January Happenings

January is here. Although this is not my favorite time of year by any stretch of the imagination, the holidays are over, and I have to say, my stress level is way, way down and I am finding myself really enjoying the fresh start of a new year. I tried so hard to enjoy the holiday season, but for most of it I just felt stretched too thin and frazzled and overwhelmed. When you factor in all of the holiday shopping, wrapping, cooking, baking, hosting, traveling, and advent activities on top of normal daily responsibilities and the work I do from home and trying to school my little ones you get one exhausted mama!

So anyway, January is here, and with it a fresh beginning and a little more time for leisure. Here is what has been going on around here lately!

1) School is back in session!

When Matt headed back to school, we started back to school here at the Kooienga Christian Academy. :) After re-evaluating things 12 weeks into our school year, I am aiming for three school days per week. There is still a LOT of learning going on on the other days of the week in the form of Starfall.com, reading with phonics readers, educational DVDs, library visits, Cubbies and Puggles, et cetera, but three times each week I formally declare it "school time," which I think is appropriate for Pre-K and tot school.

We read "What do Snowmen do at Night?" and did a
fun sensory art activity.

Blue shaving cream - so fun!

Little princess reviewing "square" and
putting stickers on a vertical surface.

Drawing the beginning, middle, and end of her story.

She wrote numbers 0-20!

Hailey recently became very, very interested in puzzles.
What a great way to work on fine motor skills and practice
problem solving!!

Spelling C-V-C words.

She did it! Big floor puzzles are her favorite.

Coloring sight word flash cards.

Watching some alphabet songs to help her learn letter recognition.

2) Extreme Home Makeover!

Okay, so it's really like mini-home makeover, but it's still extremely exciting to me! This past weekend we had a big construction project going on - contractors came out and installed new windows in our bedroom, the girls' bedroom, and our downstairs. That is a total of 7 windows and a sliding glass door. There are three more windows in the house that need replacing (all upstairs in the playroom/loft) and that phase of the project will hopefully happen within the year. When we put our house on the market last spring we learned that our windows definitely needed replacing, as they all had broken seals. (Which means they always looked foggy/had condensation in between the glass panes). Another major problem we had noticed for years was that the wind would come gusting right into the house. This was a big project and one that we had to carefully save and budget for, but we're so glad to have most of it done! The new windows look beautiful and already I have noticed such a difference in the warmth in our house. Also, we can see out of the windows now - no more foggy broken seals clouding our view!

Our new sliding glass door!

The second part of our home makeover is a small one, but one that I'm proud of nonetheless! I decided I no longer liked the layout of our living room (I never really liked it, actually) and I took it upon myself to rearrange all of the furniture. What I came up with makes our downstairs seem so much cozier and much bigger and more open! I can't believe I didn't think of this arrangement sooner! I'm very happy with it and it honestly makes me feel like I have a brand new house with the new layout and new windows downstairs.

New layout in the living room!

3) New Chore/Behavior Chart

When the holidays ended and we tried to return to normal life, I realized that all of the hoopla over the holiday break left me with little girls who needed an attitude adjustment! (Our first day post-break did not go very well!) I started searching online for chore chart and behavior chart ideas, and that led me to come up with our ticket system.

Each girl has a card with her name on it, and following that several picture cards that either list a chore to complete or a behavior that I want to see every day. Savannah has more chores/behaviors than Hailey, since she is older. Some of the cards are simple chores like "get dressed" or "brush teeth" and some cards list a behavior that the girls really need to work on all day long, like "obey mom and dad" or "be kind". Each day as the girls complete each chore they put a ticket in front of that picture card. For the behaviors, at the end of the day we go through them and discuss whether or not they earned a ticket for that particular behavior. There are also "Best Bee-havior" cards that I give out for extra good behavior that I witness and they get an extra ticket if they get one of those cards. There are two ways to earn incentives for tickets. First, if they earn all of their tickets for the day, then the next day they get to pick a piece of candy to eat after lunch. Secondly, when each girl reaches her ticket goal (90 for Savannah and 60 for Hailey) they can go to Target and get a Littlest Pet Shop/Palace Pets/Puppy in my Pocket/My Little Pony blind bag. This is just a small little toy but the girls go nuts for them and so they are very motivated to earn their tickets. We have been using the ticket system for about a week now and both girls are more than halfway to their ticket goal. I am loving it. If Savannah doesn't want to make her bed, I just say "Well, that's fine, but then you lose two tickets: one for making your bed (chore) and one for obeying mom (behavior)" and she changes her mind pretty quickly without arguing. For Hailey, this ticket system isn't working quite as smoothly. For example, if I tell her that continuing to throw a fit will cost her a ticket for the day, she sometimes will calm down but sometimes she doesn't care and continues with her little fit. She is two years old and this ticket system is really geared more towards Savannah, but she wants to do everything her sister does, so I included her in it. I also love that as time goes on we can swap out the little cards and work on different behaviors/chores.

4) 30 Day Shred

Another January happening is that I am working my way through Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred. I had the DVD already, since I did the workout after having Savannah, and I thought it was time to go through it again. My body has changed so, so much after having Hailey, and I have had a much harder time getting back in shape after her than I did after Savannah. I have been walking on my treadmill fairly regularly but just walking isn't getting me the results I want, so I decided to kick it up a notch! I have completed seven days so far (I don't do it every day, but aim for four times a week). I can already tell I must be improving because I can keep up much better now and I don't feel like I am going to die the way I did during the first day!

Those are the major happenings around here! The girls also are starting a new session of dance, but I will share about that in another post. Also, the girls are still struggling to get over the nasty colds/coughs that they came down with right after Christmas. Savannah only stopped coughing a few days ago and Hailey is still coughing all night long/every time she naps. This horribly frigid weather isn't helping matters! I feel really bad for Hailey, because it seems she has had a cold non-stop ever since Thanksgiving. Hopefully we can all be 100% soon and avoid getting any new illness, but we will see.