$3 goes a long way

Like so many things in parenting, our allowance "program" has been less-than-consistent from week to week. In the past, ChellBell's allowance has at times been in response to completed chores; sometimes it's been based on her attitude/responses; and sometimes we've just completely forgotten to give it to her. And the sad thing is that she wouldn't remember it either. Net-net, it was not working for us.

After polling several of my friends, Chris and I decided on a new allowance program. Here's how it works: Every Sunday is payday, and ChellBell is given $9. That money is divided evenly into 3 jars, labeled Save, Spend, and Serve. Save is the money she will put away and hopefully help with college expenses one day. Spend is the money she gets to use for whatever she wants. On the last day of each quarter, Chris and I double anything ChellBell has in her Spend jar as a way to teach her that it pays to hang on to your money and wait until you can buy the big things. Serve is the money she uses to serve God and people. She can give this money to the church, use it to buy a coat to donate, etc -- she gets to decide how she wants to use it, with the understanding that it is used to make the world a better place.

ChellBell's school is having a food drive this week, which of course has been turned into a competition between the classes in each grade. ChellBell decided to take this week's Serve money and see how much she could buy with $3 to donate to the cause. What an educational, eye-opening shopping trip for her! Chell was of course motivated to get as many items as possible for the competition, but also so she could have more to donate to the Food Bank. So for $2.98, she was able to get 12 packages of chicken ramen, a can of green beans, and a can of corn. In contrast, while we were at the store, Chris called and asked us to get him a 12-pack of diet coke. That "sleeve" of soda set us back $4.38 -- $1.40 more than all of Chell's food!

When we got home after shopping, ChellBell wrote about her purchase in her Serve diary -- she is tracking everything she does with her Serve money over the course of the year. She wrote, "I spent $3 to help feed a family for 12 meals! Or 14 if they will eat corn and beans for a meal. But I wouldn't." (some things are more difficult to teach -- we'll keep working on the veggies!)

99.1

Dear ChellBell,

Today you are 99 months and 1 day old. Thanks to a blogging hiatus, you skipped right over 98 months, and here we are practically at the turn of a century.

Remember when you learned to count? I don't mean from 1 to 10, I mean BIG counting, when forty, fifty, and sixty were involved? Remember when you learned to count all the way to 100? This is how you always said it: "ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.......One hundred!" You would always drag out that last nine until you were ready to move on to one hundred.

I kind of feel that way about ninety-nine months for you. This has been an amazing month of fun, of growing up, of losing teeth, of hanging out, of character-shaping discussions. And you have weathered it well. And I would like to freeze time here for a bit. To drag out ninety-niiiiiiine just a little longer, until we have to move on to 100. But unfortunately, life doesn't work like that, so I will snapshot the memories in my heart and look with anticipation to what comes next.

It's a lot like those teeth that you're losing. Like that one last front tooth that needs to come out. Do you know why it sticks straight out instead of pointing down like the rest of the teeth? It's because there is a grown up tooth coming in, pushing the baby tooth out of the way. I see the grown up tooth, and there just isn't room for both. And just like your teeth, you're losing a little bit more "baby-ness" every day. My prayer is that as the grown-up-ness starts coming in, it will reflect all the things God made you to be: kind, fair, inclusive, sharing, patient, and beautiful.

You know I love you with my whole heart, and then some. Happy 99 months!

xoxo,

Mama

It's Halloween -- Let's party!

I have had some I-D-10-T issues uploading my pictures -- my apologies for posting about Halloween on November 4th!

For some reason, we decided to throw a Halloween party this year -- it's been years since we had one. Chris and I took a couple of days off from work and had a great time getting everything ready. Ultimately, we made some improvements around the house that had been on the "to do" list for a while (repaint, new ceiling fan, get carpets cleaned) -- sometimes it just takes a party to get the gears in motion. Here are some shots from our party:

This guy's only job was to scare little children away from the grand piano:

To keep all the kids occupied, I hid these little skeletons around the house and sent the kids on a hunt to find them:

The floating broom!

Another way to keep kids' hands busy -- make green slime! (thanks to stevespangler.com!)

Look at these great costumes!

Cella asked me to be a Zombie Bride this year. Here I am cutting the eyeball cake!

