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Welcome to our life!

This is a blog from a Christian mom who's trying to figure out how to keep God first in her family while managing the day to day! Be Blessed!

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

A few things I learned the summer my husband had surgery...





As most of you know John had surgery at the beginning of the summer. I don't think I fully prepared myself for what that would mean for us as a family. I think in my head I thought we'd have a couple of weeks of down time and then he would bounce right back and we'd have a month of summer vacation to enjoy. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. He was literally on the couch for the first month and half he was home and was only able to get up and around a lot right at the end. So my grand idea of having a leisurely summer went out the window. Instead I somehow managed to keep up with most of the house work and take the kids to and from the pool and vbs (which they did 4 of).  Early on in our marriage John and I made an agreement that he would keep up the outside of the house and I would do the inside. Well as you can imagine that idea went out the window pretty quickly because as the number of people in our home grew, so too did the tasks that it takes to maintain it. Thus creating a situation where we realized that the only way we could accomplish anything was if we did it all together. So John took on more of the inside work and I still managed to wrangle my way out of most of the outside work. That is until this summer...

Thankfully the Lord took pity on me and sent 3 of our friends to mow our grass for the first 3 weeks John was home. The rest of the time, I've been on my own. Let me share a little something with you all... I'm pretty spoiled. Ok there it's out there, don't hate. I've never had to work outside in the heat, unless I wanted to. My dad always took care of our home growing up and John loves working outside so I've always happily let him have those tasks. My dad did try somewhere along the way to teach me a few outside skills, but I think I somehow blocked it all out. 

So below find a list of things that I've learned about cutting grass and taking care of the outside of your home. If you've never had to work out in your yard, hopefully if you ever have to you'll save yourself some time and energy.


  1. It's very important to make sure you are well hydrated and wear sunscreen while out in the sun. (Sorry the nurse part of me took over for a sec.) It's also really important to wear proper clothing while cutting the grass. You'll need eye wear, and shoes that cover all of your feet. Long pants aren't a bad idea either as flying debris can really sting when it shoots you in the leg.
  2. Make sure to completely check and clean all parts of your mower before attempting to mow. It only takes a few seconds to turn that bad boy over and scrape all of the old grass off. It's also not a bad idea to take it into a shop and have them professionally tune it for you. This will make your job SO MUCH EASIER! Trust me!
  3. Make sure you check the oil and gas before starting. Sounds simple but I learned the hard way that you don't just dump in oil and call it a day. You have to pour a little, check the level, then pour some more.
  4. If you're using a weed eater make sure you know what kind of fuel it takes. Ours is a two-cycle and doesn't take just gasoline, it takes gas and oil mixed. Ok who knew that those even existed? I surely didn't and almost ruined our weed eater in the process. It's also important to know if your weed eater can also be used as an edger or if your hubby has a separate one of those. 
  5. Take the time to sweep off the sidewalk after your done. I never fully appreciated John taking the time to do this until the one time I didn't do it and then the kids came home... you guessed it... grass tracked all through the house. It's worth the few extra minutes it takes to do it.
  6. Don't put the lawn mower back in the shed while it's hot. You have to wait for it to cool down or it could cause a fire. Thankfully I didn't learn this one the hard way. Just got some wise advice from my father in law. (see # 7).
  7. And if all else fails and you can't figure something out, make sure you have a back up person who you can ask. My father in law was a God send to me this summer. I'm sure I drove him crazy asking for help all the time. But he patiently helped me figure things out when John wasn't available.  
  8. Not to mention that you burn somewhere between 700-900 calories just while cutting the grass... now that's what I call a work out!
What I learned this summer has changed my mind about working outside. There's honestly no better feeling than pulling up in your driveway and your grass is nice and neat. It makes me feel so good! I just LOVE it! Thankfully summer is winding down and soon I won't have to worry about finding the time to do it again... until next summer. And by then John might have to fight me to let him cut our grass... if you're reading this honey you know I'm totally joking! (I wouldn't want him to get any ideas after all...) :o)

PS if anyone has any really great tips about working in the yard to share with me I'd love to hear them!

~Shar

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