Jeri and Michael said it best for me - having a garden that your soul loves and keeping it within the framework of nature, albeit an idealized version. I love nature, which is a good thing since it's all around me, and almost instinctively I've tried to make the garden a continuation of that, although a more approachable and friendly form of it, with more color and shape, and with places to sit and water to give it life. The gopher snake in the laundry room, the mice under the kitchen counter, the roof rats in the overhang - not what we would choose but we've invaded their territory and treat them gently (sorry, gophers are another story). We all know that there is no perfection. At least, that is to say, I know it now. Many a grandiose idea has bitten the dust. My ideal garden exists only in my mind and there it will stay. But, still, how much beauty there is here to savor. I love the plants that have chosen to stay with me and endure what they must, my companions in adversity, but also there when nature is kinder and allows them to show their full beauty. Ingrid

I keep thinking of all those ladies who like to wear bright sunny dresses for Easter Sunday. It's not going to be quite the same this year, even if it is going to warm up a bit (and rain) for the weekend. 27F out there this morning, and we're well past the average last freeze date and nearing the average last frost date (next Tuesday). And yet it's been such a mild winter overall; I know I didn't drop below 20F here the entire season. But spring marches on. Warm weather will get here eventually. I hope! The long term forecast suggests above normal temperatures for April, so I guess the NAO is heading back where it belongs.

My best friends are the girls I have known since childhood. Vicki, Kathy, Mary, Marilyn and Donna. Mary lived next door, Vicki and Kathy down the block, Marilyn around the corner and Donna I met the first day of Grade 9. She was the only one in the class who had a dress on. LOL I am close to all of them but they aren't necessarily close with each other. Vicki and I are close, Kathy and I are close, Marilyn and Mary are close, Kathy is Godmother to Mary's oldest. Marilyn has been close to each of us at different times but we all get along and a few times a year Mary has all of us over and sometimes Mary will only have Vicki, Kathy and I over. I spend most of my time with Vicki, Kathy and Donna. Vicki was with me at my Mom's bedside when she passed away and held my Mom's hand. Kathy's Mom just passed away a few weeks ago and I was really close to Kathy's Mom. Kathy's Dad called me his "adopted daughter" after my own Dad passed away. Kathy would say I was closer to her Dad than she was. He liked to tell stories and I liked to listen. LOL Mary's Mom is 91 years old and when she sold her house next door I missed her terribly. She is still going strong and I talked with her last week at Kathy's Mom's funeral. Donna knows Kathy from Grade school and knows Vicki through me. They are just acquaintances and know each other through me. Vicki's Mom used to be friends with my oldest sister since they grew up on the same street so Vicki's Mom has a picture of me and Vicki when we were just babies. All the girls are married except Kathy and I and still have good marriages. Marilyn met her husband Doug when we were in highschool and "had" to get married. LOL Those were some trying times. Mary's husband Mark was the boy around the corner - our paperboy and we always knew Mary and Mark would end up together since we were kids. Mary was Bucky and Mark was Duck. LOL Kathy was Moo, I was Higgy, Vicki was Druke and Marilyn was Armie. Kathy's Mom called me Higgy right up until the week she died. One day I will post pictures of us now that I have this laptop and once I get a scanner. We had such a good time growing up together and they will be my best friends 'til the day I die. Anne

maggiepatty, I'm in the minority here it looks like and I'm probably about as "normal" as you can get, and I am in the same camp as your DH. I think 3rd grade (and 5th grade) is way to too young to send off for a month(s) at a time. Of course, no one I know does that, so that would be a very "abnormal" thing around here. I have a 5th grader, who went to summer camp for the first time last summer (with a number of his friends) for a week and that was plenty long enough. My DS is very athletic and outgoing and has lots of friends and he did enjoy camp, but he was ready to come home. This year we are sending him to a single sport camp for only 4 days in another state. Is it mostly people who work who send their kids off for month(s) at a time during the summer? I guess I can kind of see that since the parents won't be there during the day anyway-and their kids may be more used to it? I don't know, what is it because I cannot wrap my head around it. I'm really just asking. Kids get so little time anyway to spend at "home" with some "down time" with school and all extra-curricular activities during school, so summer to us is about vacations, having DS friends over swimming, bike riding to each other's houses and to the tennis courts, playing basketball outside, golfing, etc. How do you fit a months worth of camp in the summer after all that? My parents sent us to church camp for a week each summer and I went to cheerleading camp every summer starting at 7th grade. I can see when they are around 8th grade being gone for a month-but even your 5th grader I would start off a week at the most two weeks for the first time.