Creative Triplet Mom: August 2009

Monday, August 31, 2009

Sept 09 - Daily Downloads

Are you ready for September? It's going to be a busy month for me since my children start Kindergarten this week. However, I do enjoy the changing of the months because I always like to see new kits. I found 2 previews of upcoming download a day kits today. They start tomorrow September 1. I will post more once they are posted to the sites I frequent.

Over at Digital Divas Designs you can find this kit.

Over at Brownie Scraps the new daily download for Sept is called Cherish Friends.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Fridays Fave 5

Hello everyone! Welcome to Fave Fives where we take a look back at our week and find five favorite things. It's a way of looking for our blessings, those small, and sometimes big, things that have made us smile or uplifted us. If you're new, all the details are here and then you only have to do one thing and that is to just jump right on in and join us!

It's been a birthday week here. The triplets turned five on Tuesday. Since then we have been celebrating every day with family. Their friend party is actually tomorrow.

1. Wednesday we went to my parents house. My grandmother, grandfather, Aunt Lynn and cousin Dina were all there. I haven't seen them in a long time. This was the triplets 2nd cake for the week. Their first cake was on their birthday with just Daddy and I.

2. I also saw my niece Ashley on Wednesday. This time I fed her. She now weighs 5 pounds 6 ounces.

3. We went to the MOMS Club End of Summer Picnic. It was a big hassle to plan but in the end it turned out great. The weather was a bit crappy but at least it did not rain except for a little drizzle and it was not hot. Here's a photo of my triplets and their friend Victoria. Justin keeps telling me has a girl friend and her name is Victoria. He was following her all around the yard.

4. My in-laws saw us on Thurs and took us out for dinner at Fridays. The waiters sang to the kids and they got ice cream.

5. Today we went to my sisters again. This time our Cousin Louis, Uncle Roy and Aunt Theresa joined us along with our grandfather and grandmother from Florida. We all went to the Olive Garden for dinner. The kids again had ice cream.

What was your favorite things from your week? Let us know in a post and link up so we can come and visit. Don't forget next week is our 52nd week celebration. One whole year of enjoying our favorites.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

August Daily Downloads

A new daily download starts today at Digitals it is called Autumn is in the Air by Jennifer Macey. Download day 1 here. Note you must be a member of their website but registration is free. Check every day for additions to this new kit.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Sunday - Chore Chart

It's Sunday. Three weeks ago I started a new system with the children with chores. Prior to this system I was getting tons of whining as no one wanted to help me around the house or they would bribe me and say, "If I do it will I get a lolly?" It was getting so bad that they expected something every time they did something. So I decided that I had enough and started an allowance system instead. We don't have much money extra after paying our bills but I am saving all my coins and putting them in a jar so I can use it for their allowance at the end of the week.

So what do I give them for allowance?

Each child earns $1 a week for doing their weekly assigned chores. I know it's not much but right now that's all we can afford to give them. I pay them in coins so they get so excited when I give them tons of coins including pennies for their piggy banks and yes they are competing on who gets the most money. Are you scratching your head here saying what? How do they compete if they only get $1 a week? Well, say for example it's time for chores. Justin is assigned dishes all week. If I ask him to do his chore and he whines and complains and doesn't want to do it. He can ask his sisters to take the chore over for him. Then Justin loses 10 cents and the sister that volunteers and dose his job earns his 10 cents. It's very simple. You work you get paid. If you don't work you don't get paid. I have the following chart set on my fridge. X stands for they did their job. O means they didn't do their job and someone else did it for them. The *'s I'm using for if they do something unexpected without any whining and volunteered or took over a job. They earn 10 cents extra for each star.

It's time to tally up their allowance for the week. If you look at the chart below you can see what I am doing. I took the photo of the chore chart before I erased the totals for the day so you could see how I calculated their allowance.

Victoria - Start with $1. She didn't do a job on Monday (O) so minus 10 cents but she made it up with 2 extra projects (*) she earned 20 cents back. Total earned for the week was $1.10.

Justin - Start with $1. He did all his chores as there is no (O). Plus I see 5 stars earning him 50 cents. Total earned for the week was $1.50.

Naomi - Start with $1. She didn't do a chore on Monday (O) - 1o cents but she earned it back on Friday with a (*) so she got back her 10 cents. Total earned for the week was $1.00.

