“This is so much fun!” This was Jasmine’s reaction to the first 5 minutes of weed pulling this morning. Her job description kept progressively changing. “I want to pull weeds with you.” “I’ll just carry them to the pile while you pull the weeds.” “I’ll stay here and put the weeds in the bag.” Then my favorite: “I need a break to ride my bike.” Somewhere in there I raised the bar to earning $5 if she helps me until I’m done. It was a to-be-continued lesson of perseverance today.

Another area we are working on is finishing a bike ride in a timely manner. The first half of the ride is always a blast! Then we start stopping every minute for a drink of water, an itching body part, or just to check something on the bike.

Teaching my kids lessons like perseverance or endurance is a reminder to me that life lessons take time and are not learned overnight! I’m learning perseverance (and patience) all over again—and this time from the parent perspective. It’s truly a miracle that I survived my own childhood 😄