Chained to the Rock Pile

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a jailbird chained to the rockpile and doomed to bang rocks all day? Well, if that sounds like fun, I've got the opportunity of a lifetime for you! Today we started taking off the bricks from the back of the house and cleaning them off. Todd chiseled them off, Jacob, Jesse and I chiseled off mortar the best we could, Dallin helped to stack the cleaned bricks and throw away the mortar chunks. It was a dirty job--and we are only about an 8th of the way to having enough bricks cleaned off. I'm pretty sure that this is going to be an ongoing summer task--sort of like picking up rocks before planting grass. Anyway, I'm trying to have a good attitude, but baby, I can think of lots of other jobs that I'd rather do (and need to be done, too).

I also bottled pinto beans, black beans and white beans today. It always makes me happy to have full bottles of food on my shelves. Maybe when the canning season is over (October) I'll take a picture of my fruit room with all of its shelves full. That is always such a great feeling to have full jars and know that I'm done until the next fall.

"Kids do dopey things" moment:
We discovered that Jesse likes to carve with rocks in paint. Particularly in the paint of the truck. Holy cow! I thought Todd was going to go ballistic! The tagging was on the top rail of the pick-up bed on both sides. One side had numbers and on the other side Jesse had carved his name. Good grief. Apparently, I haven't taught my children the art of subtlety. The only saving grace in this ugly episode is that the truck is older than Jesse and isn't without a few dings. What kind of a consequence do you give for this kind of behavior? Jesse was mortified at Todd's reaction, and I think a little surprised that he had carved in the paint. I'm wondering about an out-of-body experience here. Who knows?