My parents have always raised my siblings and I with a good work ethic. They wanted us to know how to work and to not be lazy...something we did not always appreciate. Now that I am an adult, I am thankful for the opportunities they gave us to do jobs around the house. It gave me a sense of accomplishment and I also learned so much from them.

I was thinking back to one particular summer when I was younger. My parents have a house in the country and they own over 30 acres. When they first moved to this house, the back yard looked like a hilly field...tall weeds, huge rocks and overgrown brush. My dad wasn't even able to mow it (he didn't own an ExMark but if he had, it probably would have worked great!) because it was too overgrown. So he got to work on it and leveled a good portion of the back yard area and totally revamped it into a wonderful back yard. There were two huge hills that made for fantastic sled riding in the winter and also a great place to ride a bicycle down the hills.

This particular summer though, my dad's riding lawn mower broke down. He was having serious issues fixing it and while he was tinkering with it, the lawn was looking very overgrown. So, he went out and purchased 3 self-propelled push mowers. His bright idea was to have my siblings and I mow the entire back yard with the push mowers. We were all VERY excited and got right to work. Well, the fun wore off after about 1/2 hour of pushing those stupid lawn mowers in the hot sun and the humidity. However, because there were three of us doing it, it really didn't take too long at all.

Even though it was hard work we learned how to enjoy it and the exercise was wonderful. I remember when daddy finally fixed his riding mower...we were all SO excited!!! My dad was smart though, and didn't always use the riding mower. Occasionally, he would tell us to go out and mow the lawn purely for the purpose of teaching us that hard work is important and sometimes, a necessary part of life. To this day I am thankful for my dad and how he taught his children about working. In today's society there are far to many people who are lazy and are looking for handouts all because they were never taught and don't care to learn.

I am now a parent and am teaching my children the same thing my father taught me...that learning how to work and do a job right is important and will one day yield wonderful benefits!