Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day in the United States. As it happens, neither my Mom nor my daughter are close by today. My mother has been on Cape Cod with my sister for the past 2 weeks, and is coming home today. My sister works for a seafood company on the Cape and only gets to see her a couple of times a year. I hear she has been waiting hand and foot on my mother the whole time. My daughter lives in Alameda, California, and works in San Francisco - the other side of the country. She'll be coming home for a quick visit at the end of the month. Sometimes I wish the whole extended family could live in one big commune - but then I come to my senses and realize I'm the only one that would be happy with a situation like that!

The picture above is my daughter, my Mom and I a couple of years ago at the ballet. I remember it was so hot that evening! The next picture is my Mom this past winter at a Mexican restaurant.

I honestly couldn't have asked for better parents, and am so fortunate to still have my Mom in my life. Any good that I have in me came from them. My Mom is just a wonderful, special human being, and I'm so glad she's mine!

Marvelous May?

I haven't posted in a while, but like everyone else it seems, the only story here is rotten weather and cold temperatures. We've had so much rain and so many cloudy, depressing days. The grass is tall enough to mow, but it's too wet to even try. A few cloudy days are a good excuse for snuggling in with a good book or Netflix, or even getting some cleaning done. But when it stretches on for over two weeks without sunshine...we're craving some nice weather!

Last fall our neighbors cut down a lot of trees in their yard. We now have a fantastic view of their house and yard and all their comings and goings whenever we are at the kitchen sink. To get back a little privacy, Pete ordered a bunch of quick growing trees. He didn't let the bad weather stop him, and managed to get them all planted. Our ground is all shale and impossible to dig in, but he used a mini excavator and dug all the holes, then filled everything in and added some good topsoil.

Hopefully in a couple of years we'll have a nice hedge growing along the fence that runs along our driveway.  I did manage to get out during a little sun we had one day and get a couple pictures of the front yard. The hosta are coming up around the flagpole, and some tulips have bloomed, but most are still buds.

I bought my sister a pot of pansies for her birthday, and couldn't resist getting some for us, too! (This photo was also taken during that brief sunny period!)

Aren't these flowers beautiful? I've given eggs from our hens to a friend at church a few times, and she surprised me with these beautiful peonies last Sunday. I have them on our breezeway and they smell incredible.

One last photo of me and little Angelo, my best friend Donna's new grandson. What a sweet little bundle he is!

We're actually supposed to have a sunny day tomorrow. Fingers crossed!