This morning, as we were watching the snow flying outside, Jacob asked if I thought we needed to snow blow the driveway. I told him to go talk to his dad about it. He wandered back, and after he asked me again about snowblowing for about the fifth time, I finally told him he could go out and snow blow. This was him today.
He has always been a worker, that kid. Back when we lived in Texas, the pine trees dropped tons of needles in the heat of the summer. And since pine needles kill grass, we had to rake them up. We returned from vacation to find the yard blanketed in pine needles. Not fun to deal with in 100 plus degree heat, with what felt like 100 plus percent humidity. Joseph would come and go with the work, Katie I don't think picked up a single pine needle, but Jacob just kept going and going. He said over and over again how great it was to be working together. When it was time to go inside (we bagged a total of 16 black garbage bags, probably not all that night), he sobbed and sobbed because he wanted to keep going.
Just last night, I was looking through some albums from when the kids were little. I had come across these pictures. The situation changes, but some things never change. This is when we got our first riding mower. Jacob was not quite two years old here. He loved to just sit on the mower for hours on end.
Joe's dad has a back hoe. When we visited them that winter, all Jacob wanted to do was sit in the backhoe. Literally. All day. Pulling him out brought major tears.
And then, when Jacob was three, Joe took some time around Christmas and did something one on one with each of the kids. He took Jacob to a construction site. Jacob had never had more fun.
I'm pretty sure that within a few years Jacob will be rich because the other kids will pay him to do their chores.
Katie was happy with what Santa brought.
Daddy opens his window scraper with a mitten from Katie
