Playing Games

This afternoon, I employed the girls in a fun game of Pick Up Sticks. With all of the "lovely" weather that Michigan has been experiencing during the past several days weeks months...ok, all year...the yard was pretty much a disaster zone. Leaves were everywhere and large branches, bark and sticks covered every available square inch of grass. With perseverance, we covered the entire yard and made a nice little pile of wood/kindling that we can conveniently use in our indoor or outdoor fireplace. S'mores, anyone?

Then I got the brilliant idea of surprising Mike by mowing the yard. Now, some of you have seen our yard and know that it is massive, especially compared to our old yard. We have a riding mower and truthfully, I can not remember the last time that I used it to cut the grass. We are talking years here folks...I certainly have never cut it since living in Cascade. We used to have a walk-behind mower and I mowed the grass all the time at our first house, and I actually like using the snow blower, so it's not like I'm afraid use big yard machines or anything. It's just that Mike normally likes doing it so much and I am more than happy to oblige him!

So, I hopped on, started her right up and began my journey around the yard. Now, our yard is NOT flat. In fact, it has some steep sections, tight spaces, and tons of trees. There is a spot right between our neighbors house and ours that is very steep, narrow and rutted. Embarrassingly, I have never been that scared mowing the lawn in my life! I thought I was going to tip over sideways every time I had to go through there! I kept thinking, "I wonder if the neighbors can see the fear on my face every time I drive by?" and then I would mentally slap myself..."Get a grip, girl! It's just a lawn mower!". Then, to top it off, I ran out of gas right in the middle of that section, which felt more like teetering on the edge of a sheer cliff! Ugh. Thank goodness the spare gas can was full, so I filled 'er up again and continued on my way.

I eventually got the whole thing done, although I'm convinced that it took me twice as long as Mike. But, I did it! Here's hoping that he's happy about it, instead of being sad I usurped his favorite weekly chore!