My cleaning crew

Colsen and Rayna were apparently born with the love-to-clean gene. (I think that ones skips a generation?) It's either they were born with it, OR I've done a good job adapting the Economics principle that says something like: things that are rare become more valuable. I clean so rarely that when I announce on a particular day that that is my intention, Colsen and Rayna get so excited and beg to help!

(So maybe the reason Strider does NOT leap forward to help me is because I kept the house tooooo clean when he as younger? Could that be it? Yeah, I didn't think so.)

Anyway whatever the reason, I am very, very thankful that they love to clean so much! They actually beg for a spray bottle and a rag and get furious when I take them away. So I've learned to just fill some bottles with diluted vinegar and send them on their way. That plan does backfire occasionally, like when they "clean" the wooden piano bench for 15 minutes before I realize what they're doing.... But then I decide I can put up with it, and someday we'll just have all the wooden furniture in our house re-finished at once, after all the kids are grown. In the meantime, I'm happy to get all the help I can get.

Colsen, especially, will work and scrub for long periods of time, getting all sweaty and everything... and still will want to keep going. He reminds me of how my brothers were growing up in that way. (And they both still have strong work ethics, so I'm hoping Colsen's will continue into adulthood as well!) He especially gets very excited about hooking whatever tools he's using onto his shorts. In fact, any job is fun as long as there are tools involved...

A couple nights ago he insisted on "helping to make dinner." And he also insisted on being able to put a spatula in the apron he had found to wear.

When the meal (hash brown omelets) was ready, he proudly carried the plates to the table, annoucing, "I made a GREAT dinner, guys!"

Thankful for my little busy-bee workers. :)