A day’s work

We’re going to California on Friday and for the last couple of months I keep telling the boys they should do some extra chores to earn money to spend while we’re there. They nod their heads enthusiastically and tell me that for sure when they get home from school they’ll do some work. But, then when the time comes, they both just say they’re too tired or maybe tomorrow. And any money they already had is spent the second we enter a store that sells any form of Legos.
Yesterday, since there was no school, I decided to do an all-day cleaning fest over here. They agreed that it was the perfect day to earn some extra money.
I made a list of jobs that I’ve been wanting to have done and assigned each of them a dollar (or cents) value.
They got to choose what they wanted to do, and we worked all morning until lunch time.
I took everyone out to lunch and treated them to a Lemon Meltaway cookie from Cutlers. (HEAVEN!)
Then it was back to work. But to make it more fun, this time we played a game called ‘double or nothing’ and even though that title makes no sense, it works like this: You pick your job first, then you draw a paper out of a bowl upon which I have written things like, Double the value, Mom helps, chew bubble gum while you work, pick the music while you work, high five when you’re done… you get the idea.
If you draw a double the value, a job worth two dollars is suddenly worth four. Nobody really wanted the high five, or the paper that said, “Big kiss from Mom” but when The Fish got that one, he took the kiss anyway and went to work.
It was a fun day for a day filled with nothing but cleaning. We worked until dinner time and man, my house is so clean.
So, what I’m saying is, if you ever wanted to stop by for a visit, now is the time. We are accepting visitors with open arms.