I’ve spent the past week on friends’ couches because our house is overrun with thousand-legger bugs. Really, really huge ones. I’ve seen one every single day for the past five weeks. And the fun thing? They’re pretty much resistant to all pesticides/extermination methods (which, actually, is okay with me because I’m not too comfortable with all those chemicals in my home).

Jason and I have spent the week stressing over what to do. Could we continue to live in a house overrun with bugs we’re both disgusted by? Could we afford to move immediately? Could we wait 60 days to give the appropriate notice to our landlord that we were moving? Could we find a new place that soon? If we did stay, how could we control these things?

Ultimately we decided that the best thing to do would be to stay. We researched how to control them and found a few 100% natural methods — namely diatomaceous earth, which is a powder made from crushed up sea matter. We’re also going to invest in a dehumidifier for the basement, pick up some mesh drain covers for every drain in the house, and have our landlord come out next weekend to caulk up every single little crack and crevice in our walls, ceilings, and baseboards. From what I understand, these bugs are “nesting” bugs, which means that they come into your home because it has something to offer them — moisture, small dark spaces, and food in the form of other bugs. Remove those variables and the bugs will skedaddle. At least we hope.

If after a couple weeks this doesn’t work, we’ve agreed that the best thing for us to do would be to move — we don’t know where, or how, or how to break it to our current landlord, but a house in which neither of us feel comfortable or safe or able to relax is not a healthy place to live.

Any one else have creepy-crawly problems in their homes? How do you deal?

This morning I ventured outside while waiting for my tea to brew. It was a balmy 63 degrees and perfectly wet and rainy. I don’t mind the rain at all when it’s warm — it’s the cold, clammy, 40 degree rain that I can’t stand. But today was different. It finally looks, smells, and feels like spring outside…and it’s about darn time Pittsburgh caught up with the rest of the world.

I am loving watching this backyard take shape. We still want to fix up the garden bed next to the back patio, and I’m sure once the weather picks up (read: once it stops raining for more than five minutes so that we can spend a day outside working) we’ll be out there getting our hands dirty. I want to plant a big bush of purple phlox, some wooly lamb’s ear, and maybe a big, bushy border of petunias.

What’s happening in your yard lately?

Oh hey there. Remember when I used to post here? Yeah. Me too.

So far this month I have been cleaning and “nesting” like a champ in preparation for Jason to move in in three weeks(!). We will have been long distance for almost three years at that point. We are both so ready for it to be over. He’s started moving some of his things here already and it’s just so nice to see it around every day (even if it is weird stuff like his bowling pin lamp). I can’t believe I’ll be celebrating three years together with this man in July. I’m a lucky woman, let me tell you.

In gardening news, our daffodils and forsythia finally bloomed! Our yard is a yellow party right now. I love it. I cut some of each and brought them in on a vase for the kitchen table, and it cheers me up every time I see it.

So that’s what I’ve had of an April so far. I want to start taking more photos, cooking more food, baking more recipes, hanging more art, and appreciating more of the small things again. And I want to start sharing it here again. I’m going to try. Really I am. I have so much good in my life right now.