Wanted: Gardening Advice

I've always wanted to have a garden. I love the idea of it. The thought of just stepping outside and having fresh veggies that I know haven't been sprayed with who knows what or traveled how far or cost I don't even want to know... it's so appealing to me.

But I've never actually succeeded.

Three years ago (four?) I had an area in my backyard created to be my garden, but other than keeping it relatively free of weeds and successfully growing chives gone wild, it hasn't amounted to much. Every year, I say I want to do it, but the time gets away from me.

This year is going to be different. This year, I'm finally home full time and not working, so I don't have the excuse of not being able to keep up with weeds or to water. I can clear the ground of weeds and prepare it before it's too late to grow anything.

Besides, you should see the seed collection I have in my garage from past good intentions.

So I gathered up my egg and strawberry and blueberry containers. I bought new potting soil. I went through the seeds with the wee ones who thing this is the coolest idea ever and wanted to help me decide what to grow. Together, we put the seeds into the soil, as directed on the packages. We covered them gently and watered.

Altogether, we have French beans, kohlrabi, carrots (oops, learned just now I'm supposed to only sow those in their final spot to keep the roots from being crooked), peas, green beans, spinach, basil, parsley, cilantro, tomatoes, and roma tomatoes.

I'm worse than a new mother. I'm determined that my little greenhouses will sprout the best little veggies and herbs (and fruit, ahem tomatoes, I'm not forgetting you!) possible. I'm monitoring the soil level at least once a day, and I have checked the dirt to see if anything is sprouting more times than I can count.

Plus, I want to make sure they get plenty of sun. So I'm ahhhh moving them around my house. In the morning, I open the blinds on the east side of my house and set them in the sun. I shift them over a bit as the sun moves. Then I move them to the south side of my house to get the late morning/early afternoon sun. By 1:30, they're on the west side of the house soaking up the rays there, being shifted every hour or so to ensure they remain centered in the peak of the sun.

I've even taken them for an outing on the deck the two beautiful, warm, sunny days we had. Just for a few hours though - I wouldn't want the wind to damage them at all....

I'm insane.

Worst part? I've yet to prepare the ground, although it's currently 42 degrees and snow is forecast for Saturday. I have some time yet. I've bought new topsoil in addition to the Miracle Grow potting soil to mix with my current soil. But I'll get there.

Oh and umm, I don't know what to do next. How do I transplant seedlings? Do I really have to kill some of them to thin them out, or can I move them to other containers to continue growing? How big do they have to be before I move them? How warm does it have to be? How big do the holes have to be when I move them? Do I have to keep watering them when they're outside and the rain helps? Do I fertilize them once they're outside? How do I make my little babies thrive and be the best yummy carrots and tomatoes they can possibly be when they grow up?

I wasn't like this when the wee ones were born. I swear. So ummm, anyone have any gardening tips? Or better yet, want to come over to help me?

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I Will Never Build A House

Honestly. I won't. Once upon a time, I thought it would be fun to build a house and get to choose everything myself. I would know the quality of what was going in, everything would be to my tastes, and things would work they way I'd want them to. I'd have a planning desk, a pantry, a mud room, a laundry sink, a third garage - all the things I don't have in my current house.

I'm in the process of my first true major remodel, and I realize my foolishness. As much as I someday want a new kitchen, I think I might be moving to a new house to get it. I've been without a master bathroom since October 12, and I am done having all my bathroom items in bins in my bedroom. I don't want to share a small sink and vanity with the wee ones and my husband. I just want my master bathroom back. Granted, it will be soon, but not soon enough.

Today my contractor called me to ask where my tub faucets were. Ummm in the garage with all the other new fixtures I'd bought? No, apparently somehow - although I went over it with the salesgirl ninety-bazillion times - I had neglected to order my tub faucets. They will take at least two weeks to come in. And I groaned at having to give my credit card another workout.

Yesterday? Since the cabinets are to be delivered, my contractor wanted to measure for the cuts in the counter tops. Since I'd picked out my counter tops long ago, I simply handed him the brochure with the circled color on it figuring that I had done well. I got a call from him later saying that a large big box store that happens to be orange was quoting him more than twice was he would pay for a counter top and he wanted me to go talk to a different place he works with as he wasn't comfortable placing the order with that large a discrepancy. Good contractor. Yes, he showed me the quote from that orange store. And it was large.

I went to visit the place he recommended where the near same (slightly different color, same material) counter top would cost me two-thirds what the orange store quoted. After working with him some more, we found another idea for a granite counter top that would be essentially what my contractor had originally quoted me. I then had to go to the distributorship to check out the actual piece of granite and sign off on the colors. I did so, but there went the majority of my day tracking down that issue. On the plus side, they are measuring the counter tops for the cuts on Tuesday.

Don't get me started on lighting. I haven't picked out the lighting yet for around my mirrors. I knew what I wanted, so I went to the big store that specializes in lights. As a guy started to help me, I explained what I wanted and we looked through some books. I need four single fixture lights. Someone walked in who was looking for a six foot chandelier. I pretty much didn't exist from that point. I managed to get the model numbers of six potential lights, but you can bet that I won't ever spend a dime in that store. And I still don't have lights.

