How Time Flies

Yes, it's been a week since I wrote, so today's entry is going to sound a bit random. I've been busy planning my new and improved garden layout (we'll see if the resolve to carry it out stays strong!), starting seeds in my kitchen, and generally doing family stuff. As of today, I have started seeds for the usual gardening suspects: oregano, sweet basil, marigolds (to plant beside the tomatoes), dill, sweet peas, and the "good" morning glory. I also found my ambitions from ages past: seeds from 2003 and 2004 that I am experimenting with. You'll see in the photo the bottom half of a gallon milk jug -- those are my experimental pots with several different kinds of seeds all in there together. (The photo doesn't include all of my starts...there is another long tray full of starts and an ice cream bucket lid with some peat pots on it). I've started some Roman chamomile, flat leaf Italian parsley, and some other herbs to see what happens. I come from a long line of gardeners, and my mother-in-law and I also share a love of gardening and starting seeds. She gave me some seeds for white columbine that came from Star Valley, Wyoming where her mother and father-in-law had a huge ranch. Grandma Virginia always grew this columbine in her yard, so I'm attempting to start some for our yard. We'll see if I'm successful. I've tried starting perennial seeds in the past, and they seem to be kind of tricky. My mom gave me several tomato plant starts too that I'm hoping to keep alive until they can go in the ground. The weirdest plants I'm trying to start this year are sensitive plant seeds (the packet claims they're easy) and something called "Bat Plant." The Bat Plant seeds take 30-45 days to germinate and they were kind of expensive: 12 seeds for $3.78. Oh, I'm also going to try growing lemongrass since we like Thai food in our family. We'll see how that goes. I may try to do that one as a houseplant...

My youngest child, L., has had an interesting week. Last Tuesday a friend from school came to play at our house and the friend asked Liam if he knew what "mooning" was. I kept my mouth shut to hear what L. thought or knew, and L. was sure that it meant laying out in the moonlight. Makes sense to me! I wouldn't let the friend correct L's notion. And then yesterday, while I was visiting with some friends we invited to join us for dinner, L. came dashing in the house saying "Look Mom!" while holding his mouth open wide. The loose top incisor had been knocked clean out. I asked him what happened to the tooth and L. said it was in his mouth. A closer check showed that it wasn't, so I asked him if he swallowed it, and he told me no, he had spit it up into the air. It turns out the boys were jumping and wrestling on the trampoline and the neighbor boy's bum had bumped L. in the face just hard enough to knock out the tooth. It wouldn't have had to be very hard because it was ready to come out! I walked around a the trampoline a bit a couple of times to see if I could see it anywhere, but there's no way it'll be found now. So L. wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy last night and put it in his Tooth Fairy box he made in kindergarten to explain what had happened. The Tooth Fairy has carefully saved it, along with other notes and teeth from his older siblings. She left him 2 quarters, the going rate in our house. L. woke up so excited this morning. He came running downstairs to show off his two quarters. He also kept reminding me this morning that he hasn't sucked on his fingers all morning. This is a bad habit we are trying to help him break because it's changing the alignment of his teeth and leaving calloused dents in his left-hand fingers. Maybe having a tooth out while change his ability to suck on his fingers and make it less soothing for him. I hope we can go this natural route instead of having the dentist put a device in his mouth to make him stop.

Well, it's off to the yard for me. The lawn needs its spring fertilization. The tiller needs the carburetor repaired. Gotta get my planter boxes built (after I get the lumber). I also want to add a couple of apple trees to the home garden. Anyone have good suggestions? I need apples that keep well. Time to jump into the yard work!