Everyday there are chores to be done on a farm. I mean, everyone everywhere has chores, but the amount of chores differs along with the means of accomplishing those chores.

We include animal and outside chores in our daily routine also. But for the most part, those chores are done by Brent and I.  There are a couple of animal chores that Cade is wanting to include into his daily routine though.  He wants to get chickens.

I don’t really mind the thought of having chickens.  I have done some research and this will be something Cade can do even as his MD progresses. So far he hasn’t talked Brent into it yet, but he is working on it.

We also discovered he LOVED gardening.  We have big plans for next year’s raised garden bed.  This year we didn’t have a diagnosis when the planting occurred and so the boys’ garden was in the ground.  But he still loved it.  He was so proud of his carrots and tomatoes!  We started small plus we had some major hail but he still grew something.

We do have a handle on most of the outside chores that Cade helps with.  We may have to lift him into vehicles and tractors, but the actual chores for those are fun for Cade.  He loves to be outside and that makes those chores even more fun.

The area that so far has taken the biggest hit is the inside chores.  We have always had chores for the boys to contribute to our household.  I’m going to tell you though that they don’t always do their chores well in the house, but they have always been a part of what the boys must do.

We had gradually been adding more responsibility to the chores over the years.  The chores have changed over the years but always for the sake of making the boys more independent.

Now, the chores are changing but this time, the chores will be less for the boys but more for me.  I’m not going to lie.  This transition has been rough.  I’ve mentioned in a previous post that our bedrooms are upstairs and our laundry is downstairs.  One big chore I had been working on with the boys was laundry.

Before diagnosis, the boys were responsible for taking dirty laundry downstairs and putting their cleaned and folded laundry away in their bedrooms.  They would also go down and switch the laundry from the washer to the dryer.  We were even beginning to teach the boys how to start the loads in the washing machine.  With stairs being Cade’s kryptonite, these chores were no longer a possibility for him.

At first I tried having Cole take dirty laundry downstairs.  I would do the washing and drying and folding.  After folding the laundry, I would place everyone’s clothes in their own piles and then the intention was that the laundry would be taken upstairs and the boys would put it away when we would take them up a few minutes early for bed.

Well that was definitely NOT the answer.  We would get home late in the evening so the laundry would stay in piles in the living room.  Then the boys thought that it was really handy to have their clothes in the living room so they would rummage through the pile of laundry from the night before to find whatever they wanted to wear.

So now I am back to doing the laundry, including putting it away.  This is the way it has to be for my benefit.  Cole still helps take dirty laundry downstairs and switches loads from the washer to the dryer for me but that is it.  I do the rest.

The other chores that the boys are responsible for have been largely unaffected…for now.  But for as long as it has taken to get this one chore figured out, I am dreading the day of more modifications.

Blessings.  Lynnette