You know, it just doesn’t seem like Autumn until you’ve raked some leaves.

When we bought our 3 acres, there were no trees on it – except for a few pines in the back corner. We’ve planted many fruit trees and several nut trees, but they are still very small and don’t produce enough leaves to make it even worth raking.

Yesterday, Joyce (Farmer Frazier’s wife) called to ask if the children could come and help her rake the leaves out of her yard. I had about a million and a half things to do (and another two million things for the children to do), but put a smile in my voice and told her we’d be right over 🙂

The children were working great until Joyce made the mistake of bringing out a bowl of tootsie rolls. Then of course, jumping in the leaves was not nearly so appealing. There is a verse that is often repeated at the Jonas house, “You don’t work, you don’t eat!” So despite many trips to look into the bowl of candy, the leaves were eventually finished.

Leaf raking gave another opportunity to draw insights into the way our family works. The leaves had to be raked into a pile, loaded onto a sheet, and transported to the dumping area.

Cole would rake into a central pile, working in a circle around the pile. Brett raked in lines. She had a perfect row of leaves and a nice clean rectangle of yard when she was finished. Cole was efficient and raked twice the area. Brett raked her leaves twice as far, but it was neat and orderly when she was done.

Emery and Greyden raked with Daddy and helped transport the leaf sheet. Fletcher mainly jumped in the leaf pile and threw leaves into the air. Hewitt mostly sat in the swing. And Indigo walked around whacking people in the head with her rake.

Jim just kept working getting the job done. Me? I sat and held Jade. And kept the children out of the candy. No, I didn’t eat any candy – it wasn’t chocolate 😉