Teaching the Kids How to Work

When I was growing up I had lazy friends that never had any money, I had friends that worked hard and had money, and I had friends that spent like crazy because their parents had a lot of money.  I believe working hard is good and I'm not a fan of the other two ideas.  Wendy and I decided we want to teach money skills to the kids, so we are helping them learn how to do yard work for money.  This year we thought they could mow lawns.  So we have them mowing lawns at the apartments.  As long as they stay at $20 an hour I rationalized this is good money  for 10 and 11 year-olds, it will teach them to work, and they can learn how to spend money.  So far it has been good.  Especially for Lisa.  She has been going out with friends and the last time they were at U of U she mentioned that her friends like to spend $10 for lunch and that it adds up.  These are good lessons to learn.  But, it has been a big pain in butt because I have been driving the kids to the apartments.  So the pay comes out to $20 an  hour but when you include that my time is involved, it is not such a great deal.  I'm not sure this is all necessary.  I think they work hard doing their sport and therefor perhaps they don't need to mow lawns to learn about money.  I'm trying to figure this parenting thing out.  Most kids are playing games on the computer while Lisa and Eric are working their butt off in the sun playing any kind of ball.  Or, perhaps the apartment thing is a good idea, and it is a good idea for me to give them supervision for safety reasons until next year when the kids can recruit  mowing lawns in the neighborhood. I hardly get on Facebook, but it's amazing how easy it is to get work using Facebook.   Wendy has a good reputation in the neighborhood, and someone posted that they were looking for a babysitter.  Wendy responded that Lisa could do it and now the whole neighborhood texts every week wondering if Lisa can babysit.  I'm sure the same thing goes for lawns.

Lisa- Lisa played in the Bear River Tournament this weekend and she played great.  I always have fun watching her play.  One of the teams we played was really good.  They were hotdogs, and they had one player that was really full of herself.  She hit a shot to center right field and was trying to get an in-the-park home run.  Well, Lisa is a competitor.  The throw came in and there was a huge collision.  Lisa got the girl out, but got banged up with a girl that is two years older.  It makes my heart sink when that stuff happens.  Lisa was shaken up but she was back out the next inning.  Side note- I laugh when parents say they are afraid to put their kids in football. Yes, every football game several kids get banged up. Eric and Lisa have been hurt more times playing competitive baseball and softball than Eric has playing football so far.  If you play sports you are lucky if you have never been banged up.

Lisa at Viewmont High playing orchestra with Canyon Creek Elementary and a couple of other schools.



Lisa at the age she is out growing primary - So every now and again she hangs out with Mom and YW


Eric- Eric is doing all sorts of stuff.  Eric's rec team is fun.






Eric at Book Battles




Reading, math, computer science, and science are Eric's thing.  I wish we could find more things with math and programming.  He blew away all the teams at his school and did good at the Davis County Competition.

David-  David always has something funny to say.

Dad and David at Viewmont






David on first base



I took some days off while the kids were on spring break.  Wendy and I decided to put in a shed in the corner of our back yard.  Lisa and Eric were a big help in putting it together.  Lisa was a huge help.  Even David went with me to pick up gravel for the base of the shed.  It is a nice shed, but the kids have wanted to sleep in it every Saturday we have had it up.  So, it is empty right now and I'm going to let the kids sleep in it as long as they want to.  Then I will fill it up with a ton of stuff.

Wendy


I can't remember what this is.  Lisa and Wendy making breakfast on Easter or making breakfast for Young Women's.  Not sure.   It looks fun though.

Cool picture from Zions- Lisa and Eric


Dad- I found this picture-appears to be Lisa's 9th birthday.

Snakes

I once had an accounting professor tell us that everyone knows bad writing when they read it but not everyone is a good writer.  I was reading some of my older entries on my blog and my writing is pretty poor at times.  I'm glad I don't worry about that or I would never get anything down.




Bear River Classic- Tremonton


Lisa- Last week Lisa played in double headers on Saturday and then again on Monday in  Clinton.  It was fun to be outside in the nice weather to watch her play.  Her team is not very good.  They are playing against older girls and that extra year does make a huge difference at this age.  The coaches said they want Lisa to pitch because their pitching has not been so hot.  So we have been working on that a little, and we will see how it goes.  Even though the team is struggling to win games, the girls are the nicest and most fun girls you could have as teammates.  Lisa could try out for a different team, one that is better, one that is out of town every weekend, and has better coaching.  But, her coaches are nice, she gets to pick where she plays, and she has fun.  Last week the coach took a mini van full of the girls and they went to Logan to see Kylie play Utah State.  When the coach dropped Lisa off the whole van could not stop laughing, they apparently were like that all the way from Logan.  They all just have so much fun.

