So Hard

 I think this is the longest I've ever gone without writing something in this space.  If the girls read it one day, they'll think we just took a vacation from life.  That would not be wrong in my case.

I'll try to write a few words a day just to keep up, and maybe I will find something to say and some pictures.

The end of the school year is always a busy time, and we've all been trying to keep up.  

Yesterday Ryan took the girls home, and I picked them up for gymnastic about 5:00.  They were busily practicing their gymnastics recital parts, which I guess is today.  They only got two tickets, so I'm not going to this.  They're not crazy about gymnastics, and I think Emily cancelled the summer gymnastic camps.  

Kate has a play date with Karter, so Graysen and I will go to the grocery store.  She seems to enjoy that, especially getting to pick out the snacks, and she's a big help.  

Unbelievably, I have a fire in the fireplace on June 1st.  Just to take the chills ff.  It will be warm this afternoon, but the cats and I want to be cozy first thing in the morning.  We've been able to open the windows only a few times so far. 

I haven't been in the mood (warm enough) to work on neatening up the porch.  Noreen and I sat outside once in May, I think!  

These are the rhododendrons that line the little walk beside my end of the apartment.  There are different colors in different sections, but these are breathtaking in the late afternoon when the walk is in the shade.

This is one of the plants Emily bought me for Mother's Day in Carnation.  In the foreground is the struggling blooming cactus that is a pretty coral color when it decides to bloom.  The one in the yellow pot is the new one, and it seems to be budding with white or pale pink flowers.  

Or it may be just new growth.  We'll have to wait and see.

This begonia is so amazing.  The color is beautiful, and people stop to admire it from the sidewalk.  I didn't hang it because it's the only basket I have so far.  I'll try to get a couple of ferns again.

Elise brought in a few pots of flowers for Mother's Day too.  These petunias are doing well, and the little tree in the background is thriving.  I love the color and need to get some other plants in that pot.

I've kept this evergreen alive for a year.  It seems happy guarding the front door.

I was excited to see this Creeping Jenny come back for another year.  It's one of my favorites for sticking in all the pots.

This is the craziest plant of the year.  I seem to have put my amaryllis in the garage last winter and forgot about it.  I found it a couple of weeks ago behind some boxes.  No water, no light for months.  Just to test it, I put it on the porch, and it's trying.  I don't know if it will bloom or not, but it's trying.

We had a nice loud thunderstorm one night in May.  It's so unusual that everyone seems to have stopped what they were doing and watched.  Here are a couple of pictures I took from Facebook.  I do miss the thunder and lightning but not the tornado warnings a couple of times a week in the spring.  

So I am alive and doing okay.  Looks like I'm getting a little strength back but not nearly as much as I once had.  Maybe whatever is wrong with me will gradually disappear and I can walk more than a couple of blocks.

I've started a little ritual in the mornings now.  I make a cup of coffee and go to the living room and go through my checklist.  I write down the steps I took the day before - some good and some not.  On the days when I go back to bed in the mornings are not going to have many steps.  

I check my bank statement on line, do the daily Wordle, and write down my progress on the book I'm reading in my journal.  Today it's a book of short stories by Margaret Atwood.   I then start my Duo Lingo practice.  That's been so much fun.  I feel like I'm not learning much, but when I look at my vocabulary, I've learned a LOT of words in Spanish.  Just using nouns, I could probably communicate, but I'm working on conjugating verbs and masculine-feminine agreement.  The thing I've really enjoyed is hearing a pretty fast paragraph read to me and then translating it.  I can usually figure out enough on the first listen to answer most of the questions.  It will be a long time - if ever - before I can think fast enough to listen and then compose an answer.  I'm on the Win-Bin family plan, and we're all working on the same thing, so it's a lot of fun.  The girls are picking up a lot too, and their accents are better than mine.  

I'm proud of myself for venturing back here and writing something.  There's so much I've missed.  I hope I'll keep it going.

 This puppy and kitten are hilarious together.  I've never had a cat that would run to meet me, but Gus knows my voice now and will run up to me for snuggling.  I fed him when the family went to the beach.  Woodrow got to go and do crazy puppy things in the ocean.