Set the Children Free!!

Set the Children Free!!

As a mom and an educator I spend a lot of my time thinking about what is "appropriate" or "safe" for kids to do.  So-called "experts" are constantly bombarding parents and teachers with information on how to raise children in a safe and healthy world.  We hear advice about how to protect our children from harm or illness.  I, like most other parents, want my kids to grow up healthy and safe - that is not a debatable point.  However, the way in which we are encouraged to keep kids safe pretty much amounts to the retardation of natural child development.

When I look around school campuses today, I see things that horrify me.  Swings sets have been taken out of most school play grounds.  Running is not allowed if the kids are on asphalt.  Kids are placed in time out for play wrestling.  Dirt is not for digging in but rather it is for looking at.  Trees are not for climbing, they are for shade only.  I could go on about the many things that are "against the rules" at schools and, unfortunately, I think are also against the rules in many homes. 

I said these rules are in place under the guise of keeping kids "safe."  This is a blatant lie.  The reason for these rules is fear.  Fear that if a kid gets hurt at school a parent will sue.  And by the away, parents do sue schools daily for these types of things.  We as parents have allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into believing that there is fault in childhood hurts and someone (mainly schools) must pay.  I have news for all parents out there:  Kids are supposed to fall down!!!  Kids are supposed to get hurt occasionally!!!  Do you want to know why?  Kids need to learn how to operate and control their bodies.  They do this by trial and error.  Yes, trial and ERROR.  When we deny kids the opportunity to use their bodies for climbing, running, and falling, they are not allowed to develop the skills necessary to manage themselves. 

Battle scars from tree climbing - yes they hurt but the kids were so proud of conquering that tree!!

 Humans develop our large muscle groups first and then our small muscle groups kick in (think top to bottom and inside out).  Babies first learn to sit, then crawl, then walk -these are large muscle activities.  While they are trying to walk, they fall.  This teaches them the limitations and abilities in their bodies.  The quickly learn that if they try to move fast, they will probably fall.  So, they slow down and master walking before they can run.  Young kiddos are no different - its just at a different speed.  If they run too fast, they fall (and yes, horror of horrors, might get scraped).  So they slow their run until they are coordinated enough to go faster. 

My daughter has mastered fast - you need fast when you're trying to fly a kite with no wind.

Climbing is the same process.  They need to master small obstacles and then NEED to master larger climbing structures.  Climbing develops their core strength, their upper body strength, and it forces them to push the limits of their balance and reflexes.  If they slip, they need to be able to catch themselves.  There is a whole lecture I am not getting into about sensory development that fits in here - I will leave that up to my occupational therapy friends.

You don't need special climbing equipment - a simple fence or tree will do

All of this should happen daily for kids.  When our schools or homes punish kids for doing these activities, we are denying them natural development.  This can have drastic consequences.  If kids don't know how to manage their bodies and haven't had opportunities to develop those large muscle groups, how can we expect them to sit properly in a chair for hours which requires developed core strength?  Or use their fingers (small muscles) to write when their upper body strength has not been develope?  As a teacher,  I can attest to the fact that kids today are so "protected" (aka denied) they are having many behavioral and academic problems that lead to a whole host of other issues.  So please, if you care about child development, let our children be free to develop.  Let them run, let them climb, let them fall.  It it amazing to watch what happens when a kiddo is allowed to do what their body tells them they should.

Lastly, if you feel the need to sue because your child got hurt doing these things, you are denying other children their development and I hold you personally responsible for the retardation of our youth.

Saying Yes to Water

My children - they are a constant bundle of energy, discovery, and amazement.  Today I had one of those reflective moments where I was thinking about how wonderful it is to be a kid who gets to play every day.  A friend of mine wrote a beautiful blog about saying yes to children's impulses or desires.  These moments are times when for no reason other than a tug at your heart strings you say yes to something that may not be clear in the moment but you soon realize how that simple word provided great and simple joy to kids.  We spend so much time telling kids what not to do because of fears/safety/time/etc that saying yes can become a novelty. Yesterday I was able to have one of these "yes" moments.  To explain this "yes" moment, I need to backtrack about twenty three years. 

