Garden - Side Yard

A few pictures of the driveway side yard, which is actually not going to be a 'yard' much longer.  Jack is going to pour concrete over all the lawn between the house and the driveway so that grass/dirt/crap-we-always-just-drive-over will look much nicer.  We will just have the planters and herb garden here.

This year we are still doing pickles in the long planters on a trellis.  I added pansies because I am desperate to plant some color.  The herb garden will still be half herbs, but I am going to try some smaller pepper varieties too, on the theory that they love heat and the block garden gets very warm.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

One Year Later

I am on a plateau.  I have been stuck on this plateau for two months now.  I have backslid and indulged and comfort ate like a champ.  I have not lost my progress but I am not making any progress either.

I have been so discouraged since I fell and fractured my elbow.  I broke it the day before the 5k race that was supposed to be a celebration of sorts for how far I came - and then I couldn't run it.  Broke my spirit a little bit.  Then I started a cycle of crappy comfort eating and not moving because it hurt...and it has stalled me.

On Friday I got the ok from Dr. Ortho to start up exercise as long as I was careful and didn't use my arm directly.  I still ate crappy.  Life is so incredibly busy, I still don't know how I will find a way to go to the gym.  I was still discouraged.  I could not see the progress I made because I was so stuck in this rut, on this crappy plateau.

And then...then I saw this picture from a year ago on Facebook.  And saw what a difference a year can make.  A year that is made up of successes, but also many failures - all strung together to move slowly in a healthier way.

I still don't know how I will find gym time, and I just ate some cookie batter...but I poured my Coke down the drain and picked up my water bottle.  I own this journey...backslides, successes, and everything in between. 

Green Things...Go!

Yesterday (to celebrate Baby Girl's birthday?) we added some green things to the garden and built up the tree house a bit more.  I continue to stand by my vision for this container garden, it looks better and better every time I putter with it. 

Yesterday I planted violas and then seeded lettuce, spinach, and peas.  I am a little later than I wanted to be getting them in but all shall be ok.  We should see green sprouts within a week.  I also added violas to hanging baskets and the block garden, too.

Jack has done a magnificent job transforming a wasted corner of our yard that was formerly run over with mulberry tree and created a fun treehouse.  Windows and railings and a paint job are in the near future.

It feels so amazing to be outside again.

Mulch Day

Just a few more pictures from today, updating the new container garden!  After the first week of this new project, Jack thought it looked like "someone dumped garbage over our fence"....this morning after painting all the random pots, it was "horrendous"....now after filling in all the dirt and adding mulch it "will look ok once the green is growing".  Haha!  I stand by my vision, I really like how it is coming together - hopefully it all grows nicely the way I think it should!

Notes for myself:

If I need to repaint pots next year, I need five cans of paint.

I used six bags of mulch to totally fill in garden area.

Exercises in Flexibility

Before I became a mother, I knew exactly what kind of mother I would be.  My kids would always hit their proper milestones because I would be firm but fair.  I was sure I was fully equipped to handle this.

Now I know differently.  Motherhood is a giant exercise in learning how to bend, how to go with the flow, how to adapt to circumstance, how to take a win where you can get it.  Big lesson for a control freak like me.

My two year old son's bottle obsession is a perfect example.

I know he should have been off a bottle by one.  He was 90% off a bottle by one...We were down to just a bedtime bottle.  And that bottle was mostly water with enough milk to fool him.  Then Baby Girl came along with a whole collection of bottles.  And Baby Boy backslid right back into wanting a bottle every minute of the day.

Every day since is a battle to get him to drink from a cup.  He hates snippy cups, he loathes big kid cups, he will lower himself to drink from a cup with a straw if there is pop in it.  I have begun to believe Baby Girl will break the habit before he will. 

So today here is where we are at - powerade.  He will drink 'orange pop' from a giant powerade container.  Aside from the obvious spill hazard, I am uncertain of the nutritional line we are walking here.  But it is better than seeing him suck on a milk bottle soooooo....

I am bending.