friday links!

well i've been on some kind of blogging roll these days! lots to say and the courage {gumption?} to say it, apparently. or maybe i just have verbal diarrhea. or maybe i know my time will be severely limited in a week or two {or three}.

noah playing with some fun popsicle sticks we got from jamie's aunt & uncle in canada.

right now i'm listening to mumford & sons, the boys are using up their screen time tickets {these kids!} and my hair is freshly washed {for the first time in 6 days. seriously. i'm disgusting. except that, i'm not. i am so thankful for my hair. God gave me some beautiful, low-maintenance hair and for that i give thanks.}

i'm finding it harder to breathe {drop, baby, drop!} and i get heartburn any time i eat anything and yet i feel a million times better than i did when i was pregnant with jude and a complete grumpster, impatiently waiting his arrival. i'm in no rush for this wee boy to arrive. i'm excited and anticipating his arrival, but i feel good. and i'm fine to wait for him to be ready. i love to think of it as him and God talking away and having conversations and then God says, "okay little man, it's time to meet your family now. but don't forget. i'm always with you." love it.

anyway, enough baby talk. here's some friday links!

i stumbled upon this article about adoption and how it affects all our families. even if you don't have an adopted child in your family, you need to be talking about adoption with your kids and educating them so that one day when they come across someone who is adopted, they are informed and sensitive instead of rude and confrontational.

another blog post about books for kids! this time it's chapter books for younger kids. i want to read them all!

the token DIY. but i honestly love this. it's SO gorgeous and yet extremely practical. done and done.

the only time i've ever missed having a microwave since moving here. it's probably a good thing i don't have one, though. right. that's what i'm going with.

and for the inner geek in all of us {or most of us?}. it's dr. seuss meets star wars. love it.

and now i'm off to make some chocolate chip cookies with my boys because we've all got a hankering for something sweet!
happy weekend!

screen time tickets

last friday i posted on facebook that i had just implemented "screen time tickets" with my boys and that noah only had 1 left. for the entire week.

goodness.
i honestly anticipated more tantrums and frustration {on all our parts!} but as i type this {on wednesday} we've all been doing really well!
there will be a few new changes and alterations for our second week with screen time tickets.

as you can see each ticket is worth 30 minutes and can be used for tv, movies, daddy's iPad {one of the major sources of arguments before the tickets!} or computer.

how it works is that if the boys request to use the iPad or watch something i tell them to bring me a ticket and then choose what they would like to do. then i set the alarm on my phone and tell them when the alarm goes off, their time is done {or when a movie is done, etc. and they give the appropriate amount of tickets}.

each boy received 5 tickets last friday.
i am now planning on upping that to 6 tickets and will ration them out during the week; 3 on friday and 3 on monday. i may go back to giving them all their tickets on friday, but we'll see how the rationing goes if it seems to work for everyone.

jamie and i also discussed giving them an hour of saturday morning cartoons - as a treat for both kids and parents.
they also get one freebie of a family movie night which does not need any tickets.
noah also got a freebie ticket this week from daddy for obeying right away and with a really good attitude.

someone on facebook asked what happens if one child pays for a movie with their tickets and then the other child wants to sit in and watch. i commented that this is perfectly fine. the second child just doesn't have a say in what movie or show is being watched if they didn't contribute any tickets. over time this will hopefully lead to the boys working together to maximize their tickets and if they both want a say in the movie/show then they both need to contribute tickets.

right now both their envelopes are empty. they will stay empty until friday morning when i replenish them. we'll see how quickly they go through their initial three tickets or if they'll have learned to ration them for themselves.

overall their behaviour has been a bit better, they've played better together and have also self-initiated a lot more independent play time. hooray! oh we still have many fights every.single.day. {they are boys, after all!} but it's nice to see them being more creative and content with less screen time. kids will rise to the occasion and once again they have proven me right!

so all you need is to print off some tickets {i found mine here but there are other options for shorter amounts of time like 15 or 20 minutes or longer like 60 minutes}. i also chose to use colourful paper and then since i have no idea where i would laminate them, i used clear tape on both sides so we could re-use them.

this has been {so far} a good solution for our over-use of the tv and iPad. if you try it, let me know how it works for your family! i'll continue to update over the next few months as it's still a work in progress - and especially with the introduction of a new baby to our family soon!