Carrots and Tomatoes and Zucchinis, Oh My!

As I type this my husband is outside cleaning out the yard shed.  It is a lovely February afternoon and my husband and children are spending it in our backyard.  It's wonderful!  This is what Colorado is like.  We get teased with these balmy days, you start to get excited that spring is coming, that there may actually be an end to the cold, dreary winter blahs and then you get hit, wham! with 8 inches of cold, heavy, wet spring snow on March 28th!  You get used to it.  We do have an amazing amount of sunshine though, so I'm not going to complain.  (At least not today, since it's currently 48 degrees out, sunny and nice.)

My husband has started to plan our garden for this year.  He talked about it the entire time we were eating lunch, like a kid talking about a trip to Disneyland or Christmas.  "And over there we're going to have squash and cucumbers and then in those boxes we'll have beans and we'll string them up this year..."  You should see the way his face lights up when he starts to talk fertilizer and manure!  

I'm not going to lie, I've been thinking about the garden a lot lately too.  But when I think about the garden and this summer I think in different terms than my husband.  I love having a garden.  There is nothing cuter than a little girl walking around with a fresh green bean or a carrot from the garden.  Abby likes to eat carrots with the greens still attached, like Bugs Bunny.  "I'll help you pull weeds Mommy.  Is this a weed?  Can I have a carrot?  I'm tired, can I go play now?"  Last year I gave serious thought to buying a Prairie girl style bonnet for Abby.  I bought the kids buckets so they could help us collect green beans.  Eli struggled to carry a zucchini 1/4 of his body weight down the hill to the house.  

And the best part?  It's our garden.  Jeremiah made it, we planted it (last year I helped!), and then we nurtured it and watched it grow and harvested the fruits of our labor.  

It's like having kids, only with faster results.  And I've never been sassed by a pumpkin.

We get a little better at this every year too.  Kind of like having kids.  We learn from experience, make adjustments based on what works, try not to make the same mistakes (don't forget to string the peas this year), it's a work in progress.  And it's tasty work.  And given the right circumstances I actually like getting a little dirt under my nails.

So it may be 3 months and probably a half-dozen more snowstorms away, but I can't wait for spring and our garden.  Here's what we're thinking of planting this year:

-Zucchinis (if you haven't heard, we have the BEST soil for zukes, like massive, feed a whole village zukes.)

-Cucumbers

-Squash

-Carrots

-Green beans

-Green peas

-Onions

-Corn (and then I have cornstalks to decorate with in the fall)

-Lettuce

And this year we're going to try:

-Garlic

-Potatoes

-Tomatoes (Jeremiah says if I promise to take care of them, I can have them.)

-Strawberries, blueberries or raspberries, I don't care which, I just want some berries

-And we may plant pumpkins again if there's room.

The Tao of the Vacuum

There are some household chores that I like and some I despise.  Like, "please oh please, someone, anyone else do this" kind of despise.  Surprisingly I don't mind cleaning bathrooms, there is something nice about a shiny, clean bathroom and I have a nice little system down.  Plus the bathrooms are small so I'm in and out in a few minutes.  I'm not so big on cleaning the tubs, but it's better then dusting, I hate dusting.  That is my "anyone, anyone?" chore.  I used to dust for my mom when I was little, I liked it then, I'm not sure why.  I think it had to do with the lemon pledge and playing with all the little knick-knacks on all the surfaces.  I don't think I ever broke any, but I know I sure played with them.  My mother probably weighed the pros and cons of her precious chachkis against my being occupied for a good 45 minutes and having a few dusted surfaces and picked the same thing all of us mothers would.

I'm teaching Abby how to dust.  How do you think I'm typing this? 

My favorite chore, the one I actually want to do and get sad about not getting to is vacuuming.  Yes, vacuuming.  I love it, for so many reasons.  First off, people leave you alone when you vacuum.  It's loud and annoying to those around you and you can't hear them if they talk to you, or you can pretend you can't hear them and they eventually give up.  It's private.  I zone out to the constant hum/white noise of my big ol' vacuum.  It's calming and I get into an almost meditative spot.  Yes, I actually have thoughts that rattle around in my brain, and I have time to think them over, it's nice.  And I love the clean  carpet tracks that are left behind.  You know, that nice re-fluffed carpet, it looks almost new, like the day it was installed instead of the carpet I actually have with the crayon wrappers and the dog hair and crushed up food crumbs imbedded in it.  And do I have to mention that vacuuming burns calories?  Especially with my vacuum.  A few years ago my parents gave us a big ol' Kenmore vacuum, this thing is heavy but it sucks, I mean really sucks!  It's awesome.  I think it may actually suck up dirt from a parallel dimension it's that good.

