How I became a fun mommy. . .

Hello all you mommies--or even daddies.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Kari, and I have seven children. I will be honest, I'm not always a fun mommy. I do like to color in coloring books, especially with a brand new box of crayons. And I love to play in the rain. But sometimes the responsibility of being a mom is completely overwhelming. Actually, that is how it all started.

Several years ago, when my oldest child was about seven and my youngest children weren't yet born, I realized that something had to change. Things were getting out of control around my house. My kids would play, eat, change their clothing, and play some more, and in their wake they left chaos and destruction. I couldn't keep up. I would ask them to clean their room, and they would say, "But Mom, we're in the middle of a game!" Often, taking on the fight of getting them to do what I asked was just more than I could face. I don't like yelling. I can't stand arguments, and I've never been good at bossing. (That was always my older sister's role.)However, it had become apparent that letting things slide was not the ideal solution either. So I made a plan.

That first year I made a little schedule of chores that we would do together each day, and when we were done we would have what I called a "hard workers party". It was all very simple. Five or ten minutes of cleaning, helping with dishes, folding a few clothes, and then we would pat ourselves on the back, give ourselves a few hearty and silly cheers, and open up one little package of fruit snacks to share between us.

Several years went by, and I often found myself in the same situation. Things were getting out of control around the house, and something had to be done. I pondered solutions over and over again. I kept a notebook where I would brainstorm ideas. Some things worked amazingly well, others not so much. Then one year as I was trying to get geared up for the long days of summer that were quickly approaching, I pulled out my brainstorm book and began to flip through it. I was surprised by the number of ideas I had stored away in that notebook, and the fond memories of family time that reading through them stirred up. Inspiration struck: I should share these ideas. I should write a book. So I did.

That was three or four years ago. The book didn't get published. I didn't expect to get rich and famous from it, anyway, but I still think that there are some really great ideas in there that some people might really like to try if they are looking for ways to have some fun family time together while getting a few chores done. My husband told me that I should start a blog. At first I ignored him. I'm pretty technologically challenged. I'd never even seen a blog, so blogging didn't have a lot of appeal. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but my youngest is starting kindergarten next year and I'm suddenly looking for meaningful ways to fill the void. So why not try something new? I'm blogging.