Calgon! Take me away!

Women! Cherish your men! Especially if they cut the grass. :o)

I am appreciating my husband more and more every day he is gone. Victoria and I tackled the yard today (finally). I, unfortunately, can't cut grass. I get horribly sick. Victoria can. We only have a push mower now. And, it isn't self-propelled. Teeny little Victoria has pushed that mower like a little man. She has had to stop a lot because her little hands are getting blistered and are hurting. I have covered her hands with band-aids (twice), and I told her she could stop, but she has pressed on. After she cut the front yard and had rested a bit in the air-conditioned house, I told her she only had to cut the "jungle" parts of the backyard. That would be fine with me. But, no! She wants to cut the whole thing so it will be even. And, she wants to cut it "the way daddy likes it." I love her so much! She is so precious to me, and Michael will be so proud of her.

Now, don't think I haven't done anything in the yard. We have tons of wind here. TONS! More than we ever had in Warsaw. We also have tiny trees in our yard with tiny branches. The wind blows the dead sticks to the ground. Here are our backyard trees...



So, I prepared the front yard for Victoria to cut by picking up all the sticks. Then, I picked up the sticks in the backyard. Um....here's the pile...and this is only from the backyard! Can you believe that? And, I only picked up the big ones. Crazy!

That's not all I did. Victoria came in and told me the mower wouldn't start. So, I went out, thinking she just couldn't get it started herself, and found out it really wouldn't start. We could pull the cord thingie only so far before it locked. I was baffled. I asked her what she did, and she said nothing. She got me a screwdriver, and I took off the cover to whatever it is the cord thingie pulls in order to start the mower. I kept telling Victoria to pull the bar up so I can see what moves where and learn how the thing works. I was baffled. I just couldn't see why it was locked. We were both pretty upset since we really needed our lawn cut. I came inside and called her friend's brother who owns a lawn service. I wanted to see if he would help a damsel in distress. I had to leave a message. I finally took the bull by the horns, got on the internet and googled "push mower pull cord locked." If you have never googled anything, you are missing out. It pulled up a website with people's questions. It told me exactly what I needed to do. So, we went back outside on our mission of fixing the lawn mower. I told Victoria to hold the handle of the lawn mower on the ground so I could look underneath. Sure enough, there was a lot of grass stuck up there making the blades not turn. I pulled and pulled that grass away and made sure I could turn the blade with my hand. The advice also said I may have to remove the spark plugs and turn the blade. Well, I didn't see any spark plugs and still have no idea where they might be hiding. We lowered the mower back to the ground. I screwed the cover back on the top and tried to start the mower up again. It didn't start right away, but at least I could pull the cord. It didn't start for several tries. I prayed and it started. Thank you, God! So, not only am I the stick picker-upper, I am Mrs. Fix It! I'm so proud of myself. I'm so proud of Victoria.

Here is Victoria cutting like a little man. She didn't want me to take any pictures, so shhhhhh. Don't tell her.


I think the incentive of making sure the grass is cut the way daddy likes it (and the financial incentive) kept her going. She was so tired. She said she'd have great arm muscles by the end of the summer. Hee hee!

Needless to say, I hate yardwork. It is not my cup of tea. I get headaches from the sun and get sniffles from the grass, but today, I feel like I accomplished something and have a greater appreciation for what my husband does throughout the spring and summer months. Michael has worried that we won't need him when he gets home. That is far from the truth! We need him to cut the grass!