Another thing we should have done sooner!

Just before this school year started, I ordered a calendar wall decal which you can write on with dry erase markers. We hung it up next to the kitchen table, which is not the prettiest of locations, but it's useful. We reordered the days so the calendar starts with Monday - that way we set it up on Sunday evening around dinner, and we can see all the way through the entire weekend what we've got planned.

Now I think we've all come to rely on it. Tod and I still share our calendars via gmail, and that's great for us, but it leaves the kids out of the loop. I've noticed a couple of times when Reed has come in to the kitchen specifically to see what's on tap for the day. Mission accomplished! Everybody does better when they know what to expect, and I think this is a great tool for helping to teach the kids to be responsible about their own schedules.

Our stuffed animal friends

We finally got new carpet upstairs, it was installed about a month ago. As we prepared, we had to clear all the miscellaneous stuff from the kids' bedroom floors. We collected all their stuffed animals in our bathtub, where they remain.

Clearly we've got issues here. And I'm torn. On one hand, their rooms feel so much more spacious without the stuffed animals everywhere. I sort of hate to bring it all back and mess things up when their rooms look so nice and neat - we even wore Reed down about the new bookcase that we bought quite a while ago and he wouldn't let us put in his room (as I said before, he really doesn't like change!). I think, well maybe we can get them to pick their favorite (few? dozen?) and find a place to donate the rest. But then I risk the possibility of at least Reed saying "I don't want them anymore" (there's zero chance Amy would say that of the entire collection). That would signify a kind of growing up that I'm not at all prepared for.

So they stay in the tub for now. Good thing we never use it, it makes a lovely storage space!