Little Yard of Horrors

I survived the weekend. My solo went well enough, though invariably my voice works better in rehearsal than in the performance. And I was nervous. Mind you, I spent seven years as a music major, and yet I was less nervous giving a Sunday School lesson to a bunch of adults.

That went well, too, though the material-to-time ratio was out of balance in favor of material. The last half was rushed. I hate to say this, lest someone get ideas, but I need more practice teaching. Just because the manual says to cover all of the material doesn't mean that's what you need to do.

If I were to do it again I'd focus on one central theme and the verses that build on it. Instead I had two; building the temple and Solomon's (Kiiiiing Solomonnnnnn!) downfall. One or the other would have been just about right. Oh well, live and learn.

Over the weekend we stopped in for some birdseed at a wild bird specialty store near our house. Great shop, if you like birds, squirrels--or at least looking like you do. They had a collection of plush birds modeled after specific species, complete with bird call when you pressed their chest. I wonder if they sell well. It's one of those concepts where if you buy one you have to buy them all, unless you're really, really into, say...the California Condor. So we bought none.

But we did buy a 40 lb. bag of bird seed and a 50 lb. bag of sunflower seeds for the squirrels (we have three who visit regularly, and one who used to live in our tree before it blew down). We also picked up a book on landscaping to attract wildlife. Go figure. My brother would probably love a book on landscaping to repel wildlife.

I'm not sure we'll go so far as to become certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a wildlife sanctuary, but we're seriously considering going in for more native plants and landscaping with wildlife in mind. While I can't get into zero-scaping (or whatever they call the "I hate lawn care" style), I guess I'm liberal enough to think that getting plants that are used to surviving in this dry climate could be a good thing. Especially considering the trouble I seem to have with growing grass.

We did some research for our date night. We found a website with a fairly comprehensive list of native plants, searchable by region and other criteria. I was a little concerned, however, whenever I'd see a plant listed as aggressively invasive.

"Honey, have you seen the kids lately?"

"No, but how long have we had carniflora tyrannus growing in the kitchen? I thought we planted it by the back fence!"

Too many of them looked like weeds, which I'm sure the homeowners association would just LOVE. But there were a few options that were quite pretty. I'm sure we have plenty of research still ahead of us, but I'm kinda excited about it. Especially since I'll have some more construction projects come from this--which of course means new tools! Uhh uhh uhh!

Our plans are pretty major. We're probably talking in years rather than weeks or months. But that's a good thing. It's something we'll do as a team, if not exactly together, and I believe it's healthy for a marriage to have some common short-term goals/projects (raising kids is too long-term to believe you're making much progress). So we'll see how it goes. Who knows, maybe the NWF certification isn't too far out there after all.

But if I wake up one morning to find a bunch of new age hippie wannabees camped out in our yard I reserve the right to bash them over the head with our official NWF habitat sign. They're scaring the birds.