Doing What I Love

July 1, 20141 Comment

Sometimes I get discouraged with being a stay at home mom. The only person I am really accountable for what I do is myself…and God and my husband and children, but they tend to be more forgiving. I’m not very gentle or forgiving with myself, and sometimes I hold myself so accountable I spend the whole day beating myself down for not being perfect. Sometimes, I am a much worse mother than I ever thought I’d be. Motherhood brought more stress, lack of sleep and responsibility then I have ever dealt with before in my life, and it also brought coping/reactive mechanisms that are less than desirable.

Sometimes I am super happy I’m a stay at home. I get to choose what I do with more freedom than I ever have in my life. I can read books, go hiking, and garden and I get to share what I love with two very moldable people. I have more opportunities to go after what I love doing, improve myself, and serve other people. I have developed new interests, found friends, and most of all I get to be loved and love others more deeply than ever. I get to engage in a work that I know is meaningful every day, by nurturing and raising children.

tree

Just a matter of perspective. I read in an article that a stay at home mother desired a child inclusive life, instead of a child centered one. If I constantly focus on my children, and our inadequacies, life isn’t grand. But if I’m focusing on a variety of interests, and I’m including my children in them, that’s when life is most beautiful. A good life is sitting outside and reading a new book while occasionally helping children move tires or acknowledging their latest sand building. It is going on a tiny hike and playing bear hunt on the way back down.

I can choose to focus on what I’m supposed to be doing, on making life productive and perfect…or I can find playfulness and happiness in engaging in what my children and I love to do.

Protected: In Defense of Yellow Lawn and Weeds

June 27, 2014

Boys

June 27, 2014Leave a comment

Apparently I was meant to mother boys. We have another one coming in December. The doctor was doing the ultrasound, and he stopped at one point and I looked at it and knew before he said anything that it was a boy. I was hoping a bit for a girl, but I’m not disappointing over another boy either. I love the ones I currently have so much, I don’t mind another.

These pictures are from a recent trip to Bear Lake that was a lot of fun. And my boys love sand. They are out playing in the sandbox for hours, and still adore beaches.

Volcanos

June 16, 2014Leave a comment

I decided to kill the grass again because giant volcanoes are fun.

The great idea of the day was to use baking soda and a tiny amount of water to make a moldable dough. The kids played with it for a while, and they we formed a volcano with it and added an entire contained of vinegar and killed off all the dinosaurs. And the grass underneath since plants don’t like concentrated vinegar. (It does grow back.)

Chickens

June 15, 2014Leave a comment

We have an unexpected rooster. Legally, we are not allowed to have roosters, nor did we ever plan on keeping one. But now that he’s here…he beautiful, and actually one of the friendliest of the flock. It’s been fun seeing his crow change from what I first thought was my toddler crying to a pretty nice cockle-doodle-do. He actually has great timing to be our alarm clock in the morning. His fate is still undecided: butchering or giving away are both still options. But for now he can stay.

The chickens feeder and water got updated to this homemade version made out of 3″ PVC pipe. It’s been very easy to use and keep clean, and cost us about $20 in supplies.

Finally in chicken news: we got new chicks. They are are a fun batch that love to eat right out my hand.

Vegetables

June 13, 2014Leave a comment

The veggies are doing just fine. At the end of the cool season crops, I had some expected surprises.

Flowers. The yellow is broccoli raab and the purple is radish. Radish has a surprising pretty flower, and its nearly three feet tall. These particular plants never really bulbed up well, so the flowers were a good consolation prize.

That was a bit over a a week ago, and with increasing temperatures, my front garden is in need of a makeover. The heat is punishing the cool-season crops and aphids have moved in. But I want to get some seeds before I change it to a warm season garden, so it’ll look a bit bad for a while

The tomatoes are doing better than hoped for, and my zucchini was yet to die. The asparagus transplants that were almost dead when I planted them are bouncing back. And I’m now enjoying snap peas. I never pick enough to actually get them inside, they just make a delicious snack out in the garden.

