Post it note Tuesday # 2

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Have more (want less)

I'm thinking of putting this sentiment on a piece of artwork, like I did another "revelation":

"Have a Mid-Life Chrysalis", $78.00 by [ReDeemed] unique art (available)

I guess this would be considered "social messaging" and I am planning on doing some digital art/shirts, etc. with this like I did with "Love Heals Surely".  I was reviewing some blogs I wrote on Facebook and came across this one from last summer.  Hope you enjoy! ...

The more you have, the more time you spend taking care of it. There was a time that I wanted more. More clothes, more furniture, more choices. Admittedly, I am a child of the 80's - a decade of conspicuous consumption. Clothes were matched to the shoes, to the bag to the accessories. One in every color. Remember Ked's? It wasn't enough to have one pair, you had to have a match for each outfit. One year I took 10 pairs of shoes to youth camp! (not that I had 10 pairs of Ked's, I had one pair, that my aunt bought for me, we didn't spend "that kind of money" on shoes!)

circa 1993!

When I was in college I got my first credit card - it was a fluke. William worked at the Jewelry store, they had a promotion to fill out an application and get free jewelry cleaner. FREE - you can't pass that up can you? I was sure that it wouldn't be approved, but it was! So of course, as soon as I got it I "needed" some gold earrings. Then before long I had cards at Lerner's, Macy's, Dillard's, JC Penney's, Montgomery Ward's and another jewelry store. It's amazing how much more stuff you "need" after you get a credit card!

Then (insert choir music here) I got approved for a VISA card! I felt really grown up now! Soon I was going to dinner with friends and letting them give me their cash and I would just "put it on my Visa" - I loved saying that! The problem was, I would spend the cash and then the bills would come at the end of the month - yikes! Good thing I only had to pay $10 on each of them!

William's credit journey is even better - but I'll save that for another day. When we got married, we had over $30,000.00 in debt between the two of us, and nothing to show for it. OUCH! We continued in our wayward financial ways for a year or two, eventually straightening up when we were expecting our first child and trying to buy a house. That's been 11 years now, and we've fallen off that wagon more times than I care to count!

God has been faithful in providing for us, we are blessed with William's great salary and I am able to stay at home with the kids. Over the last few years we have been using the Money Map from Crown Financial (http://www.crown.org). I am relieved to say that we are almost debt free! (I prematurely announced the completion of this goal to a few of you - I'm sorry! We were so close, it seemed to really be finished!)

The root of our overspending was/is simple: the desire for more. More than we can afford, more than we have, more than someone else. It fills a need in us to buy, whether we use the items or not. It fills a need in us to have things stored up, just in case.

When Calvin was little, we learned something profound: when you only have 1 pacifier it doesn't get lost. Now that may not sound too deep to some of you, but let me explain. We had about 8 or 9 of those little suckers. Calvin wouldn't sleep without one, so we wanted to make sure we always had one at hand! Inevitably, they would get lost, we'd go get another one from the drawer. When we got down to the last one though, we held on to it like it was gold! We watched it, we picked it up, we cared for it. Same with sippy cups. They would sit in the sink or car until the contents were pharmacy grade, but the last clean one stayed clean. It got rinsed out and reused.

(apparently I'm not the only one who has seen this before!)

I'm not sure why it has taken me this long to translate that principle into other areas of my life, but here I go! I don't want a special tool or gadget to do each job, I don't want shoes to match each outfit, I don't want special plates for each holiday. I want LESS. I want less dishes to get dirty. I want less stuff to move so I can vacuum. I want less clothes to wash. If the market were better I even might want less house!

How about you? What do YOU want?

Quick - put on your marketing hat!

Megan Auman needs your help - and you could win one of her fabulous cozy/cuffs for helping!

Here's my favorite from her Etsy shop:

cozy/cuff - reusable cup sleeve and bracelet in olive green wool felt

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Click here to go to her blog post and enter your suggestion, but hurry - it's only for today!

Orphaned Decor Giveaway!

I just had to pass this on - there is a super-cute new blog out there that is having a giveaway to showcase her shop and boost her followers!  And Oh My Goodness - what a giveaway!  It's worth $150.00!

So stop on by Orphaned Decor and tell her that I sent you her way OK?  You won't be sorry!

Next best thing to a maid...

I am listening to the beautiful sounds of housework being done by my children.  This did not happen by accident - no sir-ee!  It has taken a lot of hard work, patience and trial and error!

When the kids were little we did have them "work", made them clean up their own messes, play clean up (and sing the song!)  As they've gotten older, it's been more and more difficult to get them to take more responsibility around the house.

My good friend Amy introduced me to the poker chip system several years ago. I thought that would never work for MY kids. Then 3 years ago William's mom kept the kids while we vacationed in Kauai. She had them work on a point system to earn rewards, and it worked. We tried various systems that each failed.

Our version of the poker chip system is working very well. It combines the concepts of teaching responsibility as well as taking the burden off of me to keep the house for 5 people.

It's a "real life" system, showing them that just as adults get somethings for free, have to work for free, get to work for money and have to spend that money on things that they need and want - so can they.

There is a list of "just because" responsibilities that are theirs just because the live in this house.

There is a list of "free" things to do, that are available at anytime.

There is a list of extra jobs that will earn them tokens (after their "just because's are done)

and there is a list of rewards that their chips can earn.

The first week was the best, they were literally fighting over who got to do what jobs. The week right before vacation was great too, as it was their "last chance" to earn chips before we left (they wanted to "cash in" so they had spending money!).

We recently updated each of their "just because" (personal chore) charts.  I included a pic representing their Chinese birth-year info (they both really are into Chinese culture, decor and such) as well as a scripture that I wanted each of them to see each day.

We print these out in color on nice paper, then tuck them inside of sheet protectors.  That way we can use a dry-erase marker to keep it updated and keep track of their earnings.  Oh - speaking of earnings, attitude is important:

I've printed the Duggar's Operational Definitions of Character Qualities and hope to integrate that into our coin system soon!

If you'd like to use my files as a start for your home, please send me an e-mail and I'll send them to you. Please specify wheather you need Adobe (.pdf) or PowerPoint (.ppt) files. If you use my files and or pics, please post a link back here and leave me a comment - I'd love to visit your blog and see how this is working in your family!
I'd love to hear how you do "chores" and "allowance" at your house too! ~*~*~*~
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