Do a Good Deed

I've been worried about my mom. She's been home alone, staying away from others who might have germs that would make her very sick, but not interacting with anyone.  Last week, I decided that it was silly to stay completely away, so I went over and we went for a long walk around Grandview hill.  We went all the way around, stopped at Christopher and Tysen's house, played a bit of pickleball (me, not Mom), and then carried on back to her house. I will continue to do that. We can walk and talk at a safe distance, enjoying being together.

Today I took the kids over to Mom's house to help work in the yard. Last year she had two trees near the pool removed, and the stumps need to come out. Brandt was keen to use the ax, I'm energetic, Blythe agreed to come, mostly to get out of the house. We launched right in and quickly discovered that the job Mom had set us to do was beyond our ability.  We worked to uncover the roots and found a huge stump with many large branching roots. With the ax, we were able to remove some of the smaller roots, but those that were really sizable were just too big. We dug. We axed. We huffed and puffed. We largely gave up.

After working some time and being frustrated, we moved our operation to a different part of the yard. We were able to ax out a stump from a tree removed several years ago, and we all felt terrific about our success only a short distance away. Even Brick helped! It was nice to be outside, good to be doing a good deed in helping my mom, and seeing our efforts pay off. Although there is no photographic evidence, Blythe weeded a whole flower bed largely by herself. I think Cora and Kal "helped" by kneeling down by her and talking as she worked.  In return for our helping Grandma Sue, she let us make snowcones, a sweet, cool treat after a lot of hard work. In my book, that's ample payment for our efforts.