This Year's Garden

My plants die. Pretty much without fail; my plants die. Those plants that are supposed to be wonderfully

Stevia 2.0 - luckily, it rerooted itself. Maybe it'll live.....

resilient and practically self-sustaining? In my house or yard, they die. All that "easy to regrow from scrap" stuff you see in your Facebook news feed? It dies. Ever wonder what happened with my various botany experiments that have made appearances on the blog? They died. Even if I don't forget about them and neglect them, they still die. (The only thing that I can consistently grow is mold in the back of my refrigerator.) My inability to keep plants alive is at odds with my desire to have a large garden full of fruits and vegetables as well as culinary and medicinal herbs. Every year, I think of how wonderful it would be to have delicious fresh things to eat. I look at the plants for sale at all the stores. I buy seeds and try to start seedlings. Eventually, I have to have learned enough for it to work, right?

This used to look really nice before I took over.....

This year will (hopefully) be different. Instead of my normal blundering about like a blindfolded bull in a china shop trying to figure out what I am doing wrong, I have enlisted gardening mentors. And I am cooking them dinner on a weekly basis, so I will be able to get some frequent course correction. I am going to need it. The gardens both look atrocious.

There are transplanted strawberries in there somewhere...

This afternoon, I plopped the Little Girl in baby jail near the West Garden, and I started working on my homework. I raked it out, collected seeds from last year's plants, and pulled the dried flower stalks from most of the garden. I also started turning the soil near the neighbor's garage. 

The East Garden looks even worse than the West one does

As I was working, I unearthed some strawberries that I hadn't killed yet. Those were carefully transplanted into the freshly turned soil, and thatch raked from the lawn was put around them to hold the moisture that the predicted rain should be putting on the garden. (There will probably never be enough berries from my garden for all of my jam making needs, but it is always nice to be able to grab a few ripe berries for a snack while working.) We will have to see tomorrow evening what sort of a grade I get on the work.

I did not see new growth yet on the perennial herbs or the grape vine, and I am a bit worried that they did not have enough insulation to make it through the bitter winter. It is still early though, so we will just have to wait and see how it all goes.

I have started to realize just how many leaves are in the garden and how long they take to break down into the lovely compost that I need and how much easier it would be to use them for mulch if they were put through a chipper/shredder first. Maybe we will have to see about putting it in the budget to get a nice used one this fall. It would be way more fun to do all the raking if I got to put the leaves in a shredder.....

Mischievous Munchkin Manages Mayhem and Monkeyshines

Almost......

Parenting books, magazines, and blogs have a lot of stuff in them. A lot of the information repeats from one to another, and it gives you this idea that there's a "normal" for kids. Heck, even doctors use charts to map out what should be "normal" milestones, weight, and height. I have decided that either they are wrong or God in His infinite humor decided to give me one that doesn't fit any molds. (Case in point - rolling over. Normal is about 6 months. She rolled front to back at 17 days and then refused to roll from back to front until just before 10 months.) Luckily we have a pediatrician who is not beholden to charts and is accepting of her doing things on her own schedule. We had a visit with him this week for her 12 month checkup. She came in at the 40th percentile for weight and the 84th for height. (She is way above average in head size....97th percentile. No wonder we have so many shirts that would fit her if we could only get them over her noggin. All those brains just need a place to reside I guess.)

What's in here?

For those keeping score at home, here's the most recent statuses:

• Standing up against furniture or even drawers is now "kid stuff," and she has started the process of attempting to stand in the middle of the room. (Feet and hands down with butt up in the air.) She will not do it when I have the camera out. I have stood there watching for 20 minutes with no success only to have her try as soon as I put the camera down. Sass pot. There has also been great improvement in the area of sitting back down. No crashing with bonked noggin since before Chicago. (Just wait, she'll do it now.)
• Efforts are continuing to jail break her puppy. Tonight she was able to reach the top latch but not get it to slide. Gretl may be graduating to no daytime kennel sooner than we thought unless we can find a way to "lock" the latch. Otherwise, are going to need to figure out a way of having food and water accessible to her that is not going to become yet another toy for the tiny tornado.
• Putting things in things is a great game. We have had to move all the rubbish bins to make sure that she doesn't throw out something that she shouldn't. It's been interesting finding things in the strangest places - like potatoes in laundry baskets. Either that or Charlie is becoming senile. We will wait to see if I notice things out of place that are above her ever increasing reach or if he starts carrying around doorknobs in his backpack a la Aunt Clara from Bewitched.
• Bubbles have been voted delicious. While Charlie still attempts to keep her from eating them, I have decided that it is just not worth the effort. Plus, it is funny to watch her chasing them around the bathtub like Ms. Pacman.

