The Mission

So last week I started a mission. This was a mission that required mind over matter. It required brawn and endurance. It required precious time taken in order to accomplish the task. I chose this mission, executed the mission (and am still trying to accomplish the mission). The mission was to rid the acre yard of the three inches of leaves that had accumlated and for some reason not blown away. The difficulty of this mission was timing. The kids both had caughs, and due to cold weather and (proximity to the road) this mission needed to be accomplished during nap time. The window of opportunity was narrow, but it could and would be done. Good snowmen with no leaves stuck in their bodies depended on it.

This is all that was left as the beautiful signs that fall was coming to a close and that the time had come for action. So almost every day last wekk I would make sure the children were snug in their beds (and actually sleeping...which could take awhile) and then I would venture out with a rake and monitor in hand. Each day I would slowly build large piles and fill big bags of leaves. I would only have about an hour before I would need to return inside to waking children. And I would always look back to see what I had accomplished...and it was good to see giant piles with green space around them, but there always seemed to be more piles than before (b/c I would tend to rake vs. bag), but the thought of knowing that I did accomplish something was good. That maybe I burned some calories, that maybe the sweatshirt and coat that soon became a sauna was working for me, instead of against me. I did enjoy my time outside, even with numb fingers. It was a nice break from the typical computer glow of work (which seems to be in short demand as of now). And then on Sunday the weather was finally warm enough, and the kids well enough that everyone got to enjoy the piles...and soon destroyed the piles of leaves that I had worked so hard to create. But hey, the more you jump, the most the leaves are crushed and the less space they take up in a bag...right?Lucas tried to show Lilly all the correct manuvers for pile jumping, but she really didn't get that into it. Tim called her a princess.
She seemed content to just run around and around.

Lucas was in heaven. I think it is one of the best joys of fall and for those who don't have big trees in their yards, or enough leaves to make a pile, well feel free to come on over. I will admit that even out there by myself I fell into a leaf pile or two. It is just too tempting not to do!

So here are two missions that I leave you with:

1. Find a pile of leaves (weather in your yard or not) and jump in them!

2. Guess how many bags (the big brown paper leaf bags) did we fill this year?

Your mission has begun....GO!