The Joys of a January cold....

So most of us parents lovingly refer to our children with beautiful terms of endearment such as "Sweetheart", "My Love", "Darling", "Bug", even the occasional "Pooh". I want to say right now that I say some of these myself as does my husband... however for the next few weeks they will lovingly be referred to as "Carrier Monkeys"!

Now anyone who has seen the wonderful movie "One Fine Day" will get that reference.. if you have not, I highly suggest it. It is in this dayquil, codeine laced cough syrup induced fog I find myself tonight. Now I was a good mom and took the cough syrup while my responsible still miserable feeling hubby was home so one of us could be the adult and make sure noone burned down the house. 

However tonight was also Scouts for Dimon, and Young Women's for Izzy, and swim time for Xander.  Which means at that magical time of 630 I am home alone with the baby! Not so bad... we were doing great, then we bonked heads while doing a puzzle and sneezed on each other. Ya... that was gross. Nothing like sharing snot with the 18 month old because she is trying to be independent by wiping her nose on you! But I digress... we were happily watching YouTube videos of 80's musical montages- Elle dancing the entire time - when Xan came home. (for those of who don't know, Xan has Autism and has a helper that comes twice a week and takes him to swim, he loves it!)- Well said helper left and so me, baby and Xan are here at home. Baby and Xan go running amuck through the house. Yes "Amuck, Amuck, Amuck!" I tell you! They were being super cute however it required me to move from my bed to the living room. So a dutiful mom I was and hauled my sick sorry butt off to the couch. 

This should have been plenty to divert disaster... any normal day yes. I would be alert and know what the heck was going on! But no.... codeine cough syrup is bad for the mommy, even when I took it 3 hours before being left alone with minions. But I was still happily involved in my 80' s montage musicals.

Since I wasn't feeling great when Xan made his own chicken patty I was thrilled because one he made it himself! That is huge! Second I could hear the microwave and knew exactly what he was doing. Third (with my head hung in shame I admit this...) I didn't have to get up again. Well this is where I failed. 

In my little happy music filled YouTube world with the baby running around I failed to notice Xan had stuck another one in the microwave. These things cook for about one minute... maybe a minute 30 if needed, I don't know how long it was in there... all i know is that I was called to the bathroom by Xan and when I stood up I saw the smoke!

Yes smoke!!! I was sure that microwave was on finre. I literally threw the baby on the bed and ran back to the kitchen, leaving Xan on the potty and sure the house was ablaze or soon would be. At the very least I knew the very loud very good smoke alarms were going to be set off. 

Five minutes later my house is filled with smoke, nothing is on fire... all kids are safe... but now in January in 19 degree weather the windows are open and fans are on.... all because of the stupid January cold!

I love my monkeys... they are my circus.

I will wear my heart upon my sleeve

Our family has grown since last updating this blog 3 years ago. Since I am under no delusion that this is more a journal for myself and my family then anything else, I will keep my explanation short as to why i have been absent. simply put LIFE, happened. When last I left you we had just completed our first year in 4H and were getting ready for school.

Since then we have been involved in ATA Tae Kwon, DO, Special Olympics, Boy Scouts, 4H for 2 kids, Girl Scouts, various school (PTO) committees finding a new job for both Andy and I as well as adding a new little treasure to our lives. I think that covers it...maybe.

Life has not slowed down or gotten easier. In fact we are busier then ever, but I personally need this blog back and running. If nothing else for personal venting time. Whether I gain followers or not does not matter, I want to chronicle my little families journey through the world.

Monroe County Fair

Playing with the Giga Ball

Playing with the kids new toys! Yes we videoed the kids first, but this is just so much more entertaining!


Sorry for the swearing!

For my baby

I found this is for my baby. I know its so hard for him and even his Daddy sometimes. But I know how hard they try and even when I want to pull out my hair I have to remember that is just sees the world differently.

Can You Hear the World Through My Ears?

Can you hear the World thru my ears,
that hum that fills my head.
I think it would be amazing to you
how I ever go to bed.


The sounds at school, the bus, the hall,
they fill our everyday.
The thunder of children’s passing feet
can make my nerves go fray.


