Raising myself

Drew is an amazing kid. He is so sweet and caring, he's friendly and fun, and he's incredibly smart (yes, I'm his mom, so of course I think that). But he has certain quirks that occasionally drive me crazy. The funny thing is that those quirks are the ones he directly inherited from me. I have a new appreciation for my parents and sometimes I wonder how they, or my husband, live with me. There are times I get frustrated with him then it hits me that the reason I'm irritated is because I'm dealing with myself.

Example 1:
He's OCD. He loves lining things up "just so" and flips out if you take anything out of his order. This is a problem for him when hanging around babies (like his brother!) because, of course, they don't understand the concept of keeping anything in order. All babies understand is "Mouth! NOM NOM NOM." ;) He also walks around the house obsessively shutting doors. If he walks past a door that's open even a crack, he'll backtrack just to push it all the way shut. He'll flip out if the pantry door is open and he can't fix it because he's stuck in his booster seat at the table. I find these little things irritating and I don't know why, except that OCD habits tend to be time-consuming, and the fact that we don't share the same quirks in this respect means we're often grating on each other's nerves.

I found these cars lined up like this at the lake house
I have to admit my OCD is irritated by the "missing" car on the upper left

I will refrain from teaching him "rainbow order"

Example 2:
He should be a lawyer. My parents used to say it to me all the time and it drove me crazy. But boy does that boy pay attention to every last detail and argue semantics down to the letter!
Me: "Drew, I said don't sit in there!" Him: "I'm not sitting, I'm kneeling!".
Me: "Drew, eat your scrambled eggs" Him: "I only have ONE eggUH".
Me: "Sorry, Drew, the banana is all gone." Him: "But there are more bananas beside the fridge!"
Oh boy. It never ends. You can't hide anything from him, either. I'm always amazed at the tiny details of conversation (that don't even involve him!) he picks up and he sees everything. Every time he gets me with a comeback I grit my teeth as flashbacks hit of very similar conversations between me and my parents many years ago.

Example 3:
He eats so slowly that, given the opportunity, he'd probably be finishing breakfast just in time to start on lunch and would never even have to leave the table. I don't eat as slowly as I used to (20 minute lunch breaks as a student then a teacher will do that to you), but I just can't inhale a meal the way some people (namely my husband) can. So I understand and sympathize, but meals in our house can last an hour or more and when you have a baby who only puts up with being in the high chair for a maximum of 20 minutes it makes life difficult. Drew has spent many hours happily nibbling alone at the table. Ever wonder why I post so many pictures and videos at the kitchen table? It's because we spend a lot of time there.

Example 4:
The bug phobia. I'm so sorry, Drew. I know it's my fault. But a housefly is NOT going to kill you! Even I'm not afraid of flies!! If there's a fly anywhere near him, you might as well go ahead and order your hearing aids because you'll only hear ringing in your ears for the next week. Even his full-fledged temper tantrums don't reach the same decibels as a fly-in-the-car incident. The most frustrating part is knowing I can't reason with him. Again, I was (and am) the same way. You can give me a list of scientifically-proven facts about how a bug won't harm me, but it won't change my reaction. And it won't change his. Even if he could be reasoned with at this age.

Example 5:
He touches EVERYTHING! This one goes to my dad. I always drove him bonkers by running my hands across everything we passed in a store. I may have broken more than a few fragile items in my early years. I was just so interested in the textures that I had to feel everything. Drew does the same thing and now that I'm a little more germ-conscious it drives me crazy imagining all the gross things he's picking up. Especially as a thumb-sucker (sorry, Drew, that one's from me too), I just know as soon as we get in the car that dirty thumb will pop into his mouth. Ugh.

And as if the above isn't proof enough that I gave birth to myself...

Me on the left

I think we even have the same haircut! ;)

I'm really not sure how I did it...

So this is an official apology to my parents, my husband, and even my kids. I can be irritating at times, apparently. I'm sorry you've had to live with me. But if it makes you feel any better, I'm getting a taste of my own medicine. ;) And maybe it's a little therapeutic to realize that, even with (or maybe because of) those little irritating quirks, I still love him to the moon and back!

Monday Minute+

It's been a long time since I posted a video, but I've been taking plenty! In fact, there are 16 new videos on my YouTube channel for you to enjoy! Go take a peek and tell me which ones are your favorites! My faves are "Drew dancing Gangnam style", and "James LOVES blueberries". The "sneak peak" at the two playing in the play tent is a close second!

If you want something short and sweet, check out "I'm a dude". Drew walked up to a lady one day and simply told her that. She said I MUST get it on video to tease him with later in life, and I agreed. :)

If you want to laugh at the perfect coincidence of background music, check out "Big bouncy ball". (It's a toy James is playing with).

Have fun!