Yes, life is good for me and my vacuum.

Except for my meddling kids.  They have ruined my Zen Vacuuming moments.  

It all started out the way it should.  Abby used to be afraid of the vacuum, I think she learned it from our dog.  I would have to put her in our bedroom on our bed with her sippy cup, a snack trap full of goldfish, her blankie, Snuggle Puppy, a baby doll and the TV on to Dora, then I could shut the door and vacuum the entire rest of the upstairs.  Then move her and her posse out to the playroom and shut the door to our bedroom to finish the job (including vacuuming up the goldfish.)  Then, my mother, with all of her Grandmotherly love, taught my daughter that the vacuum wasn't going to hurt her and she could actually make a game out of it.  Thanks Mom.  So now my daughter, and my son who has learned this game, play "oh no, the vacuum is going to get us!" whenever I vacuum.  I hate this game.  They run around me and the vacuum darting out of the way as it heads towards them, leaving their cute little footprints all over my freshly vacuumed tracks.  They have ruined my vacuuming zen.  

Then there's my son.  Eli, having the fully activated boy gene, is actually drawn to the loud machine.  I think he feels a certain kinship to something that is as loud as he is.  He wants to help me.  Oh sweet sheep, this is always murder.  He has to turn it on, then he wants to hold it, but the thing weighs more than he does so I have to help him drag it back and forth across the carpet.  Then he beams, "I helping Mommy!" and smiles his ridiculously cute little vampire toothed smile at me.  Eventually they both get bored with me and my buddy Kenmore and run off to the other room and for a short time I get to be alone with my vacuum and my thoughts, but it's hard to get into that deep meditative place that I so enjoy.  

Someday my house will be empty.  There will be no more Barbie shoes or scraps of lovey blankie buried deep in the carpet to look out for.  I won't have little kids offering to help or leaving their little footprints in my freshly vacuumed carpet.  And I suppose that I will miss these days then.  But, boy oh boy, will my carpet look good.  

Dear Third Child,

A loving letter to our third child (currently in-utero),

Dear Baby,

You are still a tiny little dream, the internet says you're about three inches long.  You have yet to start kicking me, but I'm sure going to the bathroom a lot.  I have given up caffeine for you, so you'ed better come out mello and easy going; you will soon learn (as soon as you're weaned) that you don't want to talk to mommy in the morning until she has had at least one cup of coffee.

You have an older sister Abby, she's the bossy one you hear with your newly developed ears.  Don't worry, you will soon come to ignore her like the rest of us.  She is sweet and will read you books and sing to you and probably want to hold you all the time.  She will boss you around and push you on occasion, but you will never have a better advocate, especially if it involves something that benefits her as well.  She starts kindergarten 10 days before you're due to arrive...that should be interesting.  Hormones, a big fat preggo, a couple of major life changing events and 90+ degree weather, your Dad may camp in the backyard for a few weeks just to get away.

Your brother, the soon to be middle child, is Eli.  We're still getting to know him but as best as we can tell he's even louder than your sister.  He is stubborn, strong-willed and adventurous.  If you're going to get hit in the face with a foam sword or a wooden train on your 4th day of life it's going to be by him.  My best advice to you is to learn to sleep with your hands in front of your face, a permanent block defense from your brother's curious "love."

You were a surprise blessing for us.  God knew all along that you were coming, but your Dad and I thought we were done.  That's cool, that's in God's plan.  He is in control and we will trust in Him.

I would like to apologize for all the chocolate, I guess I didn't give up caffeine in all it's forms.  Mommy has a weakness and really, you don't want to be around me if we're out of chocolate.  I've been know to eat chocolate chips just to get my fix, but hey, it's not crack so you'll be fine.

Please stop making me burp, I find the indigestion is already getting on my nerves.  If you don't like something there has to be a nicer way to tell me.  Get used to the flavor of mixed berry Tums kid, you'll be seeing them a lot.

I would like to ask you now to please be nice to my inside.  I'm sure from your vantage point you can see the old scars from the mortar shell attacks your brother waged on the inside of my uterus, and the area where your sister kept trying to get out through my oh-so-tender belly button with her knee or elbow or some other pointy thing she had in there with her.

Most of all I want you to know that before you were born I loved you.  You will make me laugh and cry, scream and roll my eyes in frustration, but you are our blessing.  Please grow strong and healthy in there and come out all pink and looking just like the other two, and weighing exactly 6#9oz.

Love,
Mommy