Uninspired with Inspiration

Normally, I am fairly easy to inspire or motivate to do something. Not so lately. I am in a funk. There are so many things that I need to do; would love to do...but I can't seem to get the energy to do them. Some of the problem is the weather, I am sure. I require sunlight, and lots of it. My body and psyche need the precious  serotonin to help fight off the tendrils of depression that tickle at the edges of all aspects of my life. Yes, I have medication for that...but it only treats the surface symptoms, so every little bit of help I can get, I'll take. It has been very dreary around here lately. Rain, sleet, or snow 4 days out of every week for the past six weeks or so. The rest of the problem...who knows.

So what is it that I want to do? What should be inspiring me to create and grow and sparkle? Well let's see...

Crafting with these awesome, bright colors
that are patiently waiting for me in my craft room.

Breaking through the plateau that I have hit with
my weight loss. Twenty pounds, and no more will
come off...gonna hafta hit the gym! :-(

My garden...currently referred to as 'The Swamp'
Potatoes and onions are beginning to sprout, and
it is so wet down there that I can't even go look!

A clean house! Spring break was for spring cleaning, and now
we have room for more stuff!

Lefty getting to go to prom with her boy bestie.
He's a senior, she's a sophmore...he better be good!
Oh, and prom means...school's almost out!!!

On the upside, sort of, I stayed home from school today due to pink eye. Don't judge, it's a hazard of the job. Kinder teachers come into contact with more goo and bodily fluids than I care to think about. Apparently I came into contact with conjunctivitis. Gross. ANYWHO, while home, I actually felt like doing things. Not fun things, mind you. I worked. The master bathroom is sparkling clean, all laundry is done and put away, 'pit stop' surfaces are cleared off and dusted, the carpets are clean, and all of the household garbage is empty. I even had time to work on my coupon collecting. So maybe, just maybe, this weekend, I might feel like digging into that abyss of a craft room that is bursting at the seams with beautiful blingy things begging for me to use them. I'll be sure and show you what I manage to come up with.

Growing a Garden part 2

Saturday was such a beautiful day! It was pretty overcast for most of the day, but not hot or cold. There was a chance of some heavy rain moving in after midnight, so I knew I had to get out in the dirt and plant some stuff. My Nanny (my grandmother) told me that potatoes had to be planted by March 17, so with rains coming I knew it was time. Besides, my fingers had been itching to get dirty ever since the boys started setting everything up down in the gardening zone. I got out there around 12:30 p.m. and the next time that I looked at my watch, it was 4:45! Needless to say, I worked my tail off.

Before

We'd brought in several loads of dirt, and Chris spread it around some before I got out there. He also brought down a tractor scoop of dirt from last year's dirt pile to use in my potato spot. The Boy was here and there off and on while I worked too.

Three rows of potatoes and two rows of sweet onions.
And this takes up just about one tenth of the garden plot. :-)

So while I was out there working, I decided to mark off the potential rows and areas that I will be able to plant. When I came inside, I drew it all out and made a 'garden map' to help guide me as I 'grow.' As of right now, I am intending to plant:

• potatoes
• sweet onions
• green onions
• strawberries
• blackberries
• jalepeno peppers
• green beans (pole and bush)
• okra (tons of it!)
• tomatoes (tons of those too!)
• watermelon
• cantaloupe
• cucumbers (wayyyyy less of those)
• cherry tomatoes
• turnips
• herbs (parsley, basil, cilantro, thyme)

Sounds like a lot, eh? Please excuse my handwriting, but here's my little garden map...

Obviously, it has spinach on it, which I did not list.
I will be planting turnips by the cherry tomatoes, and herbs where the spinach is shown.

So Saturday night, as I drifted off crashed into sleep, I heard the rumble of thunder over my little garden. When I woke up (barely able to move with my sore little legs) on Sunday morning, the little garden was swimming. As soon as the rain stopped, I went down to check on things, scared to death that my taters and onions had floated into the creek behind the house. That happened once to my Nanny and Pap, and they had to start over...from scratch! Guess what? A river had definitely run through it, but they were all still nestled into their rows, nice and snug. Hooray!

Several Updates!!!

First off, I am so not self-disciplined. I wish I were. Then I could get things done like a machine, whether it was school work, house work, or LOSING WEIGHT! I wasn't able to truly do the Body by Vi all week. During the summer months, my schedule is virtually non-existent, and in order to do a shake diet, I think scheduling is a must. Of course, I could just be making excuses again! I actually gained weight this first week. One pound was lost by Tuesday, but today's weigh-in showed that I had gained that pound back plus one more. No bueno. I believe that I will just count calories until school starts. It seemed that I had more luck with that anyway. Once I am back into the routine of school time, I can start the shakes. I did make it to the gym three or four days this week. Next week I will have to go more! Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that Monday will be out of the question because I will have this little guy all day (have you ever seen a little boy as totally cute as this?!?!).

Photo courtesy of BNBauman Photography

In other not-so-good news, it has been so dry here. There have been several fires close to home...more closer to my school than my home, but there was a hayfield fire about 25 miles away that destroyed almost 600 acres. 150 homes were evacuated and it took over two days to contain it. Scary business.

15 minutes or so from my school...

25 minutes or so from my home...photo courtesy of the Arkansas Forestry Commission

The fire in the above photo caused our water company to empty its lines in attempt to fight it before calling in other avenues of water support. Due in part to that and the fact that it has not rained more than ten drops (which happened today) in my area of town since early May, the water company has implemented a mandatory restriction of unnecessary water use. Included in this restriction is ANY AND ALL outside watering unless it is for the purpose of providing sustenance to animals and pets. In other words...don't water the vegetable garden or the decorative landscaping or the yard that you have invested countless dollars in maintaining for the last ten years. Needless to say, all of our gardening and green stuff is turning yellow brown dead. I have been doing my best to pick what I can as soon as I can to salvage as many veggies as possible.

Canned a jar of pickled jalepeno peppers! YUMMY GOODNESS!

The first of nine of these guys :-)

A billion zucchini it seemed, but I think they are done now.

And picked 12 of these beauties today, with 15 more ready in a day or two. Salsa, anyone???

We need rain...badly...but I can't wait to put next year's garden out and see what happens!!! I have already drawn out a 'blueprint' for how I want it to look! Always (never) prepared.

Believe

We watched this at our teacher in-service meeting yesterday. Definitely worth seeing multiple times.