"back in my day..."

my littles finished preschool this week.  around here, it is officially summer for two-thirds of this rodeo show.  i have spent the better part of the last few weeks perusing summer guides and generating a list of daily adventures.  i have been considering a few day camps and finding the perfect vbs.  as we marched our way through the end of school and into the less scheduled days of summer, i also started thinking about my own childhood summertime's.

mostly, i remember being bored.  

and hot.

when i was in elementary school i would go to my dad's house for a month each summer.  

boredom at each house looked different.  when i was at my mom's i would venture out into the fields that surrounded our dead end street in upstate ny.  i would play in a creek that ran through the woods or turn an abandoned chicken coop into a fort.  my dad's home was in the city of syracuse.  when i was bored there i would walk to the library and check out various vhs movies.  

it was during that month that i developed a love for musicals.  i can remember watching west side story, fiddler on the roof and the music man.  i would also walk to this specialty shop, lombardi's.  it was filled with imported cheeses and cured meats.  i think this was the origin of my love for the cheesemonger.

one summer i discovered a cassette tape of my father's.  it was a recording of bill cosby's comedy.  i remember laying on the living room floor and listening to it while trying to absorb whatever breeze might pass through the windows.  one part of his act is about kids complaining.  in his response he tells his kids, "when i was a boy i had to walk 13 miles to and from school...  every day...  and it was uphill both ways."  you can imagine the cosby voice and the inflection that would make this funny.  i remember listening to the tape over and over that summer.

for some reason this part of the sketch has stuck with me.  whenever i hear my kids complain it pops into my head and gives me perspective.  the "guilty mom" voice in my head never wins, because let's face it, my kids have it made in the shade.  

this sketch jumped into my mind this weekend.  i was coming home from the grocery store and unloading the car.  while i had been gone, scott was mowing the lawn.

there was this moment when i went out to get another armful of bags and scott was pulling the string to start the mower.  it didn't start with the first pull.  or the second pull.  or the third.  he declared it was low on gas and went about the task of filling up the tank.  

for the first time since we have had a lawn to mow, i realized how very lucky i am.  watching him do this triggered something.  it took me back to childhood.

when i was a girl, a very young girl, i had to take over the task of lawn mowing.  i think it started when i was in fourth grade but quite possibly earlier.  my eldest sister went to visit my aunt for the summer and my other sister was living with my father.  i was the only one at home, and with a handicapped mother on a strict budget, that left me to mow the lawn.  i loathed the job.  i remember blisters forming on my hand as i would push our mower through the yard.  our mower didn't have a bagging element and so the grass would get trapped beneath the machine causing you to have to flip it up and dig out the clippings with a paint stick.  this task was dangerous, highly annoying and the need to do it happened at a nauseating pace.  i can remember that it felt like the minute you finished mowing the yard the yard would need to be mowed again. grass is like that.  it just keeps growing.  everything about lawn mowing felt miserable to me.

as i stood there watching scott, getting lost in this memory, i heard my girls playing in the background.  it is difficult to put to words, but my heart began to expand and fill to the brim.  i felt like i was exploding with thankfulness.

thankful that i had a momma who taught me the value of hard work.

thankful that i never lost a limb to the blade of that horrible mower.

thankful that i don't have it so "hard" any more.

thankful that my children live a rather plush life where they get to be kids.

thankful that they get to see their father be such a good man.

thankful that my husband cares for me in so many simple beautiful ways...  and that he does it with such a beautiful heart.  

in this moment i became keenly aware of realities that i have neglected to notice or illuminate over the years.  scott has never, not even once, complained about mowing the lawn.  in fact, he rather enjoys it.  i have never, not even once, had to ask him to get it done.  no nagging.  no wondering how long it will be until he gets out there again...  it just gets done.  and i stood there brimming, spilling over with gratitude in my heart because something so simple can easily become something so big.

i know that lately i have been on a "scott fest" with my blogging, but it has been on my mind a great deal.  it almost feels like there has been this spotlight on him for the past few weeks generated straight from my heart, illuminating so many characteristics that i treasure.

as a momma of three girls, this is especially important to me.  you see, he is their first love.  

stay tuned for part two of this post.