Reaching Your Goals

Greetings!

Welcome to our first Friday! Today is Fast Finds! I'll share a website I happened across the other day that is helping my children learn responsibility while having fun!

This blog kick-off week has been a whirlwind for me. I'm worn out and was looking forward to a slow-paced weekend with no tasks and no time schedules. Then, just yesterday, I realized that in my busyness I somehow lost a week. I thought Easter was next weekend!

Usually I go all out for our holiday meals. This week I just don't have it in me. So my sweet mother-in-law invited us all to join her for Easter brunch at her retirement home. We're looking forward to it; however, Kent, my husband, said with a grin, "Wow, Hon, now we'll know what we have to look forward to on all our holidays in about 40 years." "40 years!" I said. "The retirement home is sounding pretty good to me right now!"

Thanks to my mother-in-law's sweet invite, all this Easter Mommy needs to do today is hop on over to a couple of stores to buy the the treats for my two boys, the youngest of which still believes that the long-eared, bushy-tailed big guy himself is going to quietly hop into his room tomorrow night and leave a trail of eggs from his bed to where the baskets are hidden in the house, the same way he's done for the last five years.

Regardless of where you spend your Sunday, I hope you'll be easy on yourself when it comes to making it all "perfect." At ease and welcoming beats "perfect" every time! So relax, and enjoy!

Fabulous Find!

No one can accuse me of being an internet junkie. You'll hardly ever find me online exploring sites. This one I came across the other day, and it's helping me teach my children responsibility. They're doing their chores, and I'm not having to nag nearly as much! I can't be the only mom who feels like the kids are getting pretty comfy while Mom pulls more than her fair share! Well, this site is helping balance the scale at the McKee house!

It's a free goal setting social community. Still in beta testing, you can find it at http://www.goalforit.com/. It's for adults and children. Right now I'm using it for both my boys. A short video tutorial led me through the easy set up.

You pick a template, choose the chores to include, customize the character building traits you want to add, and include optional points called "Moolah" which add up in your children's own piggy banks. I typed in prizes they'll receive when they reach their goals. For 15 Moolah points, they can get an ICEE; for 40 they can rent a DVD, etc. If they save their points, when they reach 175, they can go to a water park for the day.
My boys are enjoying interacting with the site and tracking their "Moolah" points. They've cut back on their whining, they're cleaning their rooms, homework is getting done before TV time, and all of it without me having to remind. At this rate, there's going to be a water park day in my near future!

Hope you find it as helpful as I've found it!

Join me Monday for Monday Morning Mentoring.
Hope you enjoy a Blessed Easter weekend!