Worth the raking

As you drive down our street, there are pristine lawns looking freshly mowed and raked. Then you come to our house, where you barely know there is grass in the front yard. We have an extraordinary amount of leaves that fall as you rake so it really feels like little or no progress is being made. Honey and I have both taken rakes and leaf blowers to the front yard twice, but it continues to look like a forest floor.

There are lots of reasons that this is really OK with me though. One, we are not retired - we are really busy, active people who just don't have a ton of time for raking leaves every day. Two is that while I am a stay at home mom, contrary to popular belief, that does not mean I am actually at home. And if I am, I can pretty much guarantee that having a preschooler and a toddler playing by the street in the front yard while I try to rake is not on my top ten. Three is that when we do rake and get a huge pile of leaves, the joy of the kids playing in them is incomparable.

And four, is that those two trees in our front yard are beyond gorgeous. I can see them from the living room window and I wouldn't trade the few days of amazing yellows out there for any easier lawn care. So drive by and scoff, but check out those beautiful trees!