Our oldest son is growing into a young man. It's so cute and so sad at the same time. I asked him to pose for me, so I could take this picture. This captures so many elements that make up 'him'. He is always well dressed, shirt always tucked in and he prefers solid color shirts (black, brown, navy blue) these are more manly, like Papa. He's always got a belt on *with* his wallet. We gave him this wallet last Christmas. He was genuinely excited to have such a grown up leather wallet. Lastly, are his new Carhartt jeans, another 'like Papa' garment.




After he finished his school work today, he went out and mowed the lawn.



T2's job was to rake the grass clippings and feed them to the cows. T3 joined him in the fun.

Now to deliver this 'pizza' to the cows.

Yum yum!

Cutting kindling

This is one of T1's chores. He keeps our supply of kindling stocked. Or at least enough for the next fire. When my husband told me that he was training him to cut kindling last fall, this mama was a little bit on the nervous side. My baby with an axe?!

But he is growing into a young man and young men need skills.

Manly skills.

We did make it through the winter without any accidents. He will be 11 this spring. Some of his other chores include: cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, sweeping, laundry, dumping compost bucket, tending to his chickens, filling the woodbox, mowing the lawn and whatever else Papa is doing.

Our 8 year old: cleaning room, cleaning bathroom, vacuuming the hardwood floors, emptying the dishwasher, sweeping, feeding Jack (dog), getting the mail, filling the woodbox and helping Papa.