Community Service Day

Shane and I went to a community outreach day our church put on. His Sunday School teacher was happy to see him!

We got free t-shirts. Shane's was a little large.

It was a beautiful day to be outside. Shane climbed around while we waited for further instructions.

He got up eventually. I wouldn't let him walk back and forth, because the sign seemed wobbly (Sorry, Shane!).

At first, we were supposed to go to a firehouse, but then got switched to yard work. This was a-okay by me. We traveled to a mobile home park south of town. The owner, James, was elderly and had years and years worth of dead leaves and trash around his house.

Some other volunteers were already there. At the words, "There's a ton of cat poop under the leaves," I assigned Shane to be group photographer.

Some of the pictures he took are hilarious.

He zoomed in right away on the source of the cat poop.

He managed to take a few good ones in between random scenery shots.....

....and/or his fingers.

He wandered around more than I liked, but I was busy raking. He didn't go that far.

When the cat poop area was cleared out, I assigned Shane to picking up sticks. He was somewhat helpful, but I didn't expect much from a six-year old. I was glad to have him out in the sun and seeing people help a stranger.

He got another chance to play photographer, too.

He liked James' dog.

A lot.

I took the phone in between for a few photos of my own.

I called Carrie and she brought the truck to help transport the trash. Shane fell asleep.

I dropped Shane off with Carrie and went back to help finish afterward. There was a lot of work to be done.

Shane showered and rested. Carrie baked bread.

You know you've done your fair of physical labor when there's an 8.5 hour gap in between bathroom breaks. I sweat out what I would have pissed out.

I believe it's better to do a good deed in secret. But, at the risk this blog post is my only reward, I wanted to chronicle it. One of Carrie and I's continuing challenges as parents will be to help Shane turn his natural inward, me-me-me focus outward to others. Hopefully, this was one small rep in that exercise. For me, Nana was always good at finding opportunities to help, and Pop was always a good role model in that he never wanted to quit until it was done and done well (Which I often hated as a kid, but respect now -- Colossians 3:23).