In honor of Labor Day...

My kids went to work. Yes, that's right, but this time it was a job they wanted and not one we made them do. Last week, Ben asked the farmer who owns the land behind our house if he could pick peppers for him. The farmer talked to me and said he would let him. He said he would put a big bin at the end of the field that the kids could fill. They would have buckets to take with them as they picked, fill part way and then dump in the larger bin. Once the big bin was full the farmer said he would pay them $100. Ben's eyes almost jumped out of his head but he was in complete control. He was so excited and decided it would be faster if his older sisters helped him. We all went out Monday morning to meet with the farmer so he could show everyone how to do the job the right way. He emphasized that we needed to be careful not to break the plants and showed the right size of pepper to pick. The kids were all excited. We have five buckets, one for each kid. I worked with Kemiah, who actually did a decent job for about 1 hour. The rest of us worked for about 2 1/2 hours that morning until we stopped at noon for lunch. After lunch it was only Ben and Marissa who went back out. After talking with Kevin after lunch he suggested the best way to be able to rate their work and pay for the peppers picked. I shared his idea with the kids. They would fill their bucket full and then I would dump it for them and keep track of how many full buckets I dumped for each child. Once the bin is full we'll see how many buckets it took to fill it and then figure out how much each bucket is worth. Then we can pay each child fairly for the number of peppers they picked (or buckets they filled). The one catch: they are jalapeno peppers so they have to be careful not to stick their fingers in their eyes or mouth or anything like that. Today Emily accidentally got some juice in her eye and it was awful painful. Other than that the kids have done great. I even enjoyed taking some pictures of the flowers and plants, as well as my hard working kidos! Did I mention that the weather took a turn to the cold side on Monday?! It was chilly, cloudy, and windy all at the same time. We were just glad it didn't rain. It did warm up as the day went on but it was a hard start and I thought the kids would quit but they toughed it out and bundled up!