Having an irrigation ditch at the side of our property also means we have water snakes. The little boys get so excited when we find them up by the house. Luckily, that isn't very often.
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Having the kids home from school means that my food budget nearly doubles, especially with Derek's growing appetite. I got really tired of running out of bread and needing to make special trips into town for a loaf of bread that turned into a full basket of groceries so I searched around until I found a "sandwich bread" recipe. The boys liked it so much, even for toast and sandwiches, that they came to prefer it over the airy store bought bread.
Nathan wanted to make homemade butter the way he had learned at school so we had homemade sandwich bread with homemade butter and homemade raspberry jam.
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Summer nap time is hard to fit in for Hyrum. He doesn't want to take the time to slow down for a nap with all the activity going on around him and for the most part I let it go. There are days though that a nap is a must and it usually means I need to lay down with him for a few minutes until he falls asleep. This particular day though, I must have needed the nap more than he did.
Nathan was so proud to show me the picture that he took of me when Hyrum quietly left the room and informed him that I had fallen asleep with Harrison.
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Derek was very excited to have a summer job but it only took a few days of moving pipe to realize that it was hard, muddy labor with very little pay. Though he didn't like it and wanted to quit he stuck with it through the whole summer. We had to invest in some wading boots for him and we learned the hard way that once wheat hits a certain stage it tears through denim. Derek got tired of having wet boots from moving morning and night so he quickly found a way to get them dried out before the next move.
Though they are showing their "I can't stand moving pipe" faces they actually came home that morning laughing and cheerful. The early morning, the cold, and the mud did not stop them from enjoying each others company and the satisfaction that hard work can bring.
The best thing that came from Derek moving pipe was not the paycheck. I think we put out as much in gas to and from the fields as he earned but the life lessons that he learned were well worth it.
First, he learned how to wake up on his own at a very early hour. I still got up most mornings to make him breakfast but I didn't need to get him out of bed. It was cold most mornings and extremely hot most evenings and he didn't look forward to it but he usually had a good attitude as he left.
The second and most important thing that he learned was that he does not want to do that kind of work for a living. I couldn't help but smile the day he came home soaked, muddy, cold and frustrated at the pipes and pumps that weren't working right and stated "I WILL finish college and have a good career". I never thought that having such a crappy job could motivate him more towards college than any amount of counsel we could give.
The added bonus came during the week that Justin went to work with Derek because the kid that Derek moved pipe with was at scout camp. Justin hated it! He didn't have the best attitude about it and he got to where he didn't want to finish the week out no matter how much money he was making. He did stick with it but was glad when his week was over and also committed to getting the schooling to have a profitable, dry, mud-less career.
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