Mowing the Lawn

I love to mow. We have a riding lawnmower, and when I drive it, I feel like I'm a teenager again, driving the tractor. The other reason I love to mow, is that nobody comes along and messes it up. When you clean your floor, the first kid that runs through the house tracks it up. When you do laundry, there is more to do the second everyone bathes. Clean the kitchen, and the very next meal it's messed up again. But, when you mow the lawn, it stays nice and short for at least a week! I love that!

Bookworm has been asking me to mow. Well, I am very reluctant to give up my therapy. As a matter of fact, when Studmuffin mows to help me get things done, I'm secretly disappointed that he is taking away my fun. I would rather him clean house while I mowed....But since that falls into the realm of not going to happen without lots of coaxing, I let him mow. I'm just a giver, let me tell you!


Well, Sunday, I relented and decided to teach her to mow. I wasn't sure she was heavy enough. It turns out that if she leans as far back in the seat as she can, stretches her leg as far as it will go, and stretches her arms out to their maximum capacity when she turns, the lawnmower won't die! Plus, her lack of height prohibits her from driving the mower too fast. I learned really quickly that she likes to drive it as fast as possible. She especially likes to go fast and turn really sharp corners. She feels very empowered by speed and quick turns. As a matter of fact, she would laugh maniacally every time she did.


I rode with her around our front yard where all of the obstacles are, and she still ran into the lily pond (it is raised with pave stones around it) and she hit a small tree with the deck. Both times I was looking at Studmuffin weed eating. (I don't know why, but I love watching him weed eat with old jeans on, a t-shirt and safety glasses.) The first time I drove my parents brand new lawn mower, I ran it into an enormous elm tree. And I had been driving the feed wagon for years by that point while my dad scattered cake or bales off the back. So, I thought those few run ins were pretty good for a 9 year old!


So, with practice I know she'll be mowing the whole yard by herself. I have a little while though, because we only mowed half of the yard together, and her arms and legs were exhausted after. But, with time she will build up her arm strength, and her legs will certainly grow, so before long she will certainly be on her own. And maybe I will not feel compelled to stand guard the entire time she is mowing because I have visions of her falling off, getting her limbs chopped to pieces....Okay, let's not go there.