My boy

My family lives in an area that is considered very hot during the summer months.  We regularly see temperatures in the high 90's and many times it gets well over 100degreesF.  Because of this, and since my sister happened to be born in June, my mother instituted a tradition at our house.  Each year at my sister's birthday, Mom would prepare for the party by filling buckets of water balloons.  On the day of the party, we would engage in water balloon warfare.  Our fights weren't limited to water balloons.  All sorts of water throwing implements were utilized during these battles.  These included slingshots, hoses, pans, pots, water guns, and even the occasional horse trough.  Pretty much the rule was to soak as many people as possible.  Oh, and if the hose was on, it couldn't come in the house - that one was harder to remember.

Very quickly this tradition didn't stop at my sister's birthday parties.  Water fights soon became a common occurrence around our house.  Usually the situation was my mom would ambush us with the hose as we came walking up to the door or similar.  It would then escalate into a full blown battle where someone usually laughed so hard they peed their pants. To be fair, my mother learned this behavior from her mother.  I have a vivid memory of my grandma flooding her own bathroom with the garden hose because she was trying to shoot cold water on my cousin who was taking a hot shower.  I guess you could say its in our blood.

Yesterday, my kids were playing up at Grandma's house.  All of a sudden, the door flies open and my three year old son comes in yelling that he needs his water gun.  He was soon followed by his five year old sister.  I could have said no since I knew one of them would end up bleeding or crying, the wind was blowing really hard and they both are struggling with allergies, etc.  But I remembered all of those water fights growing up and knew my mother was waiting outside.  I turned to my husband and asked if he knew where the water guns were.  I took the kids to the drawer, handed them each a gun and my daughter was nice enough to take an extra for Grandma.  I  gave only one direction.  Shoot Grandma before she shoots you!

My girl

 

Road Trip!

The family road trip.  This is truly an American institution that is held in high esteem by most people I know.  The road trip is a chance to get out of our little spheres of influence and get connected to new environments.  Each year thousands of parents say to each other, "Lets plan a trip.  I know we can take a drive to ________(fill in the blank)."  And so, each year, thousands of well intentioned parents carefully plan, pack, save, and get excited to take the American road trip.  Road trips do not have to be far excursions, the only requirement is that the whole family will spend a generous number of hours sitting in car seats, moving down one highway or another. 

This past weekend was our families version of a mini rad trip.  We live in central California and my in-laws were flying in from Maui (yes, my in-laws live in Maui - lets not get gushy).  We decided that we would take a road trip to southern California to meet up with my husband's family.  Here was our plan: 

1) Leave Friday afternoon after the pre-school Mother's Day luncheon my kids' school was having and drive to Riverside County to visit my sister for the night (if you know anything about southern California, you already sense problems - we'll get back to that).

2) Spend the night with her then drive to Long Beach Saturday morning for a family reunion in the park.

3) Saturday afternoon drive to Escondido to a hotel

4) Spend the night and on Sunday, go to the wild animal park (Safari Park) with the in-laws.

5) Stay one more night and drive home on Monday - approximately 6 hours north of Escondido.

We'll go step by step.

