Preludes And Nocturnes

Well, I’ve finally done one of these.  It was lots of fun, and I think I only managed to clean my kitchen tonight because I knew it would make a nice final shot…  Please note, this is usually supposed to be 12 pictures taken on the 12th of the month.  I have 20 pictures here.  Why? Because I’ve never bothered to try to do this before (well, never succeeded from morning til night) so I was just so damned impressed I included more pictures.  Laurie and Meg and Helen actually do 12 pictures like they’re supposed to.

And so we start.
The new blackout curtains are working in Malcolm’s room and I managed to wake up on my own at 7:30.  How lovely!!  So downstairs to make some coffee.

And I have some help with all of this.

Malcolm is still asleep so I can get a bit of work done for class today.

Oh, 8:30 and he is up!

Malcolm plays while I get both of our breakfasts ready.

And we’re both having some good food!

9:30 and we are pushing the boundaries of being late, so into the car and this shot is, I believe, M saying “no maaam” because we didn’t stop to play in the backyard.

Bye house!

I drop Malcolm at daycare and I arrive at the uni by 10:30.

You know, I cleaned my office later that afternoon - I couldn’t have taken a second shot?

Noon. Head out from my office and teach my class - today we worked on oral presentations, effetive strategies for starting research, and a few icebreakers (it is only the second class - they need to get to know each other). But, I took this after they left as it was easier than explaining the whole photo journal of my day.

Back to my office at 2:30 and I’m starved!

3:30 Head out from the uni after doing a few email and giving my office a quick purge.  Here’s the view for most of my 35 minute drive to/from work.

I have an appointment in town, pick up Malcolm at 4:30, and head over to mom and dad’s for dinner.  Malcolm is pointing out grandma’s boo boo on her foot.

We then head home around 6:30. Malcolm plays in the backyard as I get the garbage and recycling out for the next morning.

We both water the plants in the front and back yards.

Come inside and it is 7:30 so time to watch a little PVR’d In the Night Garden and get M into bed by 8:30 after a bath and a book.

9pm and I’ve got the kitchen tidied and the bigger toys put away.  Time to check work email one last time, toodle about online, and then try to get to bed with enought time to read a little something!

Thanks for looking at my day!

I was thinking about how these random things can make me sooooo happy.  And then I was thinking about how they don’t always relate to their cost.  So my challenge to you all is to list your top five high-end happy-makers and top five ‘on the cheap’ happy makers.

Please note I didn’t list my kid or my husband or my family because this list is more.. materialistic-based than all that.  I mean, obviously they all could make up the whole list. But I was going for something different with this.

If you are a parent and want to list your kids in any way - you have to say something specific. You can’t just list five kids (on a side note, are the kids the high-end pricey stuff or the cheap? I guess it depends on which direction you look at them from). So kids can only be ONE entry in the whole list of ten.

High End
*New ipod touch. ZOMG I love it so.
*Our trips to Vancouver.  It keeps us feeling like we’re tapped into a bigger life than this smaller city can offer.  I am so glad we make this a priority a couple times each year.
*My car.  And as an extension - Deciding to drive to work this summer so I can sing and decompress there/back rather than take the bus and save that $ each week
*PVR - we can now put M to bed and not worry that we’re missing the first ten minutes of Amazing Race or whatever we’re following.
*My yard.  The new planters are teeny but I love them. They were more than I wanted to spend, but it is our house and we can move them around and have them forever.  They look really nice and were MUCH less than the blocks to make the bigger bed.

Cheapy Cheap Cheap
*my bird feeder. I love seeing fat little birds out there every day having a bird party.
*free apps.  I sat outside with M for an hour today as he played dumptruck.  Sat in my nice patio chair, listened with one ear bud to my glee music, and played solitaire.
*my new carrot cake recipe.  I think I’ve said, out loud, that I love it more than one should love a cake about fourteen times today.
*My bath pillow.  Why didn’t I have one of these forever?  In fact, I have to go take a bath once I’m done this list.
*My local library.  I have just requested about 20 CDs from them.  This past winter I have read soooo many books I thought I would just buy, but they had them in there.  I love reading, but I love reading without guilt (and space issues of storing books afterward) even better.

It isn’t a vent because I don’t have enough energy to vent. Oh no, instead this is a pity party. I will be willing to host it, but given how overloaded I feel right now, everyone must bring something.

Anyone else want to join me?

I did some retail therapy last night and bought two lilac bushes and some annuals for my front yard.  I’m very pleased with my little garden out front and the self-starters, so I just need some pansies and alyssum to fill in a couple spots.

I will use the lilacs as an informal border between us and the next yard, and I hope to pick up maybe two more shrubs this year. I figure we’ll add a piece or two each coming summer until it is filled in as much as I want.

I love small front yards with lots of texture, colour, and levels.

Here is what I aspire to:

And here is where I’m at (sigh):

Our backgard:

So we’ve actually spent a crazy amount of time just getting to this stage.  We were working from scratch - no grass, nothing. Just weeds and hard hard dirt.  We got everything cleaned up, got the front looking pretty good with mulch, a shrub by the cement steps to help hold the hill a little, the start of the garden, and then I added lots of containers last summer with bright annuals to brighten it all up.  My little garden is full of tulips right now and my perennials are coming in wonderfully (I got them all from my grandma last year, then they were run over by someone who crashed into our porch.. so anything that comes up is a treat).

Backyard we did the rock, the lawn, and the new fence.

I think I want to push the rock back to just be beside the house and get a bit more lawn this summer since it is play space now.  And I am thinking of running three long containers along the fence for some veggies.  Again, baby steps…

What are your gardens like? What do you want to do?  Any suggestions for me?  We’re such a hot climate that I can’t get anything too lush in the front yard, but I’ll do my best.