allowances

i'm looking for some feedback, here. i have been pondering allowances for some time and i don't know what i want to do about it. i want the kids to have an allowance purely for the sake of being able to pay tithing on a regular basis. here's the dilemma: i don't like the idea of paying them to do their regular chores - i think that chores should just be a part of living in our home. however, i don't want them to get an allowance for no reason - i think they should earn it, just like you have to out in the working world. actually, i wouldn't give an allowance at all except for the reason stated above: i want them to be able to pay tithing on a regular basis, not just when they get birthday money.

so, i'm looking for ideas. what do you do (or have you done) in your family and why? if you do allowances, how is it set up? also, are there stipulations on how they spend or save their money? the last thing i want is for these kids to spend their money on trinkets or candy even though it IS their money.

i would appreciate your input. thanks!

differences

i know i've blogged about the differences of boys and girls before, but it continually amazes me how they just come wired differently.

my recent example has to do with how my kids read the book of mormon before they can actually read.

before maria could read, she would "read" the book of mormon like it was a recipe book. we would be sitting in sacrament meeting and i would hear maria say, "add two cups of sugar and one cup of berries" and the like.

hudson's book of mormon reads differently. "and the man shoot the lion and the lion jump on the man and the man dropped his gun and the lion ate the gun" and so forth. in fact, a couple of days ago there was apparently a passage in which Jesus killed something. i don't even know where he gets this stuff about guns. we don't own toy guns and we discourage shooting people even for play. boys really are different.

exciting news

our house is all excitement this morning. maria has her first loose tooth! saying she is so excited seems to be a little bit of an understatement. i really wanted to put up a picture of my excited girl but ethan has the camera at work, so hopefully i will get one up soon. i want to be sure i post a before and after picture.

i have no idea how long this will take. how long does it take for a mildly wiggly tooth to come out?

rewards

home schooling is a lot like raising kids. there are some pretty hard times, but it's definitely more rewarding than discouraging.

tonight, during family prayer, maria said, "and please help us to do school every day and learn lots of things. and help us to learn about egypt and mesopotamia."

can you tell what we've been talking about? it's so fun to hear her repeat things that we've learned, but especially fun to hear her pray about it. also, it's a big confidence builder. i came away from family prayer thinking, "maybe i can do this home school thing."

why did i ask?

i have few shirts that cover my ginormous pregnant belly. this week i bought a couple new ones, one of which i wore to church today. yes, it does cover my belly well, but i was concerned that the shirt was too big and flowing. i asked ethan, "ethan, does this shirt make me look fat?" ethan just sat there with a look of i-cannot-in-anyway-answer-this-question on his face. maria, however, piped up without hesitation, "yes!" and then she added, "but i still like you."

kid stuff

here some funny kids stories:

ethan has been gone since very early thursday morning for a convention in california (hudson is upset that ethan got to fly in an airplane without him). the kids miss their dad and talk about him often. yesterday, while we were enjoying a wonderful spring afternoon, a plane flew overhead and hudson asked hopefully, "is that daddy's plane?" i was sad to say, "sorry hudson, daddy won't be home until tomorrow." at dinner time maria said, "i feel like daddy is next to me. do you know why i feel like daddy is next to me? i feel like daddy is next to me because i love him so much." so cute.

in an unrelated incident, hudson said the prayer for dinner last night. he said, "and please bless the food, and thank you for the food and . . . " long pause, "please bless the brownies." i had not made brownies nor had i even mentioned making brownies, but what can i say, the kid has faith!

to my delight, libby is choosing to walk around quite a bit now. and i wish you could've seen her yesterday. she loved walking around outside! she had such a blast.

quiet libby?

libby is such a busy girl. she's pretty much constantly moving around, so it surprises me to see her so often doing this:

i often find her sitting in a chair looking over a book. she loves to look at books! she can spend quite a lot of time doing this.

of course, part of the fun is getting down . . .

and then getting back up again.