During my vacation I began listening to an audible book called “Cleaning house “ by Kay Willis Wyma. It’s one mother’s experience teaching her overly dependent children how to be self reliant and organized. One of her ideas was to set a task for her kids (and herself) once a month. And to motivate them to do it she gave everyone a clear jar with a certain amount of money in it. When the task was done (for example making the bed) they got to keep their money. When the task was not done a dollar was taken from the jar. At the end of the month they got what was left. I feel like a month is too long for my kids to wait for anything. We will be working week to week . I gave them all a Euro a day for the task we are working on. And I also feel like I can not trust my kids to actually keep the money in the jar. What is to keep them from just spending it on day one? So I just made mom money. They get 2 ones and one 5 in their jar. At the end of the week what ever is left can be redeemed for real cash. Right now we are starting out slow. I expect the beds to be made before they go to school. If it’s not done they lose one mom dollar. I am not going to remind them to do this task. They need to be able to do it by them selves. BTW, I won’t be sitting next to them when they go to work either…they have to grow up! So far everyone has made their beds every day with out my reminding them (except Philip & Thomas who forgot once). But they only forgot once because it cost them! I mean business! We will be making the bed every day for 2 weeks, then adding picking up the cloths in their room. I say add because they will need to do both things for the same money! After the cloths we will work on the desk...then we will add cooking one time a week. And so on. Everyone in the house (including Juergen, Jessica and I have a jar). I am helping Jess make her bed everyday. She likes that. The kids will not get pocket money anymore. They will only get the money they keep from doing the tasks of the week. 
So now I’m making 2 very large crock pots of broccoli soup. I harvested 10 broccoli plants today. I needed the room to plant other things. Thank God for crock pots! I wish I had a big freezer. I would just freeze the soup. But I only have a small freezer. I’m probably going to can it. My garden went crazy when we where gone. It’s a jungle and I need to harvest so much at once. It’s going to make me pretty tired dealing with all this fresh produce at one time. It’s a good problem.
So now I’m making 2 very large crock pots of broccoli soup. I harvested 10 broccoli plants today. I needed the room to plant other things. Thank God for crock pots! I wish I had a big freezer. I would just freeze the soup. But I only have a small freezer. I’m probably going to can it. My garden went crazy when we where gone. It’s a jungle and I need to harvest so much at once. It’s going to make me pretty tired dealing with all this fresh produce at one time. It’s a good problem.
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