One of the biggest reasons I garden is for the benefit of our kids.  I want them to know that food doesn’t just come from the supermarket, but that a lot of hard work and effort and the mercy of God goes into every bite we eat.  Recently, they got to complete their bean lesson, which has been a long process from start to finish since beans don’t grow and produce in an hour or two.  You might remember this post about planting the beans.  After the beans were planted, all along we prayed for God to make the plants grow and give us beans.  I explained to them that we could only plant, God had to make them grow.

And then as the garden progressed the weeds came and they got to help hoe the weeds and pick the rocks, both of which they really enjoyed.  You can read more about it in this post back in May.

Now, the first crop of beans has been bearing for a couple weeks.  They like to help pick the beans.  In fact, for the first picking, they did all the picking while I was pulling weeds.  They had a blast picking “the great big daddy beans” and not picking the “little baby beans”.  Granted, the novelty has worn off a little bit since that first time, but they still love to go out and help pick the beans.  And, now we get to thank God for the beans he made grow in our garden!

This is Paul with all the beans he picked
from that first picking.  He insisted on
carrying them all in by himself.

Now, after numerous pickings, we had more beans than we were eating fresh, so it was time to freeze a few.  Also, a new degree of lessons has come across the horizons.  The lesson that you have to work hard for money, and when you have money, you can buy something from the store.  (I cringe about all this.  I loved their innocence, where when they wanted something, they simply asked, “How long until New Year’s?” and let us know they wanted it for a New Year’s present.  Their motivators for doing chores were simple–2 M&M’s, or a candy heart, or a little Tootsie Roll, and their rewards for a job well done (school, memory verses) were putting stickers on a chart.  They were thrilled with all this and it worked very well.)  Andrew thought it was time to introduce this concept.  Paul has his heart set on a special car at Wal-Mart (that costs a whole whopping $13.00) and Hannah says she wants to buy candy.  So, they’ve found some coins in parking lots.  And they ask for jobs to do to earn money.  So, I get to wrack my brain over what they can do that is outside their normal chores to earn money.  And it just breaks my heart to see them so excited over a few coins going into the jar (Andrew wanted transparent banks so they could see the money grow), and Paul thinks and dreams of his car constantly, and he is consumed with the idea of working to earn money, and I know it will be a long, long time until there is enough money in his jar to get that car.  And, that it may not be in the store any more by the time he has enough money saved up.  But, Andrew thinks valuable lessons will come from this, so I’m persevering.  Andrew also suggested that I could pay him in quarters rather than pennies to help him reach his goal faster.  So I made that switch only to discover a new problem.  Paul and Hannah get a whole lot more “whoopie!” out of several coins rather than just one.  So, I’ve compromised and use nickels, so they can get to put 5 pieces of money in the jar instead of just 1.  They don’t understand denominations yet, they just want lots of pieces of money that rattle and jingle in the jar.  (I’m sure they have no use whatsoever for that boring, silent paper stuff!)

So far, their chores have been dusting baseboards and chair-railings in different rooms, picking out some of their clothes from the clean laundry and putting them in the drawer, bringing me dirty dishes and putting them in the dishwasher under my direction, some toy pick-up (but that is more of a usual chore than a paid chore), sweeping sand out of the wagon, and the latest, freezing beans.  Freezing beans was the third chore yesterday, and that was pushing their perseverance.  They performed really well, but I could tell they really wanted to go play and read books, etc., rather than work, but I only had to gently remind them a time or two that they would get some money when it was all done, and they stuck right with it and didn’t complain and finished the job.

Hannah loading her sink of beans
into the blancher.

Paul had a lot more fun with the water
nozzle as he loaded his sink of beans
into the blancher.

Hannah putting her blanched beans
into a bag for the freezer.

Paul putting his blanched beans into
bags for the freezer.

Now, the job is done, and they got the
tremendous joy of putting coins into
their banks (Andrew cut slits in the
lids) and then shaking them so they
would rattle good.

A lot more lessons are growing from the bean project than I expected, now that money is involved.  I hope this all turns out well in the long run, and that my aching heart will not be broken if/when Paul gets deeply disappointed if he can’t get the car as soon as he thinks he might.  So far, he’s holding out well.

Someday, when he is older, I’ll have to teach him about how hard it is for a rich man to get into heaven, and that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Right now money is pretty important to him.

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