes that I knew they'd love and play with and not get thrown in the trash tomorrow.....

And then there was Sophie's dog:

She picked out the oddest looking dog in the whole thrift store, but whatever, she loves dogs so I thought it was a good thing. HA!

It needed batteries, she was SURE it would work, I ASSURED her it may not and asked her if she'd be ok with the dog if it did not bark.

She said she wanted the dog whether it barked or not but made quite certain the first thing we'd do when we got home was load it up with new batteries just to see.

I was SO hopeful the thing would NOT bark.....

Well. The stupid thing does not bark.

Nope...it sure doesn't:

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Sophie wins.  I give up.