Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Something to tide us over...

I'm already dressed and ready for work even though I don't normally walk out the door for another thirty minutes. Ruth is playing with her dolls and I don't have the heart to tell her it's time to change out of her pajamas. Somehow today has morphed into an ahead of schedule yet lazy morning.

(and I shrug my shoulders and say, "Oh well.")

My computer and all her parts are sitting in a neat Tetris-esque stack perilously balanced atop several other things (that shouldn't be there) on the desk in my bedroom. Ben has promised me the new fan will be here today although the internet tracking system will tell you he is lying and it's somewhere around Atlanta, Georgia right now.

I miss her. I've been wanting to tell you all sorts of things but haven't because I didn't want to intrude on Ben's space. Lucky for us, he's working which means he won't notice if I scoot his baby towards my dining room chair or if I'm eating waffles, covered in syrup, while I type.

So, how 'bout I type?

I decided it was time to teach Ruthie the value of a hard earned dollar...err...coin and give her some sort of allowance. I also wanted her to become more independently responsbile for her own daily chores - cleaning up her bedroom and playroom each day. I told Ruthie she would earn one coin for each room she cleaned correctly each day before bed. Keep in mind, I did not promise her a quarter or fifty cents...merely a coin. This makes it easy for me to pull something out of Ben's coin jar and not have to worry about having enough quarters.

Anyhow, Ruth has been spot on with the cleaning and you've never seen someone get so excited over receiving a penny or a nickel for their work. However, I'd been having to remind her over and over again to clean up her place at the table after she eats so one day when she did it all on her own I said, "You know what? I think that's worth something because I didn't have to say anything!" and I gave her a penny.

...that's when it all got very funny.

Ruth refused to get dressed the next morning. Absolutely refused.

Why?

Well, it seems getting dressed is work and she thought she should only do it if she was going to get paid for it.

(this misconception has since been cleared up)

-nod-

Love,
me

3 comments:

wendlyn said...

ahhh, the joys of teaching values!

Anonymous said...

i wish i could get a coin for getting dressed... maybe i would do it more :)

on the other hand... maybe I should just do it because Jimmy is probably sick of looking at his mom in her shorts and tshirts (aka jammies) all the time

have i mentioned how stoked i am that you are back to blogging???? yay!!!

PaullaWalla said...

If I got paid for getting dressed, I'd probably be a little more apt to jump out of bed in the morning myself. (nod)

...and your stokedness stokes me. :D