Last Christmas, Arrow had her eye on something special: a remote-control car. She didn’t receive one under the tree, so she set a firm goal to save all her money to buy one herself. Five months later, she did it!

That was no easy feat to save every penny for so long. Arrow loves to buy small treats for her family, especially her little brothers. She would spend all her money on those dear brothers of hers if she could 🙂 Arrow also had to wield impressive self-control when passing a fancy lollipop or a Pokemon card pack in the checkout aisle. Those are pretty darn tempting!

And, of course, sometimes she slowed down on her savings goals to enjoy treats and a new card deck occasionally. But she stayed the course overall and triumphantly arrived home from Hobby Lobby with her new prize:

Way to go, baby girl!!!

Arrow is also working hard towards a new goal: her very own pet!

What’s that? Don’t we already have a cat that rules the center of our lives? And a giant senior citizen dog? And a billion little creatures, one of which screams in my face if I get too close?

Yes. Don’t forget to count the small army of little chickens that live here, too!

But we figured this would be a good opportunity for Arrow to learn some responsibility. Taylor & I decided to strengthen those responsibility muscles by keeping her room clean for 100 days.

We hung this rad Mario-themed chart (free from debtfreecharts here!):

And set up mini-goals along the way:

That first mini-goal is coming up this weekend. Arrow thinks she wants a couple of rats. We’ll visit the pet store this weekend to meet some rats and other small critters. I’m rooting for a hamster, personally. 🙂

There are still a couple of rules Taylor & I need to clarify with each other. He wants her to keep the room clean for 100 days straight. She’d have to start over if she fell out of habit (with a few exceptions). I want to hold off on the strict daily schedule until after she’s developed the habit.

Either way, the number of days doesn’t matter. Those are just markers to measure maturity to provide daily care for one’s possessions. I’m cool with them having a pet as long as they take good care of it.

Big dreams and hopes for this girly!