Since arriving at my little French home, I have hit the ground running. I threw myself into my garden and have tidied it up to my exacting OCD standards. With the help of Dave and Matt, I was able to get the manual mower they gifted me working efficiently enough to mow down my lawn. I remember we had one of these types of mowers when I was growing up and occasionally, I’d take it out back and push it only to see a few blades of grass cut unevenly with a great deal of effort. Lucky for us then, Bates maintained our lawn as we lived on campus.

Anyone who knows me knows that the idea of combining working out with yard work really jazzes me up but even I didn’t realize how hard this was. I assuming it was extra difficult because the lawn was filled with flowers and long grass. I had to go over each section multiple times, pausing frequently to kick the grass free from the blades. It was absolutely exhausting. My lawn area is very small but it took me the better part of an hour to complete the task. At one point, I felt so aerobically and physically exhausted that I thought I might throw up. It made me wonder what in the hell were people doing to keep their lawns trimmed on large estates (like Downtown) prior to the invention of the engine driven mower? I think I would have just spread wild flower seeds and maintained fields instead of lawns.

The next big job commenced with a knock at my door, and the long awaited delivery of wood to refill my stores for the upcoming seasons. The lovely French farmer who delivered the wood dumped it in front of my garage and waited while I sprinted through the village, to the ATM to retrieve the cash I owed him. I had ordered 3 steres of wood (roughly a cord) and was determined to get it stacked and put away before the rain came. I started at 10:30 in the morning and was done by 12:45. My stacks weren’t the neatest but they are sturdy and that big job is done. I came in for lunch completely famished and loaded up on ibuprofen because my back was sore. Thank God for my new bath tub!!!

At the conclusion of both of these tasks, I felt exhausted but proud. It occurs to me often that I’m not very good at certain things, but I work hard to make up for my lack of skill. My work ethic is important to me and I hope I have passed it on to my kids. Our dad instilled it in each of his kids forcing us to work on the grounds crew at Bates in the summers as soon as we were legally old enough. My kids all work and they work hard which I am really proud of. James has worked full time while in college at group homes for people living with disabilities. Lily works as a barista in Exeter and is one of the best waitresses I’ve had at Cook’s Lobster House in the summers. Parker works at a day camp in the summer and in dining service at a senior living facility during the school year. Busy bees all of us.