Gentle Joy Photography: October 2015

This may seem strange....
"DO NOT RAKE THE LEAVES...
Leave the Leaves. "

Every year I have fought this battle, so this year I made a sign. There isn't a battle so much on the issue now, but I just want to make sure! :)

I like the yard all cleaned up and tidy with no leaves, BUT.... I love those beautiful leaves and like to enjoy them while we can. :)

I have fond memories of raking LOTS of leaves in the fall, when I was a kid. The air was crisp, the sun was out... we would rake...and rake... and rake. We had lots of trees... and several of them were sugar maples. Walking home from school was a noisy time of crunching those dry leaves.. and it was fun.

When it was time to get rid of the leaves, my siblings and I worked with my dad and raked all of those leaves into a pile... and jumped in it... and raked again... and ... you get the idea. :)

After a while, Dad would say it was time to get back to real work and we would pile them and burn them. A few days later, we would have to do more of them since there were so many trees. Was it all enjoyable? No, it wasn't... especially when the leaves got wet and heavy... and the sun wasn't out... and it was cold... and NOT FUN. Still, I have some good childhood memories of that.

Dad and Mom are with us right now due to Mom's spinal fracture, so he saw my sign. He liked the sign and laughed, but he doesn't have those same fond memories of all of those leaves that I do!!! :) The perspective of a child and an adult are a "bit" different.

I wanted my kids to enjoy the leaves too... and they did. When they were little, they walked through them in the yard. I would rake paths (roads!) through the leaves and they would walk and walk and walk... using their imagination to go to the store or various other destinations... all in the back yard.

We would also rake the leaves into piles and jump in them. The kids had a great time. :)

My husband would come home and I wanted to draw him into the fun of raking and dealing with the leaves... except he didn't see it the same way. NO..... he bought a leaf vacuum... and he WORKED to get those leaves blown into a pile.. .and then vacuumed up. He would let the kids help for a little while with raking, but he didn't like it when they jumped in the pile for very long. He just didn't really understand that part of it, although he tried. To him, it was just a pile of work that needed to be DONE!

So, we learned to compromise.... I asked him to put off the leaf clean up for a while... and the kids had a great time in them. Sometimes, my husband could even have fun with the kids in the leaves. :)

When the time came to clean up, play time was over and clean up happened. It worked.

Over the years, the kids made the roads in the leaves... it works quite well... they just rake a line through the leaves and the green grass shows and becomes the "road". The older ones made the roads and all of them would ride bikes through them or run through them or play various games.

I felt like my husband and I finally came to a satisfactory agreement on this... although each year we still talked about waiting to clean up the leaves. :)

Then the oldest son had a lawn business... and a blower... which meant he wanted to move those leaves and clean off the yard. I pushed for waiting a while... and I won... I AM the mom. :)

Then as each son has gotten older or had a blower, I had to go over this issue again. The kids don't play in the leaves much anymore now... unless the neighbor kids are over... but we all like to take pictures and those beautiful leaves on the ground provide some great opportunities, so we still want to keep the leaves for a while.

By the way, I laughed because a couple of minutes ago as I was writing this, Son #2 asked if he could blow the leaves off of the front yard. I said it was fine.... there aren't that many out there and they aren't as pretty. He didn't even ask about the back yard. :)

Two of our little neighbor kids brought these leaves to me... and they have been having fun playing in the leaves.

I suspect that even when I am old, I will be asking my husband to please wait a little longer to get rid of the leaves... and to leave them while they are pretty... and get them cleaned up after they start to dry up and not look so nice.

Anyway, we are sure enjoying the leaves this year... and the whole family has been enjoying my sign.... even while they laugh about Mom keeping those leaves. I am glad that in a season when things are drying up, fading away and the threat of cold wintry days loom, God has made such glorious colors in the leaves. Thank you for visiting my blog today.... I hope you also enjoy those beautiful leaves. :)