And Like a Good Neighbor...

It is fall.  I know this because all of the leaves have been falling off of the trees and no matter how quickly we rake them up, our lawn always seems to be carpeted with them.

Except, our lawn seems to rid itself of it's leaves much more often than we rake.

Our neighbors have taken it upon themselves to frequently blow the leaves off of our lawn for us!  And then, they haul all the blown leaves away so we don't need to try to cram them all in our yard debris can.

It might seem like a small act of service, but we absolutely love and appreciate it! It is so kind of them.

If they didn't do this act of service for us, I would be spending at least 1-2 hours a week raking the leaves myself.  We would fill our can within just one (possibly two if we only do the front yard and let the first batch settle first) rakings and would then have to wait until the pick up (which only comes every other week) or find another way/place to dispose of the leaves.  But our neighbors own a yard maintenance business, so it is quick and easy for them.  We have never asked for or expected their service, they simply began doing it.  They actually started doing it while we were gone; at first when we'd ask if it had been them, they told us no, but then last week I came home while they were doing it and caught them in the act!  The next day I took over a cake to say thank you.

Even as I type, I hear the leaf blower, yet again, out in my front yard.

It reminds me of some very sweet neighbors we had in Massachusetts.  I do not remember how it began, but somehow, we found ourselves caught up in a war with them.  It was a battle to see who could get up earlier to shovel the snow off of the other's walk after any snowfall.  There were mornings that the scrapping of a snow shovel woke me up and I yelled, "Ryan, hurry, they are at it again!"  Other times, we were the ones who beat them.

Those same Massachusetts neighbors had a cat - a cute, sweet cat that our daughter, Cadi LOVED!  We didn't know the cat's name, so she named it "Meow". One day, we found a little gift on our porch for Cadi, from "Meow".  It was a coloring book and crayons.  Meow even bought Cadi a Christmas present.  One of the saddest parts of moving from Massachusetts (besides leaving our East Coast family, of course), was saying goodbye to Meow.

Neighbors - good neighbors - are wonderful!  They can bless and enrich our lives in the simplest of ways.  I am so grateful for the neighbors we've been blessed with!  Examples like these make me want to be a better neighbor, myself.  <3 nbsp="nbsp">