Here's what I've been doing lately...

This was last Thursday:

My brothers, Brian (left) and Dennis (right) graduated from high school. I'm so proud of them and the young men they've become. They're both off to college in the fall, Brian to Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania and Dennis to Vermont Tech.

This was Saturday and Sunday:

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. Oooooh, it was good. Stop, drop what you're doing and roll on over to your local bookstore to pick up a copy.

This was Monday:

(The Fabulous) MaryJanice Davidson has done something a little different with her latest, Undead and Uneasy. It's Betsy, so it's still hilarious and clever but it's not my favorite of the series. If you haven't ever read a Betsy book, I highly recommend checking out Undead and Unwed, the first book in the series. MaryJanice can do side-splitting dialogue like no one else in the biz.

And here's what occupied my time Tuesday and Wednesday:

A new flower bed!! As I mentioned previously, my mom and her husband are relandscaping our yard. I helped out this week, transferring mulch from the towering pile in the driveway to this bed in the retaining wall and then placing and planting these flowers.

Here are the other two beds that mom and Mark have done so far along with the hydrangea I planted last week:



And just to put a little perspective on things, here's the remaining bed:



That's right, folks! That actually used to be a neat, tidy little flower bed. With mulch and a stone path and everything. That's what all the beds looked like before mom and Mark worked their magic.

I've gone on a book diet until I get better progress on the The Book done. To be honest, I'm not sure how practical it is, though. There are little pockets of my life that are tailor-made for reading and I just feel like I'm wasting time without a book to fill them (for example on the bus to and from work, while eating dinner when Ben's not around, etc.). The real challenge I struggle with is the discipline to do things other than read once I start a good book.

So, that pretty much catches me up. Tomorrow night I have a crop (scrapbooking event), Saturday I've got two picnics and Sunday is the bruthas graduation par-tay. Busy, busy, busy. All fun things, things I'll be happy to do.

But part of me will be wishing I was writing.