  

  Nom nom! I love bubbles!

• Picking noses is fun. Her own, mama's, daddy's....really, any nose within reach is fair game. She has even managed to get some of the boogies out of her own nose. At least this somewhat solves the problem of her hatred for all boogie sucking methods. 
• Our budding scientist has discovered that waving at people gets her attention. As she adores being the center of the universe, just about everyone gets a wave. All of the mall walkers seem to find this a welcome addition to their morning when we go. Well, everyone seems to enjoy it. 
• Depending on the day, everything is "da," "der," or "dis" with an occasional "ma" or "yay." 
• We successfully completed the "100 Books Before One" program at the library (with two days to spare) and have started on the "1000 Books B4K" program. The librarians are probably starting to recognize us. We go a LOT.
• Upon returning from Chicago, we resumed two a day naps. It seems that all of the new tricks she's learning are wearing her out. It is ok - they are wearing her mama out too.

Let me pull your ears while you attempt to rest! Mwahahaha!

The rest of the household does not have nearly as much exciting news. Gretl has been continuing to improve with her training although she has had a bit of a setback. While she was home alone with Charlie, she decided that she did not want to listen, so she has been back to wearing the training collar. With it on, she has been able to spend more and more time as a jungle gym as well as sleeping in the middle of the living room floor. Hopefully by next week she will be back on track, and we will not have to go through the nuisance of putting the collar on her all of the time. We will also probably be deciding soon if we are going to start cart training first or begin the classes/certification for being a therapy dog. As much as I want to start cart training immediately, we will probably go with the therapy dog certification first, so we can take her with us more places.

Charlie is entering the homestretch for his first term. Classes end at the end of this month! He will then have a month off to work on other projects and get acclimated to getting up and going to bed early for the start of the summer term. Hopefully we will all sleep better once that happens.

My routines are getting a bit more established. Most days I get the house straightened, do the cooking and/or baking, run errands, go for a walk, read, and practice the banjo.....in little snippets of time between chasing an increasingly mobile toddler. I actually finished my checklist yesterday and might be able to pull off two days in a row. (Before you think that I have actually gotten my act together, there is still only a narrow path by the crib on the way to the changing table. The rest of the room is at least as big of a mess as it was two weeks ago and probably worse.) 

The goal (weather permitting) will be to get out into the garden this weekend and start to get the ground ready for plants. Yes, it will be two months before we put anything into the ground, but I have been told repeatedly that we are already behind the eight ball on the garden this year. I have no idea. I'm just thrilled that the aloe plant that I was given two weeks ago is still alive, and the stevia plant has managed to reroot itself and start over. We also will need to figure out the best placement for the rain barrel with scored for cheap off of a Facebook rummage sale. Maybe we can use it to irrigate the lingonberries that I still need to order. (Bugger. I forgot that item in the budget for this month. We are going to need to call an emergency meeting of the budget committee to vote on a revised budget.)

From our home to yours, may God shine on you this paschal triduum. Safe travels to all who will be on the roads.

Mount Mending

Inspecting Mama's repairs

The mending pile. Just thinking about it makes me cringe a little, and I can totally understand why hardly anyone even bothers to mend stuff anymore. Nothing in it is all that difficult or time consuming to fix, and normally 30 cents worth of supplies are enough to breathe new life into an article of clothing worth way more than that. It is just a matter of hauling out needle, thread, sewing machine, ironing board and iron, or whatnot to get the stuff fixed. Why, then, do I always put it off until there's an enormous pile of items that has been there for ages? An even better question is probably, "what is it that finally gets me to finally get in gear and pull out my needle and thread?" If I could figure that out, I wouldn't have an enormous pile of "oh, I'll fix this tomorrow" that had built up over time.

