As our first two days of school ended, I was met with a “please stop sending me things on Twitter” edict from two teachers. Both claimed they didn’t have the time or the inclination to go through all the “stuff” that I’d been sending them. Between that, and the fact that we now have three different schedules floating around (none of which we are happy with yet have to pick one), needless to say I was not in a good mood.

Then I remembered our roofers. We live on an acreage with some outbuilding who are on their last gasps. This summer, the tin on our larger building (where we keep the majority of our animals) started to peel back, so being the rich teachers we are, we threw a little money at it, hoping to keep it with us a few more years. We’ve had this crew come out before, and they are wonderful. Two years ago, when they roofed the house, the my daughters made them coffee cake and lemonade, and that sealed the deal. They worked hard that summer, and did a wonderful job.

This job was but a drop in the bucket for them. They said it was a 15 sheet job for them, which was about 10% of the job they were at previously, so they were done in a day. But was struck me was their attitude. There were bats, hornets, and angry birds (hee) flying around. It was a 90+ degree day with high humidity levels, and here were these guys, rough and tumble sitting on the top of an old rickety barn belting out Taylor Swift and Darius Rucker at the top of their lungs. When my daughters went out to do their chores, they complimented them on the “fine looking chickens” they were growing. They were polite, considerate of their surroundings, and worked like the dickens to get done.

What if we worked with that passion in our own job? I keep going back to the, high noon, singing “it’s a love story, baby just say yeah!” It echoed throughout our little valley and while they howled with laughter, they worked, hard. Those images brightened my mood, and lightened my load as my daughters came to my room.

Life could be worse, so if your back is heavy or co-workers are on your case, remember, teach like a roofer! 🙂