Industry

I have three industrial-strength garbage bags in my drive. I've had them there since the work was done on our basement this winter. Since I have a use in mind for that portion of the driveway, I had thought I would just haul them to the rear of the drive, until such time as I could arrange pick-up for them.

Ha. I knew they'd be heavy, so I braced legs and back, got a firm grip, and heaved upward. And...

nothing happened.

Ye gods.

That thing did not shift one single millimetre. I figure each of those bags much weigh a couple hundred pounds. (Millimetres and pounds. Yes, indeed. I weigh myself in pounds, but temperature is only Celcius. Short distances are millimetres and centimetres, long distances are miles. Kitchen measurements are completely interchangeable. I am the product of my pan-conversion education. Started school in Imperial, graduated in metric, I am a truly Canadian mish-mosh of measurement.)

What to do? I checked out a couple of those outfits that move stuff like that. I can get it moved, all right... for about $200.

Huh.

But you know what they say! A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. So, I figured, the shifting of a few hundred pounds of dirt and rock begins with a single bucket.
A single bucket, three little plastic shovels and three willing toddlers. I didn't really think they'd accomplish anything significant, but at least it would be a Project, a toddler-friendly activity that would move me a little to my end goal of a junk-free driveway. I didn't really think we'd get very far, but it's Something Interesting for a spring morning.

I was wrong.
Really. These kids filled that bucket over and over again, and each bucket was dumped under the back porch. My driveway was simply buzzing with industry. Their interest never flagged, their focus never wavered. After a while, they'd shifted enough that I could lift the remainder of the bag easily, and pour the contents out under the porch.

One down, two to go!
They were totally into this, immersed in the project for a solid 40 minutes. I thought it was a matter of loving "shubbles" and digging, and for Dominic and Nora that's probably what it was, but when Milan greeted Eliana as she hopped off the school bus, I discovered that for him, it went far beyond merely grubbing about in the dirt.

"Hey, Ellie!" he crowed, excited and proud. "Guess what? This morning I did REAL work!"

He knew it wasn't merely busy-work (though in all honesty, that's pretty much what I thought it would be when we started out). It wasn't just mucking about in the dirt. He was Accomplishing Something. "I did REAL work!"

And you know what? He really did!