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!

May Reading - DONE and DONE

I polished off A Tale of Two Cities a couple of days into May, which is fine because I'm already a book ahead in my book-a-month plan anyway. Stockpiling, if you will. Once I got past the very beginning where Mr. Lorry is trudging up that interminable hill, and I felt like I was trudging up it with him, I really liked the book. Something I like about Dickens is how he ties it all together in the end. No scene is a throwaway, and you'd better pay attention because that minor character is really a key plot point in the end.

As of today, I also completed Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. This one was kicking around my "to read" list for the better part of a decade, because I'm a fan of NG from way back - since his Sandman days. I even had a Sandman t-shirt back in the mid-90's, and I don't think I'm going to forgive myself for getting rid of it, because I'd totally rock it with skinny jeans, flats, and a scarf. Sigh. Never listen to the experts who say to get rid of anything in your closet that you haven't worn for a year. That's the worst advice ever.

Anyway, Good Omens was a totally fast, fun read about the apocalypse.

I can't believe I'm publicly admitting it, but I'm reading Fifty Shades of Gray next. I have 3 reasons why:
1. Both my mother and my sister read it, and I can't stand to let them have a thing together without me
2. I want to be part of the pop culture moment
3. I'm expecting to get through it quickly, which will put me another book ahead in my "read a book a month" resolution

I'll let you know how it goes!

Parenting FAIL

Ok. So in my defense, I got almost NO SLEEP on Tuesday night, making me a teensy bit grumpy on Wednesday morning. El-D was his usual self on Wednesday. You know, not listening, arguing, and pretty much driving me nuts before school. Usually I manage it, but as I said, I was grumpy.

Then, on our way out the door, he asked why I yell at him all the time. I. Felt. Aw. Ful. I immediately apologized, and on the way to school told him that I'd stop yelling at him, and that I'd appreciate it if he'd listen to me and stop arguing with me all the time, and that we'd be nicer to each other. Then I asked him if I hurt his feelings when I was yelling at him, and he said "Is it ok if I say yes?". Holy Hades. The kid was worried about telling me the truth. I almost turned the car around then and there and bought him a puppy.

Here's the thing - I really want El-D to feel like he can always talk to me. He isn't very communicative about his feelings, being more a man of action, but if there's ever something really bothering him, I want him to always know he can come to me. Maybe getting no sleep and yelling at him over the course of an entire morning isn't the best way to achieve that.

Long time no blog

Here's the problem - my camera broke. Again. This time it wasn't dropped, but for some reason the LCD screen is totally smashed, and the focus is all off. I need to send it in to Nikon again, and because I just got it back after the last repair, and because the camera was a pretty expensive investment, and because I was just getting into taking more photos, every time I think about the camera I feel a little sick, so I'm opting not to think about it, which is getting in the way of blogging. The next few posts will probably be photo free.

My big creative push for the weekend was project garden. I put in all of my plants, and most of my flowers. I still need to plant a few more flowers, and on my mother's suggestion, I'm going to put marigolds in the vegetable garden to keep bugs away. Does this really work? I have no idea. All I know is that the plans have been in the ground for 24 hours, and I can barely sleep because I'm so worried about squirrels and slugs. How do people live with this kind of stress? I really do want to post photos, but luckily in this case waiting awhile isn't a big deal, since I'd like the flowers and plants to fill out a bit anyway. So excited to have the bulk of this done.

Confessions of a Sugar Junkie

I'm a sugar addict. I challenge...no I DEFY anyone out there to eat more sweets in one sitting than I can. I promise you I'll win. I've been known, in times of desperation, to take the stuff straight from a dixie cup. 

AND...I'm on a sugar fast. 2 days, no sugar, and I'm already in a tailspin. I want cake. Scratch that. I want icing. Here's how it all began:

My friend B and I were discussing the reports out about sugar being toxic and deadly and cancerous and awful. (Full disclosure -I know this is a hot news item right now, but I haven't read anything about it because I'm taking the typical Hilary approach - if I didn't hear about it, it isn't true). Anyway, B read that when you eat sugar it lights up all the places in your brain that also light up when you take addictive drugs. To me, this makes sense. Once I have a taste of something sugary, I turn into cookie monster and devour everything in sight. 

A few days later, my friend, D and I were talking sugar, and how she's trying to cut down, or cut it out entirely. We decided to do it together. D suggested a week. I suggested a day, and that we start after Passover because if you take bread and sugar away from me all at once, my brain will EXPLODE. Then we settled on 2 days, starting on today.

I think D is going all out, and avoiding hidden sugars, which according to her are THE MOST INSIDIOUS KIND. I'm not as hard-core - I'm cutting out all the stuff that is obviously sugar-filled - the desserts, candy, nips of brown sugar, tablespoons of honey... the stuff I can't believe I'm admitting to in a public forum.

Sugar aside, my diet is pretty healthy, I work out regularly, and chase 2 kids around with great frequency. I go off the rails with the desserts, so my hope is that getting the sugar under control will help me with that pesky weight loss resolution - Wedding Weight by (gulp) 40.

Hopefully I'll make it through 2 days of sugar detox, and then maybe another day, then another more. My end goal is to think differently about sugar - instead of snacking on sweets throughout the day, see it as a treat to have and savor for  special occasions.

Wish me luck!