The Goodness of Chores

I think we're getting pretty good at bread-baking.  Every two days we grind four-and-a-half cups of wheat with our fancy new pedal grinder.  Often my teenagers will sit with a book pedaling away.  This grinder makes a finer flour which makes a nicer loaf.  I get it all mixed and kneaded, let it rise, and bake it.   Fresh bread with Christina butter is a regular indulgence.

Our pediatrician says that children who have chores grow up happier and more responsible.  Our children have a lot of chores.  Each morning begins with everybody doing something — the older ones heading out with us to clean the cow shed, walk the cows, milk Christina, and get out hay, while a younger one scrambles some eggs and makes oatmeal.  The girls take turns feeding the chickens and getting them up.   They grind flour, churn butter, and help water the cows every other day.   Each evening two girls head out with my husband to milk and clean the shed while another child gathers eggs and closes the chickens up.

Each time we work outside, all or most of the children are outside helping.  Today was bright and warm and we finally got the leaves off the back yard.  The girls raked leaves off the patio and into the yard while my husband vacuumed them up with the lawn mower and dumped them in the garden.

Our lifestyle requires that everybody work and contribute.  Sometimes the kids gets overwhelmed, but most of the time they carry a sense of being needed, of being effective, and of being a real contributor to their family.  They have developed a low tolerance for silly stuff, something I've admired in "farm kids" for a long time.  They are truly responsible, often reminding us what needs to be done (like it's time to move hay).  Those are things that money can't buy.