The Little Dog watching out for Trick or Treaters (so he can steal their candy)

My friend Melissa -- aren't we a lively pair?

Say Cheese!

PLUS

PLUS

EQUALS

And hopefully a "Most Creative" Award in the school pumpkin contest!

Great job, ChellBell!

I'm back from Wonderland...

Hi friends, sorry to have left you high and dry during a month of blogging about the Extraordinary-ness of every day.

Honestly, I just ran out of Extraordinary. Has that ever happened to you? I feel like a brat for saying that I had to look too hard to find it, because I know extraordinary things are all around us. But it got to a point where my posts were going to read like this:

I breathed today, and that was good.

I went home to a great family.

No one made me eat mayonnaise.

And that was today's Extraordinary.

Sometimes when you have to look too hard for the things that put a skip in your step or make your smile a bit brighter, it becomes a chore, and then finding the Extraordinary isn't fun anymore.

So I went into my hole.

Remember when Alice fell into a hole and found herself in Wonderland? Where she ate a little biscuit and the world began to cave in all around her, and then she sipped a little soda and became so tiny that she was helpless? And then she was surrounded by Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee and ran pointless races that never ended? And from there she found herself at the table with the Mad Hatter?

I can relate to this girl.

And the rabbit -- "I'm late, I'm late for a very important date, no time to say 'hello' 'goodbye', I'm late!" (read "no time to blog or facebook or twitter -- I'm late!")

And next thing Alice knows, the Queen is yelling "OFF WITH HER HEAD" because Alice has messed up again.

And all Alice wants to do is wake up out of this dream and find herself safe, sound, and happy under the calm tree with her sister reading a book at her side.

So, friends, that's where I've been. And blogging every day about being late, having the world cave in, and knowing that you've messed up again is less than perfect and not fun to read. So I took a little break and looked for that calm reading spot under the tree.

Can't say that I've found it, but I've missed you all enough to want to return to the great world of blogging and continue looking for the Extraordinary. And if the Extraordinary ends up to be the Mad Hatter at the Tea Party, perhaps I will just be sure to get a new recipe or fashion tips on hats.

xoxox

Extraordinary-ness of Sept 14

My goal was to post every day about the extraordinary-ness of September, and even though I’ve missed a few days of posting, there has not been a day that has failed to present me with at least one glimpse of extraordinary, mixed up in my extra-ordinary life.

But I have to tell you about last night. Because it was extraordinary. I would even have to say, super-extraordinary.

Our general membership meeting for the Junior League was scheduled for last night, and even with the rain, there were over 500 women in attendance. We were honored to have Liz Murray come speak to us about her story of perseverance and determination.

Liz grew up in the Bronx, where her parents were unemployed drug addicts, using their welfare check more to support their habit than to make sure their girls had food to eat. She ended up in a group home at 13 and then was homeless 2 years later. After her Mother died of AIDS, Liz was faced with the decision to either continue living life with no purpose, destined to repeat the cycle her parents had introduced to her, or to make a change and transform her life. She chose change.

She started by taking inventory of what she had, and this is what she came up with: she had two feet, two hands, a brain in her head, bus transportation, and free education. That’s it. No money, no home, no food, no place to shower. But she realized that she had enough to make something of herself, and at 17, she started high school. She crammed 4 years of high school into 2 years, graduated top in her class (while sleeping on park benches and on friends' floors), and landed a full scholarship to Harvard.

Last night, amidst a sea of Junior League highlights and Prada bags, Liz Murray challenged us to stop looking at what we don’t have and focus on what we do have. She challenged us to realize our potential – to wake up every morning and ask ourselves, “What if…?” She challenged us to take accountability for what we are doing with our lives. She challenged us to shed our pride and judgment and to just love other people. And she challenged us to make a difference in someone else's life.

An extraordinary woman. An extraordinary story. Extraordinary inspiration.

You can find information about Liz, the Lifetime movie about her life, and what she's doing now on her website.

Extraordinary-ness of Sept. 9

Sometimes the small things in life make for the extraordinary. Tonight, it was belly-laughing with Chris and ChellBell. Being silly and crazy at bedtime, laughing so hard that we had to hold our stomachs from the pain, no sound coming out, just tears pouring down.

Moments like that are too few and far between, but worth the wait.

And ChellBell will sleep well tonight.

What was extraordinary in your world today?