The Pelfrey summer has begun. The day after school ended we packed up all nine of us in the car and drove the 24 hours to Cardinal, Virginia. Glad that’s over.
It is gorgeous weather at Whitfield. We’re also grateful that the downstairs air-conditioning is working well. Not so much upstairs, but we have window units. The house is lovely but it’s definitely a fixer upper. In order not to get overwhelmed, I’m just going one room at a time. Ripping up carpet, painting, rearranging furniture, painting it or junking it. Everything takes forever because I have two babies that need attention. The big kids have been very helpful though with the littles. We are doing a point system for our job charts this year. Fifty points equals ten dollars. The kids can get points for their regular jobs but also for a variety of other things like playing with the littles, taking the baby for a walk, making a meal, reading, doing “leaf work” (we have a hundred billion leaves to clean up), creative projects, going a day without sugar, etc, etc. The items that are the biggest pain get more points than the easier things. So far, the system has been very effective. Hopefully it doesn’t wear off too terribly quick. 😬 Another thing that is fantastic is that we decided to leave the iPads at home. So all we have here is a TV, a DVD player and a bunch of random DVDs. There’s a great thrift store nearby with DVDs for 79¢ and we’ve been collecting a few. We bought a John Wayne collection and I’m surprised how much the kids love westerns.
It’s a pretty darn good start to summer. Usually I’m really stressed during the break because there is so much stimulation and whining and begging for screens. But so far, so good! 😁👌
