Survival Of The Fittest Fattest

#1 had SWAT training this weekend which means we were in the "40 hours with no daddy" weekend that we have once a month or so.  This was going to be the toughest by far as I am not quick on my feet, feeling great, having tons of patience, or up to going out in public with the kids alone.

Friday afternoon as I was feeling sorry for my self and thinking of devouring a gallon of ice cream I decided I had better snap out of it.  It wasn't going to help anything.  Aside from falling down the stairs again (did that 2 weeks ago, baby and I are both fine) I wasn't going to be able to have #1 take any time off...they are at minimum manning almost every day.  So I decided to man up.  Or whatever.

I wrote down a list of things that sounded like very little effort on my part but fun for the kids to do.  Then I made a list of things that should get done.  Then I made a list of things that HAD to get done this weekend or we'd be living in a complete pig sty.

I put each item on a slip of paper and put them in a jar.  This morning when the kids got up it was so tempting to turn on the TV, lay on the couch, and then listen to them argue and whine all day.  But I didn't want that.  So I got out the jar and explained the "game" to the kids.  They were instantly hooked and very excited.

The boys got to take turns picking a slip out of the jar.  After the item was done, we picked out another one.  Meals and "quiet time" aka naps were at their normal times, not included in the jar.  I warned them some things would be jobs, but they were happy to do whatever knowing that the next slip of paper might be something fun.

We pulled "get dressed" out of the jar at 10:30, and then "take a bath" came out at 11:00.  So they got undressed, bathed, and re-dressed.  They thought that was funny.  Teeth were not brushed till 4pm, but I figured one day wouldn't kill us.

The slips of paper took us from 7:30am till 6:45pm.  I had no idea how long it would take, and actually took one out that wouldn't work after dark (run around the house 5 times) when I realized it hadn't happened yet at 6pm. Here are a few things we did.  Although I would HATE to run my daily life at random, this really worked for us this difficult weekend.

Fun:
Play-Doh
Make/Paint Thanksgiving napkin rings
Mommy reads a book to you (in the jar twice)
Take a bath alone (they took turns, they usually have to all go at the same time, this was a treat)
Play in basement
Play a round of "Sorry"
Play a Thanksgiving game Snug brought home from school
Run around the house 5 times (didn't use)
Skype with grandparents

Should Get Done:
Get dressed
Brush Teeth
Practice sight words
Phonics practice (Snug) letter ID practice (LMM)
Snug read to mommy
Clean up bedrooms
Get the mail

Had To Get Done:
Sweep and Vacuum
Empty Dishwasher
Load of laundry (in the jar two times)
Feed the pets
Stuff/fold/put away diapers

So that's what we did.  And even things like the laundry were fun because I got the kids involved.  I'm not supposed to be carrying laundry baskets up and down the stairs after my fun fall so the boys worked together and did it for me.  They were quite pleased.  I even let them "shoot" the laundry into the washer so the job was done quickly and without whining.  Things went well until bedtime when an over tired member of the family finally fell apart, but overall, we survived and now they are all sleeping.  I'm labeling this post as a boredom buster because, as you see, we were not bored!  We didn't even go anywhere...we didn't even watch TV!  

I have a cute Thanksgiving craft we made the other day to post, and pics of Little Monkey man's Thanksgiving program at school...I'll try later.