My experiments with SFG

It is a yearly tradition of mine to start a vegetable garden in the spring and to let it die in the summer. I have had years with a little more success than others, like this one year that I actually got a TON of cucumbers (before a bug that devoured my zucchini and squash had nothing left to eat so settled on the cucumbers), but for the most part I always end up with a withered, pest-eaten garden that's overgrown with weeds.

I am attempting something different this year. I had seen something about "Square Foot Gardening" floating around on Pinterest and it appealed to me. Besides the fact that the neat, organized squares appealed to my OCD, I had always leaned towards that style of gardening without realizing it was "wrong." I never knew I was supposed to plant vegetables in rows with space to walk between them, so I just planted up my entire garden space and was happy.... except for the fact that I couldn't reach a lot of my plants (which was part of what led to the pest and weed infestations). I told my mom about this gardening method I had read a little bit about and she said, "oh yeah, I went to a class! I have his book!". She brought Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening book with her on her next visit and I actually read it cover to cover (well, as much as you can read a gardening book cover to cover).

Some of the key points of Square Foot Gardening are:

-Build raised beds and fill them with a "perfect" soil (instead of trying to amend your existing soil). The soil blend is 1/3 compost (try to use your own or buy a mix of different kinds), 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 coarse vermiculite or perlite. (I used perlite, though I wish I'd been able to find vermiculite as that's his #1 recommendation). This mixture is pH balanced and provides plenty of nutrients while creating a loose, friable, moisture-holding (but easily-draining) soil.

-An average person has a 2' reach, so build your boxes so that you can always reach your plants from one of the sides (2'x4', 4'x4', even 2'x8' would work!). I have a 4'x4' and a 2'x4'. I have those sizes because I found planks of wood at the lake house, and that's how much garden space I was able to create with them. 

-Plant your garden "front and center". Don't put it on your neighbor's property line where it's difficult to get to and/or hard to see so easily forgotten. Put it where you'll see it every day. Mine was always in the back corner of my yard and I never noticed when it was dry and withered, on when bugs attacked. This year I put mine smack dab in the center of my yard where I can see it from the kitchen sink and the kitchen table. Because of the fact that I always see it, I'm always curious what's going on and I visit it (and water it) almost daily.

-The KEY (that makes it Square Foot Gardening) is to divide your bed into square foot sections and plant anywhere from 1 to 16 plants in each square (depending on the seed spacing recommendations). The theory is if you can plant the seeds 4" apart in a row, why not plant another one 4" apart right beside it? You must mark the squares because Mel is about as OCD as I am, but mostly because the squares help you visualize just how much you can really plant in your "small" space.

So far it has been working for me. I have no produce to show for my troubles, yet, but I seem to have a decent amount on the way. So, let's take a peak at my experiment:

My 4x4 gets more and more lush every day!

My 2x4

*The outdoor cat decided this garden made a really grand King-size litter box (more on this below) and unfortunately used the vacant squares frequently. They were not initially vacant, but, thanks to him, they are now. I also thought I had a cucumber plant along the back, but it turned out the be a green bean that I presume was transplanted by the cat's digging.
** I started seeds indoors and obviously did not know what I was doing because very little has survived that was initially planted indoors. The ones that did survive aren't dying, but they aren't growing. Something to work on next year.

Zucchini flower

Cucumber flowers. I have quite a few already!

Grape tomatoes!

Roma tomatoes

Yellow tomatoes

California Wonder bell peppers

My Mother's Day present from Drew
A "scarecrow"

Green beans

My final touch: home compost! According to Mel (author of Square Foot Gardening) homemade compost is the best because it has so many different things in it. Yes, I may be going just a bit crunchy.

Some issues I've had so far:

-As I said above, the outdoor cat decided this garden made a really grand King-size litter box. I put netting over top and it still didn't keep him out. I ended up buying some essential oils (lemon and eucalyptus) to make a "cat repellent" spray that seems to have worked. It was either that or my "scarecrow" from Drew. :)

-I am still getting grass through the bottom (I do have a weed mat down). One of the benefits of this method is that should be little weeding because a) your mix doesn't contain weed seeds, b) your bed is raised, c) the soil is "friable" so weeds are easy to pull, and d) with your grid and seed positioning you'll always be able to spot "intruders" that don't belong. I've had to pull a lot more weeds and grass than expected, though it has been easy as long as I keep up with it.

-Aphids on the tomatoes (thankfully Pikes Nursery was doing a free ladybug giveaway one weekend)

-Zucchini and tomato blossoms that fall off. This is what happens to my tomatoes every year and I have yet to figure out what the problem is. I've read this is common when the temps are too high or too low, but that isn't the case so far this year. The other problem is usually too much nitrogen in the soil, but I used no fertilizer! Sigh... I may not be able to mark this item off my yearly bucket list: "Grow a successful tomato plant! I never get more than 2 tomatoes (or a handful of grape tomatoes)."