Mommy Dollars

  This is a Mommy Dollar.  It is part of a genius plan that my husband created several years ago when our four children were younger, and the idea of taking all of them shopping for my Christmas presents blew his mind.  The Mommy Mall scenario was born of his desire to let the children participate in choosing my gifts without dealing with the hassle of wrangling four children in a retail setting during the holidays. This man is brilliant.

Each December, the children earn Mommy Dollars for good behavior, for random acts of kindness and mostly for helping the Mommy out a little bit with chores around the house (stuff they normally do for free, really, but the competition to do them for Mommy Dollars is FIERCE!  Ever seen four kids throw down over emptying the dishwasher?  Crazy!)

My husband shops for my gifts (thank you, Amazon Wish Lists!), and when the time comes, he sets up everything in the basement.  He tags the gifts appropriately & hollers (yes, hollers) for the kids to run downstairs to preview the mall.  They get an idea of what they want to "buy" for me, then they count the Mommy Dollars in their stash to see if they can afford what they want to buy.  Sometimes deals are made to combine funds and be co-buyers.  That's cool, as the kids work together to buy things for me when ordinarily they might not share even a Pop Tart crumb with their siblings.  Most often the counting of the dollars is followed by the mad dash upstairs to find me & ask, breathlessly, "WhatcanIdoforyouIneed25moreMommyDollars!" That's when things REALLY get cookin'.  Stuff gets cleaned.  Stuff gets put away.  Stuff looks GOOD after the mad Mommy Dollar Dash.  I can even get people to vacuum under my couch, y'all.  I ain't lyin'.

A couple of days before Christmas the shopping begins.  I have seen video of the Mommy Mall frenzy.  It's cray cray.  Picture the Filene's Basement sale combined with the madness on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and you might have an idea of what Mommy Mall is like.  Then the wrapping is done (most of the time each child puts his or her purchases into one big box for the sake of time, so I get chocolate covered cherries in the same box as socks and hey, is that a Tervis cup?  Four very eclectic, random, ADD packed boxes, but I love them.)

And that is Mommy Mall.  A friend suggested I post the idea on Pinterest, so I created this blog post.  My husband will be happy to know that his genius has been bestowed upon the world via social media.

Merry Christmas!

January 19

Quinn made himself scrambled eggs for breakfast. I LOVE that my kids are self-sufficient when it comes to doing things like this.

Cereal to go for Camryn. The rest of the morning I had a "Red Solo Cup" tune wedgie.

Lillian entertains the kitties with the mouse on a stick (Mouse on a Steeeeeek).

January 18

Kitty treat feeding time. I keep them in a drawer in the office/school room and the cats meet us up there every morning for their daily noms.

Sophie awaits her turn for treats.

Nummy!

January 17

m&ms. The only thing that makes teaching Lillian math bearable. She gets one m&m for each problem she does on her own, without complaining.

Cleaning out my scrapbook paper scraps. I made some into cards and punched some into shapes. Now my file is much lighter and ready to travel with me to Skyline in March.

Quinn. At school. In his uniform (PJs).

My favorite new shoes. Rykas. So comfy.

January 16

Quinn found a peanut. A butt peanut.

January 15

Pancakes for breakfast!

Our Rucy Roo. Er, Lucy. She's kind of Aiden's baby.

Camryn making her lunch for school. She's doing so well with her diet and exercise plan!

January 14

We replaced the heavy curtains in the den and kitchen with some valances on new, wider rods. It's amazing how much larger the windows look without drapes hanging on the sides. I also put up new curtains on the front windows.

January 13

Kitties. That's Sadie in the tub where I keep completed classwork and Sophie on her chair cushion. They, along with Lucy, are constant companions in the school room

Lean Cuisine codes. Camryn and I are collecting them. We get 20 points per code on LeanCuisine.com and for each 25 codes we collect, we get a free lunch box. We have already redeemed for one.

My K-Cup stash, newly refreshed. I bought a mixed box from Amazon.

Camryn's end of the semester art project. It was supposed to be a flower shaped coffee mug, but it morphed into a pottery rose. She got an A+ and was super proud of herself.

January 12

We had a dinner conversation about Pi at the dinner table. Camryn is studying circles at school. I told the kids the old joke that my daddy always told when I was a kid. You say, "Pi R Square" (which is the formula for finding the area of a circle) and then someone would say, "Pi aren't square. Pi r round! Cornbread r square." They kinda laughed. Then I called my dad, put him on speaker, and asked him to tell the kids the joke. We all laughed about it together. Good times.

Quinn's dog Caramel goes everywhere with him.

Watching History channel together. Or H2. Whatever kind of History Channel we can find. Modern Marvels is the boys' favorite.

