Bring on the Preschoolers...

So...school starts on Monday (it's Saturday now).  We have had a frantic two weeks getting the classrooms ready--open house was Friday.  It was so much fun, so very PLEASANT.  Everyone has really been making their classrooms theirs--and this is really the first time I have felt like my classroom was MINE.  I did some painting and moving around, and I finally decided to gut the office and organize it the way it needs to be.  Over time, we added a lot of materials and without any organized way to store them, we could never find anything, so this was important.  Now there are specific shelves for literacy activities, math, science, motor skills, outdoor, art, play dough, and light table.  

I am most proud of the Quiet Center--with my pillows that I made.  And the sparkly lights in the lace curtain over the entrance.  That's our "SHOWSTOPPER", as Mrs. Jones says.  

Today all my coworkers met at Kim's house in Christmas--how much do I love that place?  Five acres, gardens, a pool, trees, a barn, etc.  Fabulous!  She has a whole fence full of passion flowers--gorgeous.

 Look at this banana spider!  It was as big as my hand!  Amazing.  

We all had a really nice time, in spite of the heat.  

It was very pleasant to spend fun time with everyone, just laughing and having fun.  I will have to remember to thank Kim for that.  It's all because of her.

I meant to come home and mow the grass, but it was raining when I got home so I took a nap instead.  I think it was the right thing to do.  I guess that's what I'll be doing tomorrow afternoon though.  Or my neighbors will revolt.  

I've been reading a really interesting book called "Sleeping Naked is Green" by a Canadian girl named Vanessa Farquharson.  She made one green change every day for a year and blogged about it--whether it worked or not, and if she was going to stick with it or not.  Some were kind of weird, like using vegan toothpaste, but she also sold her car and got rid of her refrigerator.  

I also just finished "Hit By a Farm" by Catherine Friend--who moved to a sheep farm with her long-term girlfriend (why the hell can't I just say her wife?) without any experience or anything, and what happened.  Loved it, as anyone could probably guess.  

I have seriously read 10 books in the last few weeks (maybe 3).  I'm a little obsessed.  Maybe.  

What's New?

Not much going on these days.  At work we are all getting our classrooms ready for the new batch.  I have to say, our room looks pretty AMAZING!  Mrs. Jones and I made a lot of changes and I finally (AFTER THREE YEARS!) figured out how I need things organized so I can find them when I want them and everyone else can clearly see where they go.  The classroom is really feeling different, really mine all of a sudden.  It's wonderful.  Will post pictures when it's finished.  

My tomato seedlings finally have real leaves, so they are ready to be transplanted--probably this weekend.  I had 100% germination with those, but I'm VERY disappointed with the yellow squash.  A measly 10%.  So I replanted more seeds into the pots, I hope these will germinate.  In another two weeks I will plant cucumbers and lettuce.  Looking forward to that.  My green beans continue to astound me, growing 4 inches a day.  Amazing.  Lots of flowers so that means lots of green beans.  

The garden is actually looking pretty good.  I would post pictures but I'm already in my jammies and I am not changing now.  Will do soon, though.  I built another trellis (this one looks MUCH better) and transplanted the passion flower--it is looking very droopy.  Not sure if it's going to make it, but I'm making sure to water it deeply, and tomorrow I will bring it a present of worm castings, and if anything will help, that will.  

Maybe things aren't so bad after all...

After the worst week ever, and just an okay day today, I came home feeling pretty yucky.  I decided that I needed a little dirt therapy, so I went out in the garden for a couple of hours.

• Yard work, check  (now the neighbors aren't cringing at the sight of my yard.
• I ALWAYS, without fail feel better after working in my tiny garden for a while.  
• Green beans are looking good (see below), so I mulched them with free, that's right, I said FREE yard clippings that have been drying out in a pile in my side yard.  (I have two more piles ready to mulch with when I get more plants into the beds). 

• I think the mulch looks pretty good--or as good as mulch ever looks.  I hate red mulch, and black mulch seems unnatural, so I prefer brown mulch anyway, and this looks like any other mulch.  And I'm improving the soil at the same time.
• My passion plant is blooming--look at this lovely lady!  I need to find a nice big trellis for her to drape herself over. 

• I saw several tiny toads out in the yard near the garden, which is really good, it means I have lots of nice juicy living things in the dirt.  No photo.
• Last, the strawberries are running!  Yea!

• Oh yeah, I've been meaning to take a picture of this--this is my little herb propagating and seedling area next to my kitchen window.  

