Mr. Miyagi style

Ever since my brothers and I were little, my parents always found unique ways to teach us valuable life lessons....Mr. Miyaga style. Much like in the movie, The Karate Kid, many of these lessons came with a task such as washing the car, mowing the lawn, cleaning the pasture, or weeding the garden....I can hear Mr. Miyaga now..."wax on, wax off".

It was a family rite of passage when you became old enough to mow the lawn...(and we're not talking riding lawn mower here) ....and this was of course only after your several year term of car washing and cow poop duty. Lawn duty was a big deal because you got $20 a week....(this was a 2-3 hour job). Regardless of the task at hand, dad always taught us to do a good job and if we didn't....he would firmly but gently make us do it over....In fact, his phrase, "if you're going to do something, do it right the first time" is forever etched in my mind. In addition to teaching us kids to work hard he always taught us to be kind, play fair and to do your part. I don't think I realized it at the time, (like Daniel in the movie) but those menial chores actually taught me things like patience, kindness, honesty and team work. This past weekend was no exception. Our family got together over the Easter weekend and my dad, having recently purchased a new rototiller, decided we should have a lesson on how to operate it. As you can see from the picture, there is some definite team work going on here....by the time dad was done "teaching" the boys how to operate the rototiller, the garden tilling was nearly done. Way to go dad!

Check out the pic below for a close up version of the new rototiller!