I didn't plant them, but I'll enjoy them!

I'm writing this, sitting outside on a gorgeous day; not really able to see the screen, but my reflection instead. I'm amazed I have wireless out here, nonetheless, because it's gorgeous and the kids never want to be inside. Really, I'm thankful for that.

In any case, there are some gorgeous flowers that have been around the house since early spring, and some I took pictures of and put online, but there are just so many nice ones I wanted to share them here.

Meanwhile, Z is my official compost dumper. She takes it outside for me and puts it in the "new" compost. We have one that's more turned over than the other one, so she knows where to put it. :) I also made the older one smaller, since it's more broken down, and the new one bigger.

Enjoy! :)

These are from early spring, when it was cooler out.

Idk what they are, but they are doing great!


The mystery sprout V 2.0! Ok, I did plant this, rather, I transported it. ;)


Mystery Sprout V 3.0! This is actually growing in the compost.


Violets!


I love these!

I caught a bumblebee! Do you see it?

Stay-At-Home-Mom

So ever since I started blogging, I've gone through many waves of insanity and a level of comfort with that insanity. I know there are harder things than having two kids so close together, but I'm definitely not the type of person who can handle much more! So, often, I feel a lot of stress about parenting, being stuck at home, and not having 'adult time'. A lot of things have helped this, like belly dancing, nicer weather, and most importantly, the kids getting older and listening somewhat more and growing into little people with a schedule (somewhat) and conversation skills. It's actually sort of neat. :)

But I know I have to work. If I want to or not. Chaim's unemployment did end, and while he's still a student right now and I have to be home to watch the kids while he studies, we do need to make ends meet. Chaim has a summer semester to do, and I don't know how much we can really work during that time, but once that is over with we'll have a year of no-school to make some money. After that, hopefully, he'll get into a nursing school for fall 2012.

The thing is, I do want to make money and not be paranoid about needing it, and some jobs even seem a little fun, though I'm not planning on getting a dream job anytime soon, just something for now. Another big milestone happened, I registered Zalah for nursery school. She's so smart, and definitely needs it, but it was scary to think of paying anything extra. So of course if she's away all day there's even less of a reason not to work. The hope is that I'll do mornings for example, and Chaim will do nights. We'll never see each other, but Lyla will be home with us and we'll save on babysitting costs. Then next year we hope to get a UPK program which is half off regular price for a full day so both kids will definitely go, and by that point they'll really need it with the way today's kindergartens are set up in the city.

But I think I'll actually miss being home. Part of me got used to making things at home from scratch and gardening and being able to be green and go out with the kids. During the winter it's just so easy to take being home for granted, because it almost feels like prison. But with the ever impending idea that I may have to spend 40 hours a week at a Stop n' Shop cash register is really starting to bum me out. I guess I should be thankful for all the small blessings we're able to have when we have them.

Plant Death and Rebirth

Ah the cycle of our garden. The tomatoes (round 2, or three?) were looking really nice. Basil 2.0 and parsley. The dirt wasn't great but it was happening. But then we went away for a week and they just didn't survive. We have one tomato left and he's still a small little bugger. :( The herbs we can always try again round the year, with better soil. And thanks to Sarah's mom for giving us a grow lamp and a seed starter box, next year looks more promising. That's something at least.

I've been pretty bummed that I can't grow A THING. :( I also didn't see the cucumber's sprouting, but lo! They were. That was one nice thing we noticed before we went away. But just to balance that out, when I came back the second compost was way moldy and infested. This was my fault, since I forgot to add the dry leaves to it. Gah. Oh well.

So lets pick ourselves up just a little. There is hope. I've actually been finding a lot of sprouts in the compost. How silly is that?! I mean, I know that they grow there, but it's funny that dirt and death can grow better than I can when I try. >:| Anyway, I see it as a special treat. So we planted them! I have absolutely no idea what they are. :D

Chaim is also excited because he spread a bunch of wildflower mix and he thinks it is starting to sprout too!

It's possible that this is apple. But who knows!


No idea.


These I noticed when I was going to plant a carrot top, but I don't know what they are or how they even got there!


Carrot top


This is a nice little row of cucumbers! Yay!! Finally! :D


Annndddd the garlic! It looks great, especially since we planted out of season..we'll see how that goes...


This is what my kids do for fun... Saying "Ee-ah poo poo pee pee".


We didn't plat this, there are a bunch of flowers that just come. The purple and yellow ones and the bell flowers died, then came these (on their way out) and small little white stars.