Step 1

We left our town around 12:15 after having the luncheon.  We headed south via Interstate 5 and were tootling along quite nicely.  We merged onto the 210 East around 3:15pm.  This had taken us bout 3 hours and we estimated we had about one more hour to go.  Uh-huh.  As we traveled along the 210 we all of a sudden encountered the Friday afternoon southern California traffic.  We literally came to a screeching halt.  For the next 2 hours, we  traveled about 17 miles.  On the return trip on Monday, this same stretch of road took us 12 minutes.  As we were in this stop and go traffic, our children decided they had had enough of this car business.  At once, both of my dear sweet kiddos decide they have to poop and absolutely can not wait.  Our car was stuck somewhere near Rosemeade/Altadena/No Idea and we were in the lane next to the car-pool. Being the nice understanding parents we are, we told our kids, "Too bad, we can't stop so either you have accidents or you'll just have to hold it."  This lasted for about another half hour and they started to sound desperate.  So we eased our way off the freeway and found a potty.  Just to keep things interesting, neither kid pooped - just peed.  Thanks.   

The other thing that was happening during the stop and go was a phone conversation with my sister informing her of our progress.  Somewhere my sister had come across a website which gives the status of traffic via a color code system.  If a road is green you are good to go, yellow means so=so, and red means good luck.  So as my husband drives along, I am on the phone with her getting updates on what the website says our traffic situation is - red, yellow, or green.  I don't know this site but I can say that it is full of s@*!   My sister also kept yelling out alternate routes to try to reroute us around the traffic.  But, as she would come up with a plan, our road would turn green on her screen and we were apparently moving much more quickly.  Sure.  We finally made it to my sister's house (another potty break later) around 6:15.  Seriously, we could have been in Vegas with that pace.

That night my daughter wrapped up this easy going day with a major protest about going to bed.  Basically she decided that everyone in my sister's house should stay awake since she wasn't interested in going to bed.  Bed time for everyone wound up being 11:30ish thanks to her efforts.  Good news was that her uncle taught her a new video game the next morning.

Playing Whack a Mole

Step 2

We went to Long Beach for the  reunion and it was uneventful.  

Geoffrey and I at the reunion

Step 3
The four of us piled into our car to head to Escondido and wound up taking a toll road by accident.  Now, most people carry enough change to pay a small toll but we weren't planning on this so we decided to get off before having to pay.  Little did we know that the off ramp had a toll booth too and we had to pay anyway.  They problem was we had almost no money with us.  We searched the entire car and came up with $1.35 in change.  The toll was $1.50 and the fine for not paying was $57.00.  No, they didn't take cards or checks.  So, here we are, on an off ramp that leads to Laguna Beach of all places with no money to get off the freeway.  I would up having to run to the Mercedes behind us and begging for a quarter so that the ten other cars behind us would stop thinking evil thoughts about us.  On the bright side, I had never seen Laguna Beach and it was beautiful.  As a side note, apparently everyone in Laguna Beach drives black Mercedes. The kids slept through most of this so thank heaven for that.  They woke up just in time to see the end of the beach scenery and conveyed their feelings loudly about being denied a chance to go to the beach.

Sleeping through the whole toll road debacle

Step 4

We did go to the wild animal park and it was wonderful.  Nothing major happened that day except somehow Geoffrey and I wound up watching 2 1/2 hours of a Sister Wives marathon before bed time.  Yeah. Moving on.

At the wild animal park - great place!

Step 5

Monday it was time to go home.  So, in an effort to be home for my daughter's ballet class at 3:15, we left the hotel at 8:15 and made the following stops:

-Back to my sister's house because I had forgotten three things and Geoffrey needed to poop

-Stopped in Glendale because the kids needed to poop

-Stopped in Camarillo at In N Out because everyone was starving

-Stopped in Santa Barbara to see my friend J who is wanting baby #2 to get here asap

-Stopped in San Luis Obispo because I had to poop

We got home around 4:30 and yes, we missed ballet.  I blame the bowels.

Let me sum up by saying in my experience with family road trips there are definite truths:

The kids always have to poop when there's no potty, always add on two hours to any schedule because it will take you two hours longer then planned, Benedryl will be needed to get the kids to sleep the first night, and the car DVD player is the best invention ever.  Oh, and you must go on road trips because they are how memories are made - memories you will talk about for years to come.

