summer plans

i saw this great idea on A Soft Place to Land - we're going to make out our summer list tomorrow.

i told the kids they could have tomorrow off - it's the first real day of vacation and they don't have to get up early or do chores. the fun starts on tuesday.

i've just spent the last half hour placing books on hold at our library. i found a great list last year on Pioneer Woman, it lists favorite books by age. i picked out a few that i want the kids to read, and then i'll let them look at the list and pick some more. by the way, does anyone have any good reads for a boy entering 4th grade who is only interested in pokemon, legos, and video games? easy chapter books with a few pictures are best - i haven't been able to find a series that he can get into yet.

my sister (who has 8 kids) found some great links for getting kids to do their chores.

-here's a great idea for multiple kids (and super cute)

-here's a good one for having a big picture plan for the summer

-LOVE this idea, but not sure i have the guts and stick-to-it-iveness

-scroll down to comments, and you'll get to read about the way my sister does it.

i will probably modify our current method, which is charts with a morning, afternoon, and evening section and a token system. i've got one day to figure it out!

pretty in pink

i had several rooms in the house painted last week. bob did a great job, for a great price. a and i had talked about how we could make the space more neutral, but still keep a little bit of the salmon pink colored texture on the walls. this is what we came up with:

i cut flower shapes out of contact paper in varying sizes with my Cricut. then, i peeled off the back and put them randomly on the pink walls.

i had to hurry because bob was ready to paint.

i made sure the edges were all smoothed down with no air bubbles for paint to seep in.

then bob painted 2 coats over the top of the contact paper flowers.

and i went upstairs and peeled the stickers off of the walls.

i love that you can still see the dragged texture.

it looks so much better! a loves it! it was the easiest painting project i've ever not done!

(pictures of the finished room coming soon!)

i read a book

can you believe it?

and i loved it. i picked up a biography of emma smith while in nauvoo. it was amazing, and it got me interested in the stories of the early saints. it also got me thinking a lot about polygamy, and tina told me i should read this. wow.

it's the story of a fictional character, dinah kirkham, who has more trials than any of us could ever imagine. the character is mostly based on eliza r. snow (that's how i figured out she was fictional - some of the events were starting to sound a little familiar.)

it was the kind of book that stays with you. i have a feeling it has changed me. read it.

"saints" by orson scott card