Church, my yard and other people's trees

We made it to church early this morning and we still didn't get a good seat! I live about 3 blocks from my church, but I still usually get there right as the priest is about to get started. I wish the "children's mass" wasn't at 9 a.m.! Anyway, this morning I had my shit together and we left the house at 9:45 and got to church at about 9:50. 10 minutes... 10 minutes early and still I had to sit in the back where the kids can't see what is going on. I think the church needs to invest in stadium seating. The kids were good and were able to enjoy a doughnut after mass. I've only been taking them to church with me for about 6 months and I still can't imagine how my mom handled 7 during the weekly service. I only have two (but I am flying solo) and they drive me bonkers. They don't want to go to Sunday school, so they usually stay with me and ask me how much longer, every 2 minutes. I tell them they should be grateful they are Catholic and only have to sacrifice 1 hour each week:)

After we had lunch I dug into some yardwork. After 5 hours in the yard -- well, on and off in the yard, playing with the kids, cleaning up mud they and the dogs tracked in and vaccuming up some spills throughout the day -- I am extremely depressed. I got to about 1/4 of my yardwork for the fall. I still have so much more and I don't know where I'm going to find another 15 hours to finish the rest. My lot isn't huge -- about 11k sq. ft. -- but it might as well be 10 acres. there is so much pruning, weeding, lawn to be cut, fountains to be cleaned out, and there is still the dead zone (about 200 sq. ft. of dirt) that I am constantly tinkering with. I have a list of projects that need to be done inside the house and garage and I think by the time I get to those it will be spring cleaning time. I spend an hour or two each week on regular maintenance, but that doesn't cut it. I still have to do major work each of the four seasons. The thing that kills me is that my yard doesn't look glorious for all of my hard work. I have a notorious black thumb and no creative mind for budget landscaping. I see lots of people in my middle-class neighborhood with really pretty yards and I just don't know how they do it. They haven't had to spend tons of money, but they just know what works and what doesn't. Oh well, I'll just keep pulling up weeds and sweeping up my mess.

You know the only thing worse than having a tree on your property that is messy? Having a neigbhor with about 5 olive trees that hang over your back wall and spit their messy fruit all summer and fall. It's all over my yard and has to be raked up before mowing. It sucks. Why don't people invest in non-fruiting olive trees for landscaping?