How many steps you got?

The kids' reward this week for doing their chores everyday was pedometers for everyone. Here's the background. The last DMBA health challenge was a walking one. You had to walk so many steps a day, and to measure this, John and I wore pedometers all day every day. Some how we ended up with an extra one, and so the older girls started taking turns wearing this one and seeing how many steps they could get in a day.

One day I saw Mary jumping from foot to foot in the back room. "What are you doing?" I asked. She said, "I'm trying to get to a 1000 steps." Whatever, I thought.

Another day I found Emma sitting on the side of our bed, bouncing up and down. Again I asked, "What are you doing?" She lifted up her shirt, pointed to the pedometer and said, "I'm trying to get more steps." Whatever makes them happy I guess.

So I picked up a pedometer for everyone at the dollar store and when I handed them out on Friday, you would have thought that I was the greatest mom ever. We spent an hour outside of the kids running around frantically, then stopping and comparing how many steps they had on their pedometers. Ruth, Lily and Adam ran up to me about every five seconds, pointed to their pedometers and asked, "How many do I have now mom?" It was pretty hilarious.

Adam, especially, got the routine down. For the rest of the weekend, he has been coming up to everyone, lifting his shirt and when they ask, "How many steps you got?" he answers enthusiastically, "Eight!" It's always eight, but he seems happy.

I never realized pedometers could be so much fun. I'm tempted to send the kids outside and say, "Don't come back in until you have 3000 steps." Sounds like fun to me.

Summer Fun

Emma's primary teacher told us that when they asked if the kids were doing anything fun or going anywhere this summer, Emma sadly said, "We're not going anywhere or doing anything." I laughed. That was just Payne kid code for, "We aren't going to Buffalo this summer and nothing else counts for anything." We do love Buffalo and we often drive out there, about once every two years. Last year we went for most of the summer. But Buffalo is not in the cards this summer. John can only take the drive about every two years and all our extra money went elsewhere this year.

So I sat the girls down the day they got out of school and asked what they wanted to do. We ended up making a schedule of sorts for the summer. I know that I always want to do a lot in the summer but if I don't plan it than we just sit around all summer. So our schedule goes like this:
Movie Monday (Scera movie tickets)
Library Craft Tuesday
Wii Wednesday
Movie Thursday (Scera movie tickets)
Outdoor Fun Friday
State Park Saturday
Each morning the girls have a different room to clean, and if they get it done, eat breakfast, and get dressed then they get to do the fun thing for the day. It has worked pretty well so far, but we're only two weeks in and the first week was soccer camp.

So, I'm pretty sure it will never be as fun as Buffalo, but I think the girls are having an all right summer. Here's to summer fun!!

Ruth's Quote of the Day

Today Kate, Mary, Emma, and Ruth all started BYU soccer camp. John took the older girls in the morning and I took Emma and Ruth in the afternoon. When they were picking up their shirts, Ruth, as usual, struck up a conversation with the t-shirt gal. At some point the lady asked how many brothers and sisters Emma and Ruth had. Ruth said, "I have one brother and (big pause) I don't even know how many sisters." Emma didn't seem to know either. The ladies laughed and I told them 4 other sisters, but apparantly too many.

Reading With the Kids

I used to read to the kids every night before I sent them to bed. We read all the Junie B. Jones books, and the Magic Treehouse Books, and the ABC Mysteries. The kids loved it and so did I. But it just kept getting harder and harder. The books that I wanted to read to the older kids were too long for the little ones and the picture books for the little ones were a little too simple for my older kids. For a while I tried reading some for each level, a couple of picture books for the little kids, and a chapter of a longer book for the older ones. I still liked reading to the kids but this method took soooo long and by the end I was always yelling at someone to stop screaming or grabbing my head or something or I was desparately trying to keep my eyes open and not fall asleep. I felt like it defeated the purpose of feel good read-aloud time. It was too hard, so I just stopped.

But I missed it. I missed talking to the kids about the books and discussing the stories. I felt like I hardly ever read to the little kids (I read a ton to Kate and Mary when they were little, I couldn't think of anything else to do). And I missed keeping up on the different series for kids that was easy to do when I was reading them for bedtime.

So I started little again. I began reading to Ruth, Lily, and Adam before naptime. But instead of reading to them all together, I read a short story to them individually, while they lay in their beds. I let them choose, and if they chose a chapter book, I would only read one chapter. I remembered how much I really enjoyed reading to the kids when they weren't being so crazy. And I felt that maybe it was offsetting some of the times when I was frustrated and got upset with them for being crazy during the day. Hopefully, it gave them something good to remember me for.

And then when our baby Hope died, I realized I needed to spend a little more quality time with each of the kids. But I also realized that it would have to be something that I enjoy or it wouldn't last. I love to read. So I asked Kate, Mary, and Emma if they'd like me to read them books at night. I told them that they could pick whatever book they wanted, but that I was only reading a chapter a night. They seemed surprised, but they each wanted to do it. They chose books and we started doing it.

I just go around each night and read each of the kids a story or chapter as they are laying in their beds. It still takes a long time, but the kids aren't being crazy (usually) and I'm moving around so I hardly ever fall asleep. And I think that sometimes it actually helps the little kids to fall asleep, because they listen to their own story and then to the story of the sibling they share a room with. And with Kate, Mary and Emma, I've been able to read some books that I've wanted to read and just haven't found the time for. Finally, it has also given us a few minutes each night for them to talk to me if they want to. I also started reading a story from The Friend (in place of their regular stories) on Sundays and we've had some great gospel discussions.

I have to be honest and say that I only average about 3-4 times a week of doing this. Other nights I have things I have to go to, or sometimes I'm just too tired. But overall I've felt really good about the whole experience. I still kind of miss the fun of being able to discuss a story with the whole family (I've got some great stories about things the kids have said while reading stories as a family) but I'll have to give that up for now. It has also reminded me how adaptive you have to be as a parent. What works one time may not work the next month or the next year. You just have to enjoy whatever it is while it works, and be willing to change when it doesn't.

One funny new development is that Kate has decided she wants to read me excerpts from things she's reading. That's fun too. And nice (but I can't promise I won't fall asleep).

Well, I'm finally finishing some of the books I've been reading them and I can't wait to see what they choose next.