Bryce Makes Me Smile...

Yesterday, after we spent the bulk of the day having fun with cousins and grandparents (Josh worked all day so we tried to have fun without him which is never easy...geez I love that guy!), we came home and needed to get a few chores done.  One job that really need to be handled was mowing the lawn.  It has been raining a lot here this past week and the grass was really unruly. 

We hire our children to mow the lawn (one of the few jobs we pay for...mostly we believe since they live here they should help take care of the place, although they do earn a small weekly allowance if they do their chores).  PJ, age seven, mowed the front yard which is pretty square and simple.  I stayed out with him because he is new to this job (we don't usually ask kids to try to mow until age eight, but he WANTS to do it -- he likes to feel big).

Once PJ was done, I moved the mower to the backyard for Bryce (who is nearly 11).  When I called him out he was less than thrilled.  The sky was getting a bit cloudy and dark and he asked if he could stop if it started raining.  I said, "Sure, if you are done," because I thought he would stop if he felt a single raindrop.  I was pretty sure he could finish before any rain started if he really got to it.

Well, when he was just over halfway done, it started to sprinkle a bit.  I was watching him out the window (young children maneuvering powerful tools still makes me nervous, even if Josh says that is silly).  the sprinkle started to get a bit heavier, although it wasn't really heavy rain.  I could see that Bryce was a bit frustrated so I grabbed his jacket and his dad's round brimmed hat and I trotted outside. 

I expected Bryce to get upset at me and tell me that these wouldn't really help, he just wanted to be done.  I expected him to pout and mutter under his breath how much he hated his mom. 

He didn't.

He smiled and sincerely thanked me.  He finished the job and came inside in a great mood.  The first thing he said when he came in was, "Mom, that was so nice of you to bring those things out for me, thanks a lot."  I nearly cried.  I felt so proud of my boy.  What an incredible young man.  I'm grateful to have this kid as mine.