Day 52: Farmer Jacob

We've been doing a lot with cardboard boxes this summer - we always have. Currently we have a deluxe cardboard house residing in the front room. Just days after its assembly, it received a back addition, and is patiently awaiting the arrival of a two-car garage. But in the meantime there was this tall, narrow box that was just asking to be turned into some useful. So when Jacob requested a farm stand last week, I knew just the box. You can't tell from the photo, but this thing is complete with inner cardboard baskets to hold all the veggies from our garden, a cash register, a shelf, and a fully functional back door, as well as a full functional open/closed sign. That's part of the challenge of my photo assignment - it's hard capturing what I want to show in just one picture.

Jacob is really proud of the farm stand I built him and we've been playing pretend farmers' market all week. I had to make him cover the front if it for this photo because he went and wrote his first and last name all over it before I got a chance to take the 'internet safe photo'.

Now I won't pretend this farm stand game has been all fun and games; I have been doing a great deal of whining about playing along, as well as no small amount of yelling when it comes time to clean up after the fun's been had, but I will say that when someone asks about how I like being a stay-at-home mom, this is the exact kind of thing I have in mind when I tell them, "Well, we have no money and are totally poor, but I wouldn't miss a minute of it to go to work and be without them all day long." We may be forced to make our toys out of cardboard boxes, but at least I'm the one who gets to be present for the evolution of the box.