May already?

Has it really been this long since I've blogged? Sugoi! I suppose I've been busy.

Last weekend my sister, my niece and my grandniece came visiting. They decided it was past time to introduce my grandniece to her relatives she hadn't yet met on this side of the family, including her other great aunt and uncle and her great grandparents. It was a fun weekend although United lost their luggage when they came in. They finally manged to retrieve it the day before they left to go home. United was ..... less than helpful, would be the kindest way to express it. I think I'll leave it at that since I long ago decided to try not to turn this blog into a rant .... no matter how much I might occasionally want to!

This is my grandniece discussing pears with her grandmother. I won't say who won the discussion, but most of the pears ended up where they were intended to go. Julia is 11 months old now so she's totally at the stage where she can get into pretty much everything. She's so cute though. I don't envy her parents having to start telling that cute little face "no" to things. It's such a good thing that I'm not parent. How can you say "no" when the child looks at you like that?

Families are quite amazing. I love every member of my family, even when they irritate me beyond reason. I suppose that's what makes them family. When your friends irritate you beyond reason, you either move on and lose the friendship, or try to resolve the issue if it's a best friend relationship. But with family members, even if you don't talk to them for long periods of time, they're still your family and you keep trying to hold onto that and save the relationship and continue to love them. I wonder if we'd keep more friends if we treated them more like family members ..... keep trying to make it work, even when you're "irritated beyond reason"? Or maybe the reverse is true. Perhaps there are times when you should move on, even from family members. I think that's definitely true. I've been blessed in my family. Oh, we have our issues and skeletons. It wouldn't be a family otherwise. But there are people who have things that have happened in their families that are harmful to the physical or mental well-being of members or both. Yes, I know we should always forgive, but being only human, the most natural feeling in the world is having ill will toward someone who has hurt us, or even more so, hurt someone we care about. And if that hurt is on-going, then it's time to move on and forget that person. Forgiveness can come later. Time and distance really is the only cure for some things.

Okaaaaay. That was way too philosophical. Not sure where that came from this morning.

It's been raining here on and off for the better part of the last two weeks, which has pushed my lawn into full-tilt jungle growth mode. It managed to dry out long enough on Thursday for me to mow and edge, before it started raining again. It was a pain though. 92 degrees and close to 100 % humidity. I felt like I'd melt. I do love my lawn when it's this gorgeous, thick, bright green, nicely mowed and edged look though. Luckily it's not a big lawn, or I'd kill myself mowing in the summer here. I only have 0.2 acres. *laughing* Yes, I know the exact amount, because of signing the gas and oil lease last Fall.

I realized that I hadn't posted a picture of my first yellow rose like I did the first red one, so here it is. Yay! I have yellow roses along with my red.

You know the best part about spending time with the people you love? Going home afterward. LOL No, of course that's not it. I just couldn't resist. For me it's the sense of belonging. That there are people that accept me with all my flaws and eccentricities. I suppose those people are my 'family', whether they happen to be related to me by blood or not.

In this increasingly small world we live in, one day we'll ALL be related to each other by blood. Probably we should start acting like it now.

Shikatanai. Apparently I'm just feeling philosophical this morning. I'll end this and try again later.