• After I finished all my fun in the dirt, I decided to make a little something for my favorite new teacher ever--Trina Kennedy.  These are pillow covers I sewed for her new (and first!) classroom.  I just adore that girl!  They are much prettier in person--so much so that I think I'll make some for my own classroom...

• ... although mine were made from men's shirts from the thrift store.  I even used the buttons on the back as a closure.  I think I'm pretty clever.  

Consoling Myself at the Garden Center...

Okay, maybe that was a SLIGHT deceit.  Or a plain lie.  I don't need to console myself.  Nothing bad is going on right now.  Baby girl is home, big girl is good, grandbabies are all healthy, happy and sassy, boys are being boys, and I'm home by myself on a Friday night, feeling a little sassy myself.  For a couple of reasons:

1.  I've had a great week at work, if you could call it a week--it was actually three days.  Details.
2.  Baby girl is home and healthy.
3.  She's having fun with her sister in law at a concert tonight.  Can't beat the company.
4.  My green beans have sprouted after only THREE DAYS!  I'm thrilled.  I even built them a "lovely" teepee in my front yard, which I'm sure my neighbors love.  But hey, I have to listen to them yell at each other and look at their naked kids in the yard all the time, I think they can tolerate a strange wooden trellis in my yard until the beans overtake it.
5.  I just fed my gardening addiction  preoccupation by visiting Lowe's.  I got a crap ton of great stuff and almost all of it was marked down---WOO-HOO!  

First of all, I spent $23.05--I am on what seems like an austerity budget at times so at times I find it difficult to feel great about my garden because there's so much I want to do and almost no money to do it.  I ALWAYS check out the marked down section of the garden center, and I've been very lucky there.  

I got four relatively nice marigolds (the fancy ones!) for .25 cents each, and a flat of not-so-wonderful (but still fancy!) marigolds for $1.00.  I will cut them back a little, give them a nice drink with some worm poop in it, talk nicely to them, and they will keep all the riff-raff off my tomatoes, which I paid full price for--$3.25 each.  (I'm anxious for more tomatoes--my summer plants have all pretty much burned up and the seedlings are still too little to plant).  

I also got four very nice looking but small blue salvias for .25 each.  I got two measly looking cucumbers for full price.  

Then I found a purple passion flower with some dead leaves clinging to the little trellis.  These are very expensive and butterflies and bees love them, this little one was originally 19.99, and they sold it to me for $6.00 due to my pointing out it's flaws (I'm sorry, passionflower, I really think you are very lovely).  I looked around for another one, but no cigar.    

Also, I'm sure I've never mentioned how totally cheap I am (throat clearing), but in the back of Lowes there is a cart where people can bring back those black pots that trees and large plants come in to be recycled, and they always let me take a couple (for free!) if there are any there.  I found three big shallow pots back there perfect for herbs and lettuce.  Or the top section of a stacked planter with herbs I'm tossing around in my mind.  And by the way, they sell these very pots (but clean, of course) for around $10.00 at the very same Lowes.  Crazy.

I also had dinner with my sister and her kids tonight, which was funny and nice.  All in all, a very good evening.  I think I'll read and go to bed now.  Look forward to the rest of my weekend.

Secondhand Sunday...

I went thrifting yesterday (yes, that's a verb).  I was looking for something specific, which is a big no-no in the thrifting world since rule number one in thrifting is that you will NEVER find what you are looking for, but nevertheless I was looking for some small wooden bowls or trays for my classroom.  Didn't find any.  Shocking, I know.  Instead I found two men's dress shirts, one pink, one purple that I am going to upcycle / remake into dresses for my adorable granddaughters.  They were half price, so I got both of them for $3.  I will cut off the sleeves and cut the bodies off under the arms, make a band from the sleeves for around the chest (elastic in the back, for comfort), gather the body a little, add straps to the top of the band and POW!!  Two little sundresses for my pumpkins for $3 and a little time.  They will love them--and I will take pictures when I'm done.  

I also had a fun lunch with Kaleigh and Mary Beth yesterday--it was super fun.  CPK--had the Barbecue Chopped Chicken Salad.  

On Saturday I went and painted my classroom (the alcove), and cubbies.  I painted them a lovely sage green, I think I'm going to love it.  It definitely looks different.  It's time for that classroom to belong to ME and not the former tenant.  I feel very personally about my classroom and it's time for me to own it.  This is the year I do amazing things.  I declare it right now.  

