Saturday, we spent all day playing...we played outside, we played cars, we played inside...we played Legos. We played build the tower of blocks and then knock it down...we snuggled, we read books, we watched Finding Nemo for the 87th time since April started...how many times is that a day?!?!?!?
Then I went to a baby shower for a friend of mine that afternoon. Where we sat for 3 hours...2 of which were spent opening the gifts. Not because there were that many to open, but because the Mom-to-be is that slow in doing things. She spent the entire time, folding all the tissue paper, slitting the tape, and folding the wrapping paper. Each item had to be removed from its bag or box, unfolded, and held up to be oohed and aahed over...and then commented on by her, including, but not limited to a running commentary about how her husband thinks she is nuts for asking for "so many things" and "does the baby really need 8 sheets for the crib?" and my favorite "why does a baby that doesn't do anything need that many outfits?"...obviously, he has never been around infants, even though his sisters have children, and live locally to them...I am afraid for this baby. On many levels.
As much as I love my friend...she is rather lacking in common sense...and has been dubbed "Featherbrained" by many who love her...and she is. She is truly the first featherbrained person I have EVER met in my life. She has spent the entire pregnancy doing nothing. And I mean nothing. Her MIL comes over to clean the house and help with the laundry so she doesn't have to lift heavy things, and can be off her feet. She has scaled back her home massage business to only her regular clients...all 5 of them...and she said about 10 times how she's so glad for the wheelchair buttons on doors and automatic doors at the stores, because of all the heavy doors out there...She has a thyroid condition but doesn't take her medication as prescribed because she "doesn't always feel tired like she needs it." She doesn't eat fruits and vegetables because she doesn't know how to prepare them, and, my favorite excuse ever she doesn't like "the way my fingers feel after cutting or peeling it." She is always exhausted (see thyroid condition above), always scattered, always overwhelmed by all that she has to do. She works from home, not in a spa or "clinic" setting, so she doesn't have to go anywhere, and when she doesn't have clients, could be doing something like vacuuming the rugs, or whatever. On top of this, I am afraid that her husband is domineering, has no sense of reality and has completely unreal expectations of what she will be like as a mother.
Now, I know what you're all saying, but, seriously...as much as people CAN change, I'm not sure that she WILL...so we're praying not only for a healthy baby and delivery, but that motherhood will bring out all of the strong things that a mom is better served to have...
Now that I've totally gone off track...Saturday night we went to church, and came home and ate leftovers. I was a cooking fool last week, and apparently couldn't judge portions to save my life! We had enough leftovers that we had dinner Friday night, lunch and dinner Saturday and still have some left for lunches this week. OY!
Sunday, we spent all morning amending the soil in our garden boxes, and planting, yes, PLANTING, our tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, and 3 varieties of squash. Of course, this was after Captain Chaos spent the better part of the morning 'helping' BB...his version of help was to pat the dirt down, and then scratch and dig into it with his fat little fingers, and fling the dirt all over the place. I think we lost about 2 pounds of dirt from the boxes all told. But that is ok. He had fun, got dirty, and learned a little about helping Daddy and Mommy, and following directions.
We decided several years ago that we would rather have raised garden beds because of our dogs. They like veggies as much as we do, and tend to eat them right off the plants before I could get out there and harvest. Not such an issue now that I'm home full-time, but when I was working, they would eat half a zucchini and all the tomatoes on the outside of the plants. Grrrrrr...they were well fed doggies that year we did containers on the deck... SO, BB built me a total of 4 boxes our first year and we put in compost, humus, top-quality soil and had a bumper crop of tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, onions...we were eating fresh veggies in everything, and let me tell you that I never thought I'd get tired of cucumber salad, but I came awfully close that first year!
The second year, was not so good, as it was a cool and wet summer...we had a late crop of tomatoes, and some shrunken cucumbers...but that was it...we had some bug eat our root crops, so we had no carrots or radishes or onions.
Last year, we treated the soil with a heavy bug killer early in the spring, and then amended and composted and put more top-quality soil in, due to the settling of the dirt in the box. We had a million tomatoes. Seriously, I think we had in the 1000s. We were eating fresh tomatoes by the dozen at each meal, Captain Chaos actually ended up with an orangey-yellow tinge to his skin because of all the carrots and tomatoes he was eating, and I put up 6 gallons of home made tomato sauce, plus 12 quarts of stewed tomatoes, 8 quarts of carrots, and 30 quarts of peaches. We had peppers, onions, zucchini, cucumbers, parsley, oregano, dill, cilantro, thyme, basil, and attempted strawberries. Most of the crop went to the dogs...as we had attempted to take in a new puppy while dealing with gardens and morning sickness.
This year, we are scaling back a bit, as our 2 newest boxes (totalling around 65 square feet) are not quite ready. We are therefore only planting 100 square feet of garden. This is really short of FarmWife's new 25 by 40 foot plot that they turned up and started planting this weekend.
We will be planting:
carrots
onions
radishes
lettuce
spinach
tomatoes
cucumbers
zucchini
spaghetti squash (for a healthier and lighter alternative to pasta this summer)
acorn squash
butternut squash
jalapeno peppers
bell peppers
basil
dill
thyme
parsley
chives
cilantro
oregano
rosemary
chard
kale
I think that is it...wihle the cool weather crops and herbs are potted for control and year-round growth, I will still be putting up a TON of produce this fall, in addition to teaching piano lessons to some of my friends' children.
I am tired just thinking of it, but cannot wait to sink my teeth into that first ripe tomato right off the vine...juicy, warm from the sun...mmmmmmm...and then to harvest some carrots and radishes to have in our freshly picked salad for dinner...and a cucumber salad...or tomato salad...you know the kind, with balsamic vinegar, a little EVOO, and some fresh mozarella cheese, tossed with garlic, onion, salt and pepper...mmmmmmmm...if only we could get watermelon and canteloupe to grow where we are, that would be the best summer ever...as it is, we will have fresh apples in the fall, and peaches along about August...next year, I want a pear tree...
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