April 15, 2022

(click for today's pictures)

• I didn't even set my alarm this morning, but I still woke right up at 8. I know 8 is sleeping in for some, but I think that I used to could just stay in bed a bit longer. No one else was moving around the house.
• However, I laid there for about 8 minutes, and then I jumped on up and got started with my list. Ugh, I don't like that-but that list had to be done. There was the laundry and dishes.
• I really didn't get through those before the dog had to go out to do her business. Then there were some shorts to sew up and eggs to dye. 
• I was pretty much marking things off of my list pretty quickly, until around 10 when Robby decided it was time to work in the yard. This is when I had to wake up the kiddos. Reagan already had to be at work at 9 this morning, but everyone else was still sleeping.
• I gave them all times to come outside, but I did make Anderson and Campbell's outside time a few minutes later since they both had some school to do. (And both still have school to do tomorrow since the yard did take forever. I did help them finish a few things around 5 this afternoon.)
• So we all worked in the yard-the kids did work hard for the most part. We have a few that work harder than others. One in particular we have babied to long and needs a few more weeks of yard work to get him up to speed on what to do. (Like I had to show him how to hold a rake today.) You can always get more work out of people if you let them drive the tractor, give them gatorades and ice cream sandwiches for breaks, and promise them slushies for another day.
• By 3ish or even a bit later, people were finishing up their assigned number of loads (loads of tarps filled with leaves to the woods.) Robby and I cleaned up what we had been working on, and then he started mowing. 
• Yes, I know it is going to rain on Easter, and we won't probably be outside. But the yard needed some loving, and we have quite a bit left to do soon hopefully. 
• Robby was zooming along until a belt broke on his mower. This has happened before so we know the drill. The mower is amazingly heavy, and when this belt is broken it take all the people to push/pull it anywhere.
• Thankfully he was just on the other side of the RV shed, but that did mean we had to go up a little hill. For some reason you would think a mower would just roll-like a car in neutral, but that is not the case. Robby, me, Graham and Anderson-it took us about 10 minutes to get it into the garage. Like our backs will be sore tomorrow, and we were out of breath when we made it-that thing is heavy.
• Robby had almost finished by then, but still wanted to do some more. Thankfully, the store was still open so he ran to get a belt. 
• He then worked and worked to get the belt on. Finally we had to put the mower on our rv leveling blocks which meant we had to call the boys again. I just googled how much the mower weighs, and they say 1500 pounds. I believe it. Now, 1500 pounds does not like to roll uphill-that took a bit of work.
• Now the mower is on blocks (probably not too stable) with Robby under it working with springs that he is having to tighten and I keep hearing his tools fall. So of course I had to stay in the garage to just make sure I didn't have to remove him from under the lawn mower. 
• It took him about an hour, but he did have some time to finish his bit of mowing before dark Keaton and I ran to get a friend to spend the night. Reagan and Campbell went with us. Reagan even worked at church tonight keeping kids so she was raking in the money today.
• Robby and I then left to pick up supper-chickfila pick up was easy, pizza not so much. The poor girl apologized and said they didn't make our pizza. She then said it would be 20 minutes and offered us a brownie or coke. Robby wanted the coke because he was thirsty, but I said no, we were getting a brownie. Then a minute later she came back and said we could have a coke too so he did get his drink. 
• Surprisingly, they did have our pizza out in about 12 minutes-we thought for sure it wasn't going to end well and we would go home hungry. So this made it about 9 when we did get home with everyone's supper. 
• The Wilsons came over as soon as we finished eating because they needed to borrow our dryer. While they were there, Campbell worked on cleaning her desk and did a really good job-we have been all about cleaning out stuff around here. 
• Right now it is about 11:30, and I am headed to the shower and then bed. I think that most everyone else is quiet, but I am sure that no one else in this house is asleep.