Reworking the System to keep them Motivated - Points System

Since coming home everyday for the past week to a mess and the only one actually doing their job has been Cameron, I decided that we need to change how everything is being worked.

I started by changing the code to the cell phone and iPod, and removing ALL SNACKS from the house! They are all currently in the trunk of my car.

I went ahead and made up new score sheets so that I can personally keep track of the work that they all have done. Throughout the day they will be keeping track of their chores on their "What I did Today" sheets. At the end of the day I will now be going through and checking their work and giving them points based on if they finish their jobs and how well they finish their jobs.

At the end of the week they will again be able to cash in their points.

Also, at the end of the month I will be giving a prize to the one who has the most points! I think a surprise like this will help motivate them even more!

Maybe a trip to see a movie... Or a toy or new Lego set... A game??

Hmm...

I will also implement the use of point jars which will contain all their candy and snacks, coupons that they can save and use towards something they want, small toys, art supplies, and things like that here and there.

The jars will be separated by worth. 5pts, 10pts, 25pts, ect...

I think that by doing it this way it will be so much more beneficial to them all. Prior I let them choose what they wanted with their points. The fact that they will see the worth of their work whereas before there was no clear earnings and winnings.. Just numbers. I do think that they will be more motivated to get things done and I will not have to try so hard to get them to do the things they are supposed to.

Lets see how this goes...

Acrylic Nails! Recent Sets - Pic Heavy

Obsessing over acrylic nails and trying new things each time I do a new set!

I have been trying not to do them very often since they can cause damage to the natural nail from frequently taking them off and on.

What I have started doing is just clipping off the tips and leaving the nail beds and doing a different design this way. This has definitely made a difference in how I approach taking care of my nails and how I do my acrylics. Doing them this way I can actually change out my nails every week with no damage to my natural nails!!

Before I started doing this I was being very careful with my nails, nail beds, and cuticles, but from watching a particular youtube channel I tried a small round drill bit to clean up around the cuticle. I ended up drilling away so much from my nail plate without even realizing it!!!

So since then I have been keeping the entire nail covered with the acrylic and when it comes time to do a fill I simply push back the cuticles and lightly file away the shine before adding the primer and acrylic.

Funny is, I was doing it this way before and all was well. Sometimes it can hurt to try something new the way someone else does it, so I wont be anymore. At least not with techniques on my natural nails.

There are many channels that are really good, and then there are some that have great designs but their technique is very unhealthy.

A huge pet peeve that I have is when the cuticles look really nasty and I keep mine as healthy as possible! As you can see in my pics below.

I am still practicing but here are the nails that I have been wearing over the past few months!

This is my most recent set. I did these this past Sunday 8/2/2015

These are actually done with a layer of polymer clay encapsulated in acrylic. They just might be my favorites so far!!

Tips of the last set cut off in order to do these. I used forms and clear acrylic for the tips after filling in with my nail bed color.

This set I wore for maybe a week or 2.

This is done with one of the glitter mixes that I made. I just love the sparkle and bling!

I cut the tips off of the set below to do these. Still practicing...

This is my own mix and the color that I will be using as my nail bed for now. I wore this set for almost a month!! I just loved the color so much!! I added the little bow as an accent and wanted to do some sculpted flowers but I dont have brushes small enough...

The above I did after doing a 2 week fill on the below. I refined the shape and took down the length a lot. I really love this color!

These sets are all sculpted except for the last pink one. Those are an overlay on top of my natural nails. I do still need to work on my overall shape. The thickness of the nails I am doing much better with getting them down to where they are not super thick. That has been a challenge.

I did order better forms since the ones I had turned out to be knockoffs and shaped really weird. I have been having a hard time getting them to fit and shape right.

Aside from getting the shape right and the thickness the only other issue I have had has been the product ratio. For someone new to a particular product I still kinda have issues with how wet or dry it should be. 

Using the NSI Spa, everything has to be kept very dry and since going back to regular acrylic, it is a little hard to remember not to wipe my brush so much.

But I do think I have it now!!

With practice I will get better and better.

Videos - Worm Bin! New Seedlings!! & the Tomatoes & Cucumbers!!!

The Worm Bin

This is actually pretty interesting albeit pretty gross. The worms seem very happy so far and you can hear them slithering when you open the lid. Its so weird!! I have had them for about a week now and am just waiting for them to finish breaking down the paper. They seem to be doing a pretty good job of it so far!

I got my package with my 67 different types of seeds!! I am super excited about starting many of these seeds!! Most of them are so unique and interesting!!

I started seeds for 12 out of the 67 in a large empty egg carton and am waiting for them to sprout!

They have been in there for a few days and so far my bean is doing really well and my brussel sprouts are sprouting as well!!

I am super excited about all of them growing into strong healthy plants that will feed me and my babies!!

Here are my cucumbers and tomatoes in the original pots my kids put them in. They are doing pretty great, but will need to be transplanted due to the small size of the pots.

Here they are a few days after being transplanted. The cucumbers are in complete shock but do seem to be coming back slowly. As long as they get their sun and water they seem to be doing well. I added a bit of sugar water to them since I heard that could help a little with the transplant shock.

The tomatoes however are doing just fine and even with the transplant they are thriving! I am very happy with all of this and cant wait for my tomatoes especially to start producing. I am currently debating on if I want to start any other tomato plants given the fact that I have 5 here.... I think that just might be too much.. But then again... Is it possible to have too many tomatoes?? That is the question.... 

I am definitely going to keep up with all of this on my BeautyandtheBabies channel! Doing this has definitely gotten me excited about growing things again! When I get home I am gong to go ahead and restart my basil that I killed. Along, with my arugula and spinach since I failed them all miserably...

