walnuts

Well the children decided they wanted to pick up walnuts this year to make some money. We spent 2 Saturdays collecting 470 pounds of nuts. By the end, they were tired of the work. I told them at the beginning that," we said we would do this, so you have to finish the 2 yards this year. Next yr. you can reevaluate if you want to participate". This pep talk worked pretty well. It also didn't hurt any that I bribed them with ice cream to get them to finish. :) One of the yards was my grandparent. I was glad we were able to help them out. I would hate for them to fall. So, all the nuts were gathered, double bagged, and loaded in the back of the truck. All participants had to be wiped off. It's messy work, especially Dan who decided to eat some dirt instead of pick up nuts. oooohhhhh!! Now, we proceed to cram a mom (me) and 6 children into the front of a pick up truck, and one baby in his car seat in the floor board. Well, we didn't get cold lets put it that way. All would have been tolerable if we didn't have to wait in line to unload the nuts and get paid. We waited 3 hours!!!! Oh my. Yes, there was about a years worth of whining I had to listen to. I fed them junk food and let them jump in the back of the truck to survive. Just for the record, they do not get junk food very often, so for them this was a big treat. They ended up making $56. To them this was huge, Matt and I kind of shook our heads and said," all that for $56". It is good for the children to work hard. It also gave them a chance to see how you work and get paid for it. They all do daily/weekly chores around the house, but no one gets paid. It is just part of keeping the house running. Guess I better go.
Blessings,
Vickie