Here are the tomatoes:

And just a week later:

Tomato Staking

June 12, 20142 Comments

I’ve use the cheap tomato cages before, and I’m always less then impressed. Tomatoes get too big for the cages quickly and I don’t find them extremely easy to use. Other tomato staking devices require too much money or too much work, like having to actually prune a tomato plant.

I grow 15+ tomato plants a year, and it requires an easy inexpensive staking solution. I’ve been doing this system for several years after seeing it on organic farm, and I love it. It’s easy and inexpensive. Here’s a look at my tomatoes, all staked up.

It’s simple. There are six foot tall t-posts on the end, with tape in between. I used two t-post for about 6-8 plants. After pounding in the t-posts, I tied off the tape and weaved it in between the tomatoes. In the past, I used twine but I’m liking the flexibility of the marking tape this year. (It’s not actually sticky tape and is found in the hardware story with other supplies like marking flags.) It does stretch a bit, so when the kiddie pool fell on top of my tomatoes I had to re-tighten the tape but it wasn’t a big deal.

As the season progresses, I’ll continue to add more levels of tape. If any tomato is especially floppy, I can use a small section of tape to tie it directly on to the bigger tape section. Since the tape is stretchy and soft, it’s not going to girdle my plants. I will have to monitor it because if it isn’t kept tight the tomatoes start to flop.

Material cost is very low, and the main materials (t-posts) will last for a long time. This year I had to upgrade/re-do the system, and the entire cost to stake 14 tomatoes was under $20. It’s easy to put in initially. It does take some work during the growing season, but I don’t find it excessive.

Shared in the HomeAcre hop.

Summer Life

June 9, 20142 Comments

This is Mr. C’s demolition of his breakfast.

Our brother-in-law gave us these blocks when they moved. PB loves them. One of many towers, this is a window tower according to the architect.

This kids are out in the sandbox all the time. I have sand all over my house, but I don’t mind too much.

Potential

June 8, 20141 Comment

I’ve called this year our demolition year, and it definitely has been. We’ve ripped out enough 50 year old shrubs to make a pile big enough for someone to live in. Good thing about ripping stuff out is it is cheap, even if it is labor intensive. Landscape installation can get quite expensive fast, and we do not have an adequate budget. As a guideline, total landscape installation can cost 10-30% of the value of the house.. It’s not a crazy amount: although doing it yourself and over time will reduce the cost. Hopefully, for a fraction of the cost and a lot of labor we’ll still get some good results.

This fence line had a ton of volunteer maples, and half-dead bridal wreath spireas.

After lots of pruning: I wouldn’t mind if some of the spireas came back, but I don’t care if they don’t too.

Right now thought, the landscape is a bundle of hopeful dreams and currently a lot of projects in the making. It looks awful. I’m letting weeds grow and grass die. But I think the difference between what I’m doing and a neglected landscape is that I have a vision for mine, and I’m letting weeds grow and grass die because I’m working toward something that will be better. I understand that weeds are better than bare soil, that I don’t want to waste the valuable resource of water on a non-wanted lawn. The landscape is progressing, even if it is nowhere close to where I want it to be. And we finally got rid of all the garbage that had piling in the backyard.

In the middle of mowing the back half of our yard. Everything growing here is weeds.

All done. Notice the big pile of shrubs on the left, and the old shed that has transformed into a storage area–now with stuff we want instead of garbage. Much better than before.

Splash Pad

June 7, 20141 Comment

After PB rejecting my plans for the day, I suggested we go to the splash pad up north of us in Tremonton. He readily agreed. I packed a lunch, and we drove up there. First they wanted to play in the sandbox, with a few diggers they had in there. After that they explored the playground. We ate lunch, and then I suggested we get in our swimsuits and play in the splash pad. They proceeded to watch everyone else play and occasionally bravely touch the water. Neither of them is a big fan of water, especially splashing water. When we were done, they weren’t wet. Wasted effort on my part to get their swimsuits on. They still had a good time, even if it wasn’t quite what I expected.