John Deere Green

So Mitch has been gone for a week now. So I’m working full time, I’m mom, I’m dad, I’m more or less a chauffeur. It’s always hard when he’s gone. Especially at this stage in our lives. I recently went back to work full time. Our kids are involved in tumbling, piano, dance, swim and we have very little down time. For the past week I feel like I’ve done a great job doing all the things. The laundry is done, the meals have been made, the house hasn’t burned down...so I’m doing alright. Just in the past two days, Leah had a hangout with a friend, Bug and Hattie had Halloween kids night out at McGaughey. Saturday we were at a swim meet all day long and then ran over to Charleston to check on Gigi. Today was equally as packed. We made it to church this morning, we swung in to Aldi to get grocery’s, had a quick lunch at home and then went to see the new Maleficent movie (two thumbs up).

When we got home there was still plenty of sunlight. It was a beautiful day with temps in the 60’s. Despite the day before being rainy and cold. The yard desperately needed a mow. For what I would assume would be the last time of the year. So being an independent woman I decided I was going to handle it myself. I’m teaching my girls that they can do for themselves so I wasn’t about to ask one of the neighbor boys to help. So I had Leah come out to the garage and help me get the mower started...if you saw our mower you’d understand. And we have to use a screwdriver to get it going.

So in no time I was off, getting the job done. Now mind you, we got 2.5 inches of rain yesterday, so when I got stuck about 10 min in and had to throw it in reverse it seemed plausible. After it happened a few more times I noticed that the front tire was REALLY flat. But I wasn’t stopping! Leah was at a neighbors playing so there was no way for me to get the mower started and going again. So I kept chugging along. If you drive by and notice the ruts in the yard mind your business...surely they won’t be visible by the time Mitch gets home.

Then it happened! I’ll preface the story by telling you a year and a half ago I got a little too close to the garden out back. A garden that was completely surrounded by netting. And as I cornered the garden the netting got sucked in faster than lightning and was wrapped completely around the blades. Mitch was home but we had to go get our neighbor to help take the deck off and remove all the netting from the undercarriage. Back to today...

In the spring Mitch pulled the little three foot chicken wire that surrounded our garden down. Now do you think he did anything with it??? No! It’s sat it the yard for months. So today while I was furiously trying to finish up the yard it happened. I was circling the fire pit. I was looking to the right,  TOWARD the fire pit because I didn’t want to get in the rocks and sure enough the blades caught the stupid chicken wire on the left!!! Nooooo!!! I felt so defeated. I texted Holly and asked her if she could send Don over with wire cutters. And then I cried. I cried a lot. I’m just tired and didn’t need one little thing to NOT go my way. Oh well, life can’t always go as planned. I’m pretty thankful for a super patient neighbor who came and rescued me from a mower fiasco, yet again. And I can guarantee it will be a very long time before I mow again.