I CAN DO HARD THINGS
We are currently working with Sweetie Pie on 3 areas that need improvement:
trying new foods/eating dinner,
being nice to her brother, and
cleaning.
We even made up a simple chart using graph paper and hung it on the side of the fridge to help her keep track of when she does these things.
Every time she eats a good dinner, or goes all day without arguing with her brother, or cleans up when I ask her to, she earns a star. Sweetie Pie decided on a points system where she could earn a small, medium or large prize depending on the number of stars she earned. She even decided what would constitute a small, medium and large prize.
After doing this for a couple of days, she remarked how hard it was. I told her, yes it is hard, but you know what, "You Can Do Hard Things". And right then and there I knew I wanted to fancy up her star chart by incorporating that quote. So first I recreated her star chart on the computer and printed it out with the quote at the top. I'm all out of colored ink, otherwise I would have used off white paper and some pink/peachy color for the quote.
I was just going to frame it and stick it back on the side of the fridge, but my creative juices were flowing and I couldn't stop there. I found this dry erase board in our basement and after cleaning it off with nail polish remover because some of the dry eraser marker wouldn't erase, I was ready to create a kitchen command center of sorts.
I researched some on Pinterest here, here, here and here to give me ideas.
I knew I wanted to include not only Sweetie Pie's star chart, but also
1. a memo board to write a grocery list and other important notes,
2. a school calendar for lunch menus and class schedules, and
3. a dinner menu area.
But first I had to pretty it up. I opened up the frame, it is the kind that just clips on. Then I lifted up the clear plastic and slipped some scrapbook paper underneath.
I added some cute paper to Sweetie Pie's star chart and slipped that into the frame too. This is great because I don't have to print out a new star chart every time she earns enough to claim her prize. With the plastic cover, I can just use a dry erase marker to make the stars and wipe it off when we need to start over.
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I put up the school calendar leaving room at the top left for my dinner menu plans (still working on that one), and the bottom right is for notes.
But that bottom right corner looked too plain.
So I added some patterned paper to pretty that section up too.
Ah, much better. I was pleased with how it turned out and all I needed to do was hang it to the side of the fridge. I just used these velcro type Command strips.
And viola, my very own kitchen command center. This should keep me more organized.
Did you notice how the scrapbook paper coordinates with the kitchen wall color and the wall colors of the adjoining breakfast room?
You didn't, well take a closer look 'cause deciding on which scrapbook paper would look best was the longest part of this whole project. And since I had everything on hand (the frame and papers), the whole project cost me nothing, nada, zilch. I love that everything I need to look at and keep track of on a daily basis is all in one easy to reach spot.
Find out how I added my meal planning system to this by clicking HERE.
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Christa
