How does her garden grow….

Posted on August 28, 2008 by Momzoo

I harvested a bunch of carrots yesterday evening. I figured they would be good in the kids lunches. They looked so pretty here fresh out of the garden I had to take a picture, then I realised that I hadn’t posted garden pictures for a long time.

My boxes have been doing wonderfully, there are a few thing I will do different, but for the most part I have been very pleased.

You can see in this box below the broccoli had pretty much taken over the entire box. I have never grown broccoli before so I didn’t realize how big they got, I will definitely grow them next year, I will just allocate more space! The onions are getting big, although they did get blown over in a wind storm the other night. I planted them from seed and a bunch didn’t come up, next year I will be either buying starters or planting my own indoors. I have already harvested all the spinach and lettuce out of this box, there is still some chard and a kohlrabi and a little bitty basil plant.

This box has mainly carrots. This is after I pulled that bunch in the above picture, so there is still a lot left. Those two baby cabbages are ready to pick and I have little ones on either side that I planted a few weeks ago when the ones before were picked. In the back of the box I had sweet peas, and they were lovely! However they had passed their prime so I pulled them. I also have some boc choi behind the carrots and some more broccoli, both are cool weather plants and since we can go into November some years with out a hard freeze I thought I would give it a try.

This beauty is one of my potato plants.

This is the potato box. They have done really well, I am hoping that under the big beautiful bushes are some big beautiful potatoes.

These are my beets. We have picked some and they are delicious! I love that you can eat the greens and the beet too. I need to pull them all in the next few days and put them up. I have never canned beets before, so it will be an adventure.

This is another view of the beet box. The other side had beans, but they didn’t do so well. I pulled them up and planted boc choi (Chinese cabbage) they are just starting to come up.

This is my patch of Summer Squash. They have done pretty good, they haven’t been as prolific as I had hoped, we have been battling squash bug all summer. I have gotten quite a bit frozen for the winter time, so I can’t complain.

This is my tomato patch, big beautiful GREEN fruit that won’t turn red…sigh…I just can’t grow tomatoes!

I planted the whole back of my yard with squash and they have been struggling, a few got munched by squash bug and the season was short this year, I did get a few winter squash, and if the fall is warm I might get a couple more.

This is a Queensland Blue pumpkin, I can’t wait until it is all the way ripe and take a picture for all of you to see, it is a beautiful squash.

and last, but not least, my number 1 super duper garden helper! She is always willing to do whatever I need done and she loves cutting my herbs for drying, but that is another post.

Summer

Posted on August 27, 2008 by Momzoo

Now that the kids are back in school I have been reflecting on this past summer. I seems to, in my mind, be divided into two distinct time periods. There is the “before the vacation” and “after the vacation”.

Before the vacation was from June until about mid July. It was wonderful. The kids were relatively well behaved, the house was kept relatively clean, chores and school work were done by 11:00 and the afternoon was free time. I really felt like I had it all together.

After the vacation was a different story. We were lazy, very unproductive, the house was messy and nobody cracked open a book. The kids were irritable and I was down right ornery. Nothing seemed to work, the days were long, tiring and tedious.

I have been mulling this over the last couple of weeks, wondering what changed. Were we just getting bored? Were we craving the structure that school created?….Structure….

…Sturcture….ah-ha

The first part of the summer I had a daily schedule. We were up at 7 and there was a plan for the morning, it included chores and some school work. Everyone (including me) knew each day what was expected. The afternoon were free times where the kids could do pretty much as they pleased (within reason). They played in the wading pool, with the bunnies, with friends. Sometime they watched movies or played on the computer. I taught them how to stitch and garden, we picked sweet peas and made daisy chains.

After the vacation it all fell apart. Part of the problem is that I can home really sick and it took me a good week of rest to get feeling better (ha, as much rest as you can get with 5 little ones around). I stopped making up a schedule for the day, there was no structure. The kids didn’t know what was expected, I would just give orders as I thought of them, it would be noon and the house wasn’t picked up and the breakfast dishes still on the table. They weren’t dressed and had been sitting in front of cartoons all morning. Everybody was bored, tired and irritable.

Conclusion: I am a better mother /homemaker /wife /person when I have a schedule. It keeps me on track, I am notorious for being easily distracted. I also think it helps the kids to know what to expect and what is coming next. When I do a schedule it is very detailed, sometimes down 10 minute increments of time. Also, I think that it is a good thing for everyone to have unscheduled time.

