100 peck training and chickens...

Have you ever read studies about the chicken training? There is a dog training favorite called "100 peck" training that came from chickens. (for dogs it's often used to teach duration behaviors like stay) Trainers were trying to see how many times they could get a chicken to peck a button to get one kernel of corn. They would do 'one peck, one kernel, two pecks, one kernel, three pecks one kernel etc.' until the bird missed then they would go all the way back to 'one peck, one kernel etc' again. They would continue with this until they got the chicken to peck the button 100 times to get a kernel of corn.

They found that the longer the performance chain got, the more the chicken would put off starting the project---even when it meant getting food. Interesting huh? Even with chickens the harder and more involved things are the more we tend to procrastinate. Today is definitely a '100 peck' day for me.

I knew it would be hard to get back to the regular schedule today but I'm not sure who is more tired--me or the kids. The boys and I are reading one of The Edge Chronicles books (part of our nightly routine) and we are at an exciting part so we stayed up way too late last night and then I couldn't go to sleep. I am one of those creatures who needs to have the exact same wake up and sleep in time every day in order feel rested. That's not exactly compatible with the job description of mother of five...

Rustin left early this morning for a work meeting so it was all up to me. The kids were all sleeping like logs but it was nothing the promise of waffles couldn't fix! We are reading the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price right now. Everyone just about kept their eyes open for that part of the morning! Then Dallin's request for a rousing verse of "Up awake! Ye defenders of Zion," pretty much got us all up. I'm sure we will all do fine but it is sure hard to get back into a routine.

Of course it's snowing buckets again so our nicely cleared driveway and walks are covered. One of the best parts about having older kids now is that I no longer have to scrape and start the car. My pre-driving age boys still think it's cool to get to start the car and scrape. I hope it lasts forever.

I have discovered that if I keep with the routine of cleaning the kitchen/bedrooms/bathroom and front room every single day then it really isn't a big deal. If I let it go, then the job grows and I start to struggle...

Today I am avoiding the unpleasant but necessary task of sorting and revamping our entire paper filing system. I really tend to avoid uncomfortable things. This is something I have learned about myself and I am trying to change it. One trick I have learned is to break the job into a smaller piece. I'm not going to do the entire file system today I'm just going to go through the bill pay basket and then balance one bank account. That I can do. I think. I better start pecking...