Well, phase one of fixing family life seems to be working smoothly, but it's only been a few days.

The kids seem to love the chore cards, and are always angling to do their jobs so they can put the cards in the basket and earn their daily "peanut".

The unintended consequence has been that we as parents need to be more on top of things and put more effort into helping them do jobs such as reading every day (in addition to bedtime), and doing their "school" work.

So yes, it's forced us to be more disciplined in making sure we're doing what we want the kids to be doing every day.

The parent jobs have also gone well. Something extra has been cleaned every day! And in some cases, I've thought, "Well, I already have the cleaner out, I might as well do this part over here..." so really, more is getting cleaned.

Hubby said it takes effort, but he can see how it would make things better in the long run. He also said he can tell already that the house is cleaner.

I will likely add some extra chore cards for the weekend, like having the kids pick up their rooms and maybe vacuum their own rug. I'm trying to keep the daily list short, as they are only 3 and 5 and have short attention spans.

So yes, success.

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On the reigning in the money side, I decided to give Mint.com a go, so I spent most of the afternoon putting in our financial data. I could see how you could spend a lot of time on that site! Hopefully, I can tweak it enough to make it useful. We'll see.

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I had more thoughts on the freelance work. I actually had a freak out moment about giving up the regular gig, wondering if maybe I wouldn't have enough work. Silly me. It's a real fear as a freelancer, but then again, I have a million other personal and fiction projects I would rather be doing. They might not pay up front, but it's what I'd rather be doing for a living.