Picture Compliance

We've been in the house for about five-ish months. I finally started hanging stuff up on the walls. I'm slow like that.

Or maybe meticulous.

That makes me sound better. Let's go with meticulous, m-kay?

So, I have this wall of pictures of our little family that I will post about at some point in the vague future. Today, we're here to talk about a recent stroke of genius.


That little wall right there with the picture frames hung at eye level for the kids? That is happiness in a dollar store frame, y'all.

Each one of those frames holds a listing of each day's household tasks. The older three children all have their very own picture frame full of house blessings to be performed.

I wish I could remember which blog I saw that featured this idea as a memo board (or was it a menu?), but I can't find it. If you know what I am talking about and you know where to find that post, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due. *** UPDATED *** Found it!

I'm a realist by nature. I would love to have lovely frames for these, but the fact is, they are going to get knocked off that wall. It's only a matter of time. Actually, I managed to break one of the pieces of glass just putting the things together. I may or may not ever replace it.



After a little time spent in Excel, a passion of mine, I managed to create three lists that rotated the responsibilities between the kids as well as list out their individual daily tasks. I picked a pretty, but still readable to my young readers, font and printed it all out. These sheets of paper were cut down to better frame the printed words and to insure that the background would show. I then mounted them onto pretty pieces of scrap-booking paper that had been cut to fit the frames.

My frames are seriously from the dollar store. I spray painted them black to match more with the decor of what is going on in our house. Then I pulled out the level (just to make my Daddy proud) and centered up where I wanted the frames to hang, made my marks, and pounded in some nails.

Then I took those nails out and tried again. And didn't patch the old holes because they are neatly covered by the frames.

I thrive on functional beauty, not perfection.

Now, if you need a checklist style list, then make sure you have glass in each frame. Kids can use a dry erase marker to check tasks off as they complete them. Then a quick swipe at the end of the week cleans it off and they're ready to go again next week!

So as we were leaving church the other day, I reminded the kids that they needed to finish up their house blessings for the day. Sarah Grace clapped her hands and excitedly said, "Oh boy! I get to clean the bathroom today!"

Dude, if all it takes is pretty paper and a frame to get kids that kind of excited about helping in the house, then I figured I had better share!

Quick! Go get yours made!!!