Yardwork in July.

It's supposed to be 108 today. That, my friends, is bananas.

Our lawn is still looking very pretty and green, which is fantastic considering it was completely brown by this time last year. We have been very, very fortunate this summer and are enjoying normal temps. Last summer was the hottest summer on record and I think we're probably STILL recovering from that. We also had a very moderate winter with pretty high temps, so our yard is just full of critters, weeds and strange things that didn't die off over the cold weather. The lizards are enormous, the snakes are everywhere, the winged stingers are plentiful...sigh. The good news is that they're the busiest when it's really hot, which is usually when we're hiding inside. 

This morning was "my morning" to get up with the kids, as Andrew usually sleeps in* on Saturdays and I take Sundays. I tied the dog in the garage and brought everyone outside for a little yardwork. It's so pretty and quiet in the morning that we just have to get right out there and remind our neighbors how lucky they are to have us. 

I cannot imagine having to live next door to us. Our kids are always crying in the driveway or escaping the house naked, we rarely do yardwork in the summer and we really don't care if our garbage cans ever come back down the hill. We love working outside, but having all of these pasty, screaming children out in the July heat is pretty much impossible. So we wake up at 6, start the mower and get moving! Yes, we're that neighborly. 

This morning was no exception, friends. We got plenty done before the sun came over the hill, mowing, weedwhacking, sweeping, watering, tantrum-throwing, barking, golf-ball-winging, sand-eating and so on. Claire likes to ride on my lap while I mow, so she sat happily and screamed all sorts of baby talk over the noise of the mower while Lucy and Molly filled a cooler with water and "swam." (Of course we don't have a kiddie pool. Those things are for rich** folk!) 

Andrew does the scary yardwork while I do the lazy work. I prefer to mow the flat parts of the yard while he does the tippy parts. (Read: parts of the yard that may cause the mower to feel like it could tip over and kill me.) He also does all the weedwhacking. We both hate it, so we only do it before we have out-of-town guests. You think I'm joking. Why do you think we encourage so many visitors? It's the only thing that promotes responsible home-ownership in our household. 

Ooh, I have to go help Andrew. He's "organizing." I'm about 30 seconds away from total domestic confusion, so I'm going to go see just what's going on in there...baby update to come in a bit!


* By "sleep in"... I was out of bed at 7:15 with my cute little redhead pulling on the sheets saying "Daddy, time for yard work! Stretch those arms and shake those legs!"
** and trashy