Feeling Blah...

As if my wonky camera wasn't enough, now the computer is giving me the business when it comes to uploading my photos. I'll have to put the food diary on hold. Ever since we hooked up an external back up drive, I'm having to adapt to doing things a bit differently.

I'm feeling down, and I don't know exactly why. Its probably a trifecta of heat, humidity and hormones. Of course maybe the bank account and messy house are not helping either.

We have this strange leak of some kind happening in our kitchen. Its really strange, as if I poured brown sugar on the floor and wet it down. I can't figure out what it is, or where it is coming from. The pipes do not seem to be leaking, but this tan, grainy substance is showing up along the baseboard in front of the kitchen sink. I suppose I'll have to take everything out from under the sink and really investigate it tomorrow, when I have more time.

I think the Japanese beetles are bringing me down too. Our birch tree is infested with thousands and I'm fearing the worse, we'll lose the tree. Its funny how certain plants and trees they ignore completely, but others they swarm on. I've read you can chemically treat your grass to kill the larva but complete elimination of the pests could take up to 5 years of applying these chemicals. As sad as I am to see my birch tree killed, I don't think I want to dump all those chemicals on the lawn.

The mulberry tree/bushes they seem to leave along. Maybe I should encourage more wild mulberries to grow around the yard instead of trying to fight the beetles? The problem with mulberry bushes, they grow almost too quickly and for a deciduous tree, their leaves come out later than others in the spring and drop off too quickly in the fall. 

We have a mulberry bush that grew wild near the corner of the house. I had DS11 chop it down to the ground last year but we did not remove the roots. This year the bush grew back huge. Its over 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide in this growing season alone. If only we could place these bushes around the perimeter of the yard rather than the house, we'd have lots of quick privacy for part of the year.

On a positive note, as I sit here and type this, I can hear the boys outside moving the rest of the dirt off the driveway and into the garden area. They are laughing and having a good time, which is pretty remarkable considering its hard labor in the 90 degree heat. They are shoveling the dirt onto a tarp, dragging the tarp over to the garden beds and dumping it.

This is just proving to me I need to stop worrying so much about them. They are capable of hard work, and they are capable of doing it without complaining about it. I found myself worrying the other day about SAT preparations and questioning what more should we be doing, yet if I'd only relax and take a closer look, they are proving to be fine young men.

I'll leave for work soon and hopefully this will distract me. I can only do what I'm capable of. I don't have to try and solve all my worries at once. The Japanese beetles, the mystery sugary goo, the messy house, the bills to pay, they can all wait for me or I can let them go, and just try redirecting my focus.