The Lawn Mower

I will preface this story with some background information in my defense.

My dad's parents have lived next door to us since I was six. My granddad at some point took over mowing both yards, to free my dad from that chore. Very occasionally my dad would mow or one of my brothers, when they were much older. When my granddad died in 2015, mowing became the boys' job. So I've never been asked to mow, because Granddad or the boys always did it.

Please keep that in mind as you read on.

One day, last spring I believe, we had to mow our lawn, my oma's lawn, and our property a half hour away. My mom and brothers went to our other property and I was supposed to mow here.

Remember, I've never mowed before*.

I know the basics of how to work a lawnmower, but my brother showed me everything anyway. "Here's the start cord. Go ahead and try to start it." I did. "Okay, this bar keeps it on and this bar makes it go." Sounds good.

They all leave and I start mowing the lawn. There's our front lawn and parkway, a middle area between our house and Oma's house (and parkway piece), Oma's front and sideyards (with their accompanying parkways), and our backyards. (Now, I don't remember if I was supposed to do the backyards or not, nor do I remember if I actually did them). I'm pushing this lawn mower and it's exhausting. It's such hard work. I'm partly done with Oma's front lawn and I'm looking at all that's left and I think, "I can't do this. I'm going to have to take a break." Then, I happen to look down and see this red bar. "What's this do?" I grab it and MIRACLE! The lawn mower starts pulling itself forward!

You probably already figured this out, but I'd been mowing WITHOUT THE GO BAR! Between the time my brother showed me and I actually started mowing, I had forgotten about that little bar. So I was shoving this machine back and forth across the yard. No wonder it was exhausting.

I told my family about it when they got home and we all laughed. It was quiet the experience for the first time mowing the lawn. If you've mowed the lawn a lot, you're probably rolling your eyes at me. I'd beg a bit of mercy because, as I said, I'd never done it before because other people always did it. Trust me, I won't make that mistake twice.

Do you have any funny lawn mowing stories? Or funny stories about the first time you or one of your kids did something? I'd love to hear about it! Leave me a note in the comments.

Blessings,
Sarah

*Note: I've mowed lawns a lot, but usually on riding mowers. I learned to drive one of those when I was probably eight or so and I helped mow with riding mowers at our property. So it was just my first time mowing with a push mower.