ummm... i don't think smoking a bong is allowed! and drinking beer, well that would be allowed! i'm ok, jimi is my brother, but i raised him from a little thing!! LOL mom being a trucker and all. the other thing i can do pretty easy! pissing me off!! LOL he he he amazing aren't i! LOL funny how those kids are, when your not, looking they just do what they want!! my mom went and got tabor some of those heelys, so now he's like all cool. LOL sooooo, he wears them to church, so i make him change them, and he can wear them at break time, LOL the good news is my banana plant is comin out of it! before after like almost a week. so my banana plant is doing much bettr!! can't say much for the canna's. errr! one was just about to bloom too!! i was FINALLY gonna see this special yellow! LOL and one i've been waiting on never bloomed yet, won't this year thanks to the frost! that's it! i'm moving!! LOL :'))

I remember being crabby with them when they did a makeover for a mom who had family members involved with 3 schools--dad was a principal one place; kids were students in different grades. Lots of activities, etc. Their calendar solution was a write-on, wipe-off calendar. Because it was a PRODUCT, and it *looked* cool. But you can only track one month at a time. I thought, Where is she supposed to write down that she's got a dentists' appointment in 6 weeks? Or where is she going to write all the school plays, team practices, big games, school-board meetings, for 4 busy people, months in advance? She'll have to track them on a paper calendar, and then re-write them once a month. So, it was done by a *stylist*, who looked at what is available int he market and looks cool, but didn't really seem to consult anybody who knew anything about how to organize your life. I work at a magazine, and that often is how it is, unfortunately. Not always, but it happens often enough, especially w/ photo-driven and product-driven magazines. Which Real Simple is.

I think each generation finds their own level of "acceptable" housekeeping. I certainly don't do all the stuff my mother's (June Cleaver) generation did. I know people who are neat as pins and others who live in a veritable pig sty, and various levels between those two, from every generation. I also believe my generation raised children (born in the 1970's and after) who thought it was mean to make your kids do chores - doing them the disservice by raising kids who were never shown how to clean and do laundry (as well as cook). They were allowed to change clothes 5-times a day if they wanted to, could use 3 towels each time they showered/bath, leave their rooms a mess and their belongings in a shambles, half the kitchen dishes and silverware were hidden under their beds..... Lazy parents who gave lame excuses like - you just have to know which battles are worth fighting! As our kids left home, they had skills necessary for taking care of their abode and possessions (darn a sock, hem a garment, simple sewing skills, cleaning, cooking, budgeting, etc.) and each time they had a room mate sharing an apartment, they had to teach them how to take out trash, plan and make a balanced meal, do dishes by hand, properly clean a bathroom, and all the other things that go along with housekeeping. My mother worked full time so my sister and I did all the household tasks and cooking. I thought it was rubbish that the two prodigal brothers got off without helping, so when I had a daughter and son, both left home prepared. We all dirtied the house, so we could all help maintain it - that is our job when we share a home and is how we are courteous to each other. Mops, dust rags, brooms, leaf rakes, and so many other things are one-size-fits-all. I'm just glad I don't have to live with the standards set by my obsessive-compulsive grandmother (b. 1890). She would wash and wax her kitchen floor, lay down a sheet of oil cloth and a layer of newspaper over that. Her family was never allowed to walk on a clean kitchen floor. If company came to the door she would rush to the kitchen and remove the newspaper and oil cloth so she always had the cleanest kitchen floor in town. Her two daughters (b. 1914 and 1918) lived with a dust cloth in one hand and a mop or broom in the other. There was never an idle moment for the daughters in the home because they cleaned constantly - or should I say re-cleaned - because there couldn't have possibly been anything even remotely resembling anything untidy, soiled, or out of place. A speck of dust would have died of loneliness in the home. Hand-crocheted doilies and antimacassars were laundered, starched, and ironed each week. Bedding and the bedrooms were aired out each day before the beds were made. There were special treatments done to lace curtains. The only blessing about the laundry is that they wore fewer pieces of clothing than we do now, but it was much more labor intensive. Spring cleaning meant clearing all the furniture from each room and placing it outside on the lawn or on the front/back porch and each room was cleaned floor to ceiling. I have a fairly easy housekeeping schedule that works for me and learned long ago, if you don't dirty a home, it doesn't require all that much cleaning. My sister lives like a pig because of her hoarder tendencies, and any attempt to clean her house starts with getting a large lawn size trash bag and several empty boxes or storage containers...... My KISS method: -Pick up after yourself. -Make the bed each day (it takes hubby and me about 25-30 seconds for this task). -Leave the bathroom tidy when you are done using it. -The dishes are done after each meal. -If you get it out, put it back. -We take a few minutes each night before we go to bed to pick up anything that may be out of place, straighten the sofa pillows, put a book or hand-work away, .... -I vacuum all floors 3 times a week, and the kitchen gets swept after dinner. -Clean all rooms (dust, dry mop or steam clean) each Friday. -Any "big jobs" (indoors or outdoors) are done on Saturday when hubby is home and can help. At our age, we like to have someone else around if we have to get up on ladders, or things that would be easier with two people. My grandmother would be appalled that my home was only clean, not pristine, but I can live with it ;-). -Grainlady

You could put in a pergola (I suggest a wooden one) with either big planters at the four corners with vines growing in and up the sides of the pergola to cover or sailcloth to cover the pergola. But if you're not into that much work, get one of those big offset patio umbrellas. They need to be bolted in place and you can't leave them open on a windy day. Sooner or later your little tree (birch maybe?) will get bigger and shade the patio. And I agree, you've got the big pots, go for topiaries in them. Keep it simple. Or just alberta spruces that don't need to be pruned. Or any type of narrow evergreen that you like. I have a recliner in my front yard, I have a walled area in the front, kind of a courtyard like you, and I enjoy it. En lieu of a porch, why not. Nice place to sip your afternoon tea and keep track of the neighbors! You could, if you wanted, construct a low brick wall in front of your patio to make it more like a real courtyard. Or a hedge of something small.