I don’t get to blog nearly as much as I would like to. I would love for this platform to be regularly filled with what is going on in our lives. But, sometimes I really have nothing to say and other times it is because things go a little like they did this morning.

-tidy house, dress kids, feed kids, put washing in, clean breakfast off the walls (yes, that happened), re-dress littlest kid who is covered in said breakfast (I’m not sure she actually ingested any of it), make beds, get laptop, make coffee, sit down…. get up, discipline kids, sit down, get up, take littlest kid to the toilet, sit down, three words in… phone rings, answer phone (it was important), talk for 15 minutes, forget about blogging, come back to blogging, make more coffee… so here we are. And I am determined to get this post out before we head off to visit my mom in the next 30 minutes. (… and I am still in my pyjamas)

I’ve had this swimming in my head for ages – so long that since putting this little printable together, we have made the decision to pull Tai out of ballet and let her pursue her gymnastics with more vigour. Our reason: simply because she has come alive in the gym. We thought she loved ballet, SHE thought she loved ballet… until she set foot in the gym! Suddenly we realised that she is not the shy little girl that we thought she was in the ballet studio. She is strong and brave – she simply does not like to ‘act’.

1st Badge Testing

Yes, I could have changed this post to a more relative one. But I had already put the printable together and I know that so many of you are moms to little ballerinas.

The list was born the day that I forgot to pack Tai’s ballet skirt into her bag and shock of all horrors, she had to dance without it. I explained to her that I had a lot to think about and that sometimes we will make mistakes or forget something that we are supposed to have with us. But it also made me realise that perhaps she was ready to take on some responsibilities of her own (with adequate help).

So I put THE LIST together (click on it for your very own printable),  printed it, laminated it and gave it to Tai along with seven pink buttons. The rest is pretty simple. I helped her maybe twice as she packed each item into her ballet bag and then placed a button on top of the relative square. And that was that, she was able to pack her bag and she loved doing it.

I hope that the list will be as useful to you as it was to us.