It's Been Awhile

It's been awhile since I posted any pictures of Jazz. She is such a great cat. She sleeps with Jadyn every night and is my saving grace for getting Jadyn in her own bed. Some nights at bedtime she is literally laying on Jadyn's bed waiting for her. On this particular day, I was going through the kids closets and drawers to get rid of stuff that no longer fits and Jazz decided to make herself right at home:


I love the quirky and finicky habits pets create. Jazz's other favorite place to sleep? On the hood of my Chevy Tahoe, especially right after I have driven it. I think she likes the heat. And she is very picky about fresh water, although I don't consider toilet water to be fresh, she seems to prefer it over sharing with the dogs. She will meow crazily at the bathroom door after we shower because she wants in to lick the pools of water in the tub.

And speaking of pets, I wanted to answer a few questions that arose from my post yesterday about allowances and chores. When I said their are tasks that are expected of my kids they mostly related to cleaning up after themselves as I am a NEAT freak. So when they take off their shoes, they have to put them in their shoe bins, when they get dressed they have to put their clothes in the hamper and if they bring toys into the living room, they can only be playing with one thing at a time. So say for example, Jadyn is playing with her princess and castle and wants to start building with Legos. She would have to clean up the princesses and then get out the Legos. And nothing gets left out in the living room at night. If they build or play with something in their rooms and want to leave it out, fine. But my living room has to be tidy by bedtime.

As for chores that 3 and 5 years old can do, here is a short list. Many of them relate to caring for our pets and some of them create more work for me but I figure it will pay off in the long run when they really can do it by themselves:

Feed the dogs dinner
Make sure Jazz has food and fresh water
Brush the dogs
Help give dogs a bath
Pick up the dog poop in the yard (with pooper scooper)
Help water the plants (if and when we have any that are alive)
Help wash the cars
Set the table for dinner

Help prepare meals
Put recyclables in the bin outside.
Sort laundry (good for learning colors - whites, mediums, darks, etc)
Help load and unload dishwasher
Help put away groceries

If you have your 5 and under children do chores I don't have listed, I would love to get more ideas.

As for the piggy banks, they are actually called The Money Savvy Pig and can be purchased at the Money Saving Generation by clicking this link.