He dropped off the first load Monday evening just before Grant was supposed to come home from work. We had just finished dinner, and the girls were so excited to see Grandpa. We went out and watched as Grandpa unloaded the truck in our driveway. Before he was even gone, Eleanor was stacking wood on the sidewalk leading to our door. My first thought was to let the wood wait until Grant could get around to putting it in the garage where it would stay dry. But as I watched my busy little worker bee in action, knowing she had no intentions of quitting what she was doing to go back inside, I decided we might as well make all her work productive. I cleared a little space in the garage and told her where to stack it. I alternated between working one-handed, holding a squirmy Phaedra and working while trying to watch/chase after Phaedra after I let her down. Eventually, I gave up and put Phaedra in the Baby Bjorn, which didn't make her very happy.
Grant was due home any minute, so I didn't figure we would work for very long before he got home and we started packing kids off to bed. It turned out that Grant ended up coming home later than usual, and by the time he was home, we almost had the whole load stacked. Eleanor loved every minute of it. She kept telling me proudly, "We are hard workers, huh?" Grant took Phaedra inside and ate dinner while Eleanor and I finished stacking the load of wood. Then, since it was already bedtime, I scrapped the FHE lesson I had planned and we talked briefly about service and how we had done Daddy a service.
The next evening was when Grant's dad droppped off the second load. We didn't put any of it away that night because it was raining and the kids needed dinner, so I just put a tarp over the wood. The next day, Eleanor was anxious to help me put away the wood. That day, it was like playing red light-green light. We would go out and start stacking just a few minutes before it would start to pour down rain. So we went in the house and watched the sky until we could go out again. We got about half of it stacked. Phaedra was better that time to play close to the wood and not get into too much trouble.
Eleanor loved "working hard" together, and asked me first thing the next morning if we could go "wooding" again. She kept wanting to wear gloves so she wouldn't get splinters, but the adult sized gloves are really hard for her to use. I had seen child sized gardening gloves in stores, but that was only in springtime. I went and got her some extra-small baseball gloves on sale that have leather on the palms and fingers. She just loved them. She kept begging me all that day to go wooding, but I was too busy with other things to go out and work with her. As soon as Grant got home, he asked her to go out and work with him. She was so happy. Phaedra joined them and had lots of fun doing what she had done the day before: playing with sharp sticks. They got it all stacked. As I watched them work, I got a big lump in my throat. I just love when something as mundane as stacking wood turns into a fun family experience.
The stack. This is mostly just the first load. Eleanor had to stand on a stool to reach the top.
Pausing for loves.
Playing with sticks.
Hard workers.
Showing off her new gloves.
Who wood have ever thought that the girls wood have had so much fun with this. I know who to call the next time I need would stacked!
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