Saturday, April 19, 2008

The grass is always greener around the field line!

When William was little Adrian used to let him ride the lawnmower with the blade up. Then he got big enough to mow. And for a while he was happy. He felt like a big kid. It was even, do I dare say, fun?

When Lucy and Rachel were little they didn't want to mow, they wanted to feed the baby. Problem was, I was breastfeeding.

Mom, can we nurse the baby?

No.

Please?

Umm, no. So they took baby dolls and pulled their shirts up and nursed their babies. They would just sit silently next to me while I nursed.

Then Harrison started looking longingly at the lawnmower.

Puhleeeze can I mow like William?

No.

Begging, PUHLEEEEZE?

No. And then one magic day about 3 or 4 years ago.

PUHLEEEEZE can I mow.

Yes.

Unbridled joy. It lasted about one summer and then some of the most grueling parenting known to mankind. Coordinating two boys that would rather have their toes cut off than mow, to mow. In the HOT Tennessee summer. And mowing season starts in the beginning of March and ends about the first of November. And don't even mention weed eating. Suddenly text messaging sounds like a better form of parent child communication than actually being in the same room with them when vile words like weed eating have to be mentioned.



Alas, poor disgruntled teens, salvation is in sight!







And it comes in the form of a perky 9 year old girl!









Oh yeah, look at me!

Hello, you poor people not on a mower. Oh, are you having to pick up sticks while I zoom by in 4Th gear?

Yes, I am concentrating. This half acre is going to look great, just wait till I tackle the rest of the 12 acres! (No, we do not mow all 12 with the mower. Some is in woods and we bush hog the big field. We mow maybe 2 or 3 acres, though!)

I make dirt look good. Or maybe I make John Deere lawnmowers look good.


Sometimes lawnmower is similar to the Teacup ride at Disney. Hold on tight while I swing this puppy around!


Really, there is no better way to spend an afternoon.

Look, no hands.


How long until she thinks lawn mowing is the worst thing to do on the face of the earth? The English bookies will be taking bets.

9 comments:

Michelle said...

Maybe by the time she figures out it isn't fun Molly will want to mow!!

After that I guess you are just out of luck!!

tiki_lady said...

I love it! I love this daughter's attitude and zest for life. She is a girl after my own heart! Cynthia, you must have too much fun with your kiddos. John Deere and TN! The two seem to go hand in hand. Having a JD is definitely a great accessory. It's the only accessory when you are outside. LOL
I love the 12 acres of land. I wanna move to TN, but only if I can live next to you. You know 15 acres away, and in my urban life that would be 3 full subdivisions.

Kristi said...

This is too cute!

Aoj and The Lurchers said...

Oooh fun!!

I always wantefd to have a go on one of those!

Kim said...

bring that girl out my way to do my lawn!!
she is so cute. does she ever stop smiling???

Anonymous said...

Well done Ella! Honestly I never got sick of mowing, but our lawn was probably 1/16 the size of yours and we don't have the blessing of humidity here!

Unknown said...

Your mower looks as happily used as ours! - We've been push mowing our acre while our Deere is down with a flat tire. We need to find the tool to get the tire off.

Your 9 year old mow angel is MY kind of girl!

Heather said...

Cute...I love it!

April said...

She's a hoot. My oldest son loves to mow and so do I. I wait til he runs out of gas and then I tell him I need to do a few rounds to make sure the gas gets through the line okay.....someday he'll figure out I just want to ride the mower.