I Brought You In This World.......

How many of you have seen the stand up comedy movie from the 80's - "Bill Cosby Himself"? If you haven't, click on that link and go get it - especially if you are a parent. I cried laughing the first time I saw it and I was in Jr High. It's even funnier now, as an adult! So, anyway, if you've seen it and you're a parent, then you probably relate to the line, "Boy, I brought you into this world and I can take you out. And it doesn't make any difference to me because I'll make another one that looks just like you."

Seriously, my kids are good kids but you know there are those times that I feel as if I'm losing my mind. "How many times do I have to tell you to do that?" "You really think this room is CLEAN?" "We have to go, NOW. No, I cannot wait one second, you've had 45 minutes!" So, you see what I'm saying? The kids have been struggling in the area of keeping up with responsibilities. Mama has been struggling to find effective consequences for infractions......enter Class Dojo.

My daughter's teacher is using this in her classroom and sent an email home explaining how she is using it there. The system is designed for teachers, however, I could see the advantages of using it at home so I set up my own home classroom.

Everyone will have different ways of setting up their home or classroom. I'm not going to bore you with all the details of how we work this system. If you want the details, let me know and I'll be happy to share them with you. The basics are that they get points for positive things and lose points for negative things. You can use their suggestions, add to, or take away from what they have. My kids get points for clean rooms, homework done, chores, hard work, being helpful, kindness, etc. The idea is I don't want to just reward them for what they have to do, I also want to catch them doing positive things and reward that behavior as well. The flip side is that they also lose points for things like being late, disobedience, disrespect of others, fighting, whining, etc. I don't argue, I just take away a point. Each child has to earn or maintain a certain number of points by Friday in order to be able to participate in weekend activities other than family activities.

I'm not telling you that it's perfect and we are not fussing at all. My kids are still learning the ropes and figuring all this out. However, I went to Walmart with them today and didn't feel like I needed to drink heavily when I left. LOL This is a GREAT accomplishment! :)

Creativity Makes Me Crazy......

So, here's the deal. I am passionate about a lot of things. I'm practical and creative. My brain spins and spins with everything from managing finances to creating and wanting to create fun things for our home, my kids, and my family. Sometimes, it makes me crazy. There is only so much time in a day!

My new love is Pinterest. It covers everything! I get great ideas and get to post the things that I am doing. Unfortunately, I have only been posting the pictures of things that I am doing. I plan to fix that with my blog. I will begin blogging the things that I am doing so I can connect the information with the pictures. I know it's frustrating to Pinterest users (me included) when that information is not with the picture.

If you'd like to follow me on Pinterest, I am ATasteofNewOrleans. Since I'm a little ADD with my interests, I'm admittedly all over the place. Homemade food, cleaners, crafts, projects, organization, interesting information, humor, books I read..... and on and on.

Join me as I happily go crazy on Pinterest. :)

A New Beginning and a little liquor

This is our inheritance from our closed business. It reminds me of many pictures that I've seen @NOLAalex post on Twitter. I have no idea what we will do with this much alcohol. We rarely have alcohol in the house. Maybe I should ship it to him. You interested, Alex? LOL

Anyway, I've spent the last week organizing my house, putting equipment in storage, and getting ready for our next adventure. It's exciting! It's fun! It's nerve-racking! It's a new beginning! I feel fortunate enough to have experienced several new beginnings, so the nerves are mostly outweighed by the assurance that God is in control and these situations always work to our benefit.

The realization settled in with the reminder that I like to be me - who God made me & who He's working on me to be. My personal preference is that I drink but not enough to turn into someone else. I love to have fun and I love being me. This alcohol reminds me that the business that was my dream had turned into something else, it was no longer me. People & politics stepped in to change it's dynamics and it was time to let it go.

Although letting go and moving on can be scary, I'm excited to see where God leads us next. One thing is for sure, it is never boring. :)