What our days sometimes are like...

We decided to take a few days off of math because Bethany has a new love: Chess. She doesn't really love playing whole games, yet, but likes playing "Capture the King" when most of Daddy's pieces are taken away. I didn't snap a picture when Daddy was playing her, but Emma took these pictures for us.

In the following picture, Mommy survived the onslaught of her King and Queen by achieving a stalemate. It was close, though!!!

Today, Bethany and Emma set up the pieces and started playing with each other. This picture was taken about 5 moves before checkmate. Bethany won.. If she keeps practicing, I think I am going to get smoked very soon.

This is a picture of my new store: "Mommy's Market." It is open on Friday afternoons and the girls can buy candy or toys or art supplies if they want to. They earn money by doing extra school work, helping out without being asked, and just by being exceptionally good family members. They don't get paid for any minimum expectations (like cleaning out the dishwasher and doing their regular schoolwork), but I give them 10 cents for the 2nd math or phonics page of the day, and 20 cents if they do a third page. I give them 10 cents for picking up without being asked, and 5 cents if I have to ask, but they do it with a good and happy heart.

When they have their items picked out, they have to fill out their own receipts and figure out if I owe them any change or if they have enough money to buy their items. I got this idea from my supervising teacher and best bud, Maureen!

So that's our life. Sometimes it's hard to think about all of the positives, because so many negatives bog us down.. As my friend over at Very Blessed Mommy says, blogs show the highlights of our lives. Sometimes it's nice to remember they are there, and sometimes it's nice to remember that we MAKE our own highlights. Sometimes I forget to do that, but today was a good day and I wanted to share it. God Bless!