Growing Growing Growing

I haven't had a chance to write in a while because we have been immersed heavily in the process of growing.  Typically I would just be talking about our garden but tonight I have garden news as well as kid thoughts.  Both of these center around growth.  

To start off, lets chat kids.  This past weekend centered around a milestone for my daughter.  She celebrated her fifth birthday.  Birthday number 5 is a very special one I am rediscovering.  As of this birthday, she enters the school-age population and is fully registered to start kindergarten in the fall.  I set up a kindergarten academic screening for her and took her to get her kindergarten shots.  She bravely accepted that she needed shots and only cried when 1.5" needle number 4 was thrust into her thigh.  Those are Mommy moments I wish I could erase but simply can't.  She passed her vision test with amazing success and hears us perfectly despite choosing to ignore us most of the time.  She was also very instrumental in planning her party.  The only requirements for her party were that it be a princess theme (going on year 3 of that theme) and that my sister/her aunt be present.  My sister is her absolute favorite person so luckily she made the trip.  As we held the party, I watched her play with the other young guests and enjoy being a kid.  She is a baby no longer and it is strange to see her entering a new phase in life.  I know that she will take on this phase with enthusiasm but I now realize that time is on the run way, ready to take flight.

Here she is with our traditional on-the-real-birthday cake.  Her party was two days later.

On another growing front, our garden is doing wonderful and terrible all at the same time.  To start off, the wonderful part is that everything we planted in the higher planters is doing great.  The pumpkins are growing, the lettuce and peas are getting taller, and the watermelons are coming in.

Mesclun Lettuce

The lettuce was a plant I was very worried about.  We have fairly hot summers here with many days reaching over 100 degrees F.  So far, we have  had two days that have reached temperatures over 90 degrees F but I am trying to give them lots of water to help protect them.  Also, they are shaded for a good portion of the hottest part of the day so they are still doing great.  Realistically, lettuce in our area really does better planted in the fall but we're still going to try for a decent summer crop.  Just for reference, we are zone 8 for planting.

Peas are getting taller too!!

A little over two weeks ago I put in watermelon seeds and I am thrilled to say that I have 17 watermelon seedlings in my planter.  I know I will have to thin these but it is so exciting to see something I planted from seed is pushing its way up to the sunshine.  Right next to the watermelons are the pumpkins and  I now have 9 pumpkin seedlings.  I am thinking I will thin those out to 3 plants so I don't wind up with a hundred pumpkins.  Again, grown from seed so I consider this garden to already be a great success.

Part of my watermelon seedlings - how cute are they?

I did mention a terrible part to my garden's development.  For some reason, my dogs have decided that the most easterly end of my low, large area planter must be constantly molested.  Almost every day I go out to water and discover they have dug out more dirt and destroyed or almost destroyed a plant or two.  So far, they have eliminated my basil plant, a row of lettuce, 3 marigolds, and several of the potatoes I had in the ground.  Just tonight I had to shovel about ten shovel-loads of dirt off my cayenne peppers, dill plant, and pickling cucumbers to save them from being buried alive.  Geoffrey has a plan to lay some extra fencing over the garden to stop them from digging.  We'll see how this works.  Hopefully I can keep writing about the growing plants and not murdered plants.  

Garden death - they even dug out my sun dial.

Weight Loss Explained

Okay, I have had many people come up to me and ask about the weight I have been able to loose this year.  I decided I would explain how this came about and exactly what I did to loose weight.

Lets begin  with a bit of explanation about my genetic history.  I do not come from a family that could be described at "skinny."  We are, as a collective, a "healthy" group of women in my family.  On one side, our ancestors were very hardy farmers who survived the rural Montana countryside farming sugar beats.  The other side were also ranchers and farmers who helped pioneer the Pamona Valley.  The women of our family have always been solidly built and very strong.  We are not obese or necessarily flabby people but no one will break us easily of we're handled in a rough fashion.  Given our physical structure (bubble butts and strong hips), child bearing is not a challenge.  I am, of course, speaking in generalities since we do have the occasional women who is either very thin or very tall (most of us top out below 5'4" and many below 5'2" - myself included in that group).  However, as a whole we tend to the sturdy built variety of female.  