These are also all over now. I don't know what kind they are but they are big and creepy. Another great thing is that I found a macro mode on my camera and I'm liking how these pics are coming out!

My not so green thumb

So all of that in the last post is basically for naught. I'm so upset. Here's what happened.

The tomatoes were left outside to bask in the sun. One day I knew it was going to rain so I made sure to bring in my bras flapping in the breeze and everything else I could think of. What happens the next day?? Chaim brings in the tomatoes, which we forgot outside. :( The few that survived Zalah pulled up by the roots. She also did this to some plants Chaim was trying to re-root and she broke part of the garlic off, but at least that part wasn't so damaging. We tried to replant tomato seeds, but by this point if they actually grow, it will be pretty late in the season to see fruit, like what happened last year. :(

I'm counting on that little guy in the front, but I don't want to hold out too much hope!

We had nice little basil sprouts. I don't even think I had a picture of them. So of course, when I watered them and went to return them to their windowsill, I undershot, bumped the edge and spilled the whole thing all over the floor. Bye bye basil. I tried to replant the basil as well as some parsley, but the dirt was too wet. So I mixed in more dirt to get the right consistency but now it looks too packed down and I don't know if the sprouts can break through. It's not well draining at all. How bad can you be at making dirt!?!?!

Next, the garlic. Ah the garlic was growing so well. It's so easy, isn't it?? So we decide it's high time to plant them outside, the roots were packed in their little containers, and we had two to a small pot! Well, guess how I felt when I look online just to double check the best time to plant them (mid spring, early spring?) and see FALL. WHAT? So much for that. We attempted a shady spot and hopefully it won't be too hot for them to grow. Over watering can also be a problem, and it is spring. So we'll see how that goes.

The garlic

I did learn that you can eat those green tops, so that's something at least.

Speaking of garlic, I also read that it's good to put a layer of compost on top. Well. The compost is not ready. (Though I have to say, it does look good.) Maybe if we were smart and did it all last summer and through the year it would have been ready by now. Grrr.

Lastly, I planted the cucumbers. Might as well at this point, right? So who knows how they will turn out. The soil is supposed to be warmer, but I didn't want to wait and I didn't start them inside so whatever. Those 3 sticks in the back are where each group of seeds are. The kids helped me put 4 seeds in each hill, and if they grow I can then thin them down. It looks a little dry, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow and the rest of the month, so it will be plenty watered. I hope something sprouts!



Oh, and in case you guys are wondering, the spot by the fence is actually fairly sunny for most of the day. The reason I say the garlic is in a 'shady' spot while the "real" garden pictured above is the sunniest spot is because the garlic is along the fence back by where the shed is, and when the sun gets too far west it becomes shady again. So the garlic spot has some sun, while the main garden should get a lot of sun. The idea was to put the tomatoes in the back there, but I hope it doesn't stay shady there for too long in the day. I took this picture at about 11am. It's almost noon and it's sunny there now.

So that's that. This is year two of a slight interest in gardening while really knowing nothing of what to do! And the more we learn, we still don't know enough. It's actually quite sad. We would have either known what to do back in the old days, or just not have been very successful and healthy individuals! I wish planting wasn't a dying art. I wish it came standard with learning long division, phonics and the history of New Jersey. :(

Also, it is GORGEOUS today. Really.

The Return

One Quick Thing. . . then again, it's me we're talking about

I just have one quick tip I'd like to share. Put your scallions and herbs in a wet paper towel, fold it around the base and store in the fridge in a produce bag (I reuse mine, and actually I hardly have them since I buy my produce loose). The water keeps them fresh and I think even growing. These scallions are a few days old and are firm and luscious.

I love scallions!

Come to think of it, remember when I mentioned Chaim's other other night job? And how I started this blog the day he got fired? So it's been about two years since then and we found out his unemployment is ending in two weeks. :( This is after an error in which they held about three weeks, which we had to go in in person and refute and still are waiting for it to come through. But it doesn't really matter so much because it's basically over. So now what? I have no idea. We're trying the gardening thing again, have a nice compost started, but something tells me we'll need more than that to live on. Hmmm.

The heat and hot water isn't on, which is a pain but hopefully the oil truck will come again tomorrow.

And children, why don't they sleep?? Do they want to be zombies? It's after 10, and I still hear Lyla in the room. Meanwhile I'm ready to pass out!

In case I didn't say so on here yet, Z is basically officially potty trained. So that's awesome! Lyla is officially in the middle of TERRIBLE TWOS!! NOT AWESOME!!!

I'll keep you posted on the news.