This Week So Far

It feels like slow week in the realm of gardening here at my place.

• We got rain! A lot of it. That meant no need for daily watering.  There is even a chance for storms again tonight.  Though I would prefer a light rain every morning, I will take what I can get right now.  We even have some green in our grass.  Hard to believe, but it is true.
• Nothing is ready to pick yet from my garden, though there are herbs ready if I need them.  The cucumbers are covered in blooms, just no cucumbers yet.
• The stand has had pretty steady business.  That is good as I get tired of putting out and bringing in the same items day after day.  Surprisingly, to me at least, zucchini has been a big hit these past two weeks.
• And I am choosing to ignore the big weed flower bed in my front yard.  I need to go through and take out what I want to keep, pot those plants up for next spring and then do something about the weeds.  That is for another day week, though, so I’m choosing to ignore it right now.

So, what have I been up to?

• Slowly working my way through the video here.  I had some thoughts on it as I was watching it.  More to come on that later.
• Slowly reading through Since Silent Spring by Frank Graham
• Slowly trying to figure out the new theme that you see.  Not everything is how I want it, but I’m learning a little at a time.
• (Have you picked up on the ‘Slowly’ theme so far?  I find that though I can read or watch something quickly, that doesn’t mean I comprehend it.  I’m intentionally trying to go through the movies and book at a slow speed.  Firstly, because of comprehension and secondly, because there are really other things I want to get done this week.)
• Cleaned out my fridge.  Feels so good to open it now.  Cleaning is something I find takes my mind off things I don’t want to think about.  Times when I am frustrated, sad, overwhelmed, etc.  For some reason, focusing on cleaning an area or a particular items makes me feel better.  That is why the fridge finally got emptied out and cleaned on a whim.  This is one thing I like knowing about myself because it is a non-chocolate, non-coffee way to make myself feel better … and something actually gets done.
• Cleared off my kitchen counter and realized how much more that makes me feel calm.  Love the lack of clutter.  Now for the rest of the room …
• Gather up the last of several items to take for the teen garage sale this weekend.  My plan is to get the car loaded, during nap time, and drive them over this afternoon.
• Looking at the bird nesting in the Begonia hanging from my front porch. (Not the one shown above, though they are about the same size.)  It was the source of an afternoon of birdwatching with some toddlers.  It was not only their first introduction to ornithology, but also to a bird identification book.  The bird is a female who has a nest with several eggs in it.  We watched as she would fly close by, then leave, only to fly close by again.  I pointed out that she wanted to come back to her nest, why that was, and why she wasn’t doing so.  Finally, we went inside and watched as she flew to her nest.  We then spent a while looking through a bird ID book with me pointing out several different features (maps, pictures of both male and female, etc.)  Being that this is the book I used in college, it isn’t exactly kid friendly.  They did enjoy the pictures though.  I’m hoping to instill a love, or at least an appreciaition, for nature by starting them young.  I have no expectations of molding them into leading ornithologists or conservationists or biologists or naturalist or hydrologists or what ever other -ist you choose to think of.  I just hope for them to have an appreciation for nature and at least a basic understanding of it.
• And lastly, I’ve been realizing exactly how much I am away from home.  It really doesn’t seem like it to me, but when the first thing I’m asked in the mornings is, “Where are we going today?”, well, that is a big clue that perhaps we are gone more often than needed.

Here is an update on the television issue we had last week.  I am being more proactive of the amount of television taking place in our house, durring the day especially.  My goal is for zero, zilch, nada to happen.  This accomplishes several goals:

1.  More imaginative playing
2. Better attitudes
3. Less energy being used; the wattage kind, not the caloric kind.  Something I’ve very happy about during these warmer months

Today, I agreed to ONE, half hour epsidose of a non-cartoon television show, but turned off the television afterwards.  This was followed by about one hour of “I don’t want to….”, stomping feet, whining and uncoroperative behavior by one child. They were the lucky winner of In-The-Same-Room-As-Me time.  After that hour, you could hear the kids playing nicely together, using their imaginations and toys to mimic the road construction that is taking place right outside our house.  This was the same construction that we went outside to watch before watching the half hour of television.  The more I am running this little experiement, the more I am convinced that for this particular child, any television is a bad thing right now.  Not sure why this reaction is happening now, in this child, even though they are well rested and have a lot of other physical activites going on.  I have my suspicions, but it is something I will never be able to prove one way or the other.