Dandelions

A week ago our front yard looked just fine, and Emily was complaining that we never have any of those pretty yellow flowers. Then, almost overnight, our yard was over-run by those sneaky little weeds. So I went to Walmart and bought 3 dandelion weeding tools and planned a family work project.

I prepared all the kids, and Nathan, for our family work evening - everyone seems to need a little forewarning to be able to handle the stress of family-only-time. After dinner (meatloaf and mashed potatoes - I can't remember the last time I made meatloaf, but it was very tasty) Nathan headed out quick and mowed the lawn while we finished dinner clean up. Nathan is always really careful to mow when none of the kids are around because a kid he knew lost his eye when he was hit by a rock thrown from a mower - be careful!

The troops decended on the dandelions and we had a blissful 20 minutes where Nathan was mowing the backyard, Hannah Sydney and I were plucking up dandelions, and Emily and John were gathering the weeds into a pile. It felt great to work together.

The attention span of my workers was pretty short, though, and soon Nathan and the kids were playing "monkey-in-the-middle" with Sam while I continued to work on the dandelions. I'm not complaining, we were all having a great time!

It was such a nice evening that several neighbors were out walking and stopped by to visit. It felt great to work, play, and talk - I think the backyard might need a little work tonight!