Gardening

Back in my little two bedroom apartment in college, I got the garden bug and impatiently waited to move on to a place where I could have an abundant garden.  When we came here, I was so excited to see the little fenced in pen off our backyard.  A perfect spot, I thought to myself.  I contemplated putting chickens back there, but after discussing this with the manager we were told no chickens.  So a garden it was to become. 

However, life got in the way and my "dream" garden has still yet to be.  It also doesn't help that my mind thinks, "I don't know how long I'll be here.  As soon as I get the garden and yard perfect, we'll move on and all my hard work will be wasted.  Best wait until we move on."  But then I started thinking.  Why wait?  If I keep waiting I'll never have my garden (or yard.)

Anyway,  here is what my garden area looks like now:

Seed catalogs have started arriving in my mailbox, so again, the fever has hit me.  You see, in my mind I have it all pictured.  It's getting it out of my mind, designed and in the dirt where I am having issues.  So this morning, I turned a blind eye to the dishes in the sink, the laundry in the basket, and got online to do some research.  It turns out the garden in my mind is called a Potager garden - in French it simply means, "vegetable garden."  However, it's really a garden that combines vegetables, herbs and flowers all mixed in together.

I read articles on Potager gardening, looked at pictures and designs for inspiration; now - the tough part for me - getting my plans down on paper.  However, with the weather cold and the wind blowing; now is the perfect time to get this part done.

A few pictures of Potager gardens - - Enjoy!!

As Promised

Some of the children were a bit frightened about riding.  So, they put Logan on first.  They figured if he went and showed the other kids how easy and fun it was, the kids would be more willing to ride.  They were right!  And Logan was "all business" when he first got on.  Silly boy.



Really??

Saturday - gorgeous!  Sun shining - felt like Spring; ended up spending the day running errands around Albuquerque.

Sunday - 30 degrees and snowing; had no where to go.  Ended up spending the day organizing and cleaning.

Monday - another warm day with the sun out brightly shining.  Spent the day running around Edgewood - doctors and groceries.

Tuesday - (today) 50 + degrees outside.  Again sun out.  I have to work in the office.

So the only day where I didn't really have to go anywhere or do anything.  The day that I could have spent outside "playing" in the dirt - it snowed.  Really now!  On the positive side, at least I got Aslyn's room in order.

Sundays

Sunday is my day to take it easy.  All week long I have two children I am chasing, a husband, dog - all who demand my attention at all times (this is true for Sunday's too.)  On top of all this I have laundry to do, dishes to wash, the house to pick up/clean, etc.  So Sunday is my day to just be a mom and wife and nothing else.  House be damned, it can get clean the other days of the week. 

However, in my need to declutter, I spent my Sunday cleaning out the computer/Aslyn's room.  The room wasn't that bad since most of what was in there got moved out back in August before Aslyn was born.  But, nothing was done with the room since it was painted.  The task should have been one that would only take 2-3 hours; with two kids though, it took pretty much all day.  I cleaned the blinds, windowsills, and floorboards.  Dusted everything, and pulled it all out of the room for a good vacuuming and carpet cleaning.  Oh how filthy the carpet was!  When I was rinsing out the recovery tank of my carpet cleaner there was 3/4 inch thick mud caked at the bottom (and this was just the computer room!)

After the carpet was dry, I moved the furniture back in.  We had picked up a dresser I ordered for Aslyn on Saturday, so now that sits nicely in her room.  Her crib as yet to be moved from Logan's room, I'm hoping to get that done this week.  JP doesn't want to mess with it due to the fact we have to disassemble Aslyn's crib to move it (we discovered that Logan's door does not come off.) 

When the room was back in order, JP and I took turns learning Spanish from the Rosetta Stone program.  I have the hardest time pronouncing 'nada' why?  I have no idea.

It was a busier than normal Sunday for me, but I'm feeling content with one room down.

Before the kids got up this morning I took it easy by sitting at the kitchen table with my garden seeds spread before me, a hot cup of coffee and a seed catalog.  It was inventory time - I went through the catalog and decided on some other things I would like to grow or that I had run out of or am running low on (more on gardening and dirt time at another post.)

Now the kids are awake and it's back to my usual hectic day.  We are all headed into Edgewood today for Aslyn's six month wellness checkup and shots - Logan has the day off since it's presidents day.  Then it's off to the grocery store, and home to put things away and if time, office work for the ranch.

What's Been Happening



Science experiment?



Aslyn and I got some girl time.





Aslyn joined Logan for lunch



Logan got this costume from a school mate.  Sometimes he'll just wear the hood (Elmo's head.)  When he does this it reminds me of westerns when the old mountain man rides up wearing the bear skin.  Makes me laugh everytime!

  

Aslyn started solids!  Can you belive she is already 6 months old!




Logan doing the calander for his class

 Cibola House Preschool was suppose to have a field trip out here on the ranch; however due to weather we had to postpone it.  Instead, the children got to ride donkeys (waiting on pictures from the teachers of this.)  As soon as I get pictures, I'll post those.

I'm Baaaaack!!!

So much for my goal of blogging twice a week huh?  Anyway, our computer went kaput and so I was out for a while.  But now I am up and running again.

Here's the difference between JP and me.  I'm a researcher.  I research everything before I buy - from irons, to cameras, vacuum cleaners, etc.  I want to know what I am getting and if it is going to do everything I want it to do at a reasonable price.  JP, he's a walk in - this looks cool - I'll buy it kind of guy.  Which is exactly what he was going to do with the purchase of our new computer.  And, this is exactly what he did with the purchase of our old computer (which didn't even last four years.)  Our Dell computer from college worked fine, but he wanted a bigger, better, computer to play is online games on.  However, he bought one of those high-tech needs dual fans to run, if a grain of dust gets on the video card; it's fried kind of computers.  Not exactly the best choice for a little house on a ranch.  No matter how much you clean it, there is still going to be dust and dirt around.

Anyway, our high-tech computer was costing us as much to fix it as the thing did (which wasn't cheap.)  So I finally caved and told him we could buy another one.  (I wanted to spend our tax return on updating dental appointments and eye exams - how is Logan going to keep is great smile without going to the dentist?) JP on the other hand felt a computer was more important - I think he avoids the dentist because he has A LOT of work to be done.  Little does JP know though, I set money aside so he still has to go - ha ha ha!

But, I'm getting off track.  JP says he is learning as he goes on this computer stuff and the abilities to do what he wants to do.  I told him he needs to start making cheaper mistakes to learn from.  OR - do his research!!  So, the morning we were to leave and go computer shopping - blindly - our friend Nick called.  JP was out feeding cattle so I spent the morning asking Nick what a good computer to buy would be (Nick is like me - he researches everything - plus he had just purchased a new computer and since him and JP are pretty much doing the same things on them, he would be a good person to ask.) After 40 minutes of talking processors, RAM, hard drives and graphic cards, I had an idea of what to buy.   And so when we walked into the store to shop for a computer; JP stepped aside and let me do the talking - for once.