Tonight on an episode of The Middle, the youngest kid was told to rake the leaves...

It took him 11 days to do an hours worth of work. 

He sorted them.  Separate bags for leaf color, type of tree leaf, and lastly... he returned the ones that weren't from their trees to the neighbors. He referred to the leaves as his friends, and when his father informed him they would be incinerated rather then taken into the woods and set free, he panicked.

It was like a fly on the wall of this house wrote the entire episode.

It was a flash into the future when Ellie is sent out into the yard with a rake and a box of plastic bags.

It was personal....