This is me on the far right in October 2009 and 23 pounds heavier then now.  In fairness, I had given birth in May of 2009. Also, really bad dress choice.

Since this is the case, we all do have a tendency to carry some extra weight if we are not careful.  I tend to carry it distributed all over and have never had that lovely flat stomach we see so often in our models and TV stars.  Add on having given birth twice and this tummy is decidedly not firm.  Although I am not about to publish how much I weigh, I will say that I have always waffled between a size 8 and a size 12 in clothes. 

Many years ago I was told by a colleague that people can survive on a lot less food then they think they need.  This has always been in the back of my mind so at the beginning of this school year, I decided to change a few simple eating habits since I knew I could be thinner.

Here I am in July 2011, 10 pounds heavier then I am now. Side note, this is also the Teton National Park.

First let me tell you what I didn't do.  I did not cut out deserts or cheese or carbs or anything at all really.  I still eat exactly what I want.  I do not count calories or weigh food. What I did do was cut down on how much I am eating.  For breakfast (yes, I ALWAYS eat breakfast) I usually have a piece of whole wheat toast with peanut butter and a glass of non fat milk.  I eat a cheese stick or similar for snack and then leftover dinner for lunch.  Between lunch and dinner, I have a small snack of crackers or even a piece of chocolate (or two).  For dinner, I almost always cook from scratch so I know exactly how much of what food is in our meal.  I cook simple meals that can be done in about 20-30 minutes and I do use a few short cuts but I am proud of my ability to put a balanced meal together most nights.  The trick to eating dinner is only have one helping of dinner.  I used to go back for seconds, not anymore.  Notice I do eat 5 times each day but the portions are small.  Also, when I do go out to eat, I try to order al a carte or split a meal with someone.

So, combine this eating method with the fact that I have to chase after 12 special education kindergartners each day at work and then my own two ruffians at home, I exert a fair amount of energy each day.  If I was sitting more, I would eat a little less at each meal.  So, all in all I lost about 10 pounds between August and November.  Since then I have been stable but I am fine with that.  I am a nice size 10 and I think its a manageable size and weight for me.

This is in November 2011 and I had lost the 10 pounds. My husband and I are always upstaged by our cute kids. 

Repurposed Garden: New Babies

We have new babies in our re-purposed garden!!  Almost two weeks after putting in our final boxes to our re-purposed garden, we have new growth emerging.  Each day I run out to see what is new in the garden and it is always exciting to see actual growth.  I have always been a person who opts to plant plants, that have already been sowed, into my garden.  I had a very bad experience with bare root roses about seven years ago and it scarred me badly.  I had planted three rose plants in pots (my very first attempt at growing pretty much anything) and it ended in rotting death.  That same year I discovered one gallon rose plants that were already leafing out with buds and those plants are still alive and well at our other house.  Each year they have to be hacked down from their 6'-8' heights but they are beautiful.  Lesson learned - roses like ground, not pots.  I have since never been able to kill a rose bush so they have become an old faithful of mine.

Back to my new babies. So, because of the rose lesson, I have always erred on the side of plants instead of seeds for my garden.  This year I am trying to venture into growing plants from seed where possible since it is such a savings in terms of budget.  In our garden I planted the following plants from seed:

• peas
• pumpkin
• mesclun lettuce 
• watermelon (a later addition last weekend along with cayenne pepper plants)

I did grow some winter mesclun lettuce from seed successfully this past year and it tasted great.  Here are the baby mesclun plants that have pushed their way out of the ground this week.

Hello baby lettuce!