Doing a little laundry today.  I took a couple of days off work this week and next week, and I plan to enjoy them completely.  I'm going to finish my bottle garden today, and go swimming.  Just take it easy tomorrow, maybe cook a nice meal.  

I'm off to dig out my bottle garden--TTFN!

Work, Work, Work (in the garden)...

My goodness I've been busy this weekend.  I had a long weekend, so I had four days, but to be fair, all the work I did in the garden, I did in two days.  Here's my list:

1. Did a lot of "research" about what I can plant now in Orlando.
2. Fertilized the lemon tree--it's looking a lot better, thanks for asking.
3. Cut a bunch of basil to dry.  I wanted to try out drying it in the oven, but it got discolored, so I cut some more today to air dry and see if that works better.
4. Cut a bunch of lavender to dry.  Once it was dry, I crumbled it up minimally and put it into a jar--IT SMELLS AMAZING!
5. Decided that if it was so awesome, I should cut some more to propagate, which I haven't always had luck with.  This time I dipped the lavender stems right into rooting hormone and planted them into small pots.  We'll see how that works.  They are covered with plastic bags and resting comfortably on my kitchen window sill.  
6. Decided that since I was propagating lavender, I might as well propagate basil while I was at it.  Cut some nice stems and put those in water in same window sill.
7. Decided that since I was adding all these cute little plants to my window sill, some of my houseplants needed to be re-potted.   Re-potted a spider plant, and two Christmas cacti.
8. While re-potting, noticed that my little African violets are kind of...well...dead.  Dumped them into the compost pile.  Sadness.
9. Made my new garden bed, which is about 6' x 2'.  Made the soil mix for it and filled it.  Will plant beans and I'm not sure what else, maybe some flowers (?) in it.
10. After going to my brother's birthday party and collecting an obscene number of beer bottles, I thought it would be a good idea to add a little herb bed with bottles as the frame, which I've seen on Pinterest and liked the looks of.  So I started digging the grass out, and BROKE MY SHOVEL!  Picture below.  Now I have a half dug bed, a broken shovel and 75 or so beer bottles laying around my yard.  Classy, isn't it?
11. I made little seedling pots out of newspaper, and filled them with my homemade potting mix, they are ready to plant my tomato seeds in for fall (also squash).  I'm going to try squash again, even though I never have any luck.   Green beans will go into the ground--they don't like to be transplanted.

I'm feeling really good about things right now.  

Hmm, Weird...

The strangest thing just happened to me.  About an hour ago, I went out into the sunshine, puttered around the garden, pulling weeds, moving my pots around, etc. and I decided to actually ACCOMPLISH something (no, that's not the weird part).  A friend gave me some reclaimed wood quite awhile ago to make raised beds, and I have been too lazy to do it not gotten around to it yet, so I decided now would be a good time.  I rounded up all my tools and the deck screws that I need and started working.  Picture it, I'm sweating like . . . well, a virgin at a prison rodeo and I've almost got the darn thing put together, and I hear this loud noise--it's like a train.  Or an airplane or something.  I stop, look up and in the distance I see a torrential rainstorm blowing toward me.  Literally, the sun is shining on me, and about three streets in front of me, over the roofs I can see just a sheet of rain, and I can hear it coming.  Before I can even get my tools and stuff together, I'm soaking wet.  Weird.  It was like buckets pouring out of the sky.  Very weird.

Cue elevator music...

Now it's later...the raised bed is built, and it's filled with my special recipe soil mix.  (Not so secret--approximately 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 super duper special compost.)  I also mixed in a little bit of dried grass clippings and leaves at the bottom, along with cardboard boxes--they really kill the weeds.  The peat moss and vermiculite help the raised bed hold water better than just the dirt.  Key in Florida.  

Please ignore the messy yard around it, and the horrible steps up to my front door.  I'm going to fix the steps next weekend, and trim the grass as soon as I get done here.  I swear.  On the positive side, I got a lot of use out of the beloved wheelbarrow that the boys got for me for Mother's Day.  I ADORE that thing.  

I think I'm going to try to start tomatoes from seed.  It's time to do so in Florida, and I've wanted to do so for awhile.  In a few weeks, I will plant green beans in the new bed, and I've been thinking about making a natural trellis with some old narrow branches I have around.  (My inner hippie coming out again.)

I'm enjoying my four day weekend for Independence Day.  I've been reading a lot and gardening, doing a few little projects around the house.  I wish I could hug my sailor (Brett), but since he's being making sure we are all free, I will just think about him, smile and remember that our freedom isn't really free.  I hope everyone did something independent yesterday.