Sunday, April 11, 2010

Work Smarter, Not Harder.

I have been a bad blogger recently. The last couple of weeks have been a mess of stress and more activites than time when all i really want is some time to do nothing. I guess the hectic-ness will pay off in some fashion at some time, in some quasi-karmic way.

Earlier this week I finally got a lawn mower. I no longer have an excuse to be the blight of the neighborhood.

Growing up working class, we did not have a lot of money to throw around and I worked at the age of 11 so I did not need much more than what I earned. However, my mothers husband, thought it would be character building to pay me a stifling wage to mow the lawn each Friday after I got home from school. It was. The agreement between him and I was that I would earn $15 per week paid promptly after the lawn was complete. The agreement would carry over into the winter month but translate to shoveling the snow from the driveway.

I quickly agreed and made another agreement of my own. I called my good friend Justin and told him I could pay him $10 a week to mow my lawn but it would need to be done every Friday, directly after school and I would pay him on Saturday. He agreed and I pocketed $5 each week for being a good organizer. This type of entrepreneurship was not lost of my mother who had seen it before. Work smarter, not harder.

Now I have my own lawn and Justin is long gone. I needed to learn. I did all the right things, got my gas can, filled up my mower, pulled the cord the token two time before it responded. It was all within my grasp. Then I began to mow the lawn that had not been mowed in years. Less than 1 hour later I was done and proud. Check it off the list. In fact, it was mildly relaxing although I may retract that statement after a few more mows.
On a side note, while playing in the garden, I spotted my beets! They are popping their little heads out of the Georgia red clay and organic fertilizer. It will be a nice treat to have them pull through in ground that many never have had foods planted in it.


Yesterday was a fantastic day off, filled with errands and thrifting with Jamie. I got a few treasure as always but the highlight of the day was our sandwiches. I made them with some vegan mayo, spinach and my new deli slices. I have let a few folks try them and they all love them.
Time to make something for dinner. After a long day at work and a lawn conquering, it may, sadly, be a veggie burger night.

2 comments:

Jamie said...

Good job!!! I totally forgot to ask you about your lawn mower adventure, I didnt know if you would go through with it... heh.
I'm super proud of you!

FinnyKnits said...

Well, that's a pretty ingenious way of getting out of mowing and/or making $5.

I'm kinda proud of your parents for seeing the virtue in entrepreneurship rather than swatting your behind for off-loading your chores - your mom sounds like a wise gal.

Go beets!

I made a chocolate cake over the weekend that swapped all the oil in the recipe for roasted beet puree and it was exquisite. Recipe coming soon...