Oh, My Aching Back

After our morning walk and breakfast I headed out to the yard.  Spent some very peaceful time pulling out dead weeds.  Only a couple cars drove past, no one was on the street, it was like I had the place to myself.  Perfect temp, not in the direct sunshine and yes, it was lovely.  And I even found a ladybug.  Haven't seen one of those in ages. Yay for me.

The previously chemically killed weeds came up easily.  Yay for me.  The hollyhocks still sent up new leaves after the chemical treatment.  The roots are so huge and deep I couldn't get them up.  So, I just cut them down as close as I could to the ground and will hope if I keep doing that and the plants don't have to have a chance to seed that eventually they might just give up and never sprout again.  They were pretty - the first year.  Now they're a nuisance.  

We had to run an errand and as we left the house I was so pleased with how the garden beds look without all the dead weeds and errant grass.  Yay for me.

But not yay for me?  My back.  I've had some small improvement in my back pain doing the exercises The Husband was prescribed when he had a bad episode with his degenerative disc.  Felt a teeny bit hopeful that I'd be able to manage the incessant pain.  And probably would have had I not spent all
that time bent over in the yard cleaning everything up. We're supposed to go to the Saturday evening session of Stake Conference tonight but I'm thinking I'll take a pass.  It has never been my favorite meeting and a couple hours sitting either on one of those miserably uncomfortable chairs or even in the pews would not be good for me.  So maybe it is yay for me that I get to stay home tonight.  😬

Yesterday afternoon we came home to find the mower here (yes, it's a luxury but so very needed to have someone mow our yard) getting our grass looking so nice.  Had to wait to pull in the driveway because he'd stopped and was taking a picture of our pretty hawthorne tree.  I am constantly surprised at how tall it has gotten.  A couple weeks ago when the berries were all fresh the tree was constantly alive with dozens of waxwing birds feasting.  They were so pretty.  I tried and tried to get a picture but all I managed was a blurry fluttering of feathered wings, so those pictures were deleted.

And I wanted to link to this article.  Found it very, very interesting.  Connections are complicated, right?

True Friends Needed

Today I am again grateful for repentance.  Why, oh why, do I need so much repentance?  (Though seriously, I know that "why" questions like this rarely have an answer.) Life is a struggle for sure.  I'm trying hard.  Failing often. Repenting more often.  Sigh.