That doesn't take into account the difficulties I had choosing tile. Or cabinets. Or a tub. Poor Melisa has a small idea of what I went through with that, trying to find a rectangular tub that has a side drain to avoid having to saw through a rafter. After weeks (literally) of searching, I finally decided on a tub that had a normal front drain and was ready to suck up the extra plumber cost of doing a side drain when another plumbing supply store sent an email with some tubs to look at and miraculously, a tub that was the right size and shape somehow had a side drain. That tub is currently sitting in my slowly taking shape bathroom with the mortar around it drying.

Cabinets? I knew I wanted a clean look. And tall cabinets. And something to somehow hold all my stuff and keep it out of the way. I came up with the idea of a tower in the center of it, but ... that's as far as I got. I was also appalled at how ridiculously expensive cabinets are, so trying to find something that I like that was not ridiculously expensive was time consuming. I finally succeeded. Mostly.

Tile was fun. My big problem - and this is the problem in general - is that I know sort of what I want but not completely. Or I know what I don't want, both of which makes choosing things difficult, especially when more and more options are presented to me and I get overwhelmed. I did choose tile back in April. I loved my floor tile and the shower tile. When I went to finalize the tile order before my contractor started work, I decided I didn't like the wall tile. And so the process began again.

My husband hasn't seen any of the choices yet. He trusts me, and I think this is for the best. If he were involved in some of the nuttiness, I think I'd have driven him insane by now. He's looking forward to the big reveal though, and my contractor has promised that next week I can take a shower come heck or high water. I'm hoping for no high water; I can't take it after this!

And yes, I will show before and after pictures. Assuming there is an after. Once you see some of the before, I think you'll understand why there has to be an after.



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It Never Crossed My Mind

I'm certifiably insane, for those of you who haven't picked up on that yet. I also have a problem with the word "no."

My babysitting co-op has an Easter Egg hunt every year, which in the past has involved hunting for one dozen eggs per child and having the Easter Bunny come to give each child a basket of cr#p. Last year, it was supposed to be at the social chair's house, but since it was snowing that day, we moved it to the park district.

This year, I'm a social co-chair, and I knew that Easter was even earlier this year than last, so I didn't even pretend it might be held outside, and renting the park district's facilities was going to be too expensive. I volunteered the inside of my house, which is fine. Every year, we have big birthday parties for the kids, so it isn't a big deal to do this, right?

However, at a meeting, some of the parents objected to the cost, especially those who had multiple children, as it was going to cost around $15 per child because of the cost of bringing in the bunny and basket. We decided to go a different route and instead decorate cookies after the Easter egg hunt, as well as ordering some pizza to keep the kids under control. That ended up coming down to $3 per child, which was far more reasonable to the parents.

So, with the event being fun and reasonable in cost, what do you think happens? Of course, just about every mom signs up. I now have 35 kids coming to my house (two more added this morning). Oops.

Next, one of the moms finds an Easter Bunny costume at Party City for $75, which was less than what it was going to cost us to rent it for one day. Needless to say, I was at Party City on Sunday to buy the costume for years of future use.

The next trick was to find someone to wear it. When we had talked about renting a costume, one of the women had thought her next door neighbor would be willing to be the Easter Bunny for us, as we need moms to supervise and dads wouldn't be home from work yet. Unfortunately, he isn't able to. I leaned on my dad, as my parents were going to come help with the Easter egg hunt anyway. He wasn't enthusiastic, but I talked him into it.

Then I saw a post last night (www.mom2my6pack.blogspot.com) where pretty much every mom finds the Easter Bunny to be creepy. My kids love the Easter Bunny, and most of the kids in the co-op do, too, so it didn't concern me until I saw the reactions from some of the moms there.

This morning, I called my parents to confirm that my dad was still game (think about it...). Nope, he's now out. Knowing that my dad isn't the most social person, I was guessing that he didn't want to be center of attention. My logic was the he didn't have to say anything since the Easter Bunny doesn't speak and that he'd be covered up in the costume.

I was completely wrong as to why he didn't want to do it. He's afraid of what the moms and others will think. As in, "what kind of creepy old man dresses up as the Easter Bunny and has little girls on his lap?" The thought never dawned on me. Never even crossed my mind. It's really sad to me that the world is coming to this now, and it shows me how sheltered my life really is. Needless to say, I respect his decision, and the search is on to find another bunny.

Lucky for me, my husband is a school teacher. He can be home by 4:45 on Wednesday, so phew! However, given that the kids will all be in the house decorating cookies and looking for eggs, he somehow has to enter the house as the Bunny. We made jokes about how Santa comes down the chimmney and the Easter Bunny comes up the toilet (and out of the bathroom), but I finally decided -- after the tears of laughter stopped streaming down my face -- that the other parents wouldn't appreciate that urban legend being introduced to their kids.

The new solution is that my husband will change into the costume at school. That means that he has to walk out of the school with the head off, since driving with the head on is probably illegal, not to mention dangerous. I can't wait to hear about the reaction of people who see him in the costume. Fortunately, he's a good sport, so he'll do it for me. And the Easter Bunny will ring the doorbell, to the delight of all the children. All the children. All 35 of them.

And right now? I'm making chicken noodle soup because I'm afraid I'm coming down with the flu. The sugar cookie dough I made last night is not being baked tonight, of course. Here's hoping I feel better tomorrow after loading my body with as many get well ingredients as I can!