Homemaker Monday: Getting Kids to Work, Mealtime Ambience and Tear-Free Rinsing

Welcome to the 43rd weekly edition of...

Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs. (By the way, if you have been featured on Homemaker Monday in the past, your name is on my left sidebar. Check it out!)

YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes to Lydia over at Babies and Bags! She's a military wife, a mom of six and she even has a home business making and selling purses. Her post is on getting kids to help at home. If you've read my blog for more than a week or so, you know that this topic is a HUGE deal for me. It is what I spend most of my spare time thinking about (yes, fun, I know). Lydia has some great ideas on getting kids to help that I use myself, plus she has some new things I would like to try and incorporate into my housework routines. One idea is to have an empty jar and every time one of the kids does assigned chores, or any chore for that matter, without being asked, a marble will be added to the jar...


When it is full, the kids can have an ice cream party with friends. I KNOW my kids would LOVE this, so I am going to be trying something similar this week. Wish us luck! For Lydia's entire post, click HERE. Thanks you for your inspiration, Lydia. There is nothing like teaching our kids the value of work.

And now, for the "how I applied it to my life" feature...

Last week, I introduced Jen over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam. Her post was on creating ambience during mealtime with candlelight. I have done just that all week and it has been lovely. The kids and our company all commented on how cool it was to have candles lit during dinner. I did an entire post on my experience for "Tablescape Thursday" , plus a how-to on napkin/silverware rolling, if you'd like to check it out HERE , but if you'd just like a taste of how things turned out, here's a photo the 14-year-old girl took of our Sunday dinner...


Thank you so much, Jen, for your inspiration. You made my world a better place this week!

MINE: Credit for this week's tip goes to the 14-year-old girl. Once she realized how well it worked, she even suggested that I use it for "Homemaker Monday". How cute.

She was in charge of washing the three-year-old's hair. Even after three years, he still hasn't gotten used to the idea of having water poured over his head. He opens his eyes and gets burned by shampoo and cries and really does not look forward to washing-hair time. The 14-year-old girl, the genius that she is, decided to have him wear goggles during the washing and rinsing process. Here's how it went...








(I always seem to take things a little too far and don't know when to say when with the camera. He let me know.)

If you're in the same boat we are and would like to try this, let us know how it goes! Thanks for listening.

OURS: Okay, now it's your turn! Feel free to join us if your just visiting by searching through your archives and adding anything into Mr. Linky that has to do with homemaking. It's fun to get new visitors and comments to your blog and fun to visit everybody else's post! Have a great Homemaker Monday!



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