Under the chore chart is their assigned duty for the week. It is a 3 clipboard that I got from Stampin' Up. I decorated it with Stampin' Up paper. I put their initials on the top clip and I printed out chore cards to clip on them. These cards get rotated every Sunday. So they are responsible for that chore the entire week. I have this hanging on my fridge with a very big magnet that I got at AC Moore. Under the chore cards is a white spot where I put velcro. My intention was to make little coins and attach it to them as the chores were done but wound up using the above chart white board that I found at Target a while back. Still don't know what I will do with the velcro part. Time will tell.

August Daily Downloads

There is a new daily download at Scrappity-doo-dah that starts today. Isn't it pretty? Go here for download 1. Each day for the remainder of August they will post a new part to the kit. At the end of the month you will have this kit below. You may have to logged in to see the download. Registration is free.

Living in Chaos

I've been living in Chaos. Well, I have had enough. I have decided to set up another blog to show my journey through dealing with the chaos. Come join me at Creative Triplet Mom Flies to see my progress and motivate me along to stay with it.

Sorry right now it is very basic and I only wrote one thing but I ran out of time and I have to go to the gym. Yes, I actually scheduled the gym in my day. Need to use it more since I am paying for it.

Hope to see you over at my other blog from time to time. Please comment I'd love to hear from you.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Back to School Giveaway Event 2009

Check out the Back to School Giveway at 5 Minutes for Mom

Friday, August 14, 2009

Contest

Gravity of Motion is having a contest. She is giving away 10 items below. So there will be 10 winners. Rules are on her blog please comment that you were referred by me mom2triplets04

Here are the 10 things she is giving away:
1. Coffee

2. Journaling My Thankfulness

3. Good Deals

4. Appreciation

5. My Husband's Job

6. Slowing Down

7. Decluttering

8. Hearing from loved ones

9. Praying for Others

10. More Coffee
.

Fridays Fave 5

Is it Friday already? Time flew this week as it always does. Only 2 more weeks of summer vacation and then school starts. My favorites this week:

1. Vacation Bible School. The kids attended VBS all week. It gave me a chance to get a much needed break. I was able to get some errands done such as go to the laundromat to get Justin's blanket cleaned after he peed on it weeks ago. I drove around and found new places to visit (Stone Museum below). I even went to the mall once and sat in peace and quite drinking a cup of coffee. I also bought the girls those pretty headbands you see in the photo below. I went to Target 2 times. Once to get the favors for their birthday party and today to get them a birthday gift. The kids loved going to VBS and came home with many crafts. This was their 3rd year going.

2. My Car. We got our car back this week. Damage was over $5,000 but luckily we only had to pay our deductible of $500. Plus a car rental fee which my husband said they will be billing us for. Looks brand new. It's nice to have my car back.

3. Stone Museum. I took the kids on Thursday after VBS to the Stone Museum. I found it while driving around on Monday. Admission was free and it was only open on Thurs and Friday. The kids loved walking around and posing for photos. There was even a playground and mini golf.

4. Total Money Makeover. While the kids were in VBS I had some free time for reading. I had taken this book out from the library by Dave Ramsey called "Total Money Makeover." I read many blogs and one blog that I follow suggested to read this book. Well, I started it 3 weeks ago. It's very hard to read with triplets. The other night when I was in my husband's office making copies of some tax stuff I needed to mail out I looked up and low and behold I saw the same exact book sitting on my husband's desk. I questioned him about it. He told me that he gave that book to me a while ago and suggested I read it. At the time I didn't have time to read it. So every day while the kids were in mops I sat in my car or sat on the bench reading away and taking notes. No I did not finish the book but I did get to step 7. I certainly will be trying his method out and seeing if it will work. He suggests baby steps. So this month I will start with Step 1. Set up a Budget and start saving an emergency fund of $1,000. What can I lose? Eventually our finances will be better. Doesn't hurt to try his method. Maybe in 2 years we will be debt free? I certainly have been very frugal lately and really watch where our money is going. Absolutely stop using credit cards!