I try to work and learn like others,
and you can see my efforts, no doubt.
But even that “Good job, Cameron,”
if too loud, can make me totally freak out.


I want to forget the heater, the lights,
the bells, and the one chewing gum.
So sometimes when it’s all too much,
I begin to run, flap, and hum.


I know there are places that I need to go,
to gym, to music and to lunch.
But all of them can be overwhelming,
and make me spaz a bunch.


I know I need your patience to learn,
grow, and overcome my fears.
I just hope and pray you can try to hear
the World thru my ears

Since it has been raining so much and we haven't been able to plant anything or fear of it washing away we have been planning. We did get the cold frame planted before the rain hit! So we are waiting on that now. Hopefully all the rain is good for it.

I found a nice little tool that calculates exactly how many of each kind of plant you will need to be self sufficient. Its great and kind of daunting if you plug in peas or beans for a family of 5 like ours.
Now I'm guessing that this is for the length of the season, or until you pull the veggies out of the garden, like carrots.
Here is the list of how many plants we need:
100 pole beans
15 broccoli 30 Corns 100 Peas 20 Spinaches
75 carrots 10 Cucumbers 10 Hot Peppers and
15 cauliflowers 15 Kales 15 Strawberries 5 Pumpkins
20 celery 20 Lettuces 20 Tomatoes
20 chives 10 Melons 35 Radishes

So I know I've got the carrots, cauliflower corn, cucumbers (by 5 x's that), tomatoes (just barely), and radishes. Lettuces are really over covered and we may be giving away alot peppers should keep my dad making his dip for this winter and next I think without this we did pretty well! But it was still fun to see and know that we did something right just by chance!

Here is the link.
http://www.vegetablegardenplanner.com/garden_calculators/family_feeder?garden_id=7686

In fact the entire website is awesome and I fully intend to start using it. It offeres a garden journal, where you can upload pics and keep your thoughts on it. A To Do List where you can keep your ducks all lined up! Its got way more stuff that I'm just gonna play with. Registration is free so there is nothing to lose. So here goes!
here is a link to the tour and some of the features it offers.

http://www.vegetablegardenplanner.com/tour

OK...

So we spent the weekend fine tuning and laying out our garden. Much to my dismay this included cutting down 2 more trees! I hate cutting down trees!!!! Poor Andy had a hard time of it because I gave him and my dad crap about it the whole time! Needless to say the tress are down and one of our fence posts is now 5 inches shorter then the rest of the fence! The tree fell wrong and hit it and drove it down. ARG!
That took most of Saturday. The first part of the day was taken up with attending the first outdoor Farmers Market of the year! We bought 2 pea plants, because our pea starts are not looking so good. The rest of the day was spent cutting down the trees and planning the garden. We are doing a combination of square foot gardening and traditional gardening. Below is a link that explains more fully what Square Foot Gardening is. It is ideal for small spaces and limited space.

http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/plant-spacing/

Basically what you do is lay out the garden in 1 square foot sections and plant. This is very similar to the way many Native American tribes planted in clumps and with veggies that are benificial to eachother. This is called Companion Planting and what it does is let the plants that benefit eachother naturally through either attracting or repelling bugs or the chemicals that each plant needs the other one is ok with that. Its a really nice old idea that has a name. Most of our grandparents know this without reading a book, or website and I'm sure there are several farmers, of all kinds, in heaven laughing at me as I typed up my garden plan so pretty. But it works for me.

So this was much more time consuming then I thought. Cause guess what? You can't plant corn next to tomatoes, or broccoli next to watermelon, or peppers next to tomatoes, or cauliflower next to anything but lettuce!!! Oh my gosh! Its nuts! Companion planting is nuts but hopefully it will pay off in the end. Here is a look at how it will look. We hope!!!!!!!!!! Below is another link to a tool that was awesome for most of the plants we chose to grow. The entire website is awesome so you should check it out!

http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/companion_planting_locked.xls

It is an excel sheet but if you don't have excel she has a pdf file on her site as well. But this is an awesome site.

Today was all kinds of crazy and didn't get to the garden at all except to water the plants! We still have to lay out our squares because I'm gonna be a little nuts about my space because lets face it I'm that way! But tomorrow provided the rain doesn't come will be planting day.