So happy that 30 Rock is back on tonight. Oh, Liz Lemon. I have *missed* you.

January 11

I'm cheating. I didn't take any pictures today, so I'm borrowing one. We all ate dinner at The Peddler tonight. It's probably one of my favorite places to eat ever. Cannot beat the salad bar. Camryn and I split an 8-ounce filet and sweet potato and we all had the salad bar. My mouth waters just thinking about it!

January 10

New sneaks for the New Year. I love these. They're for low - impact workouts, mostly mesh (for ventilation), super comfy and they're pink and green!

Finally bought a handle to fit my 24 oz. Tervis cups. Super convenient!

Bama 21, LSU Zereaux. Although my blood will forever be orange and blue (War Eagle!) I'm proud of the level of athletics in my home state. Happy to see Bama bring home the BCS trophy again. Third straight year for the National Champions to be a team from Alabama! (The screen shot is from AL.com)

My new best friend. I bought myself an inexpensive pink iPod Nano (see it hanging from the screen of the elliptical?) It makes rocking the exercise so much easier.

Lillian licking the bowl after dinner tonight. She and I finished off the last of the Chocolate Delight (made with sugar free pudding, cream cheese, sugar free Cool Whip and sugar free Murray's chocolate cookie crumbs.)

I tried to get a picture of Lillian's face when she pulled the bowl away, but she tried to hide. Stan scooped her up and held her upside-down so I could get a good shot.

Camryn indulges in some good old macaroni & cheese for dinner. She's lost 6 pounds in the last 10 days. She gave up Coca-Cola, exchanged fries and pizza for salads and Lean Cuisines, and started exercising. I'm super proud of my girl! This mac & cheese was a reward she allowed herself tonight.

January 9

My new Tervis mug. I had my name put on the back. Love Tervis.











I love these things. They're about $2, which seems a little pricey for a few spices, but when you consider that you'd probably spend $15 to $20 buying all the things you need for one recipe, this seems cheap. Plus, if you like it, you can keep the recipe card on the back. They're made by McCormick. This made the best fajitas, which I served on whole wheat tortillas. I also conjured up some black bean and corn salsa to go with it. Everyone ate... and enjoyed! That's rare in our house.

January 8

Every quarter I have to put together samples of the kids' homeschool work and send it to their K12 supporting teacher. It's not too hard, but it does take me the better part of a day. I am always happy to put those envelopes in the mail.






I'm almost finished reading Stephen King's 11/22/63. It's been a long journey (853 pages) but I have loved it. I'm sad that it's coming to an end.

I signed up for a free 7-day trial so I could watch the entire season (thus far) of New Girl. I love Zooey Deschanel. Love this show.

January 7

Shades?

Check.

Cool glove?

Check.

Old cell phone for pretending to talk & text?

Check.

Seven going on fifteen?

Lord help me.

Kitties love their soft food treats. We have to split it into 3 plates so all five (yes, five) kitties will share and not growl.

Mmmm.... strawberry Chobani. This, plus a bowl of Rice Krispies with banana and Splenda, were my breakfast.

January 6

Science lesson with Lillian. We started studying the digestive system, so we had to simulate how saliva, chewing and the stomach break down food. Some saltines, orange slices and a little water plus mashing the bag = a concoction that made me want to gag. She loved it.

BiLo trip with Camryn. We stocked the fridge (left) with Chobani, hummus, healthy breads, sugar free frozen pops and fresh veggies. The freezer is now full of Lean Cuisines and Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen meals for our lunches. We're committed. That's a lot of frozen meals!

January 5

This is my first priority in the morning. A year ago I could not have cared less about coffee. Those Keurig people are GEE-NEE-US-EZ.

Thanks to Grammy & Poppy, the boys now have a GameFly subscription. We had one before my husband lost his job last year, but we gave it up to save money. Portal 2 for Xbox is now in the house. Notice the laptop open next to Aiden. He's using cheats, of course.

Ellie peeking out from behind my desk in the school room. She sits in the window sill and looks out over the neighborhood.

January 4

First up for me on the 4th was a trip to the dentist for a cleaning. I got a nice goody bag (new toothbrush! Woot! And it's PINK!) After the dentist I stopped at Chick Fil A for a large (FREE, thanks to my calendar coupon) unsweetened tea (4 Splendas, please!) and biscuits for the kiddos.

Back to school for Aiden, Quinn & Lillo.

Accidental up the nose, under the boob self portrait. Niiiiiice.

Camryn's lunch box. She and her best friends have made a pact to eat healthier and exercise more, so she is making her own lunch instead of eating in the cafeteria. She's taking it very seriously. I'm very proud of her!

This is now part of our exercise routine. I love the Kinect!