They appear small now but I learned this past winter that they will give a wonderful consistent harvest for quite awhile when cut regularly.  This is a mix of lettuces so we will have MANY salads with our dinner for a grand total of $0.99 worth of seeds.  Great value since I have paid about $1.99 for a head of lettuce which usually lasts for about two or three salads.

Baby pea plant

Peas are planted along the same length as the lettuce but they are on the south side of the planter.  This means they will get more sun when the weather heats up.  Since our summers can easily get to 100degreesF, my lettuce needs lots of shade to keep producing. I am planning on having the beans climb up so they shade the lettuce.  I am still looking around the property to find suitable climbing materials to reuse in the garden.

New pumpkin plant

The pumpkins have also started to push up and I was very worried about these little guys.  I had found a packet of seeds tucked away in my desk at work from when we had done some planting at school four years ago.  I really had my doubts that any of these seeds would actually germinate but now I have four plants popping up.  If the rest come up, I will definitely be thinning pumpkins.  On the bright side - we won't have to pay for pumpkins at the pumpkin patch! As a side note, a pumpkin seed was accidentally planted in a small planter at school and today I noticed that a pumpkin plant is growing there for the fourth year in a row.  These are truly hardy plants! 

Our family at the pumpkin patch in 2010. We failed miserably at the corn maze.

Simplify

Life is simple at the Happy Acres Goat Farm.  We should all be so lucky!

As it says in my bio, I am a special education teacher and have been for many years. I started working with kids in the summer of 2000 which makes almost 12 years of teaching. In that time I have worked for two private pre-schools and five schools in four different public school districts. I have taught kids from age two through 18 and can say that I am probably best with the younger kids. I currently teach a program for kindergarteners with disabilities. 

Over the years, I have met all kinds of people who love kids and all kinds of people who would rather forget childhood is a stage endured by all. Today I had the pleasure of meeting a group of ladies who fall into the first category. 

Some of Stephanie's goats waiting to meet the kiddos

 Each year we take kids on field trips to a variety of places. Today we took 100 kindergarteners to the Happy Acres Goat Farm. At the farm we met the owner named Stephanie, her sister, and her friend. They have created an environment that embraces what it means to be a kid.  Normally when we take kids out into the community they usually hear the following comments: "Don't touch that;" "Don't pick that up;" "Step back;" "Stop talking, you need to be listening;" and the list goes on in the same fashion.  Today, the kids heard the opposite from these wonderful ladies.  At this farm our kids were encouraged to interact with the lives surrounding them.  The picked up baby goats, got muzzled by a one-eyed horse, heard squealing baby pigs, milked a momma goat, tasted fresh from-the-udder goats milk, smelled animal poop, and laid on happy farm dogs. 

As we walked around, the specialist in me kept saying to myself over and over, "This is what being five is all about.  Sitting in a classroom doing math and language arts lessons carries so little meaning compared to this interaction with life."  

Squealing baby pot-bellied pig

There is a student who is not in my class but struggles with a very troubled home life.  Consequently he has a very unpredictable emotional state and academics are not always his friend.  During the field trip he was disturbed by all of the smells and crowding kids.  Mostly he was at the back of the group, hesitant to join the large groups of kids mobbing the animals.  When it was our turn to go into the baby goat pasture, he chose to stay outside alone and watch.  At one point, Stephanie's sister allowed us to take a goat out of the pen so he could hold it but then we returned the baby to the pen.  After some time, his teacher and I noticed something.  This young boy had decided to let himself into the pen so he could grab and hold more baby goats.  He was smiling all this time.  This simple interaction with young life changed his whole mood for the trip. 

We need to remember that the simple life can be the best education we can give our kids because it gives their lives meaning. Isn't that what we are all seeking? Simplify. 

So you think you can talk?

I have a very dear friend who I always think of as the one person who has grown into adulthood with me.  Since I did not ask permission to use her name online, I will simply call her J.  J and I met over eleven years ago when I had just left college and she was in her first year of college.