Autism Awareness Month

Today kicks off the start of Autism Awareness Month. We will be wearing a lot of blue this month!
Tomorrow is Light It up Blue day to raise awareness of Autism. 1 in 110 children are diagnosed with Autism

WELCOME TO LIGHT IT UP BLUE

On the evenings of April 1 and 2, 2011, prominent buildings across North America and the world — including the Empire State Building in New York City and the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada — will turn their lights blue to raise awareness for autism and to commemorate World Autism Awareness Day on Saturday, April 2.

We’re aiming to light the world blue all throughout April — city by city, town by town — by taking action to raise autism awareness in our communities.

What you can do to Light It Up Blue

• Wear blue clothing or your Autism Speaks puzzle piece, and encourage your coworkers to do the same. Sign Up
• Light your house up blue by putting blue light bulbs in any outdoor fixtures. Sign Up
• Raise awareness for Autism online or spread the word about Light It Up Blue.

Seed Starting...maybe

Seed Starting

OK got the cold frames up and going and are now homes to the 4 flats that have been planted. Not that all four flats are actually homes to stuff. They just happen to have seeds. Being this is the first time in my life that I have started seeds it is like all of this an experiment. We planted 4 flats of 72 pellets each. We have 1 flat with about 30 starts in it. Not the best ratio, but we will figure it out. We planted an entire flat of tomatoes and not one has come up! AHHHHHH! There goes some $10 in seeds.Oh well.... “Most of the impo have kertant things in the world have been accomplished by people whopt on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” Dale Carnegie quotes.
The last of the 4 pictures here contain the 'poor poor tomatoes' that have never sprouted. So sad..... the first 3 contain the cucumbers, peas, and broccoli. The flat with the cucumbers and broccli have sprouted! We have about 30 healthy little sprouts and had it not snowed this weekend they would be int he ground. They love the cold frame and I'm so excited that they are growing. But that is a lot of broccoli and cucumbers and I don't do pickles.... So i guess we need to buy one of the vacuum sealer thingy so we can freeze. Add one more new thing to learn to do.

I'm so excited. Because of the snow and the freezing rain that hit this weekend the flats are currently sitting on the wsher and dryer next to the cat food. Much the the chargin of the cats. I keep spraying them with the mister I have for watering when they venture a step onto the seedlings. Ya they hate me right now.

Cold Frames

Cold Frames

So the next step in our journey to self sufficiency was to figure out how to get the most out of our growing season. We stumbled upon the idea of cold frames. Which is a miniature green house of sorts. Now there are several ways, effective ways to build these. We took a more permanent route as we wanted to have separate and more gardening space. We were able to make 2, 3x6 cold frames for about $40. Now granted we only had to buy wood and screws because we recycled out old sliding glass doors, but still these can be built very inexpensively. (Oh we also took the legs from an old prop we built. That is why they are neon green.)You just have to know where to look. Recycling old windows is the most common way to cover the cold frames. We were just lucky in still having the doors and that they survived the winter sitting in the yard! So we started by measuring the doors, and buying the woods. We took advantage of the free wood cutting service at Lowes and had them cut the wood for us, just to save time. (Which is huge around here with the kids wanting to help!) Andy then squared the wood screwed it together, adding legs. They are 3 feet tall with 16-18 inches of wood directly under the door. Added hinges to the doors,set them and FAIRY DUST, FAIRY DUST, FAIRY DUST we have cold frames!

The next step was to dig the holes for the frames to sit in. We did this because it helps to keep the plants warmer by filling the hole with about a foot of compost/manure covering with straw then dropping soil on top of it. As the manure decomposes it will create heat for the plants and provide nutrients! Plus we got the manure for free! Love free stuff! We did pay for the soil, but that is ok, $30 for a

truckload of soil that I know is gonna grow stuff, no problem. This was a huge job to do by hand, but thanks to my loving husband we quickly had 2 ‘graves’ in the front yard. I’m not kidding you, they looked like graves! Same shape, both a little over

4 foot deep and the bus drivers were wondering what was going on for a week or so. But we just have to plant now! And try to figure how to utilize these in the hot humid Summer of Indiana.