Eric- Try outs of little league were last week and the comp coaches were all in attendance trying to round off their rosters.  Eric was invited to play on two teams.  I hate telling the coaches he can't play.  I tell them all that Eric really wants to play and that I won't let him.  The truth is that he looks really good for about two months and then he gets tired of it and stops working, which is fine by me.  I would rather he plays all the sports.  He was invited to play on a team and he told the person "My Dad won't let me play."  He never even told me about it, I found out through Lisa. To me, that is a huge compliment of his baseball skills.  To Eric, I really  don't think he cares.  Eric gets really excited to play the sport that is in season.  And he works hard at that sport.  I don't think there is anything wrong with that and I'm glad he has fun.  It appears all the football kids that play baseball got on the same team and Eric is excited to be with his friends.  The coach was one of the assistant football coaches and Eric likes his kid.  He was the quarterback last year.   He will have fun with these guys.
     Eric finished his coding book at his after-school class so now him and two other kids are learning HTML. What's next, C++ by the sixth grade?

David- is into snakes right now.  He walks around the house with his snake book showing me these gross pictures of snakes.  David has the same baseball coach as last year.  I like those guys.  I have not seen them this year because dealing with Lisa is a full time job.  But Wendy tells me all about the team and the shenanigans.  My favorite line from David's coach is " Kids, listen to me, you can screw around all you want in school, but this is baseball, PAY ATTENTION!"  You have to know these guys to know they are not kidding.  There is always something to talk about with all these personalities.  I find it all very entertaining.

Bear River Classic

Rambling

So, I took down my last post because after reading it again I'm not sure it made sense when I was trying to explain my Dad's circle of trust thing.  Things have been fun but busy around here.  I went to the temple with Wendy on our Anniversary Friday night.  That was nice.  It seems like I'm at the stage of life where I always have more questions than answers after attending the temple.  I guess this is a good thing because it has me thinking.  It always humbles me  observing all the patrons engaged in serving others.  A lot of money, time, and resources are dedicated to temple work.  I  know I don't make it a high enough priority right now. Katie gave me a stack of people to work on in our family, and I'm on my second or third year working on it.  I hope she does not give up on me because it seems I have a more spiritual experience as I do work for my own family.
    Lisa is playing softball.  She likes it and I think it is fun too.  Their coach has always kissed-ass up until now.  There was friction this last weekend and it is going to get worse.  I enrolled Lisa in Rec softball because  1) we think it will be fun. and 2) I would like Lisa to play with kids in her own neighborhood.  Her current softball team has one kid from Roy, two from Syracuse, three from Kaysville, three from Farmington, two from Centerville, and two from Bountiful.   I'm wondering how important this is in the big scheme of things.  Also, Lisa (and Eric and David) are talented in academics and music.  I'm wondering if they should be involved in sports that are less competitive so they can focus their efforts in other avenues.  Track and field, swimming, and all the other olympic sports don't require the same commitment as baseball/softball which are insanely competitive.  We went to a UU baseball game yesterday and those athletes are not college athletes.  It's pro-ball under the guise of college athletics.  It was amazing the stuff those athletes can do.  The other team was a division I school  but did not even belong on the same field. Wendy went over and was chatting with some of the Pro scouts that were in attendance and it was fun to listen to a MLB perspective to the game.
     At Sunday school we have a really talented teacher.  She brought up some really interesting thoughts about Joseph Smith.  But, I was also thinking about the youth.  I was watching one of the bishopric members interact with the youth and I was thinking to myself how much fun the guy is and how lucky those kids are to have these leaders that make sacrifices of their time.  The young women leaders are good too and I'm excited for Lisa to attend camp this year.  Lisa has a tournament in Idaho the same time as camp, but both Wendy and I have been discussing not going to the tournament to attend camp.  I think she will have a lot of fun, and when I look back, it was between the age of 12-18 that my testimony of the gospel grew the most in my lifetime.  Lisa played around 130 ball games last year and I don't think we will regret it if it is 124 or what ever because we make her attend camp.