Welcome to my living room

Or my front porch in this case. As my sister duly noted in our phone conversation this evening, I've been "made in the shade" for over a month. More accurately, I've been very, very busy as a full-time student, part-time employee, full-time mom and wife. And while I've done my utmost to keep up the other blog for those family members who don't get to see Oliver very often, I've done a poor job maintaining this one. I guess they could merge, but there's something important to me about keeping those separate identities alive, and my separate blogs are a kind of manifestation of that.

So for this week, I'll show you what I've been up for the last several months -- a lot of it just this weekend -- and share pictures of the house since we've moved in. There's a lot we still need and want to do, but time and money are limited entities.

The front of the house hasn't changed much since we moved in. I spent Friday morning mowing, weeding, and pruning, then bought two mums and potted them for the front porch. The elm tree is fantastic, but according our neighbor -- a true "tree guy" -- the gray on the trunk is fungus, and it will eventually have to come down. I wouldn't mind putting flowers around, but I'm not really sure where they would go and am hard pressed right now to find time to think about it all, let alone plant them. Our goal, as Wes named it, is maintaining. With all the rain we've had, we've been lucky just to keep the lawn at a reasonable length. Next spring we're going to try a vegetable garden out back in a plot previously used for that purpose.

So for those patient souls who have checked frequently (or infrequently) to see if there's something new posted, know that I'm trying to put things up more often to make the visit worthwhile. I love seeing new posts on friends' blogs (HP has returned after a stint away, and Kim is back after giving birth to her daughter last Monday), so I ought to return the favor (of sorts) :)