Enough.

I decided to go visual with my boys this morning.  

Lining up 13 of our wooden beads, I said, "If you get up at 7am, and go to bed at 8pm, that's 13 hours in a day.  I am asking you for 1 hour of cleaning/chore time, and your school work should take no more than 2 hours."

I pulled aside 3 beads, showing them they were left with 10 hours of play time.  My hope was to alleviate some of the whining I've been hearing about how "we had to work alll daaay".  Boo hoo. 

I also hoped to help them move along on their work instead of dragging around too long.

I think they got the message, but then I went all softie on them.

Our neighbor was having some work done today.  With workmen! And big heavy equipment! And digging!

So our boys spent the entire morning outside with their own construction toys and a front seat view (from our own yard) of all the work.

By the time they came in for lunch Dale and Alan were both talking about jobs in construction when they grow up.

We did get some work done in the afternoon, and then Gramps came over to help with a little fencing project, a little enhancement for the dog we should have named "Houdini".  

So far so good, but time will tell.

I hope my boys learned today that there are plenty of hours in each day, and it's up to us how we fill them.  Looking back, it is a nice reminder for myself as well!