Happy Thoughts

OK, enough moping already. Today was tougher than I expected but I'm a lot better now. I've been cleaning up all the cat nastiness that has literally covered every flat surface in the house and I feel better. I want to remember the good stuff but cleaning flea bits and hair and general gross stuff helps me to keep the rose colored glasses off. And the fact that I feel a lot better helps too. I'd even developed a backache in the past few days. I started to suspect that it was cat related because when I made them sleep outside my backache lessened. Well, last night I took Benadryl because of seasonal allergies (why, oh, why must I also be allergic to trees? I love them so...) and guess what? No more backache. It's not scientific proof but I joked with Trav that if we kept them I'd soon be in a wheel chair. Maybe it was just the stress of the whole thing.

Anyway, isn't this just the sweetest bird's nest ever? Chloe found it on the ground a few days ago (which is important because it's actually illegal to take a bird's nest from a tree) along with this remnant of a shell. I've since donated it to Chloe's class but it's enough to put a smile on my face.

As are the new leaves on my lemon tree. This guy had a tough winter. I didn't really take care of him like I should have and he was blasted with hot air from the heater for pretty much the whole winter so about two inches on the top are actually dead. I didn't know if he'd pull through so these new leaves made me really happy.

I hate May because of allergies but I *love* it because that's when my rosebush blooms. These are the prettiest pink blooms I've seen in these here parts. I've seen lots of red ones and a few light pink ones but these are my fave. I keep thinking I'll try to take a cutting and root it.

My sunflowers courtesy of my friendly neighborhood birds. I'm thankful because it's actually kind of difficult to get the seeds out of the sunflowers. These guys are growing too close together and are between a 2 x 4 and the patio. I think I'm just going to try to get the 2 x 4 out and see how it goes. I hate pulling them up- but stunted plants that don't flower aren't much fun either. We'll see how it goes.

And just for giggles...we've had so much rain lately that my door mat has actually sprouted plant life. I've never seen this before. My guess is that there were weed seeds in the mat that sprouted because of the constant moisture. Now I'm off to eat dinner and Chloe has requested that we take a walk around Downtown Franklin tonight. That is sure to keep the smile on my face.

Smoosh

I have a tendency to smoosh several blog posts into one because I don't blog everyday. I wish I did. I know bloggers that blog nearly every day and I get disappointed when they don't blog. I mean, I'm not doing it but I like knowing what's going on. Maybe I'm nosy. Or maybe the constant bloggers should just take it as a compliment that I like reading their stuff. Anyway, let the smooshing begin.

I think I kind of left everybody hanging a couple of posts ago. I wasn't ready to jump off a bridge or anything I just had to face some things. It's amazing what happens when you do. First of all you might find out even more than you thought you already knew. I'm just going to be vague on that for a while. But if any of us sit down and have some coffee sometime I'd be happy to spill it. The internet is really public. And the second thing is that when you face your fears, really look them in the eye you realize that they're just a vapor. So I've done it and I'm not freaked out anymore by who finds me or what happens. I'm ready to do whatever, whenever.

My hubby has been out of town since Sunday, in Monticello, KY on a business trip (so I'm positive that he's not having any fun, poor guy). I was a bit mopey on Sunday and Monday but yesterday I was able to talk myself out of it and have fun with the kiddos. I'm trying to do a better job of raising the girls purposefully and spend less time just wasting time with this or that. I read a little note on my former voice teacher's web page that was inspirational. Because I really do feel like when I'm spending time with my family I'm often distracted. So yesterday morning Halle and I spent time outside (in our pj's) and she picked lots of "flowers" for me. I know they were weeds but it was so sweet. And then later I took Chloe and Halle to the park and then we planted stuff. Finally. We could have planted earlier, I think but I still remember that freakish freeze we had in April a couple of years ago. So we planted yellow pear tomato seeds and mini carrots. And that was all we had time for. It takes a while to get those teensy little seeds in the ground if you're being careful. That's probably why most people buy plants that are already successful. But I can't afford that. Tomorrow (hopefully the rain will stop) we'll plant pansies (also and edible by the way) and basil and possibly small sugar pumpkins. I'm not sure if it's time to plant those yet. The package says that they're perfect for pies and such- we'll see. I know I didn't have much success with pumpkins last year but I didn't know what kind of pumpkin it was and I'm pretty sure I drowned it. I read online that they need lots and lots of water but they were talking giant pumpkins so I have my fingers crossed. I have quite a few sunflowers growing from last year because birds are messy eaters and they dropped seeds all over the place. Unfortunately they're growing in spots that they can't possibly survive. It's hard for me to pull up plants- which is why I stink at gardening. It kills me to think that I'm taking a living plant and pulling it out of the ground by the roots to let it slowly die from lack of nutrients. I know it's not a person but I still hate it.

Here are my weed flowers from my sweet little Halle. She gets such joy from giving them to me and they actually smell good.

I think they look sweet in a little bud vase in the window. That's one of the reasons I bought these. The other reason was to fill them with cranberries and a white tapered candle for Thanksgiving. But I didn't end up staying here for Thanksgiving. And as a side note- yellow is totally my new color! I have this habit of picking a new color that I'm infatuated with every couple of years. For the last few years it's been turquoise but this year it's yellow. I remember yellow being my color in 7th grade too. I had yellow lipstick ladies! Really. It was the '80's after all.

I decided that I'd try peat pots this year for planting (except for the carrots). I never, ever get the spacing right when I sow a bunch of seeds right into planters so I'm hoping that this will help. The roots of the plants will grow right through these so you can just stick the whole thing into the ground.

Chloe was so excited. She begged and begged to do "some planting". I really hope that I have some success with this stuff. I don't like tomatoes but I'm hoping that yellow pear tomatoes taste better raw than the red ones- blech. And I thought that yellow salsa would be fun. I don't think that anyone would go for yellow pizza sauce though. Crossing my fingers for carrots and pumpkins and basil and pansies. Hopefully at least a few. And Travis is coming home tonight so I'm going to do some marathon house cleaning...fun.