Josh Is Learning to Work

Today's post is a "guest" post from an email I received from my mom. Josh went over to her house on Thursday to do some yard work. He is trying to earn money to buy a cell phone. Now, keep in mind, he has an cell phone that uses when he goes to someone's house to spend the night, or if we're out (in case we get separated), so he doesn't NEED a cell phone at all. He has seen a cell phone that he wants. When we got to the store to get it, they had changed the style and he no longer wants that kind. We have debated about the price on another one he wants and I told him that if he wants it, he'll need to pay for it himself. We thought each of our lines got a $100 credit at the end of two years. Turns out only the main line (mine) gets that credit. Because I only get that credit once every two years, I told him that I couldn't give it to him because this is my work phone and that if something happens to it, I'll need to use it to get another phone for me. So, he is working to earn the money to buy this phone he wants. Amazingly enough, the one he wants has changed several times now that he has some of the money. He has earned $30 working for MeeMee. DeeDee gave him a "donation" of $50. He earned $5 for working really hard to clean his room. He gets allowance and has $10 of that. So, we are sitting at $95. Plenty for a phone, but the "FANCY" one he wants is more than that. It remains to be seen how this will all turn out, but, I know that if he has to pay for it, he'll take much better care of it and appreciate it. So, on with the "guest post" from my mom:

I thought you would have blogged about his first big job of cutting down a tree in the hot sun all by himself. He worked very hard all day to buy something he wanted really bad. This was very important to him and he would love to read about it some day in your blog. I know he will never forget how hard he worked. He told me that he wanted to be a landscaper when he grows up that he liked to do this type of work. Even as hard as he worked, he said he had fun and that he had never cut a tree down before. He was so proud of himself when the two trees fell over. I cautioned him how dangerous it is doing that type of work and if you don't pay attention you can get hurt very badly. I remembered my daddy teaching me how to do the same thing I was teaching him to do. I told him that I liked doing that type of work too and maybe I should have been a boy instead of a girl. He kept telling me how good it was looking, and when we finished the fence row I watched him stand back and look at it and then he said how much better it looked. I could see how proud he was of what he had done. He is very smart and can figure things out on his own and has some good ideas on landscaping. He wanted us to set some flowers and I told him I would get some and we could set them later, and yes, that would give what he had done some color. Yesterday I saw a little boy growing into a young man thinking things out for himself and knowing what looks good and what doesn't and even though it was hard work he loved it.

DeeDee got them a new wheelbarrow to carry their limbs in

I asked him why he didn't have a shirt on. He said, "It was HOT!"

Cutting the limbs down to put on "the pile".

Cleaned out fence row

The end of the day pile