Perseverance practice.... Not great results

So, appropriate for this month's character trait focus of "perseverance" at our house, we had a midterm test this morning, albeit unplanned.

Time has been way too scarce for Pete and me lately -- we've both been saying we need about 20 hours of uninterrupted time to get everything we want to do done. So this morning we realized that with Pete back at school all week now, and one or both of us gone each evening for the foreseeable future, we don't know how we're going to get things like mowing the lawn done. I announced I would mow the lawn this morning. (Colsen laughed out loud when I said that, saying, "The LADY is going to do it??")

It was tricky getting the timing just right since I had 3 goals: mow after the grass is no longer wet, mow before it gets too hot and steamy, and mow before Miles had to go down for a nap.

I eventually had to just settle for meeting one of those goals since Miles was crying too much inside. Outside we went!

And of course, once I got everyone to the bathroom, shoes on, out the door, in the stroller (Miles), etc., I couldn't get the lawnmower to start.

I refused to give up, now that we were all out there, so I called Pete and he told me to tip the mower on its side and prime it like that. Getting very filthy, I did just that, to no avail. Then I even figured out how to add more gas, still to no avail.

By then I was extremely sweaty, angry and frustrated.... and after realizing I had been growling, grunting and grumbling for the last 5 minutes, it dawned on me that my kids were watching very closely how I was dealing with this struggle... And I was failing the test.

But I persevered a little longer... pulling out the electric mower that we had rescued from our neighbor's garbage months earlier. (I could hear Pete's yells in my head, "No! Not the electric mower! It does a terrible job!!" "Too bad," I yelled silently back, "I need to mow something!")

The electric mower is not all the fun it's cracked up to be. After starting it and having it stop because one of the plugs had come undone (2 extension cords involved) approximately 37 times, I was about to just get scissors out to finish the lawn instead. Much frustration, much sweat, and much failing at persevering gracefully.

Then Strider announced he wanted to try it. Go to it, my son! I was so proud of him -- his first lawnmowing job! The next 10 minutes were filled with yells from him, over the sound of the mower, alternating between, "MOM! Maybe I could do this as a business! This is awesome!" and "I hate this lawnmower! I am NEVER doing this again!" Finally, despite my loud entreaties to "persevere!" he marched inside.

Meanwhile, I had been using the time to try and teach Rayna to ride her 2-wheel bike. More sweat, more frustration (times 2), a little success.... but in the end, she, too, marched inside.

So back to mowing I went, this time with a little better sense that I needed to lead the example in perseverance. As I went back and forth across the lawn, Colsen kept up a running dialogue with me as he narrated his life as a panda in pursuit of bamboo. "Uh huh, " I had to keep yelling, with the occasional, "No, don't put that in your mouth!" and "No, don't climb on that!"

Later, when I told Colsen/Panda to put his bike away, I was afraid he, too, was choosing to give up when he said, "No, I'm not a panda anymore!" Then he followed it up with, "I'm a gorilla."

Miles, thankfully, just slept through it all!

But the greater part of the Frank family clearly needs more practice in perseverance! And the 10 minutes I took to write this are up -- I need to get back to the rest of my list.