Just over a month ago Jason and I sat down with the kids for Family Home Evening and talked about making goals. We talked about how goals make us better people and that they also teach us to work hard and try new things. Goals, while not always super fun or easy, are always worth making. Once the kids understood the purpose of goals I showed them a 5 lb. bag of rice. I explained that our ward was collecting rice for hungry families and that we needed to make a goal of how much rice we were going to donate as a family. I told them the ward goal was 500 lbs. then asked how much they wanted to collect.
"700 Pounds!" was their response.
700 pounds? Jason and I knew this was a tall order to fill but we were not going to discourage their lofty goal. So after some talking the kids decided that they would in fact collect 700 pounds of RICE. The first thing they did was make a flyer with daddy that they could hand out. Next, they made 400 copies of that flyer.
Once the flyer's were ready they hit the streets. They knocked on peoples door's and explained their project to anyone and everyone who would listen. They gave up their Saturday's, Sunday afternoons and Monday evenings for a few weeks and delivered 360 flyer's to homes in our community. They worked hard. They gave up their free time and they enjoyed being together.(sorry, I can't get this to rotate)
Then the RICE started coming in. And boy did it ever!(Side note: Jason and I both knew the kids could get 700 pounds of RICE but we thought it would be a close call with their 4 week goal. Boy, were we ever wrong!!)
The kids started receiving 2-5 calls a day to go pick up RICE. Whenever they got a call they had to stop whatever they were doing (i.e., homework, coloring, playing on the playground with friends), hop in the car and head off to pick up RICE. No one ever complained about this and I am so grateful for that. They were excited and enthusiastic about what they were doing. All 3 went on each pick up and took time to say thank you and chat a few minutes with whomever helped their cause.
After 2 1/2 weeks of collecting the kids had collected quite a bit of cash. We took a Saturday morning and took their cash to Costco to turn their money into RICE.
Since this was their project and not ours we, Jason and I, did none of the heavy lifting. It was all them. We figured they had enough money for 17 of Costco's 25 lb bags of RICE. So they went to work.
Even as they were working hard they got a RICE phone call. No rest for these little hard workers.
They made it to the front of the store and pulled out all their $1's, $5's, quarters, nickles, and dimes....
....then pushed their RICE out to the car. While the kids were working hard Jason and I may have bought a Costco Pumpkin Pie to reward ourselves for having such great kids.
The heavy lifting was not over at Costco. They next had to move the RICE into our house. These 3 have some super muscles after hauling RICE for a month.
At the end of 4 weeks our great children reached their goal of 700 lbs. Actually that's not accurate. At the end of week 2 they had reached 700 lbs. By the end of week 4 they collected at total of:
They exceeded their goal by 
Here's what my beautiful hard working children look like with all their RICE:
The heavy lifting was not over at Costco. They next had to move the RICE into our house. These 3 have some super muscles after hauling RICE for a month.
At the end of 4 weeks our great children reached their goal of 700 lbs. Actually that's not accurate. At the end of week 2 they had reached 700 lbs. By the end of week 4 they collected at total of:1,780.5 Pounds of RICE
They exceeded their goal by 1,080.5 Lbs.
This is what (almost) a literal ton of RICE looks like:
Here's what my beautiful hard working children look like with all their RICE:*Mr. Ansen*
*Miss Braley*
*Miss Jayden*
This past Saturday was our delivery day for their RICE collection. 
Our Bishop came by with a truck for us because we filled the van to the max. So we set up an assembly line to get the RICE out of the house.
The back of the van:
The back of the truck:
Then off we were to Marion-Polk County Food Share.
They had to haul RICE ONE LAST TIME.
We are so, so, so PROUD of Jayden, Braley and Ansen. They set a goal and they worked and worked and worked. I am grateful for the time they gave and the kindness they have shown. They are pretty special children and we are so grateful to call them ours.
*Miss Braley*
*Miss Jayden*
This past Saturday was our delivery day for their RICE collection. Soooooo, they hauled RICE again. Still no complaints about the hard work and heavy lifting.
Love it!
Our Bishop came by with a truck for us because we filled the van to the max. So we set up an assembly line to get the RICE out of the house.
The back of the van:
The back of the truck:
Then off we were to Marion-Polk County Food Share.
They had to haul RICE ONE LAST TIME.They did it with smiles on their faces.
Oh I just love that.
We are so, so, so PROUD of Jayden, Braley and Ansen. They set a goal and they worked and worked and worked. I am grateful for the time they gave and the kindness they have shown. They are pretty special children and we are so grateful to call them ours. 
