Also, like Liese, I really enjoy "my" birds at the feeder and in the water fountain, and "my" bees, and how much the dogs and the cat all enjoy the landscape.

Visitors also enjoy the landscape! I'd love to have a garden like yours someday (East Coast version, anyway).

I just tried to like and favorite a bunch of your posts - but at least I didn't try inserting an emoji!

I like owning my house, a lot, but lately I feel like I am not taking care of it well enough. Most of the work I do is in the garden, but I need to do more.

I love owning my own home, and find it emotionally necessary; I don't feel entirely stable or safe if my home doesn't belong to me. I love having the yard that's mine and watching the wildlife visitors come through, and I do enjoy taking care of the yard, but I often just don't know what to do or how, and also I hate the heat, so... yeah.

Owning a house is super important to me as well, especially after the last 4ish years. I like having "my" place. Going from new construction to a 116-year old house was a little eye opening, but I love my weird, quirky, exasperating home. I pay someone to cut my grass, and I need to find a landscaper to take care of the back garden. I have a black thumb. Repair and replacement projects this year include fuel oil tank, the fence, and repaving my parking area. Everything else should be covered by my homeowners warranty, not that I'm anticipating anything else right now.

We are hoping to buy a house in the next few years. I definitely miss being a homeowner, despite all the costs that come along with it. And I really miss the gardening and the feeling of "my" space. Despite have the best landlady in the world and having rented our house for almost ten years, it's not really ours, and I never forget it.

I don't think I'd ever feel that a house was "mine", I'd know the size of the mortgage and how easily a financial catastrophe could make me lose it. Maybe I'd think differently if I thought I'd live long enough to have a prayer of paying something like that off.

I just tried to like and favorite a bunch of your posts - but at least I didn't try inserting an emoji!

I want to post the screaming unicorn sticker ALL THE TIME here.

I have complicated feelings about home ownership, because it isn't a house that I picked; I fell in love with a guy who (seriously) impulse-bought a house. I would never, EVER, have bought this house. It has so many issues. Though I did luck out SO MUCH in terms of neighborhood.

Things I have been succeeding at this week: falling up stairs, feeling self conscious wearing lipstick, putting cocktail contents on the floor rather than in my mouth hole, and unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Yikes, Shrift!

My unhealthy coping mechanism tonight has been too much wine, too many cookies, and too many episodes of Steven Universe.

Shockingly enough, Dad appears to be recovering a bit. He's not at 100%, but he's maybe at 70% of where he was last week, which is far better than he was over the weekend. He's doing so well the hospital is considering discharging him tomorrow or Thursday.

Thanks for all the good thoughts & support, which are not wasted, as I'm sure I will need them again in a month or two...