They do not do well in full sun with all the heat and have since slowly died... That along with my kids drowning them out by watering too much. haha

Starting Seeds, New Seeds, and Worms

Due to the heat and extreme amount of sun we have been getting recently and the fact that I really have not taken the plants into the house for quite some time, along with the unfortunate water logging incident, most of my plants have died.

All that is left are the 2 that actually like the sun and heat! The tomatoes and cucumbers!

They are doing very nicely albeit in pots too small for them... I will soon transplant them into larger containers and they should do great!

I started some more seeds that I know will take a long time to germinate. I am curious to see if they will or not. To do this I cut up some water bottles and filed with some potting mix that I made. Added a little water and a few seeds to each.

The Slow germinating plants I did were:

• Lavender 14-28 days
• Rosemary 14-21 days
• Tarragon 10-14 days
• Cilantro 14-21 days
• Thyme 14-28 days
• Chives 7-14 days
• Green onion 7-14 days
• Spinach 7-14 days

I only did one of each and will thin down once they begin to grow out since I dont want a huge crop. I have made that mistake before. Growing way more than needed and the plants not typically doing as well as they can because of it. That in addition to not having enough space for everything.

The only thing that has come up so far has been one little tarragon plant... 

In addition to the slow germinating plants, I also restarted my basil and arugula. These are 2 things that I really don't want to live without.

I also made a huge order of seeds!! I got some of everything so that I can have a variety of things to plant and grow throughout the year. I am pretty excited about it since they are all heirlooms and many of them are very unique varieties. I gravitated towards anything purple!!

Aside from the seeds and the seed starting... I also ordered and received... WORMS!!!

Yes I went and bought worms... Why, you ask?

I bought worms because I am going to use them to create compost to be used in the garden to keep the plants healthy and happy!

Basically you simply put the worms in a bin with cardboard, paper, and leftovers(no meat, dairy, or lemons) and the worms break everything down and their leftovers just happen to be the best type of compost available.

Also, composting with worms is much faster then a regular compost pile. I only bought 250 worms this time and am now thinking I will definitely need more with the amount of food these kids waste.

For now I drilled a ton of holes in the top of a small bin and cut holes into an aluminum baking dish which will sit inside of the bin. I them lined it with some paper and added some water along with the worms, just to revive them and let them settle after being shipped. I blended some romaine lettuce that ended up going bad and added that to the bin as well for the worms to eat.

I might go ahead and get a bigger bin later on so that they can have more room and multiply! (or just separate into multiple bins) The more the better! I want to get a shallow plastic bin to use instead of the aluminum bin, but that depends on what I can find in the stores... Or I could just chop up the bin that I have the way others have done to create a proper flow through worm bin. I actually probably should do that.... LoL

I am going to keep them in the bin under the kitchen sink so that way whenever someone has leftovers they can just go ahead and toss it into the bin. Lets see how that works since these kids dont always follow directions properly. LoL

This should be interesting.
.

Re-potting the Seedlings & the Flowers!!

So in the last gardening post I stated how the planter that I was using had flooded out. It was definitely time to replant everything. I went ahead and did the seedlings of the plants that had already presented themselves in that particular pot.

Those that sprouted were mostly just the Basil, Arugula, Cilantro and Spinach. There were a few green onion I did see but they were lost in digging up all the Basil...

As I was poking around in the bin and found what I am hoping are Sage roots ready and waiting to sprout! Time will tell with that though.

I will probably replant seeds for those that didn't and probably will not come up due to being drowned out.

I put them all into pots and separated them for the most part so that they would grow a little better and not be so crowded out.

I don't want too many of them to die... Restarting my garden has proven to be a little difficult. There are just so many things that I need to learn and relearn!

I put the majority of the Summer long Basil in one pot and the rest of that along with the Lime Basil in another. 

Basil

The Cilantro got its own pot. 

Cilantro

The Spinach and Arugula I put in the same pot spaced about an inch or two apart in rows. Its been a few days since I re-potted and the spinach seems to be doing OK so far and some of the arugula and basil are slowly died off.

Spinach                                               Arugula

The babies did help with the re-potting. I mixed up some new soil. I used perlite and organic potting soil in my mix this time and we definitely got our hands dirty. I forgot to add in the fertilizer this time but they plants will all be transplanted again pretty soon.. I did sprinkle some on the top and dissolved some to water them with.

Cucumbers

The cucumbers are growing great!! I do think I will need to re-pot and separate them soon. I am seeing a tiny bit of powdery mildew growing on the tips of the leaves. When I set the pots outside The leaves of these in particular get chewed on like crazy! Me no likey this..

Tomatoes

My tomatoes are coming up pretty good!! Slowly but surely. I have I believe about 5 Tomato plants here.

Each of the tomato and cucumber plants are going to have to be re-potted into their own pot since they grow to be so big I don't want them to crowd each other out... Or I could just re-pot them into one or two huge pots...

I am going to have to trellis them both and am very interested to see how much they both grow and how much they each will produce.

So far so good!! Lets see how well they all grow up!!


The rest of my flowers are so pretty!! I planted a lot more but many of them have yet to bloom along with my iris' dying... :( But I am pretty happy with the flowers that have presented themselves. The gladiolas were supposed to be purple... But they turned out this lovely pink!! So pretty!! My gladiolas are however dying flower by flower from the bottom up... Ughhh!!! I am going to attribute this to the soil in my front yard. I did not properly fertilize it and just kinda stuck them all into the ground... It could also be due to all the weeds I have as well and they are all competing for space and nutrients.

Live and learn. Next year I will add a goo layer of mulch and make sure I weed the garden and surrounding areas diligently. There are so many weeds!!!

The photo on the bottom right I am not quite sure which flower this is since I planted so many.. But I believe it is my Cosmos! There is a bud forming and I am just waiting in anguish for it to bloom!!!