In some cases, it's that one of us no longer has any jeans to wear that don't have holes in awkward to explain places. This is why I sewed patches and reinforced pockets on five pairs of jeans between Charlie and me. (Interesting side note : a while back, I found the iron on patches at Walmart on clearance for $.75 instead of the normal $1.17, so I bought them all. The reason that they were on clearance? They have a flame pattern on them. I REALLY wish that Charlie would let me sew a patch on the outside of his jeans with them instead of always putting them inside.....it would be so much fun to tell him how much I liked his hot tush. *sigh* He just won't let me have any fun like that. Spoil sport.) 

The purse that I finally fixed yesterday (the lining pulled apart a few inches near a seam - no big deal to fix) had been in the pile since before we moved to our current home. That's right. At least two years of sitting on the "fix me" pile when it needed less than 10 minutes of my time to do it. Why didn't I do it sooner? Um, I am not good at actually doing the domestic type household stuff? Why did I finally get to it? Not sure. Maybe because the one that I've been using is starting to wear out even though it's a canvas messenger bag from the Army/Navy Surplus store? Maybe because I know how much my sister hates the canvas messenger bag thing, and I felt bad that I wasn't using the awesome "matches everything and I look like a grownup" one that she bought me during our Sisters' Weekend. I am liking the fact that it's big enough that I can put diaper bag stuff in it and only take one bag when I go shopping now.

Now comes the hard decision.....I have finished all of the items that are not currently stored in the room where the baby is sleeping. Do I leave all of the mending type stuff out and work on more of the pile after she's awake, or do I put stuff away and call it quits for this round? Hmmm.....well, maybe I'll leave things out and do a bit more tonight....now that I have a nice purse, I should probably mend some of the khaki pants that I have in the pile (since they're all in the pile right now). I might just start looking presentable yet.....

Chicago

It has been quite the week for us here in Chicago, and we've totally loved it. A certain someone started out early with new adventures by teaching herself how to unscrew lids on jars. She also managed to scoot her little bum into the other room before Papa saw the powdered coffee creamer all over the kitchen floor. (Apparently, being a grandparent causes amnesia as to how fast little kids can get into trouble.) It really is not possible to get mad at her when she's just exploring her world and not even trying to be naughty. There's plenty of times when she is trying to push boundaries, but this just was cute.

Elska spent a lot of time trying to play with her cousin. Unfortunately, three months old is a little young for playing catch and the toys kept hitting her in the face. After a day or so, she did figure out that tickling her feet and helping bounce the seat were better ways of playing. They spent the rest of the week having a grand time that involved lots of giggles and squeals. Elska also attempted to teach some dance moves. We'll see how well those lessons worked out in a few more months.

In other exciting news, Elska got her first book in Spanish, has learned to how to cough just for the fun of it (and to get her Papa to laugh as she "hocked up a big luge"), has started waving specifically at people instead of just randomly, had her first visit to the zoo, went to her first fish fry, and got her first string of beads.

As much fun as we've had, it will be nice when we head back home tomorrow. I miss Charlie, and Elska really misses her daddy. And her doggie. But mostly Daddy.

Vacation?

Last Sunday, we had a nice dinner and some cake to celebrate that this little girl turned one year old. It was the perfect birthday party for a little girl - fun people, awesome presents, and her first ever sugar buzz. If you'd ask her, cream cheese frosting is amazing. If you ask her parents, we'd tell you that the crash associated with said sugar buzz combined with a nap free afternoon (someone decided that naps are for babies and she was too grown up for them) is a recipe for a disastrous bedtime. I've been lobbying for the reintroduction of a decent naptime all week. We'll see how those continued negotiations go.

Elska and I are spending this week helping to watch Elska's sweet, little, three month old cousin. It's a nice break from normal to be spending a week at someone else's place for a week. Sure, I've done a bit of laundry, cooking, and straightening up after ourselves, and there are two infants that like to feed off one another for melt downs. However, it still feels like a bit of a vacation. I don't feel like I need to be constantly cleaning, organizing, or working on projects for all of my free moments. It isn't a total break though since there are definite challenges, and us girls totally miss the Dread Pirate Roberts while he's home with the puppy and going to school. This is the longest that the sweet little girl has been away from Daddy, and she sure misses him. Hopefully we can get the video chat to work tomorrow morning, so she can jabber away to him for a bit.

