Motivation

Motivation is a good thing. Being former city folk, we are not used to being SO busy on the weekends. If we were busy it was usually going somewhere to do something fun as a family.

On Thursday Michael put together his weekend to-do list. The boys and I sat in rapt attention. What were we going to get to do this weekend? Michael went through the list and let us know that when it was done we would be able to relax and enjoy our new sectional sofa and watch a movie or two.

That last sentence was all the motivation our boys needed.

Friday Nicholas finished up his school work quickly (he did a good job too) and went out to do half of their chores (clean out my car, clean up their mess in the shop, clean up in front of the barn, and haul the canoe out of the pond and store it for winter).

As an adult, and their mom, I wonder when they will learn to clean as they go, which would have eliminated most of those chores.

Friday afternoon Michael had a bunch of Hog Fuel delivered. What the heck is Hog Fuel? I asked the same thing. Here is a picture:

Last year we put down sawdust in the outside pens of the does and bucks. It worked nicely but eventually it was pushed into the mud so the area was all muddy again. The Hog Fuel is more coarse/fibrous. Over time it will form a mat rather than disappearing into the ground…..so they say. I’ll let you know if that ends up being the case.

So the biggest chore of the weekend needed to get done. Michael had planned on starting it on Saturday. Nope. Our boys wanted to get it done on Friday. So, in the pouring rain they spread it. You have to know that when there is a load of “whatever” dumped, our boys must first play in it. It is a ritual.

They got it done in just a couple of hours. Motivation at work.

On Saturday, Joshua finished up his part of the chores while I went to the bank and did my first of the month grocery shopping. I don’t recommend going to the bank on Saturday (hello one teller to a long line of people). I also don’t recommend going grocery shopping on a Saturday that happens to be Halloween. I tried my best to keep a smile on my face even though my eyes said “get me out of here”.

Halloween is a family tradition night. When the boys were growing up they were not allowed to watch TV. I had done a lot of research on the effects of computers and TVs on children and decided it wasn’t something we wanted our kids to experience at a young age. But, on Halloween we changed things up. We would turn off all the lights and watch a movie while eating dinner on the floor. I think our first movie was “Mary Poppins”. About four years ago, we decided it was time for them to begin the “Star Wars” movies. Each Halloween they were allowed to watch one of the movies in the order they came out in the theater. Yes, I did here “Aww, but mom why can’t we watch the next one NOW?”. I explained that I had to wait three years between each movie so they could wait one. It is good for them to have delayed gratification. That is my excuse and I’m sticking to it. (OH, by the way, we have already purchase our tickets to the new “Star Wars” movie that comes out in December…..nerdy but who cares)

Well, because they had two movies to see before the new one comes out, we decided to let them watch one Friday night and the other on Saturday night. Motivation. Friday night was “Episode 2: The Attack of the Clones.” On Saturday, they watched “Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith.” I did happen to mention Mark 8:36:”What good is it for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul.” It is a dark movie.

Sunday we did our barn chores and then I needed to pick my leeks. I had done a little research on storing leeks and decided the easiest and best advice was to put a few inches of damp sawdust in the bottom of a bucket then set the roots of the leek in the sawdust. With all the rain we had had, our small pile of leftover sawdust was sufficiently damp.

I sure hope it works because I love leeks. These were starts that I purchased from Wilco. They should have been planted farther apart than what I did but it is difficult to separate starts that are so close together. Next year I want to buy seed.

A couple of week ago I opened the top wall oven and a loud “BANG” resulted. I wasn’t sure what had happened but my mechanically inclined genius of a husband figured a spring had broken in the door. So on Sunday, he took the door off and replaced the spring. He really amazes me. I never knew there were springs in doors. If I were a single person, I would have had to call someone and pay them to fix it. I’m so blessed.

After that he decided to remove my electric clothes dryer and exchange it with my gas clothes dryer that had been sitting in the garage waiting until we brought gas to the house.

Then, he decided to hang the downstairs TV. It is the one that we watch as a family now since we added a sectional sofa. It use to sit on top of the cabinet but he always planned on hanging it on the wall.

Michael is a little frustrated because he drilled a hole in the wall to run all the cables so they wouldn’t be seen, but, there is a board inside the wall horizontally which prevents the cords from going down. He says he needs to think about it more. I’m sure he will figure it out.

Oh, what did I get done? I made my November dinner menu, went grocery shopping, made a pumpkin roll cake, cooked, cleaned and kept the peace.

Enjoy your start to November,
Karen