What is it with having to work for a living? I have been wanting to get out in the garden the last couple of weeks and just can't seem to get there. Between inside house renovations and my day job, it's been almost impossible to spend any time in the garden. I had vowed that I would go do something to connect with the gardens 2-3 times per week. Well, guess what? It hasn't happened and not because the desire isn't there.

My job has been so consuming lately that almost every waking minute, literally, is spent doing "job stuff". I have the luxury of working from home which saves me about 2 hours a day in driving. It truly is a luxury to be able to get up in the morning, throw on a pair of shorts, grab my coffee and walk into the office. The savings on gas dollars alone is tremendous. The only "butt" in this, and I offer this tongue-in-cheek, is that I find myself so wrapped up in what I'm working on that many times I don't even take 15 minutes for lunch. Or, more importantly, take 15 minutes to smell the roses.

Yesterday I had calls starting at 9 AM so ran outside at 8:45 to quickly plunk my new miniature rose and my husband's struggling rosemary plant into the ground. I timed myself. It took roughly 5 minutes to plant the two and another 3 minutes to get a watering can filled and thoroughly water before jumping on my first conference call. I think they call it multi-tasking, but in a good way. Tonight I found myself, after going to get the mail, stopping to pull a few weeds and look at a few plants that were struggling with the heat. That took about 10 minutes, more or less. Not bad. So, while I'm not quite at 15 minutes at least I'm averaging 10. I'm going to keep working at that. I guess the key is to set my expectations just a bit lower than before and make a reachable goal. Then if I get the 15 minutes I can really jump for joy. Wow, what would happen if I could get 20 minutes? I think I see the brass ring in sight. Happy Gardening.