The Summer of Chores

Two weeks ago c & e brought their parents down for a visit.

We had a great time and even S was able to come from Houston and spend part of a day with all of us.

After dinner the boys started cleaning up the kitchen, well almost all of the boys.  J was a little slower to get up and help and he had to be 'made' to get up and help.  Then he was ready to stop at just unloading the dishwasher.  It was fun to listen to C & S tell him about how easy he had it, but then all the things they used to have to do.  Man I've been lettin this kid off with an easy life, and more importantly  I've been doing way too much.  :)

L and I had an impromptu parent meeting and decided that since J was staying home this summer that this would be a good time to institute a summer theme... The Summer of Chores.  C & S were excited at the idea.  J not so much.

I'm happy to report though that J has taken to The Summer of Chores like anyone else's duck to water, because our ducks are still not liking the water

and they run back to the coop every time we carry them down to the tank.

First up:
Stain the cedar posts that hold up the porch.  The last time this job was done S was in charge of it and it was at least 6-7 years ago.  These posts soaked up the stain like a sponge.  J was eager to get started...

a little bit of cardboard proved to be just the thing to keep most of the stain off of the concrete porch.

turns out the cardboard is ineffective when you are jumping to reach the higher parts of a post

in typical J fashion he figured out how many posts there were and then set a goal and did just that many for the day.  He finished 8 the first day and as of this writing has only one left, plus the gate.

Then he asked if he could stain the keypads down by the gate.  Since those are both relatively new, I thought that was a great idea.  So he loaded up his supplies and went down to the gate and took care of that job yesterday.

So far things are working out really well.

Next up... pulling up Evening Shades, i.e. weeds.  Both C & S had 'great memories' of that task and they didn't want J to miss out on that fun.