Various Things

Little Vegetable Garden


Green beans, tomatoes, strawberries, jalapeno, and yellow squash. I've got lettuce growing in the back.

We don't get much sun at all in the back area and I've been wanting to have a food garden for years. Now that I finally have a patch of dirt to plant in...it won't work. It seems that when it comes to Growing Vegetables 101 they need water and FULL sun. Full sun translates to 6+ hours a day of direct sunlight. There is just no way any of my plants receive that kind of sunlight in the back. So container vegetable gardening is my creative solution to hopefully get some sort of food production this year. (Lettuce and spinach do well in partial sun.) If it works well, I'll add to it next year.

If I didn't live in an association, I'd be very interested in yanking out the front lawn and creating an interesting food/flower garden in the front. A really neat book on the subject is Food Not Lawns.

Figuring Out Adam

I know I've written a few posts about my trials with Adam and his temper tantrums. And this is something that keeps evolving so here is my latest update. Time outs only work to a point. I've learned that he has certain triggers that set him in a bad way and if I don't steer clear of the triggers then I'm almost asking for problems. I've noticed that on days when we are outside all morning at the park he is a little dream boy. He'll just play the whole time with a ball or whatever and just wander around. When we go on long walks he will jog and jog and be chirping away. And I'll have no trouble with him. When we get home he takes a nice long nap, and when he wakes from sleep it's good if we can go outside for a second time before dinner. He's sweet and funny and my happy Adam.

Here's where I have trouble. Last Wednesday I was at a Moms Club meeting and he did the same thing he always does: started whining and burying his head between my knees and pulling on my finger to go with him into the playroom. He won't leave my side. Since I am the club secretary I really need to be in the main room taking notes, I can't just go with him into the playroom. When I tell him no, he starts to cry and whine and eventually throw a big tantrum. This then becomes really frustrating to me because I feel like I can't give my attention to ANYTHING because he will always flip out. I left the meeting as soon as it was over. I couldn't even enjoy hanging out with my Mom friends, I was soooo annoyed.

When I got home, I started thinking about the times he is good and no trouble and the times when he frustrates me the most. And I realized that my boy needs to be outside exercising. He doesn't like it when we are in rooms or houses especially with a bunch of other people. He will always be yanking on my finger to follow him and be right next to him, and if I leave him in a room in any way, once he looks up to find me he'll start to cry if I'm not there. So then it hit me...Why am I doing this to myself? If my boy needs to be outside and running around to be happy, then why am I creating problems for the both of us by forcing him into situations that make him uncomfortable? True, it means that I really can't have any Moms Club responsibilities right now, but maybe that's just the way it needs to be.

So I've decided that to make us all happier, my Adam needs a good walking every single day. He needs to get his energy out and be outside. Time outs work pretty well for the other tantrum things.


Some recent pics

This is Adam's friend Mona from across the street and her sister Sara. Frannie with her new scooter. Thanks Rachele and Alana! Adam with Daddy :)