Now that the pool is closed, you would think I wouldn’t be so busy. Well think again. This summer, Jacob bit off a little more than he could chew by taking on four yards to mow along with our two yards that he is supposed to mow. With school and football practice, he is falling behind, and guess who is taking up the slack. You guessed it, me. Thankfully, my friends have a riding lawn mower they have allowed me to use. Jacob has been offered to use it as well but prefers to use our push mower. Weird, right?

I hate borrowing things, especially lawnmowers and vacuum cleaners. I have the worst luck with those! Not to mention my luck with vehicles; Whenever I drive Mom’s car, she always says, “Don’t wreck my car.” She forgot once, and I dented the car! After breaking several vacuums, my mom started keeping a crummy, cheap one she bought on a garage sale just in case I needed to use one. My dad won’t even let me look at his lawnmower, let alone use it.

Back to mowing, I walked our yard, picking up anything that could damage the mower. I was cursing the entire time because I had trusted my son to keep the yards up. I knew the yards had been neglected this summer, between the money pit, two jobs and trying to keep up with the housework, but I hadn’t realized the full extent until then.

After the yard was all picked up, so I thought, I started mowing. Everything went fine until I moved that piece of junk trampoline frame, that by the way, hadn’t been moved all summer. The grass, aka weeds, was tall, so I walked through, kicking them down and cursing in my usual fashion until I was sure nothing was under them.

I was wrong! One of Jacob’s t-shirts was under the grass. It wrapped up in the blade of the mower. So now I was laying in the yard with a pocket knife, cutting this “bleeped bleep” shirt off the mower’s blade, praying to God no permanent damage has been done. As I was doing this, about to blow my top, here came my beloved son. “What ya doing, Mom?” I completely lost it! I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what happened next, but his cell phone, car keys and freedom were all at stake.

My yards are starting to look better (I’m smiling an evil smile), and they will continue to do so until they look perfect, or he will be walking and having to pass notes. I have started a jar saving money to purchase my own riding lawnmower! Also, I will be doing the majority of the mowing from now on. I’m still kinda hurt about the whole situation if ya can’t tell! X’s & O’s!