Spring is in the air

We have been having lovely spring like weather.  There are small shoots coming up in the garden- peas, spinach, beets and potatoes.  We've eaten our first asparagus. We've gotten rain enough that we haven't had to water.  So life is good.

 my lovely phlox and grape hyacinth.

 daffodils or jonquils.

 Flowering quince bush blossoms and tulips.

Our chickens have been very generous. We are up to about 10 eggs a day.  This presents a problem.  We do not eat 10 eggs a day. So we finally created a sign and put it at the end of our driveway offering eggs for sale.  Last week we sold to 4 people.  Two friends and two who saw the sign.

It's kind of fun because I'm meeting people who live on our road.  Met a house plan designer looking for a blogger.  Something might come from that.

I'm chugging along on my copywriting.  My relationship guy who was hot to trot on promos slowed down because he was moving this week.  That was actually good news. I got some work done in other areas.  I'm getting ready to go to a Clayton Makepeace Workshop on Thursday- Monday.  Actually the course is over Saturday night, but I won't fly back from Florida until Monday.  I'm hoping it will help me get better paying jobs.

I edited a friend, Jane's book on family relationships and stopping the "explosions" in your life.  She share some ideas found in the One Minute Mother that I thought were excellent.  I decided to order some books to share.  After all, if I think it's great, everyone should think it's great and use it. :)  Actually it's a quick read.  I read it in about 45 minutes.  And it has some great parenting ideas.

One of our tenants moved out complaining about bad neighbors behind him.  Other tenants had complained as well.  Went to visit the sheriff to see what he could do.  Not much.  It's a bit frustrating.  They can arrest a kindergartner for terroristic threatening when they chew a gun shape from a sandwich, but can't do anything about people banging on doors at 11 pm with threats.  Tom and I decided to go and visit the neighbors, apologize for anything we might have done to cause ill will and seek for respect between us, them, and the tenants.  We only met with the grandmother (who we had evicted in January) not the tough sons or grandsons.  But we had a cordial meeting and I hope we have resolved the problem.

Friday we went to the home show.  It has gotten quite a bit smaller since the recession. Sad. But we met old friends and made new ones.  I talked to one of the HVAC vendors about doing a newsletter for them, so we'll see how that goes.

Saturday and Sunday we had General Conference. It's always a spiritual boost to listen to and watch conference.  The theme I picked out was Joy in adversity.  That the solution to a troubled world is to stay close to the Savior.  Increased faith and being yoked with the Savior brings strength and protection.  Not that you don't go through trials.  They are a part of life.  But that your burdens will feel lighter as you walk with the Lord. 

Also, that you can disagree without being disagreeable.  That we can and should stand up for our beliefs  but we can do it in a loving and compassionate manner.

One theme that Tom noted was the need for courage to stand on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ because we live in an ever increasingly wicked world.

Tonight we bought tickets to fly to visit Mom the end of May.