We have some plants!
Baby nasturtiums. We have pots of nasturtiums on the back patio. There may not be any flowers, since the soil is rather rich, but the foliage is getting pretty.

I surrounded the patio with pots like these. We have a single chaise longue and a barbecue, which isn't exactly a welcoming furniture arrangement, but it's nice for me to sit out and read.

The weather is perfect for that, and I have a light novel for the purpose. I gave a final this morning and read Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Dominationon my Kindle while the students wrote. It was nice, but reading out on the patio is nicer.

We have a rose blooming (New Dawn) and columbine and azaleas in the front.

Baby salad. The cracks in the dirt are the result of the flood. We expected that it would wash everything away, but it didn't, so we had a lucky escape.

We have baby peas and squash, too. Tomatoes and peppers have yet to be planted.

We have some plants!
Baby nasturtiums. We have pots of nasturtiums on the back patio. There may not be any flowers, since the soil is rather rich, but the foliage is getting pretty.

I surrounded the patio with pots like these. We have a single chaise longue and a barbecue, which isn't exactly a welcoming furniture arrangement, but it's nice for me to sit out and read.

The weather is perfect for that, and I have a light novel for the purpose. I gave a final this morning and read Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Dominationon my Kindle while the students wrote. It was nice, but reading out on the patio is nicer.

We have a rose blooming (New Dawn) and columbine and azaleas in the front.

Baby salad. The cracks in the dirt are the result of the flood. We expected that it would wash everything away, but it didn't, so we had a lucky escape.

We have baby peas and squash, too. Tomatoes and peppers have yet to be planted.

This was my kitchen at the beginning of the day yesterday. I have the "after" picture below. 

I think before and after pictures are just about the only way to gain significant satisfaction from housework. It doesn't last long, and no one is impressed with it at the time -- at least not in my house.

Still, we can't expect to live in a state of squalor like the before picture and also be happy, can we?

I did the cupboards as well, so you will see before and after pictures of one of the cupboards below as well.

I was supposed to go to a party yesterday, but I didn't. Allergies are my excuse, but the truth is that I never feel like going to parties, even though I enjoy myself once I'm there.

Since I hadn't arranged to go with anyone, the time came and I was engrossed in  a book and didn't feel like going, so I didn't.

My husband had me attempting to find out the names of the particular Navy SEALs responsible for the death of Bin Laden for much of the day. He gets made fascinations with particular news stories and wants to know lots of details. In this case, he thinks that the Navy was the wrong force for the undertaking. It seems to him that the Army should have been called, since it took place on land. He's imagining the Army sitting around feeling bad because the Navy took on the task instead of calling them. "Blast those Navy SEALs," he imagines them thinking, "they should stay in the water!"

Of all the things a person could worry about in this particular bit of history, the feelings of the Army seem to me to be about the least important.
I am having a horrible allergy attack, though. Headache, swollen eyes, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, sore throat. I woke up last night -- turn away if you have a weak stomach -- because I was about to drip onto my pillow and had to go blow my nose. Pretty disgusting.

In addition to cleaning and organizing the kitchen and discussing the case of Bin Laden, I also read and knitted. While I did read a bit of a new and wonderful science book I've just received, I also read a lot more of a light mystery novel. I rejoined Booksfree, my former steady source of books that are fun to read but not really worth rereading.

Booksfree sends out a couple of books at a time on a rental basis, like Netflix but for books. I stopped my subscription there during my Stage I business building. Now, three years in and still in business (which means that I am more successful than 80% of all businesses, since only 20% of businesses started in the U.S. ever reach their third birthday), I am returning to a more balanced life.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you've heard me say this before. However, since almost no one does read my blog any more, I can say it again as though it were news.

With anything of this kind, where you keep saying you're going to improve and actually don't, you only really have two choices. You can give up and admit that you will never improve, and keep doing the wrong thing for the rest of your life, or you can keep trying again.

Trying again has the disadvantage of allowing you to fail again. But not trying again has the comparable disadvantage of meaning that you already have failed.

So I'm trying again. I'm beginning with systems and schedules. #1 daughter, project manager of the company, is being helpful with this, organizing my work schedule into manageable bits for each day. I'm trying to resurrect my former schedule from the days when I worked a fairly steady 40 hours a week instead of 55 or more hours a week.

Because I love my work and I love the people I work with, and I feel blessed to have been able to make this change in my life. But I also miss having a pretty house and good health and interesting thoughts outside of work, not to mention more than three or four FOs a year.

It is, by the way, Mother's Day, and we have no full-blown roses. They're late. I'm excusing them, since there were all those floods and tornadoes and things.

Here's #2 son hiding his face so I couldn't take his picture. That means that I can post his picture, so the laugh is on him.

He called yesterday to say that he's got an apartment on campus for the summer, and  a summer job. We'll miss him, but I'm also excited for him.

#1 son plans to get a real job and move in with friends this summer. We went out this week and bought him some grownup clothes for the job hunt; he looks sharp in them, though that doesn't guarantee that he'll get a job that will allow him to support himself. If he does, then we would have an empty nest -- apart from the dogs, of course.

#1 daughter not long ago said that she thinks I'm tired of taking care of people. Not, she hastened to add, tired of my kids (though I am certainly tired of the dogs), but tired of taking care of everyone.

It's true. Maybe it's time for me to take care of myself for a while.

I may be thinking of this because I'm having an allergy attack and that, combined with my perpetual lack of sleep, is making me feel a bit sorry for myself.

No matter. Today I think I'll take the day off and do some things for myself: clean my house, do some sewing, go for a walk, read. Actually, I have some blogs I have to write, and we just launched a website so I have to keep an eye on it a little bit, but mostly I think I could spend today taking care of myself. See how I like it.

We had a nice Easter. All the kids were home, a rare event, and we visited my parents.

Even though my kids are all pretty big now, they still wanted Easter baskets, so  we had those along with breakfast.

I went to early service at one church and came home and got #2 daughter for the second service at the other church.

I got to sing the Hallelujah Chorus twice, and the second church had brass and tympani.

#1 son had to work on Easter Sunday, so we had our Easter dinner the day before, but the leftovers were quite good on Easter day as well.

With Easter past, life settled back into its routine: lots of work. However, I did have some social events this week, I got some knitting in, and I'm doing at least a little bit of housework every day. Yesterday I didn't work at all.

We've been having dramatic weather here, but I've planted some things and they're mostly up and looking cheerful. I may get around to planting the rest of the garden today, since things seem to have settled down a bit. Spending time in the garden is a satisfying thing to do.