Remember when I almost cut my fingertip off with the hedge trimmer last fall? Well, I made rookie mistake #2, as my dad called it, and sliced my extension cord today after I dragged out the trimmer for spring clean-up. So once again I have only half the landscaping done and the trimmer and I are not on speaking terms right now. At least the part I got done looks nice! And I already had a trip planned to Home Depot tomorrow, so I'll go ahead and add "new extension cord" to my list...
As I was bagging up the trimmings, a neighbor walked by, and watching me attempt to clean up with one child hanging on my back and two others squabbling, says (nicely) "You know you can hire someone to do that for you!" (the yard or the kids, right?) "Yes," I reply, "But then I have to pay them". For whatever reason, we are one of the few people I have noticed doing our own yard work in the neighborhood, but 1) lawn service is not in the budget and 2) I am grooming three future yard boys. I have yet to make my kids work around the inside of the house nearly as much as I should, but you better believe they have begun to learn to work outside (minus Gavin, whose work involves throwing mulch everwhere). Our yard might not look perfect, but we have the satisfaction of knowing we worked hard on something together as a family. And you can't "buy" that, lady!
12 years ago
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10 comments:
Ask your husband how many times he mowed his parents' grass.
Crazy lady! Who actually pays for their lawn to be done? Oh, yeah, most of the DC area!
Parker's arms were sore on Saturday after I made him load and carry 25 wheel barrels of mulch for me. Free labor! I love it!
give your son some credit - somewhere along the way he picked up some serious work ethic: economist by day, professor by night, HVAC expert, tile guy, tree planter, shelf-builder, painter, molding expert, drywall patcher, sprinkler repairman....
Amen sister--I have noticed that we are the ONLY ones in the neighborhood that do our own landscaping work. Most people mow their own lawns, but they pay for nearly everything else! That's what we get for being a 1 income family of (almost) 5!!
I agree, isn't that why we have so many kids, to make them do the work?
Some of my favorite memories right now are me and my dad planting the garden at dusk. Watching the kids get excited to plant the peppers and the tomatoes. The excitment on their faces when they find a worm in the mud or a ladybug on a leaf. You can't buy memories either and although yardwork can be tedious it builds character and memories.
Annie - you also forgot dad of three awesome boys...although I remember too Shawn's comments about mowing the lawn ha ha!
Your lawn is coming along nicely! You guys are doing a great job with it.
yeah, we're also amongst the minority of people on our street who do their own yardwork. i'm actually starting to like it and find satisfaction in it although i am annoyed at how much of my time it sucks up! thankfully, k & b like to help out-- for now, at least. i definitely know we have our days of grumbling ahead of us (if they're anything like their mom, that is)!
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