January 20th--Day 20--Beauty in Nature

I really just had fun in the early morning playing with the camera, and the trees!

Today I am grateful for the white blanket, if only for a moment, and the beauty and serenity it creates.

January 19th--Day 19--More Snow Play!

I love that all 3 of the kids can play in the snow now, Number 3 doesn't last very long, but is easily convinced to at least play the requisite 20 minutes required for hot cocoa consumption.  The other 2 can play quite a while!!

Today, I am grateful again for things that don't have screens that make my kids play happily and together!

January 18th--Day 18--Disney on Ice

This is an easy one, I took the girls to see Disney on Ice with some friends!

So today, we are grateful to be able to go on special adventures with friends. The 4 of them had a great time.

January 17th--Day 17--Pay Day

Even as youngsters, we are instilling in them the sense of wonder in a Friday at the end of your work day pay day!  That's right we have a Saturday-Friday chore work week in our home in which (if all chores are done) our kids can earn a whopping $1.50 a week! That's never happened, because they never do all their chores, but hey, it could happen.  Still, allowances is almost as much of a hot button topic around here as breast-feeding and toilet training (but those days are behind me, so allowance is way more prevalent!)  Anyone I know can talk your ear off nine ways til Sunday (did I just make that up?) about why they handle chores and allowances they way they do from the "we don't give our kids allowances, chores are expected as functioning members of the family" to "$7 a week otherwise it would take too long for them to save up for things they want and then they'll stop doing chores." In our house we have an opinion somewhere in the gray there and it seems to be working for us. Of course, we complicate things because on top of the actual US currency our offspring can earn we have a special non-actual-monetary-value currency (called tokens) that our kids earn that they can trade in for all manner of rewards like a movie with popcorn, or dessert or if they save up that made up currency long enough, they can take the whole family out to a restaurant of their choice!  Oh yes, we like to be complicated...we are geeks after all.  But our kids can keep up with it and that's all that matters.  Anyway, that was long-winded, so here's the picture:

So today I am grateful to be in a position to be able to start teaching our kids the value of a dollar and a hard day's work.  I am grateful that my children are already understanding that sometimes that toy your friend got for her birthday that you REALLY want might take some time to save up for (especially at a $1.50 a week!) I am grateful that they are learning early and hopeful that they will retain some of these early lessons and apply them when there are a few more zeroes in their paychecks!

January 16th--Day 16--Independence

Sometimes, it's the little things...you know like not having to ask your kids to do something they are supposed to do everyday 100 times.

Today I am grateful that sometimes you don't have to ask for the bed to be made!

January 15th--Day 15--mail

SMeme bought Number 2 and Number 3 each a magazine subscription that should will start this month. Number 2 got her first issue out of the mailbox today--and while getting her own mail didn't quite have the impact we'd hoped, she definitely loved the magazine!

So today I am grateful for watching Number 2's expression at receiving her very first piece of mail.

January 14th--Day 14--Timing is everything

This is rather a cheat because I hadn't intended to use this as my photo of the day but Tuesday turned into something of a train wreck despite it's wondrous beginnings...

Anyway, today I am grateful that sometimes my children let me sleep in (which means they also sleep in) and believe me, 6:51 is totally sleeping in!!!