It is almost fall, and we have not piled our firewood. Dad and Mom were generous to have offered to us some of their wood since spring. However, Gary had been busy working on our house. So the piles of wood at Mom's had been exposed to rains this summer. They are all wet now. We needed to stack them up and allow time for drying prior to using them to fuel our furnace during the winter. So now we have another thing to do, and what a good way to share moments with the children. Why?

I took the opportunity to teach them the importance of physical activity (exercise) to the body while we all worked on the pile. While lifting wood and lugging them to the garage, I taught them proper body mechanics (good posture, not putting strain on the lower back, when to inhale and exhale during exertion and relaxation); pointed to them what group of muscles were developed as they lifted the pieces (biceps) and as they walked up the steep incline of our doorway (quadriceps); (This photo below shows us working on the second tier.)

teaching them how to prepare for the future (why do we pile the wood now when it is not yet winter? why do we need fire during winter?), albeit immediate; teaching them some basic laws of physics (they need to keep proper alignment of the wood so that the pile won't tend to fall down).(Photo below shows that we have finished with the third tier of wood pile.)

I used this as an opportunity to express my gratitude for helping in that chore (You did at terrific job! I am so proud of you!), as an opportunity to let them experience teamwork and its value, especially within the family. One thing that motivated them in this not-so-pleasant chore was my helping them, and my lectures about how the body reacts to physical stress: that bones and muscles are built up not by spending hours in front of the TV, but by putting them to work, such as this. (It was more effective in Patrick as he begins to enter puberty, and that in the past summer vacation, he has lost probably 1 to 2 inches off his waist. He had been receiving praises even from my in-laws about how he has trimmed down. I beamed at telling them how good the boys are at eating their veggies (of course, that comes with protein sources as well). (Here are the three of us posing in front of our job well-done.) I AM SO PROUD OF MY SONS.