Almost a Toddler!

I'll help vacuum!

As tempting as it is, I am not going to do one of those nostalgic retrospectives as we near this little wonder's first birthday. If you're wanting it, there are a year's worth of posts that you can read. I will say that she's a lot more of a little girl and a lot less a little baby nowadays. 

Elska spends most of her day scooting around the house and exploring her world. I've decided to give up on keeping the kitchen towels in the drawer that she has decided is hers and have moved them to a higher altitude, so I don't have to constantly rewash them to get the dog hair off of them. The drawer now holds "her" kitchen tools and supplies. Whenever she helps me cook, she takes her items out and then puts them back in her drawer, (and then takes them out and leaves them strewn all over the kitchen). We've also decided that since she will not be dissuaded from the game where she sticks things in the dog's kennel to get her yelled at for chewing on things that we need to put a screen around the outside of the crate. 

Last week, a certain someone decided that she needed to be able to reach further across the coffee table to get all the good stuff, so she stood up and started grabbing. Um, I guess that we will be adjusting her entire environment......

Big grin from a big girl!

In other exciting news for the little girl - today we finished out with her "100 books before 1" literacy program through the library. (Yes, we've done LOTS more than 100 books in this last year. We only found out about the program a few weeks ago.) She got a certificate and a free book. It was very exciting. The librarian also let her sign up for the "1000 B4K" program a few days early. Something tells me that we will finish it before Christmas.

Charlie is over halfway through his first term. He's already learned a lot about welding and is feeling confident that with what he has learned, he will be able to handle anything that he needs to do when we finally find our homestead. I've already started a list of projects for him to work on. 

Caulk strip replaced by yours truly

Today, he is taking care of orientation/registration for the wood tech program that he will be starting for the summer term. He's thinking that it will be less stressful for him than this term was since he's #1 more familiar with the medium and #2 hoping to have math and blueprints as pretty much a review of what he's been doing this term. It'll be nice if it actually works out that way and even better if he gets to start going to school days instead of nights. Elska misses "Daddy Bath Time" since he does way more playing and has a lot more bubbles in the tub than Mama does.

As for me, I've been working on establishing positive habits. Translation - I started doing more walking, I made a daily checklist of chores to do on a daily basis (so I can keep myself accountable to cleaning, mending, etc.), and I've really started focusing on regularly setting aside time for reading and study. Sure, most of the books that I've been reading are more children's and youth literature. I realized though that there are a lot of classics that I've never read and most of the others I haven't picked up in 25 years. I need to refresh my memory if I'm going to be able to pick books that match Elska's interest at the time. I've finished a little over 20 from this list of classic literature. Only 400 or so to go.......

Other upcoming projects: prepping the garden, updating the kitchen, and sorting through all of the stuff that's stored in Elska's bedroom. Really. I'm going to sort it this time. For real. Why are you laughing?

Three Cheers for Learnin'

Ok, now put them back!

A new game has emerged this last week: putting things back in their original container. It has taken various forms....putting towels back in the drawer in the kitchen and putting the coasters back in the coaster crock are the repeat versions. It's nice to think that there might be a "someday" out there when a certain little someone actually starts to pick up her own toys and put them away. Sure, it's a long way off, but I can dream, right?

After months of reading books, a favorite has emerged. I Howl I Growl requires the most funny voices from the reader and elicits lots of baby giggles. We got a late start on tracking for the "One Hundred Books Before Age One" program at the library, but we should still make it even though we only had 6 weeks by the time that we heard about the program. We've only got 35 to go in the next 2 weeks!

Last night, we went to our first event at the library. The theme was "Pete's a Pizza Pizza Party." Even though it was intended for kids 3 and up, Elska did a wonderful job of sitting and listening while the librarian read "Pete's a Pizza" and "Pizza Man", she colored nicely during the craft project (and only chewed on the crayons a little), and then shrieked with excitement when she saw her slice of cheese pizza. She did so well that the librarian talked to us about coming back for reading times in the future. We've got plans to go next week!

We are in the process of final preparations for Pi Day. Shirts are ordered and in transit to us, the Norske Nook reservations have been made (let us know if we need to add to it), and there are only a few minor details to arrange. We're counting down to 3.14.15 9:26:53!