Now that the school year has started I have started up my scheduling again. So far (I know I am only a week and a half into it, but you have to start somewhere right) everyday the kids have gotten off to school on time and un-rushed. Beds have been made, house picked up and animals taken care of. I am optimistic that this will be a good foundation for a good year. I have started to schedule the evening too (after school is free time, the kids need a good couple of hours of hard-core play time!) and so far it is working, kids are to bed on time (for the most part, punk #1 is exerting some independence on this point) dishes done, homework finished and house picked up. I has worked so well so far that I pray it will continue, it makes such a difference in our home as was illustrated to me this summer.

The Reason

Posted on August 25, 2008 by Momzoo

Today when my 9 year old walked in the door after school I knew something was wrong. She didn’t say much and plopped herself on the couch. I could just tell by her face that she was upset by something.

I asked her if she was alright.

She nodded “yes”.

I knew she was lieing.

I asked again, and again she told me nothing was wrong.

So I reached out my hand to her and she stood up, as she was walking to me I could tell that tears were very close to the surface. We walked into my bedroom and I locked the door. (Nothing ruins a good cry more that a bunch of little ones barging in.)

I sat in my chair and sat her on my lap and again asked what was wrong.

The flood gates opened and I could barely make out a muffled “I was left out of everything” as she dissolved into sobs.

Talk about taring out a mama’s heart! My poor baby. My poor little girl. This is my little one who has “issues”. She struggles with just about everything and school is a major challenge for her in so many ways. She is the one I would just like to fold up and tuck inside my heart and shelter her precious little soul forever.

She sat on my lap and cried in my shoulder for a few minutes and I asked what happened, why was she left out? All I got in reply was more muffled sobs and a very wet shoulder. I pulled her back and looked in her tear stained face and told her we would take some deep breaths and she could tell me everything.

First, she told me, she didn’t get her own T-shirt back. I noticed that she was wearing a tie dyed T-shirt, but that it wasn’t the same shirt I had sent her to school with. I knew she was really excited about her shirt, she had worked hard on it in school Friday, she had used the most rubber bands and it was going to be the prettiest one there. She prattled on and on about it all weekend. So what happened? She explained that the teacher had forgotten to put her shirt in the second round of dyeing (huh? whatever!) so the teacher had given her one of the extra shirts she had made. (Why the teacher couldn’t have done my daughters shirt anyway after she realised the mistake, I don’t know, maybe she didn’t realize it until this morning…) My daughter falls into another round of sobs. I explained to her that while it was very disappointing, it could have happened to anyone it the class, that the teacher didn’t do it to her on purpose.

What else happened? Well for book review she didn’t get a worksheet, so she was left out.

Did you tell your teacher I asked?

“Yes and she got me another one.” I explained to her that it was just a mistake and it could have been anyone who didn’t get a sheet, it just happened to be her. It was just dumb luck. Although knowing my girl I am sure she was really embarrassed, she doesn’t do good at all in social situations where she is the center of attention.

What else happened?

She was really hungry at lunch and wanted seconds, and there was extra so she went to get more popcorn chicken (one of her favorites….what kind of junk are they feeding these kids?) When she got up there, they were out. I told her once again it was just silly, stupid luck and it could have been anyone. I am sure she was embarrassed and disappointed.

Well, honey, was there anything more?

Another round of sobbing and tear wiping and a good nose blow.

Yes…she stutters….on the bus I sort of burped….I didn’t mean to it just came out, and a 5th grader called me a “gross burpy girl”.

(I really had to muster all my will power so I wouldn’t bust up laughing!)

So we talked about how rude it is to say things like that and how it isn’t polite to comment on peoples bodily noises and how that is a lesson on how we should treat others.

There were some more hugs and a little more crying and some more talking. By the time we were finished she had a smile on her face and her heavy step was lighter.

Why do I tell you this silly story, that I am sure was played out in many homes and schools today? As I was sitting there holding my crying baby the thought came to me loud and clear.

“This is why you are here”

I am so glad she didn’t have to go to some indifferent day care after school, that she was coming home to her mother. That there were teaching moments taken advantage of. Tears wiped. Kisses given. A little girl who knows that there is a safe place for her to spill her 4th grade sorrows.

That is the reason.