Tough Week and the Garden

Wow, this week has been a doozy.  I have been feeling frazzled, exhausted and out of patience.  I realized yesterday (should I confess this?) that neither of us had actually fed the little man lunch.  We had very little food in the house that didn't need cooking, and the kitchen was a mess because I have collapsed at the end of the day and then hit the ground running (albeit late--but what can one do when one is still extremely nauseous, and yes, throwing up in the morning, despite being well into my second trimester) and never fully completed the dishes.  We did feed him snacks and stuff, but because he wasn't demanding it, he never sat down at the table with a decent lunch.  Then, around 5:00, when he was completely freaking out from having eaten nothing but watermelon and crackers and peas, we frantically ordered a pizza, and I threw it in front of him without a plate and he ate.  And was better.

Really, that's not how things usually roll around here.  I am pretty good at, you know, feeding my children.  But for this very disorganized mama, it does take a lot of planning and time and energy.  I am not going to have the energy to drag two children to the grocery store at 4:00 in the afternoon.  So, what I learned from this week from hell was that I need a lot of time at home.  I need to have time to cook stuff and wash the dishes.  I need to have time to sit down and make  a grocery list, so I don't end up having to go to the store several times a week.  I need time to read to the kids and work in the garden and take care of the animals and just be home.   Some people thrive on a busier pace, but I do not.  I know Elsa is dying to spend the next few days at HOME.  Painting, fussing around, holding bunnies, organizing her own space...it will be good.

This is Elsa's garden.  Gladiolas are coming up, her cone flowers and poppies are blooming, one volunteer sunflower is growing.  Elsa says, "I don't have to take care of my garden, it takes care of itself."  Well, sort of.  It is infested with weeds, and there is a very small amount of Mama attention going on.  (And, Grammy attention when Grammy is here.)

And, I took some pictures of the gardens and berry bushes planted around.  The garden isn't doing great this year, but it is big.  Actually, it is kind of comforting that it is not totally thriving, in a way.  I am very lucky to have a full sun plot, and I always wondered if that was why it did so well.  Well, it was part of it, but not all of it--I had a lot more time to work in it, and I applied a lot more compost, and just generally was able to put a lot more time into it.  But, although the animals aren't a ton of work, they do require some chores, particularly the bunnies, who need to be brushed every day.  (I am amassing quite a pile of bunny wool.)

Squash beds--I have summer squash, which are producing fruit but not growing all that big, and butternut squash.  I am going to put some pie pumpkins in where I have my disastrous peas.  Also, there are very tiny baby bush beans coming up, and Brussels sprouts.  Behind it is my herb garden, which is completely covered by weeds.  Many of our garden tools were stolen out of our shed, including my hoe.  I need to replace that.

(Some) tomatoes.  I really should have stepped back and taken the whole thing, because, well, it doesn't look that great and isn't very interesting, but if I step back, I also get the two kiddie pools, the tub, the trucks and probably some discarded children's clothing.  I feel comfortable writing that, but not actually posting it.  Next to the tomatoes are the strawberries, and a bit of David's garden, where we planted the enormous pumpkins.  We need to re-seed a few hills, because they all didn't come up, but some did.

Let's see, here there are sweet potatoes, potatoes (which are not doing very well at all...I probably should just harvest them and put something else in there, but I have no idea what...), watermelon, lettuce, brussels sprouts, three onions....cucumbers which I finally tried to stake up today...we will see how that goes.  I didn't take pictures of my peas, which I completely failed to adequately stake, and feel so ashamed.  Well...not really.  I love peas, but I never have a lot of success with them.  The kids really like them though, especially the picking part--and the watching the pod form out of the flower.

Here is a wine berry bush and a volunteer sunflower along the fence.  Right now we have five blueberry bushes, which had some berries on them, but it appears that they have been eaten by the birds.  Next year, bird netting...they like them a little less ripe than we do, and three wineberry bushes, and a whole lot of weeds growing along our fence.  I don't like how it looks, but I do not at all want to try to fix it right now.  Mom, do you want to start working on that?

Elsa holding Snowflake.  Jesse took the picture.  He is a better photographer than I am.

So, I guess this post was really for me, to remember later my garden in this year of the Last Baby.  The pictures aren't great, but it is good to look at what I have accomplished.   I definitely tend to focus on the fact that toys and clothes are often strewn throughout the lawn, my tools aren't put away, and my garden and other places are not adequately weeded, so it is good for me to see what has been done.