When You Say 'Get Dirty' ... ?

Since I make my living sitting behind a desk (for the most part anyway), I am often very grateful when the opportunity to "get dirty" comes along.
I rather enjoy working in the yard, especially when the temperature is reasonable and the physical work allows me to see progress at the end of hours of effort (sometimes hours of effort at any desk job can end with no discernible "progress" to show for it).

Last fall I snapped the picture to the right after a day of moving dirt and rocks and whatever else was on the list.  I found it amusing that, despite wearing socks and shoes, my feet themselves were still caked in dirt and grime.  I am confident these socks never came clean (that's okay though because I always need work socks and work shoes and work shirts and work pants and so on).

As Spring has sprung, I am looking forward to getting started on (and hopefully completing) this year's backyard landscaping projects.  I always sleep very soundly after a day at work in the yard, and those showers afterward are always the best!


Song Of The Day:
When I think of working in the yard I find myself in a farmer-type mentality, and that always leads me to country music.  Brad Paisley has been a staple in the country music scene for well over a decade now and his song "Mud On The Tires" is a personal favorite of mine.  I like the message of "real life is dirty" because I think we are all guilty of being too "pretty" sometimes.  In fact, Brad's song "I'm Still A Guy" is a great tune too and I think that fits here as well.  Enjoy the two-fer on this Tuesday!

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Why Is Yardwork More Fun Than Chores ?

With the warmer weather slated for this week, I felt it would be a good use of time to get started on the LONG list of yard work projects today.  Trimming the bushes was more work than I thought it would be, but it felt nice to get it done.

As I moved to the backyard, I quickly found that basically all of my children that can walk (6 of the 7) wanted to be outside "helping daddy."  I was moving retaining wall stones in anticipation of clearing the dead stuff from the flower boxes, which left trails of dirt and crumbled stone parts all across the back porch.  The 3 older kids were helping to uncover the stones and carry them to our staging/stacking area.  Bless Brooklyn's heart for being tenacious enough to carry some stones by herself because they are heavy!

And then a funny thing happened ... Ben and Brooklyn began to argue over who got to sweep off the porch/patio area.  They both wanted to do it.  This is not funny by itself, but in context is basically absurd.  You see, in the house the "sweep the kitchen" chore is by far the least desireable among my older kids.  In fact, they often fight about who did it last so they can avoid it being their "turn" again for as long as possible.

So I didn't have a picture of the kids
helping outside ... so here's Baby #007
Spencer Joseph @ 3 months old.  :)

It got me wondering ... why are "outside" chores more desireable for my kids than "inside" chores?  Is this a long-term situation where the kids will be arguing to help all summer?  Or is it just exciting now because it is new, different, and "with daddy" instead of alone?
Whatever the reason, I'll take the help as long as I can get it!

Song Of The Day:
Today's song is "Tough Little Boys" by Gary Allan.  I chose this because Josh Jr and Ben worked pretty hard ... and they both volunteered to help (and were sad when I said we were done for the day).  This showed me how "tough" they are, but it also turned me into a little bit of a "big baby" because they're growing up so fast!

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