Iris

Last year, about this time actually, my dad was here and he helped me rearrange the big flowerbed in my back yard. One thing we moved was these iris plants, only I didn't know they were iris. Last year was our first spring in this house and when we moved the plants they hadn't actually bloomed yet, so I didn't know if they were iris or gladiolus or what. The shock of the transplanting kept them from ever blooming last year, but this year they've decided to show themselves, and when I came home on Tuesday I was greeted with this lovely surprise! The columbine you see in the background was also planted last year (my dad actually brought them to me from his own garden) and although they spent last year looking pitiful and dried out, they've rebounded this year and each of the three plants has a few little yellow blossoms nodding on top. They're nothing like the bushy plants my dad has in his backyard, but I think if I give them a few years, they'll fill out nicely. It's so nice to finally have some color in that flowerbed!

Today has been long, and it's barely half over. Maren woke up at 5:45 am and wouldn't go back to sleep, so I got up by default. By 9:00 am I had: cleaned up pee from the bathroom floor, wiped up all the water from the dog's bowl and put his mat out to dry after Maren dumped the bowl, bathed Maren twice , changed her diaper three times, and wrestled a fat black permanent marker away from Maren, but not before she managed to get the lid off and plant a black mark in the middle of her lips. Thankfully she took a nap not long after that and is napping again right now, which gives me a few disaster- and mess-free hours. My Visiting Teaching appointment for this evening just called and cancelled, so that means I only have once place to go, hooray! I am tired and I just want to sit on the couch and veg out to my guilty pleasure reality show, So You Think You Can Dance, which premieres tonight. Come 7:00 pm, you know where to find me--on the couch!