Praise God!!!! My husband is finally approved for disability - it only took about 6 months! He is bipolar and his psychiatrist feels he cannot work at this time. She has also assigned me as his caretaker and he needs me home with him full time. I've been a stay and work at home mom since before my first was born, so I wasn't working out of the home when his psychiatrist made that decision. He needs help with a lot of every day things, is unable to cook, and needs someone to help keep him thinking clearly or at least make sound decisions when he's unable.
I started many of my seeds this month at the beginning. This is the earliest I've ever started anything but I figured what the heck - I'll try it and see what happens. I want to do several plantings of the same vegetables to get a bigger harvest this season. Our garden is being expanded (by quite a bit) and my entire craft table is covered with green :-) I found that if I go to Gordons (a bulk food company) and buy some 32 oz. containers, they make excellent pots for seeds especially when I start them this early. They're deep enough to get a good root structure growing and big enough to accomodate the plants longer than normal if I would start seeds in the early spring. Poke some holes in the bottom and you're good to go! Everything I'm planting in them is being transferred over from those teeny tiny starter pods, and there is no need to keep them covered at this point but next year I may just start my seeds in these so I don't need to move them until they go outside, and I'll buy lids to lay on the top.
I don't have a final count yet on what is going in the ground. I started a lot of my seeds in one of those 72 pod trays (we have three). 2-3 seeds made it into pod and most sprouted. I discarded the weak ones and am transfering the rest that were ready to the larger containers tonight. Last year I only had 6 tomato plants and 3 cherry tomato plants. This year I think I'm going to have about 24 tomato plants and 12 cherry tomato plants (this was a huge hit last year - i just sent the kids out with a bucket to gather the cherry tomatos and they would fill up on those, and peas and green beans fresh off the vine!) I'm hoping to sell off any excess seedlings that I don't put in the ground, and hoping to make a garden for my mom this year because of a lot of things happening in her life she may not have the time (and I know she was really excited about a garden last year). I'd like to make her happy by putting a garden in and even weeding it for her if she doesn't have the time. It's a great excuse for her to see the grandkids, and an even better one for me to get my hands in the dirt and do something for her after all she has done for me. It's small, really, compared to everything she's done for me but if it's one way that I can help her, I'd love to do it.
I have some things that will be planted directly into the ground including pumpkin, watermelon, corn, onions, carrots (lots of carrots!) and more. We have a selection of flower seeds so my oldest daughter can have a flower garden.
I'm so excited for spring!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
We've been busy!
I had to recreate yet another shopping cart for Motherhood Naturally Publications - the last one I used was not filling all of my needs. I don't think there is anything more time consuming and hair pulling than having to move all of your products between three carts over the course of a few months. I am back where I was originally and was happy there but wanted to 'explore' other options. I'm glad I did - now I have a pretty good idea of what other carts will do, how to install them and use them and maybe I can use that to help someone else someday.
My husband brought home several grocery bags from our local store filled with apples and cherries unsuitable for sale due to bruising, soft spots of wrinkling skin. The owner had just given the apples to him because he couldn't sell them, so my husband took them so we could juice them! We've been enjoying fresh juice each morning now and I know the apples don't have the best nutrition content anymore but they're still better than juice you'd buy in the store. Not only that, the kids and I were starting to come down with a cold, but with our favorite juice recipe we're kicking it in the bum!
My oldest daughter turned four yesterday, but we had her birthday party last weekend with family. She's into pink, princesses and butterflies so guess what she got for her birthday? Pink, princess stuff and butterfly stuff. She's in heaven. My grandma also got her a babydoll that cries, laughes, coo's and whatever else. My daughter, being such a huge help with our youngest, is in heaven being able to play with a baby that SHE is totally responsible for. :-)
My son, the 2.5 year old is going to start speech therapy whenever the therapist calls me to schedule the appointment. last week we took him in for a developmental assessment because he's 2.5 and still has a max of 15 words and doesn't even say them that well (he'll say car, but he won't put the "ar" on the end more like "cah", and that's common for him. he doesn't 'finish' his words). He DOES communicate with us, just not with words. The assessment showed that he was on track developmentally and had no other delays though, thank God.
Kaitlyn is six months old now. She is cutting four teeth - both front upper teeth and the lower. She's really doing well with it, and she cracks me up because she is so curious. She'll play with one toy, her hand might brush another and instantly she turns to see what she touched and rolls over to play with it. Different colors and textures really intrigue her, and she'll stare and touch the color or texture for a few minutes in very deep concentration as if she's memorizing it. I'll put her toys in a circle around her, and she'll 'do her rounds' rolling around to examine each one of them.
We got our seeds and I started some of the early starters. A local freecycler offered her flower pots so we picked them up yesterday so we have extra containers for our early starts before they can go in the ground, because they are going to outgrow their itty bitty plots before long and it's still too cold to put them outside. We are expanding our garden this year and adding many more tomatoes, peas, green beans, carrots and beets. We're adding onion and some different herbs, and are trying lettuce, broccoli and spinach. I have my usual herb garden started already too.
Well I'm going to take the kids the the library - I'll try to write more tonight.
My husband brought home several grocery bags from our local store filled with apples and cherries unsuitable for sale due to bruising, soft spots of wrinkling skin. The owner had just given the apples to him because he couldn't sell them, so my husband took them so we could juice them! We've been enjoying fresh juice each morning now and I know the apples don't have the best nutrition content anymore but they're still better than juice you'd buy in the store. Not only that, the kids and I were starting to come down with a cold, but with our favorite juice recipe we're kicking it in the bum!
My oldest daughter turned four yesterday, but we had her birthday party last weekend with family. She's into pink, princesses and butterflies so guess what she got for her birthday? Pink, princess stuff and butterfly stuff. She's in heaven. My grandma also got her a babydoll that cries, laughes, coo's and whatever else. My daughter, being such a huge help with our youngest, is in heaven being able to play with a baby that SHE is totally responsible for. :-)
My son, the 2.5 year old is going to start speech therapy whenever the therapist calls me to schedule the appointment. last week we took him in for a developmental assessment because he's 2.5 and still has a max of 15 words and doesn't even say them that well (he'll say car, but he won't put the "ar" on the end more like "cah", and that's common for him. he doesn't 'finish' his words). He DOES communicate with us, just not with words. The assessment showed that he was on track developmentally and had no other delays though, thank God.
Kaitlyn is six months old now. She is cutting four teeth - both front upper teeth and the lower. She's really doing well with it, and she cracks me up because she is so curious. She'll play with one toy, her hand might brush another and instantly she turns to see what she touched and rolls over to play with it. Different colors and textures really intrigue her, and she'll stare and touch the color or texture for a few minutes in very deep concentration as if she's memorizing it. I'll put her toys in a circle around her, and she'll 'do her rounds' rolling around to examine each one of them.
We got our seeds and I started some of the early starters. A local freecycler offered her flower pots so we picked them up yesterday so we have extra containers for our early starts before they can go in the ground, because they are going to outgrow their itty bitty plots before long and it's still too cold to put them outside. We are expanding our garden this year and adding many more tomatoes, peas, green beans, carrots and beets. We're adding onion and some different herbs, and are trying lettuce, broccoli and spinach. I have my usual herb garden started already too.
Well I'm going to take the kids the the library - I'll try to write more tonight.
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