The Best Things About Summer So Far

1.  Bottomless bowls of salsa and chips.  For years now I have tried to enjoy salsa.  I love it when we go to Mexican restaurants.  But in the grocery store I can only buy picante sauce.  Even jars that are labeled as “salsa” are really still picante sauce.  I used to like picante sauce.  But I just can’t enjoy that vinegary sweetness anymore.  I just can’t.

   So what’s a girl to do except ask her facebook friends for help?  I got suggestions of different salsas to try and then we had an informal taste test.  Everyone who participated chose Organic Jack’s Cantina style salsa from Costco as the hands down winner.

   Pretty much, I have just kept a bowl of salsa on the island and a larger bowl of tortilla chips next to it each day.  When it gets low I fill it back up again.  We graze on chips and salsa all day, every day now.  I particularly like the feeling on my tongue that lingers for up to 20 minutes after I have last eaten salsa.  It’s a tingly sort of alive feeling that makes me decide to go back for more!

2. Points.  I used to have grandiose ideas about how organized and amazing our summers were going to be and I always tried to institute these plans that would fail spectacularly.  And that eventually led to me not planning anything during the summers–just enjoying the free time and lazy days of doing nothing.

   Which pretty much drove the Hubba INSANE to spend a full work day working his tail off and discover we had all squandered our days in the worst possible ways.  But we never had been able to find anything that worked.  (I recently read a blog post that said that large families can use any of a variety of different types of management systems that will all fail without a good manager–that would be me.  I am not a good manager of children.)

   But this summer is different.  The Hubba instituted a point system.  I didn’t even really know about it until after the fact when the kids were asking me about how many points something were worth.  Is that what that paper on the fridge was?  Anyway, the kids get points for doing things.  Scripture study.  Exercise.  Chores. Playing outside.  Reading books. Basically whatever we want.  For instance, Kelvinator is earning points by organizing a Foosball tournament among his friends.  And last night, the three youngest kids played for 90 minutes together in the basement just screaming and having fun.  POINTS!  The points are random, too.  We just make it up as we go.  If we really want them to do something, we give more points for it.  IF it’s something they probably want to go do anyway, fewer points.  Even the same activity doesn’t even get the same points every day.

   They keep track of their points on a piece of paper taped up to the wall.  It’s purely on the honor system, though.  They don’t actually have to write down what they did.  Just the points they earned.  So we have these papers filling up our walls of pure addition.

   Then, on a random day and time of his choosing, the Hubba gives out awards for points.  The kids get one M&M for every 100 points.  You heard that right.  So for instance, the day my kids spent 2.5 hours at the sand dunes making forts?  We gave them 188 points for that.  Or 2 M&Ms.

   Oh my gosh, the kids are LOVING it.  And it’s the easiest system we have ever used.  And so far, this may be the best, most productive summer ever.