Project Life 2013: Week 12

Nope, I'm not even a little up-to-date on my Project Life. But I'm not giving up! I'm determined to make something of this project for 2013!

Here's week 12...

 

Right side close-up...

Left side close-up...

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The highlights of the week...
* snow day from school on Monday!!
* Lucas got a Camero rental car for work travel
* Bas is working on level stuff at gymnastics
* e-collar for Dublin
* Chili's for a bacon cheeseburger...and a really long wait
* Webkinz reemerge as a hot item around our house
* Family Survivor dinner date
* Handles on the kitchen cabinets - Meagan helped
* We met our pastor at church this weekend for the first time

Fiasco

Fiasco.
That one word pretty  much sums up our last 7 days with Dublin.
Last Tuesday, he and I took a nice long bike ride / run (where I ride and he runs along beside me... obviously... not the other way around).  We got back to the house, all was good. I got off my bike to open the garage door. The wind blew. The bike fell. One his foot. He started bleeding and never stopped. About 30 minutes after the incident, we were loaded in the van and on our way to the vet.
At said vet, he was given stitches and a cone of shame. The vet tech then told me, with all seriousness, to 'prevent him from running, jumping, or playing' for the next 10-14 days. I looked at her and said, 'Have you ever had a 9-month-old Weim? That's not going to happen.'  Apparently, she didn't get what I was telling her. She sent us on our merry way with strict instructions to make him lay down and stay calm. Yeah right.

Three days later we were back at the vet because, with the cone on - the cone that supposed prevents him from being able to reach his foot - he chewed a giant hole through the bandage and pulled a stitch out. THIS time we saw a different vet. This vet has a Weim of her own, and had a very different perspective on all of this. First off, she out right LAUGHED at the cone. It was, clearly, not big enough. And then she laughed at the attempt to sedate a Weimaraner without sedatives.
We left the vet last Friday with a staple to replace the stitch he tore, a fresh bandage, and a bigger cone. I though, surely now he would  not be able to chew his bandages.

I thought wrong.

Today we were back at the vet. Again. This was actually a planned visit to see how he is healing (very well, by the way), but still he had chewed through his bandages yet again. We left with fresh bandages and an appointment to have his stitches removed Saturday morning.

Within an hour of getting home, he had already chewed through the 3rd set of bandages. He now has one of Isaac's long tube socks over his bandage and taped to him way up high where he really SHOULDN'T be able to reach it to pull it down. Truly, Saturday morning can't get here soon enough!!!  This has been a fiasco!

Funny note, though... If ever you are in need of a good laugh, you should watch a Weimaraner that is on a sedative. It's good stuff! He'll be going going going and then all of a sudden the meds kick in, and he crashes! Drops pretty much wherever he is. The other day, he flopped down and went to sleep two feet from the back door. He had been on his way to the door to 'knock' to come inside, but he never made it to the door. We found him passed out in the sunshine. Thankfully it wasn't pouring rain or anything. And he walks like he's had a bit too much to drink (especially with the satellite dish on his head). Our walls may need a touch-up when this is all said and done.

Updated Chore Charts

For quite a while, we used a button chore chart for each of the kids, and it worked. As the kids got older, though, they sort of outgrew the old system. My response, until now, has been to just not have any kind of chart in place. I thought it would work. But really, more than anything, it was me dropping the ball. Weeks would pass, and it would totally slip my mind to give them their rewards. We were doing allowance $ for a week of chores. Inconsistency quickly became our biggest issue... the kids were inconsistent in what they were doing... I was inconsistent in how I was rewarding... and soon it just became either (a) I paid them all whether they earned it or not, or (b) I just forgot to pay them altogether. Neither is good. Time for a new plan.

Nothing a quick stop at Target can't fix. I got a few supplies: a black dry-erase board, some wet erase markers, Mon-Sun magnets (all found in the office supplies section), and a packet of Smash journal strips (found in the scrapbooking section).

And I put together a chore chart for the week... 

It's pretty basic... Days of the week across the top, chores down the side. If your initial shows up in the box, it's your chore for the day.