5. Flylady I'm back. Well, I have just had enough with this house. So I am again going to try to follow flylady. I always seem to wind up joining her when she is in the kitchen. This week I did manage to do two missions. Scrubbed down the counter tops on Monday and purged and decluttered under my kitchen sink 3 cabinets today.

What's your favorites from the week? Good old standby's? Something new? Share with us in a post and then sign Mr. Linky so that we can come visit!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Freebie - August Color Challenge Kit

I made this kit for the August Color Challenge at Enchanted Studio Scraps.

Kit Download
Alpha Download
Number Download

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Satin and Lace by Retro Designs

Add a touch of genuine vintage luxury to your pages with satin and lace. This sparkling gem-studded kit includes many original laces and satin backgrounds with coordinating lacy frames and embellishments and if some of them look real that’s probably because they are real. There are also many original and unique embellishments such as an art nouveau butterfly set with amber stones, an elegant Tiffany vase and several vintage scraps, to mention but a few, plus a sprinkling of gemstones for an additional sparkle. This kit includes: 12 backgrounds 12 x 12, 1 cream lace border, 1 white lace border, 1 jewelled border, 1 ornate jewelled frame, 1 pink lace frame, 2 white lace frames, 1 ribboned lace frame, 1 ornate blue embossed frame, 1 authentic art nouveau butterfly brooch, 1 blue leaf flourish, 1 sparkling gold leaf flourish, 2 silk flowers, 1 chiffon flower, 1 cameo brooch, 1 diamond and pearl brooch, 2 hand made filigree tags, 1 jewelled bow, 1 jewelled pin, 1 pressed flower posy, 1 pressed flower brooch, 1 sapphire, 1 topaz, 3 original vintage scraps, 1 original vintage card, 1 vintage lace bow, 1 vintage lace ornament, 1 Tiffany glass vase and 1 QP, 12 x 12. A total of 45 items in all. You can find this elegant kit here: http://www.deco-pages.com/product.php?productid=18850&cat=0&page=1 and for more of Retro’s elegant designs visit her store at: http://www.deco-pages.com/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=15&sort=add_date& sort_direction=1&page=1

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Layout of the Day

I received layout of the day at Deco-Pages today. This is a layout I did really late last night of my son Justin at the beach. I'm really not into clutter but I really like how my page came out.

Credits:
Seascape by Ice Princess Scraps
Fonts: Matura MT Script

Friday, August 07, 2009

Fridays Fave 5

Wow is it Friday already? This week flew! Here's my favorite highlights for the week in no particular order.

1. Breakfast in Bed. This week was a bit stressful. But this morning my husband brought me eggs and coffee for breakfast. He also fed the kids so I could sleep a little bit longer. It's always nice when he has time to chip in and show that he cares.

2. New Message Board. We went to home depot this week and did the kids free workshop. Each child made a message board. One side is cork and the other is a white board. At the bottom is 3 hooks where I found washable markers with hooks at AC Moore to hang on it. I haven't found a place to hang the boards yet but the kids love playing with their new homemade item.

After making our board we went to the craft store and picked up some items to decorate the board. Here is Justin's after he decorated it. He painted the J in different colors. His embellishments were school related. The girls had princess items. He drew a picture of his sister Victoria with pink tails.

3. Cribs. It's been about 2 months since we purchased the twin beds for the girls. The cribs were in my bedroom waiting to be dismantled. My husband finally the other night took them apart. They will be donated to Vietnam Veterans of America tomorrow along with some crib bedding that I no longer need.

4. My Niece was Born. Ashley Faith was born on August 4. She was born at 32 weeks and weighed 4 pounds 11 ounces. I was able to visit her in the hospital this week. My sister had some difficulty with the pregnancy and had her early. This is a photo of my niece Amanda looking in at her sister.

5. National Night Out. We went to National Night Out for the first time. For the past 2 years I had volunteered and worked at the MOMS Club booth but this year I did not since I had no one to watch the kids. We took a tour of the police department and was able to see the jail. This is a photo of the kids in the jail with their friends.

What is your five favorite things from your week? Do a post and join on up on Mr. Linky. We'd love to come and visit you!

Color Challenge at Deco Pages

Check out the new Color Challenge over @ Deco-Pages. It's hosted by LionDesigns this month. Look at the palette, kit and rewards. With a back to school theme, this challenge is going to be great! Check out the color palette: