Cooking, Sewing, Working, Traveling, Gardening and Pondering

Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.

~Winston Churchill~

Friday, August 15, 2008

Progress, Portions and Prosperity


The last few weeks have been challenging. Finding the combination of energy to apply to work, school and home life has been interesting. Work I've come to realize is something that needs a light mind, one where you are able to disconnect your blood pressure and heart and only your muscles are pulling the load. School is in the final push - only the capstone presentation this coming Monday and then a written document on the 3rd to finish. The modules are all done and complete. The team project is by far the hardest element as we have to really on others to get the professional certification grade. Home - well is a challenge to find the balance.

I continue to struggle with this self hatred issue. I know hatred seems strong but when you've been programmed to be something you can never achieve the weight of not being all that is expected turns to this morphist existence. I am doing ok and slowly seeing the light.

My garden is suffering and will the next week as we will be gone and not here to nurish it. The bright side is my worms are flourishing and I have provided them enough food from the crisper drawer tonight to keep them until our return.

Tomorrow we start our vacation - a visit to a national park and some time with my siblings. It will be a week of love and I hope my husband can keep up with the family.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Gorilla Gardening

The routine has become that the house cleaning is done on Saturdays and on Sunday's a I attend the holy house of dirt worms and the almighty flower. My husband allowed me to go to the local gigantic home improvement store alone and in his truck. A combination that should be avoided at all costs.

When I returned home, he looked in the bed of the truck and shook his head saying "you just had to go an over-do-it". I explained that he was at a fault for setting up the this paradigm that gave me the freedom to select large flats of annuals at one time.

The flower bed outside our bedroom door was a bit of "hodge-podge", so I decided to redo it in a style similar to the adjoining flower bed. A handful of Gerber daisy, some double inpatients and miniature cup flowers created this easy wild flower look that mimic the other bed.

Now the front of the house received two full flats of marigolds and flame flowers. My idea is to start to integrate the fall colors in so that come October all I'll need to do is drop in some gold and red mums where the current petunias are slowly fading out at to tie it all together. Throw some pumpkins on the steps and a wreath on the door and I'll be ready for those houndling trick or treaters.

I was excited to see lady bugs in the garden yesterday, this means I am attracting the right kind of bugs to the yard. The worms seem happy in their compost bin and they are enjoying the constant supply of fruit and vegetable scraps from the kitchen.