As for rewards... it goes like this:

• For each day that you get ALL of your chores done, you get a dot. The dots will be tracked at the bottom of the board, under their names.
• Once you  have 7 dots, you get whatever the individual reward is for that week (I'll get to that in a second). Dots carry over from one week to the next until you get to seven... it could take you one week or three weeks to earn 7 dots. At the time you DO get 7 dots, whatever the individual reward is for that week is what you earn. 
• There are 2 sets of rewards... Individual Reward and All Together Reward. The Individual Reward is earned by accumulating 7 dots. The All Together Reward is earned if, and only if, all three of them get all of their dots for the given week. So, EVERYONE does EVERYTHING Monday - Sunday of the current week. If that happens, they get a collective reward as well as the individual reward. It's my hope that this will encourage them to support and encourage each other. We'll see how it goes. 
• Each week, we randomly pull out one Individual and one All Together Reward Card. That's what you  see in the top left corner. It changes each week. 

Our rewards include things like $5 cash, a $5 gift card to Barnes & Noble, 2 1/2 hours of electronic time, and having a friend over (maybe for a sleep-over or something more special than just the random friend who shows up to play for a bit).  All Together rewards include things like Cupcakes from the specialty cupcake bakery in town, a trip to Dairy Queen, a day at the zoo or museum, put put, popcorn party & movie night... stuff like that. 

It's new. It's untested. But the kids helped develop it, and they are excited about it. I think the degree of its success will actually depend on me. I need to follow through in a timely manner with the rewards. Otherwise, their motivation will drop off pretty quickly, and we'll be back to where we've been for the past several months. 

Spring Sports & Crummy Weather

What a week we've had!! Wednesday was the official start of lacrosse games, and it was also Meagan's first soccer practice! The return of Spring sports.  Unfortunately, it was also the return of crazy Spring weather! 

So, Wednesday, Isaac had to be at the field at 5:30 for a game that started at 6:00. Meagan had to be at her field by 6:15 for a practice that started at 6:30. Meg's practice was to last until 7:30, and Isaac's 2nd game was to end at 8:00. Throw in Sebastian's gymnastics practice from 4:00 until 6:30, and factor in that Lucas was several states away for work, and you have one insane effort at playing SuperMom on my part. Thankfully, I had a little help from the weather! 

Meagan was all dressed and ready to go for her practice. We took Isaac to the field, with plans to stay until about 6:10 to watch a bit of his game. But... around 6:00, lightening started in up north of us, where the soccer fields are, leading to one canceled soccer practice. This freed us up to just hang out and chill at Isaac's games.

Meagan, all dressed up and ready to go.

It was a good thing I was able to hang out at the lacrosse park... it started raining and lightening there shortly after. The game was delayed twice for weather, and was finally called at the end of the 3rd period. The second game was nixed entirely, but we still ended up getting home at 8:30, so it lasted as long as 2 games would have on a regular day. 

Isaac's team played great! Considering that last year they one all of ONE game, and they had seemingly NO concept of passing or setting up plays... this year, first game, they scored twice on a series of nice passes and play set-ups! They ended up winning 4-3!!  Good start to the season! Hopefully they continue to improve as the season goes... win or lose, it's always more enjoyable to play when you know you're playing well!

Know what else lacrosse sticks are good for??  Sword fights. 

 This year, Isaac has been getting some nice compliments from his coaches about his defensive play, and it really showed in the game. He is a lot more aware of the plays this year, and plays a lot more aggressively.  Good to see him gaining confidence and understanding of what's happening. It's a tough sport to learn, and the first year was one giant learning curve.

*****

Okay, so on to soccer. With no practice to date, today was their first game. Her coach had emailed me and told me their jersey's were green. Since she does not yet have her jersey, we went with the green m&m shirt. Perfect! Meagan even said, "maybe it will distract the other team because it will make them hungry for m&m's!"  Love that girl!

 So.
This sport fits her. It's full-go and non-stop. There's always action. There's always something to do. And it's intense. She got about a 15 minute crash course on the VERY basics before the game started. And that was it before go time. Even with all of that, she played rather well. And she's QUICK! When she gets the hang of dribbling and passing and shooting, this could work out well for her. She even ALMOST scored! So she's feeling okay about things, and has plans to score at her 2nd game, which is tomorrow.

 

I love the intensity and focus on her face. And the pink socks. Love those. ;)

This is what you do when it's FREEEEEZING outside and it's not your turn to be in the game. *LOL*

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Moving Forward

Truthfully, my scrapping has been slim lately. Mostly because my creativity seems to have fizzled and slumped away to hide in a deep dark corner somewhere. I was pretty excited to pull together a layout that I like in a relatively short amount of time. True, I used a template. But a done page is another page done. And I'm totally okay with that. Sometimes a template is just what is needed to take all the over-thinking out of the matter.

I just put together a quick layout to document Meagan's decision to leave gymnastics and try new things. I like it. I think the color and energy capture her perfectly.

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