I had graduated from UCSB with a degree in directing and, shockingly enough, had no job prospects.  I went to a temp agency and they placed me as an operator in a company that made breast implants (after 6 months you earned a free pair - who says corporate isn't generous?).  Needless to say, I hated it so I quit after three weeks.  That day there was an add in the paper for a job at a local private preschool.  I had worked in a preschool in college so I applied.  After getting the job, I was introduced to this young blond girl who would train me on my responsibilities as the aid in the 2-year old room.  That day I met a girl who will be a true forever friend of mine. 

J and I several years ago - pre Mommy-hood.  Notice there are no dark circle under our eyes and we're in a bar.

When I say that J and I grew into adulthood together I mean that every major life happening that occurs once you turn 18 happened at or near the same time for us.  We did our nights out on the town, trips to Vegas, and enjoyed to the Santa Barbara lifestyle together.  In 2002 we met our future husbands and moved in together. Shortly after that both of us were engaged and our weddings were 364 days apart.  My anniversary is July 18th and hers is July 17th.

My little man and me in 2009

The last major adult step we both took was mommy-hood.  I had kids in 2007 and 2009, she had her first in 2008 and number 2 is due in two months.  This brings me to my real focus for this post.  J and I live about two hours apart now and try to get together when life allows.  We also try to hold the occasional phone conversation.  Yesterday was one of those times we decided to attempt some girl phone time.  If any of you have small children and have ever tried to be  social on the phone, you can probably guess what happened.  During our selfish 10 minute attempt at conversation, my daughter grabbed a handful of rice and threw it across the kitchen floor, my son had screaming fit because his sister stole his toy, J's son was battling a melting Popsicle while watching his Daddy move large furniture, and in general they were all yelling for a thousand other reasons in attempts to get our attention (well, if I am honest, mine were yelling and her son was much calmer). To top off the cacophony that was our three kids, J's phone and mine kept cutting each other off.  I am starting to think the three of them were also somehow able to manipulate the phone company onto their side so we would have technical difficulties.  Both of our phone signals were going in and out so most of the conversation consisted of the following phrases: "Can you hear me?;" "Hang on a second;" "No you may not grab that;" "You are not making good choices right now;"  "I'm sorry, my kids are going nuts;" and "Are you still there?"  It is as if kids see you pick up the phone, can sense you really are interested in the person on the other end, and silently think, "So you think you can talk?  We'll teach you."     Finally, J and I raised the white flag and gave up on the phone call.  We will be seeing each other next weekend for some girl time and realized that was going to have to do.  Of course as soon as I hung up, my kids became interested in some cartoon and were fairly calm.  If you don't believe toddlers/youngsters are calculating, you are gravely underestimating the youth :  )  Its a good thing they're cute.

Re-Purposed Garden Phase 2

Well, we have just finished the second phase of our re-purposed garden.  We were able to get two raised beds from a very unique find.  My parents own an interiors shop (carpet, window coverings, etc).  They had a client who ordered custom made carpet - very pricey.  Carpet normally comes any length but almost always in 12' widths.  Because this was a custom made piece, it came 24' wide.  The company who made it had to package in in a wooden crate.  That crate has been sitting out at the dumpster at my mom's store.  Geoffrey and I decided it would be a perfect addition to our re-purposed garden.  So, yesterday we went to the shop and Geoffrey was able to cut it down to two 10' boxes. We took them home and this morning, we got to work turning them into a garden. 

Geoffrey, hard at work.

We had to reinforce the ends and replaced the bottom pieces of wood with chicken wire.  In between these two long, narrow beds, we also built a lower bed that measures 3' x 10'.  The wood used for this bed was almost all found about to be put into the trash. This bed also has chicken wire all along the bottom.  Because we wanted all three beds to be the same length, we did have to purchase one 2" x 10" board for one side. All in all we spent about $15.00 on materials for this garden. The chicken wire was found in my mom's garage and she let us have it in exchange for part of the harvest : )

Next came the hard work - filling all of the beds up with dirt. Shoveling dirt is never something I enjoy.  Filling three pretty good size beds was a bit exhausting.  I freely admit I hate manual labor.  

