My new naptime activity.

Also known as “What I do while Ella Faye makes raspberries in her crib.”

“Code Compliance” is what the car door read. “Code Compliance,” a term this household has come to despise.  I watched the man travel up our driveway, trademark sticky pad and pen in hand.  I snatched up Ella and distracted her in the kitchen to avoid her new trend of “peek through the window and see who’s at the door.”  I like to pretend no one’s home.  She likes to see who’s making all that noise at the door.

My head poked around the corner, I watched him slap the note on the door.  “Courtesy Notice: Overgrown weeds.”

In the past two years that we’ve called this house our home, the front yard has gotten much attention.  She fosters weeds well, I tell you.  The first time our weeds were overgrown, I thought it was beautiful.  There were bright yellow flowers sprouting from those stalky plants.  I liked to imagine our yard a field of wildflowers.

Apparently our neighbors did not.  And they must not have the next time we got too busy for yard maintenance.  Nor did they appreciate it the time after that.

Or maybe it’s not our neighbors that spread the word, but that the city has our square of land on file and routinely checks up on us lawn menaces.  I don’t know how it works, but City Inspector Mr. Cardona knows our residence well.

So this afternoon, while the little one played with Yaya and Papa across the street, I joined my busy husband for some lawn labor.

And can I say, I loved it.  I’m not a yardwork gal.  (Obviously, and neither does Ant much prefer being a yardwork man.)  But there’s something about pulling weeds that is so completely satisfying to me.  Grasping the twiney stalks of greens and feeling the dozens of thin threads break from the earth.  To see the root pulling up through the dirt.  (I imagine I’d really love plucking carrots from their soil.)

It sounds shameful to take such joy in yanking a living plant from the ground.  Especially as some were harvesting tiny flowers.  But I’m a yard woman now and I can’t get soft on the whole ordeal!  Those weeds need to get gone!

I found a tiny mushroom!  Spared for now.

It was so nice to be out there helping Anthony.  The weather was just gorgeous, perfect for shorts and favorite flip flops.  We talked about each other’s day.  And how important it is to take pride in where you make your life.  How straightening up the front yard leads to building the back yard which will please Ella and I to no end.

How instead of paying a neighbor kid to pull the weeds, I would do it from now on and be reimbursed in the form of a new outfit.  (Sounds reasonable to me.)

Um, I need a manicure too.

We only tackled about half the weeds before dinnertime.  I can’t wait to get back out and clean up the rest.