My New BEST FRIEND & Our Family System Revisited

I want to tell you about my new Best Friend...the Fly Lady!  Many of you probably already know about her.  I heard about her a couple of years ago, but didn't pay much attention at the time.  Recently I found her again and I Love, Love, Love Her!  FLY stands for Finally Loving Yourself.  She helps you to keep an organized and clean house to finally love yourself and keep the CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Sydrome) away.  I'm sorta a born organized person.  I keep a strict calendar, Many lists, I like things orderly.  But, sometimes getting things that way is hard especially with 4 kids to get things all out of whack.  But, the fly lady is helping.  I feel it's okay if somebody drops by without calling, my house isn't perfect but I'm finally loving the way it is everyday. It's more peaceful and....hmmmm, well clean & orderly I guess you could say.  I'm not overwhelmed by loads of laundry which is a big giant plus.  The Fly Lady is helping me do little by little everyday and create new habits to my morning and night routines so it's now a habit and I'm not spending the day cleaning for hours and hours.  My kids are getting into a great routine too Just in time for school.  Check out the Fly Lady's website here.  Don't get overwhelmed by all the info there.  Start wih the The Getting Started Section & Baby Steps and Flying Lessons.  It really does work.  She has some great tools as well.  Make sure you sign up for her emails.  You will get an email each day of what you need to do that day to stay on track.  I'm loving it.  It's so exactly what I needed.  Let me know if you are already FLYing or if you try it Let me know how it goes! I promise you'll be feeling so much better!  I also like the ideas from JOY over at Just Organize Yourself.  She uses a lot of the Fly Ladies system and might give you some other ideas as well.  This resource might also be worth checking out!  How to do develop that morning routine, how to actually get out of bed in the mornings..haha!
 I also love this for our family Calendar, shopping lists, to do's, etc. on the computer.  I also think it's important to have a calendar for everybody to see other than just on the computer.  If it's not on the Calendar, it doesn't happen!  Fly Lady has a great wall calendar.  We did an FHE lesson on "House of Order" to kind of kick off our routines.  I'm also using the idea of the House Fairy to keep my kids a little excited to stick with their chores everyday.

We are still going strong on our Family Board System.  I made some new magnets w/ pics of what they should do with a morning routine, aftershool routine & before bed routine. So that can start to get in more of a habit of what they should do during those times. I also made me some that I keep on a different magnet board.  I'll take some pics soon and add here.  I switched up how we use our points a little bit.

Basic Points per day

good behavior faces= 3 pts/day if on good face
chores & schedule complete= 3 pts/day
eating all or most of food at dinner= 2 pts
trying a new food= 1 pt
Choose extra chores = 1 extra pt each chore
Help make lunch or Dinner= 1 point
*other things get them points too, only Mom or Dad can decide to give points out, for doing an extra good deed, helping somebody out, etc.

Points Taken Away
hitting
yelling
bad words
being mean
whining/crying for no reason
talking back

Can pay mom or dad points
a sandwich at dinner time instead of what we are eating= 3 pts
30 minutes computer game time after chores & homework are done= 1 pt
30 minutes DS after Chores & Homework are done= 1 pt
30 minutes TV= 1 pt

**extra rewards given by parents= weekday movie night,

wii play, date w/ mom, date w/ dad, etc.

*can trade in pts for money at the end of each week, money goes in our family bank binder, pay tithing on fast Sundays and they can save up money to buy things at school, a small toy at the store or save up for something bigger*
5 cents per point (cheap I know..haha, but the points add up)

**The kids got a Special Letter from the "House Fairy."  She's the one that comes to Inspect their rooms and to see how good of job they are doing.  This created some excitement for them and anytime they see a little sparkly fairy dust around it reminds them of her and that she is stopping by each week to make sure they are still doing thier jobs well.  They'll get other letters and little trinkets from her in the weeks to come.

It's important that kids know what you expect from them, for our Family Night we also established some basic family rules so they know for sure what is expected in our House.  These are rules for everybody, mom and dad too!! =)

Talk Nicely to Each Other
No mean or bad words
If you Get it out You Put it away
If you make a mess you clean it up
Do your Chores
Trash goes in the Garbage Can
No Food or Dishes in bedrooms
Do your best in School
Do your best in Church Callings

Whew!  I guess that's it for today!  Let me know if you have any questions of specifics of our system.  Are you as crazy and me and have to have a totally organized system in your house.  What's your ideas, what do you do?