Start Today!

When did our moods begin controlling our needs? I can understand our moods directing our actions to a point, but our needs as well? Confused? I was at first ...but think about it. The toilet needs to be cleaned...four days later ...the toilet still needs to be cleaned. Why didn't I clean it? I didn't feel like it...I wasn't in the mood to clean it. HMmmmmmm..This is bad. I am thirty something and I sound like a teenager. You know ...when your Mom said "why didn't you clean your bedroom like I asked?" and you said "I don't know...I guess I didn't feel like it".

Okay this is how I see it , the early settlers had to work hard to survive. If Pa didn't plow the field then he couldn't plant the crops that he and Ma would harvest . If there wasn't any harvest there would be nothing in the cold cellar , nothing to can....basically nothing to eat and the family would die of starvation! If Ma didn't shear the sheep, spin the wool, sew clothes the family would be without clothing. They HAD to do what was needed no matter what their mood was. Can you hear it! " Oh Pa, I don't feel like canning this year...let the crop rot in the fields...ain't no sense in harvesting it...let's just stay in bed all day and watch the candles flicker." Yeah...no... before there was Wal-Mart and convenience stores there was a majority of hard working Americans. I understand that still today many people across the world work everyday just to survive. And then there is some of us who work when we feel like it. That makes me very afraid...afraid for my children's future. How do we teach our children to value work? How do we teach our children that many things must be done whether we feel like doing them or not? My answer is ......to lead by example.... ie: When it snows, you shovel, and , if you shovel periodically throughout the storm the job is less cumbersome. More time consuming , but less cumbersome. This is how I handle a New England snow storm- my kids know this. I can't think of a single time that I was in the mood to shovel....but I did it anyway..I had too.

However, I don't think we can rely on the future to guide our children towards a better work ethic. We need to start now, today. My children have seen and helped me pick, prepare and can fruit every year, we have planted gardens and ate entire meals from our home grown crops. We bake from scratch -bread included. I have heard comments from other children that they didn't realize making bread was so easy and remarks on how homemade bread tastes so much better than store bought. I have to admit there has been times that strawberries have rotted on my counter top because I didn't feel like making jam. In hindsight that makes me feel sad. I want to hold on to the precious things my Mother (40 years my senior) taught me, I want to teach other children those wonderful tasks of creating your own foods from scratch. And, most importantly...I don't ever want rotting fruit on my counter top again.