As some of you know, I like my skids and they are generally good kids. One of my only gripes about them is they are a bit lazy, which I know comes with the age (Sd11 and SD14) They do not actively seek to help out around the house, which I know I didn't at that age.

I told SO in advance that he needed to tell the girls that they will be bagging leaves this weekend. I was very serious about it....last time they were here he and I bagged leaves while they sat inside and watched TV, and I was not about to let that happen again!

SO told them during breakfast, and they instantly started complaining. SD11 suddenly was sick in bed and SD14 went for a long shower and she HAD to study for finals so she couldn't possibly. Meanwhile SO went outside and started leaf blowing. I went in and said "Girls, please be ready in a half hour when your dad is done blowing leaves. It will be 2 very small piles, and it shouldn't take you more than a half hour" A few grumbles but they did it, and went out without being asked again. They picked up the leaves and goofed off for half of the time, which is fine by me. I went out and swept and then we all came in for hot chocolate and had a great time joking around.

After we dropped them off SO was like "Wow, they didn't die from manual labor! We should do this more often!" Uh yea I've been saying that for a year. Thankfully unlike many of you SDs are generally clean....they make their bed and clean up their room before leaving on the weekend, put their dishes in (or at least near) the dishwasher, no dirty tampons or underwear or anything like that around lol. They are generally good kids, so it will be nice to have them clean around the house a bit more. There is no reason their father and I should be the only ones doing chores!