First mowing

Stephanie mowed the front and back lawns for the first time this spring with our two-year-old reel mower. (Saturday Stephanie went on to take our relatively new battery-powered weed whacker and trim more grass and weeds in both yards - Looks great!) It's rained a lot lately and the grass was overdue for a mowing, so this was especially hard work. She had to go over most spots at least a couple of times. Although this winter we had the blade sharpened, the mower still doesn't cut as closely and as easily as a conventional gasoline- or electorical-powered mower. This is all supposed to be Vincent's job. He did go to martial arts classes twice this week for the first time in a long time. And, pushed by one of his teachers to be prepared in case he goes to Denmark, he asked us to show him (once again) how to do his own laundry, which she wants him to be able to do (instead of his host family) in Denmark. We have generally NOT pushed him to learn how to do this (partly because I/we are a little particular about how to do it), and in fact we did laundry for our two Danish exchange students, but it'd be a useful skill for Vincent to have (I've told him the story of my hallmate from our first year in college who spent the whole first semester buying new clothes at the mall and trying to get a girlfriend to avoid having to learn how to do laundry. Second semester he threw in the towel and got one of us to show him.) We'll see if he actually does his laundry, if only as a practice, on Sunday, his birthday.