Life on the farm

I'm so loving having a garden. Isn't it just so pretty? The lettuce, while not as abundant as I'd hoped, is still yummy, and my 2 tomato plants on the left end are starting to produce fruit, the peppers have little pepperlets, and the squash & zucchini have big yellow blossoms. I just put in 4 more tomato seedlings, plus a butternut squash El-D got on a visit to a farm last week, and I'm just so excited to see how it all turns out. Also, the rectangle container on the right end has basil growing. I'm thinking of doing away with kale next year and just doing romaine, arugula, and spinach instead. I'm still filing all my gardening blogs under "be creative", because I'm creating LIFE here.

Pretty, pretty

The above picture is of my fence - flower pots mounted to my side fence, over my wildflower patch. I got the idea off of Pinterest (duh), and thought "that looks so pretty, and so simple". Here's what went down:

1. Buy pots. Those are from Goodwill - they had a jillion of them, and they were $1 each. Drawback: no drainage holes
2. Go to store to buy drill bit to drill holes in ceramic pots. Buy the masonry bit that the salesman suggests
3. Realize a masonry drill bit won't do the job
4. Let a few weeks lapse
5. Return to store, and buy ceramic & tile drill bit, along with a roll of the metal strip stuff you use to clamp your pipes to your laundry room wall
6. Start drilling holes in pots, and realize it will take FOREVER. The project lasts 2 days. Only one minor burn on fingers (drill bits get HOT)
7. Plant flowers in pots and let them sit on table in back yard for several weeks because you need a tool to cut the metal strip stuff
8. Finally make it back to store, buy metal strip cutter. Keep wits about self when the gentleman suggests a hacksaw for the job, then tries to talk you into an expensive metal snipper. Cheap'll do ya.
9. Choose the hottest day EVER to drill into back fence and screw metal stripping into place. Do all of this while swearing a lot and sweating profusely, because of course your measurements will look wonky once everything is hung, and you'll keep dropping the damned screws
10. Resign yourself to the fact that it isn't 100% straight, and that some of the brackets aren't tight enough, and you couldn't get all of the screws flush with the planks from the fence, but feel happy that the project is FINALLY finished, and that if you take a step or two back, it looks pretty darned good.

And that's it! Simple, right?

The wagon? I can't even see it from here.

ZOMG. My resolutions aren't going well. I'll start with my WORST transgression. You see, I go to the library once a week, because Nathan & I take a baby class together every Wednesday morning. The problem is that there's been no class for a month, so I'm off of my schedule, and clearly this isn't my fault, because videos, when they are returned late, are $1 a day, and we rent a lot of videos because El-D likes variety. So the damage was $17.40, but I bargained with the library lady and talked her down to $12.40, but only if I paid all at once, instead of in teensy installments to take it down below $10 so I can still library online. I even had to write a check, because who carries THAT MUCH cash around? So I told Chad that I'd paid off my debt, and he's all like "How much did you owe?" and I'm all like "How much do you think I owed? Here's a hint: IT WAS A LOT", and he's all like "I dunno $9?" and I'm all like "STOP JUDGING ME". So I finally told him that it was $12, and he's all like "Yeah, I owe $1", and I still left off the last 40 cents, so now I'm lying to my husband about my library spending habits again.

So there's that. THEN I was doing really well and watching everything I ate, but the past few days I've been eating like a trucker. I don't really know how truckers eat, but what I'm implying here is that I'm not eating like I'm a delicate flower.

Plus I threw away a brand new package of turkey meat today because the "use or freeze" date passed a week ago, and I forgot it was in the fridge.

And patience with El-D? So get this - he didn't have school last week, and we had playdates and lots of plans all week long - tons of fun stuff. We had a blast, but by Thursday we were on each other's nerves. Here's something I've learned about myself: too much auditory input makes me crazy - I seriously can't handle it. Typically, the baby is shrieking about something, El-D is conducting a running monologue that is always directed right at me, and Chad is asking me where something is, and smoke just starts to come out of my ears, because I can't handle that much at once. Not a multitasker, I.

Obviously, I've neglected my blogging, I've done nothing significantly crafty in Hades knows how long, and I'm just in this shame spiral here! Someone throw me a line.

What I HAVE done is read - voraciously. A Tale of Two Cities, Fifty Shades of Gray, Good Omens, some Kindle Daily Deal book I can't remember the title of, Life of Pi, and now the first book in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, because I need to solidify my nerd cred.

And there you have it! I feel much better now that I've gotten that off my chest. Whew!