pick it up....

 I hope you all have had a blessed and fun filled Easter Day.  Seeing the children at church this morning scurrying around picking up plastic eggs reminded me of an incident that happened some years ago.  Nothing to do with Easter but a lot to do with picking up. I lived in a house that had an ornamental crabapple tree planted at the front corner of the house as part of the landscaping.  Over the years that we lived there the tree had 'gone back to its roots' and instead of producing blossoms and little tiny crabapples it started producing full size yellow apples.  Each fall I would gather up bunches of these to make apple butter.  It was delicious.  One year we had a bumper crop of apples.  After using all the apples I needed for apple butter, there was an abundance left over. So many apples were dropping off that tree that they were littering the driveway.  I really didn't like squishing apples every time I backed out of my garage so I made a bargain with two of my granddaughters (eight and ten at the time) who happened to be visiting one day.  I told them that I would give them a dollar for each bag filled if they would pick up the apples off the driveway but the bags had to be really full.  I gave them each a plastic grocery bag and let them get to work.  I figured maybe they would fill two bags each before they got tired or bored but that would be a help.  Like most people I know I had quite a stash of plastic bags so when they filled one they could help themselves to another. While I was busy in the house those enterprising and energetic young ladies not only cleared all of the apples off the driveway but also from under the tree and all around the yard.  They ended up filling 14 bags each.  $28.00!  Of course I paid up, what else could I do?  They were delighted and actually so was I.  The yard and driveway looked great.