May 19th, 2009

Sowing Seeds

Last year we planted a vegetable garden for the first time. It was an exciting adventure for us, I had loved helping my grandpa in the garden when I was a kid, although it sure seemed like never-ending work! So when we decided to have a garden last year we looked into a special method that would allow us to grow a great garden with far less time necessary to work on it. It’s called square foot gardening and it’s really worth checking out (Frugal Dad has a great post about starting a square foot garden!)

So this we planned on doing our planting for our second year of square foot gardening. We doubled the number of squares we are planting – last year we started small and had only 3 squares, this year we have six. Each of our “squares” is a 4×4, so we have 16 planting squares in each square. Some items will be planted in several squares (we’ll have several squares of potatoes for example), some will just need one (like the sunflower square).

Sq Foot Gardening

This is  what our garden looks like right now.  It’s just the bare bones though – no seeds added yet! Sunday was our planned big day for planting but if you look at this picture, you’ll see why we are on hold!

Snow in May!

Sucks to live in Alberta sometimes! Ok, I love living here, but am really, really, really tired of winter! We also bought a new apple tree to plant and it was sad seeing its little blossoms covered in snow.

My boys love helping in the garden and besides being a fun family activity I think it’s a fabulous way for them to really learn about the work needed for food to come to our table, growing cycles, etc. Big Boy picked out sunflowers to plant (last year too – he loved watching it get nice and tall!) Little Boy is excited about pumpkins and Baby Boy just likes the dirt, lol.

Baby Boy

My garden offers a special benefit to me as a work-at-home mom. It forces me to take a bit of time during the day to go outside in the sun, breathe the fresh air and pull a few weeds. Getting your hands dirty can do wonders for you mentally, especially when you spend far too much time cuddled up with your laptop! I love my work a little too much I sometimes think, I don’t walk away from it quite enough. Summers are not all that long here in Alberta (obviously since we’re only able to plant our gardens in mid-late May!!) and it’s really important to appreciate them, well I think it is anyway! And having fresh vegetables to eat at the end of it all is a great benefit.

Do any of you other work at home mamas garden in the summer? Flowers, vegetables, whatever? Or are you busy enough “growing” your children and business, lol?

January 9th, 2009

Who Said He Could Grow Up

I dropped my middle child off at his first day of Fun Factory today. Fun Factory is a playschool type of thing that he’ll be going to once a week for a couple of months, then twice a week until summer. I finally got my act together to put him into the program so he has a little experience with a teacher/other kids before kindergarten next year.

Now, my house feels super quiet while the baby and I have a couple of hours alone. So weird! My middle child is very chatty, so you really notice when he isn’t around! It’s surprisingly sad not having him here – which is silly I know, but it totally makes me realize how quickly he’s growing up. I mean really – who said he could do that?!! Next thing you know he’ll actually be zipping up his own coat, lol. Yeah, he should know that already, he’s 4. He can manage the summer jacket but not the winter one for some reason and I just keep doing it for him cause I know my time for such tasks is running out.

I already appreciate the “ends” more with my second child than I did with the first. I never really saw how quickly things were changing with my oldest and then suddenly I’d think to myself, “wait, when was the last time I….” I can only imagine how bittersweet all these changes will be with the baby, knowing he’s my last baby. Really makes me see why parents sometimes seem to be so protective of their last baby for so long. Hard to realize as a child, but as the parent you know you’re losing them a little bit at a time with every milestone.

Ok, that sounds melodramatic – must be time for me to stop rambling and get a little more work done before the chaos resumes!

September 6th, 2008

Grade One Week One

It was big boy’s first week of grade one this week.  It started off so much better than kindergarten did, but *I* was still pretty emotional that first day.

I think there is something about school that really brings home the fact that your child is growing up.  Not to mention that school means there are adults who your child really looks up to and trusts, the way that until now they have felt only about me, DH and people of OUR choosing.  I mean yes there are grandparents and family, but we have all the say about how often they see them, where, when, etc.  Now there is someone new in my baby’s life who I didn’t get to pick, and I find it a bit scary.

Miss K is the teacher in question.  She seems really nice and he was comfortable with her.  He LOVED his kindy teacher Miss D, so it’s good that he seems on track to enjoy this teacher too. This year Izzy gets his own desk, instead of sitting at a table, and he liked that.  We took a big pile of supplies on day one, and I took some pictures of course.  I haven’t downloaded them yet though!!

I think it was an emotional week for me too, because it made me look ahead to next fall when my second child will start kindergarten – then I’ll be all alone with baby a lot of the time, how weird!!