heinzelmännchen

i think i wrote before about how i am trying to promote service in our house this year.   we are off to a slow start this far but it has been crazy these first 15 days of 2013.    i'm not discouraged and i am renewing my push for service.   i did intro our little heinzelmännchen in family home evening last week.    we started with a few rules.  
there is no arguing that something was not a service.
appreciate the thought and the effort.   (you may not have wanted your backpack taken back upstairs but no one knew that you had plans for it.   just appreciate that someone did something for you)
next we talked about some service that could be done in our family.   this was harder than i had thought it would be.   we only came up with a few.   i hope we can expand our list a little more as we turn our minds in that direction.
do your chores without being asked
put someone's things in their room for them
hang up someone's coat for them

here's a wiki about the heinzelmännchen.    they are a legend from the city of colonge.   little elves that helped out at night until a tailor's wife fouled things all up.   the basis for the cobbler elves in english some say.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinzelm%C3%A4nnchen
the idea came from the elf on the shelf craze and a friend that gave each member of the family a little felt heart to place when they served a family member.  

it is, of course, up to mom to keep them moving.   i am such a trend starter!   that's the point, start a service fad in our house.     it will catch on, it's always mom at first.   that's just part of the job.  

i'm going to post some of the things our little heinzelmännchen are doing and some of the ways they manifest themselves    i hope the creativity of placing them will get the kids moving with service.   that's the plan anyway.  
 i ended up with 7 little heinzelmännchen.   actually the are knee huggers.   funny enough, we have a grumpy, and a sleepy, the kids can't decide which one is dopey

.

this is our grumpy that hung up my towering teen's coat.

 one of our little guys brought the towering teen's homework, wallet, and backpack up to his room where they belong.

 we have a fireplace for heat and are trying to keep the heaters turned off as much as possible to save on our power bill.   but that means that the doors have to stay open so the heat can move around.   my tomboy princess closed her door this morning and this little red bearded guy opened it back up for her so her room wouldn't be cold when she gets home.

the towering teen's huge shoes were dragged upstairs by our sleepy heinzelmännchen.  it was so much work that he just had to take a nap in this roomie shoe.