chores

Jackson approached me Friday afternoon with a proposal. It was apparent he had researched and thought it out, and I told him I was impressed. He and Rylee wanted to sign up to rent electronic games through the mail. It costs $16 each month, and there was a 30-day free trial. I was pretty sure that meant signing up with a credit card and we're on the hook in advance in 30 days unless we cancel. It's like Netflix for games.

He and Ry said they would do chores to pay for it and they'd split the cost between them. They figured they each needed to contribute $2 each week. They had all sorts of ideas for what they could do around the house. Jack wanted to sit down with me and discuss it. On Saturday, they both asked again and I said I was considering their proposal. We'd have to figure out what chores they would do. They wrote some down in a journal book Ry is keeping with songs he's writing. We made a final list. It includes kitchen chores, some bedroom and bathroom chores, and some outside chores. They were hoping to make a little extra money, so when I proposed $4 each a week, of which they'd get $2 each every Saturday, they were thrilled and spent the rest of the day figuring out how much they'd have in a year and how much they'd have by the end of this year. They also wanted to be sure that now that they were getting an allowance that we wouldn't stop buying them things. Since we do buy them things, I wasn't embarrassed how low their allowance is for these days. And they were thrilled.

The next day we wrote the chores up and put them on the refrigerator. We devised a plan for days and keeping track of them. Jackson began immediately doing his chores and together we signed up online for the games. They've been checking the mail already for their first game.

Some good rains this weekend. I worked outside finishing some projects of my own, sanding, priming, painting, repairing, adjusting, wiring, cleaning, mowing, trimming, pruning, weeding, and sweeping. Sunday evening we went to an Isotopes game with Don, Elley, Nicholas and Lauren. Low 80s, a very slight breeze, no threat of rain. The kids took off to get cotton candy and ice cream, and later they ran around the grassy berm beyond right field. I wished they were around for the Seventh Inning Stretch. The Isotopes kept scoring until they lead 12-5 at the bottom of the eighth. The visitors hit a series of home runs in their last at-bat, and got within two before the final out. All of the kids ran the bases afterwards and we drove home.