Leaves. We have lots of them at our new house. I now suddenly understand the reason someone decided to invent the leaf blower! I have raked the yard about 4 or 5 times now, and the snow has mercifully covered up the latest crop so I can forget about it until spring. But a few weeks ago, the weather was warmer and the kids came outside while I was raking to “help”.

“Help” from Ethan usually amounted to him waiting until I had a nice big pile of leaves, then he would shuffle his feet through the middle, do a sharp turn and attack the pile from a different direction, thereby ensuring maximum leaf dispersion.

The girls were only too happy to carry armfuls of leaves onto my deck, but when asked to put them in the compost heap they would break out in a chorus of discontent.

I really didn’t mind of course. Their best efforts at chaos only take a minute to reorganize and we are thrilled to have a big yard for them to play in.