Here we were almost done - where is my beer?

For dirt, we used what we had around the property.  Some family members have their cows grazing out here so we were able to get some pretty fertile soil.  We had done the same thing for the dresser beds.  The bed closest to the fence was easy since we drove the tractor right up to the fence and dumped.  All the others needed to be done with a shovel and wheel barrow.    Once they were filled, planting began.  Here is a look at the end product:

Please ignore my sweatshirt on the fence

So what went into these beds?  Here's a list:

• cucumbers
• squash
• zucchini
• lettuce (mesclun - cross your fingers, it may get too hot for lettuce)
• peas
• strawberries
• melon
• potatoes
• pumpkins
• dill
• basil
• marigolds

We put the lettuce where it will get a lot of shade so hopefully it will grow.  We just love fresh lettuce so we'll think positively.  I also planted oregano in a pot so it won't run wild in the garden.  This garden was a lot of work so I am looking forward to eating well this summer!

Tomatillo blossom!

Scrapping

Some you are aware that I am a scrapbook-er.  Thanks to my friend Jill, I started seriously scrapping about five years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter.  I now have four books I work on regularly: Daughter Book, Son Book, Travel Book, and Home/Holiday Book.  I really enjoy this craft because I can accomplish a goal in a relatively sort amount of time.  Some crafts take days or weeks to complete and I just don't have the attention span to follow through with these.  Scrap-booking, like cooking/baking, I can do in one sitting and be done with a project/page/meal.  Since we have been living in this country home, I have not scrapped at all.  After moving all my materials, things were disordered and generally a mess.  I needed  to get organized. 

When my sister moved into her first apartment after living in the dorms during college, she bought a computer cabinet that would serve as her desk.  The cabinet stands about six feet tall and looks much like an armoire.  It has been standing in the living room of this house for several years.  While I was on Pinterest, I saw someone had turned a TV armoire into a closeable scrap-booking center. Here is the link and picture for what inspired me:

http://pinterest.com/deveaupchina/scrapbooking-ideas-storage-and-fun/ 

So Thursday night after putting the kids to bed I set to work.  I transformed my sister's old computer cabinet into a scrap-booking center.  I am very pleased with the results. 

Closed cabinet

Open cabinet

I know mine isn't nearly as snazzy as the Pinterest example but now I have everything in an assigned place.  Over time, my goal is to upgrade/coordinate containers.  For now, this was a cost-free endeavor.  For paper storage, I did go to three different stores looking for plastic paper holders but found none.  All I could find was wood build-it-yourself cabinet/cubes.  Luckily, I saw some plastic stack-able trays at my mom's store and she wasn't using them.  Now I have organized paper storage!  My daughter helped me sort it into warm tones, cool tones, and neutrals.  One feature I love about the actual cabinet is the foldout table.  It closes by folding up and the cutting mat stays right on top of it.  The TV armoire didn't have a table so I feel lucky.  Next to it there is also a pull out keyboard tray that I can use for additional work space.  Under the table is a drawer with drawing supplies and a shelf for storing my scrapbooks.  The baskets are sticker storage, arranged by categories.  One of the top shelves holds my portable paper storage and the other shelf  allowed for storage of the kids painting materials.  Now I don't have to worry about unapproved painting jobs all over the house.

I was so inspired, yesterday I developed and ordered $25 worth of pictures for a total of 10 pages I need to finish.  My usual pattern is that I do very little scrapping during the school year and then hammer out a whole bunch of pages over the summer.   However, since I was so inspired by this organization idea, I am hoping to get a pretty good jump start on my pages. My daughter already helped complete one page for her 4th birthday party.  Yeah!!