You've negected the house. Again.

I'm not the best housekeeper. I'll own it. I'm bad at it, I have other things I'd rather be doing, and it's generally at the bottom of my endless To Do list. But, not everyone has the clarity that I have attained in this arena. There are some people out there who don't know if they're good housekeepers or not. It can be hard to tell.

Take dusting, for instance. Do you have to dust regularly to be considered a good housekeeper? Once a week? Once a month? Once a year?!

How can I tell if I am a slob, or a model home maintainer, you may be asking. Don't panic! I've got you covered. I've come up with this handy list for you!

(See, this is the kind of thing you can spend your time doing if you aren't bogged down, worrying about keeping your living conditions sanitary!)

So, here it is. The first, official, Have I Been Neglecting the House Again? quiz. I think the results will be self-explanatory. Please to enjoy...

1. Are the kids are trying to drink out of bowls because there are no clean cups?

2. Are the kids are trying to drink off of plates because there are no clean cups or bowls?

3. Is finding clean clothes a twenty minute game of needle in the haystack in the massive pile of laundry on the floor?

4. Do you have to keep washing the same load of laundry over and over because you keep forgetting it's in the washing machine, and it's gone sour?

5. Have you ever moved stuff off the coffee table and discovered a library book that was due a year and a half ago?

6. You can't find the vacuum cleaner, and think you may have left it behind when you moved. Last year. True or false?

7. Does the stack of papers on your desk contains artwork by your preschooler? Is that preschooler a fifth grader now?

8. When you finally reach the clothes at the bottom of the laundry hamper, are they so crumpled and icky that you don't recognize them?

9. When you do recognize them, are they several sizes too small? For the kids, and for you?

10. Have your kids unintentionally started new fashion trends by wearing completely mismatched socks everyday, or by patching together bizarre outfits from whatever they can find?

11. You find a bowl of bananas on the counter in the kitchen, and when you lift out the bananas, you discover the bottom half of the bowl is filled with a particularly odoriferous concoction of banana liquor, but without the tiny festive umbrella. True or false?

12. The kids wrote their names and the date in the dust on the TV cabinet, and the date ends with 09. True or false?

13. Do your kids enjoy fun games like What's the oldest thing you can find in the fridge and pantry? Is the winning find older than your second grader?

14. Do your offspring frequently wear Halloween costumes, bathrobes or their father's clothes because they can't find anything else to wear? Do you?





If you've answered positively to any of the above, CONGRATULATIONS!!! You can now join me in the winner's clubhouse. It's kind of a mess though. Watch where you step, and don't sit on that pile of laundry on the couch; the dog has gone missing again.

Summer Vacation Haiku

Loads of stuff brought home
bickering, bored, way too loud
When will summer end?

An Early Taste

The end of the school year is approaching way too quickly, and finding time to write has been a lost cause these last few weeks. I have been neglecting just about everything around the house, but there are a few things that have been getting along just fine without my interference.

In spite of my announcement that I was not going to plant anything this year (too much work, not enough space, not enough direct sunlight), I have still managed to fill large sections of the backyard with pots and planters.

So here is a pictorial tour of things that get along just fine, without any help from me, thank you very much.

A lovely little heuchera that I have carted from one house to the next. She blooms the tiniest, sweetest little white flowers on wispy little stalks. My beach rock collection got a little too overwhelming for the house, so now there are piles around the patio.

All ready and waiting for the sun.

An offspring heuchera of the original that jumped into a neighboring strawberry pot (see the green baby berries?!) We have one-hundred and fifty strawberry plants throughout the yard in various planters, and I still only manage to get one or two berries every summer. You have to get up awfully early to beat the pint-sized berry pickers at our house.

Bright, cheerful primary color plastic pots for $3 - $5 from Walmart. They're filled with herbs, squash, a tomato plant, and assorted beans.

A recycled kid toy. Used to be a play sink; now it's the home of an army of salad greens.

Peas. Lovely, pretty Peas.

I love watching bean and pea plants grow, especially the little curling, grasping tendrils that cling to everything.

As much as I enjoy the peas, I almost like the delicate, colorful flowers more.

And last, but not least, a couple of photos just for fun. I love rust. Actually, I hate rust. It means something is about to fall apart, but I do love the way it looks. So many subtle color variations and it just looks downright pretty to me. So I guess I should say I love to photograph rust. I still hate it when it's on my stuff.

This is a photo I took while out camping with a friend and our kiddos that I get to have displayed in the city art museum for an exhibition. These scruffy deer were as surprised to see me as I was to see them. Neither of us moved for some time. I think it was like a game of chicken. They were waiting for me to move, and that sure wasn't gonna happen. So while we dared each other with our eyes to make a move, I got quite a few lovely photos.