Beginner Potager Gardener

I've started to plan a garden. I've chosen to take the economical approach and start seedlings of the plants i want to grow indoors, in my basement to be exact. Little did I know how much the cost up front would be. But regardless, i'm thoroughly excited and can't wait to start planting.

I'm going to probably end up planting too many things at first and overwhelm myself but i can't seem to narrow my selection of seeds down any further.
I plan to grow:

carrots
a mix of hot peppers
sweet peppers
hybrid tomatoes
cold set tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
spinach
lettuce mix
snap peas
eggplant
garden peas
corn
a selection of herbs

I'm very excited about this but i'm also a bit anxious about the whole thing. Anxiety has crept in b/c well what if the grow light I'm going to invest in doesn't provide enough heat to get the roots established? Or what if I get all the plants established and when i transplant them in the ground, they all die. Crap! Well nontheless I'm going to move forward and if i must i will go to Oakland Nursery and buy new plants, if of course i can come up with more cash hah!

Like I said though I'm very excited as well. The plan for my garden is to not sow traditional rows
of seedlings but instead to create a potager garden or as what some refer to as a square foot garden. Check out this link to see what Wikipedia says about potager gardens...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potager_garden. Make sure you clink on the square foot gardening bullet point and check that out too, it's pretty cool.


I plan to create two 3'x3 'squares and then divide those squares into 9 separate 12"x12" squares. In each 12" square i will plant a vegetable. I'll probably plant my tomatoes in the middle though since i'll have cages and they together will create architecture and thus be aesthetically pleasing.

My 3'x3' squares will be raised beds. I purchased two recycled plastic raised beds that will not deteriorate and can be disassembled and stored away if necessary. I hope to buy two more of these next year if I'm successful this year. I also plan to create two more raised beds with some old bricks and cinder blocks i found in my garage last summer. So when my raised beds are together and the seedlings are planted and hopefully thriving my garden will consist of 4 squares that form a square themselves but there will be a walking path between each bed. The purpose of the walking path is to allow you to weed more easily as well as keep an eye on your plants for rodent or insect infestation.

Jason was going to hit the large home improvement store around the corner this coming saturday and buy the necessary components to build me a grow light or two but with the time it takes to build the light, including the electrical components and install it and then purchasing the bulbs, etc. I decided to just do some research and I managed to find a grow light that seems to be around what we would've spent at the home improvement store and he's grateful for not having to devote time to building those (plus he has a substantial "honey do" list already.)

At any rate, i'm going to try to find some information on potager gardening & square foot gardening and then post it on here.

All the thrifty moms out there...

About 2 weeks ago i overhauled our budget. Jason and i for the last few years have been feeling more and more stressed b/c we just couldn't seem to get our finances together. We've never defaulted on loans or anything like that but instead we are just wooed by many material possessions and i'm often won over by convenience items, anything to make life a little easier.

The last few months though I've had a change of heart about our finances and our responsibilities to our kids. One day it occurred to me that my children will need to go to the dentist and since we don't have dental insurance and I know what it costs Jason and i just to get a periodic cleaning and xray or filling, i panicked.

About a year ago some friends had been telling me about the book The Money Makeover. I bought it and read it and i guess you can say i've been contemplating it the last year. Our church offered a financial workshop a few weekends ago. It was about a 4 hour workshop and i had planned to attend but as the weekend drew nearer the thought of spending 4 hours of my time sitting in a room sounded awful! So instead i allowed the kids to play around me for about 2 or 3 mornings and got all our financial information down on paper and evaluated everything. I then came up with a plan that will have us out of debt in 3 years and have our house paid off in 6 years. This has been a very freeing process to go through.

I am now obsessed with moms who blog about ways to save money. It's encouraging and motivating and i'm finding it fun to see how low i can get the grocery budget. I would love to know how others save money. If you read this and feel so inclined to share...Please Do!

Challenges

Sometimes i'm so confused about all that needs done in life. I think about how much my kids need from me, just on a practical level...hell! What my marriage requires to be just one notch above hum drum and mediocre and how much i'm required to walk on eggshells around people i love.

Hubby and I are in counseling thank God! It seems we do need help navigating through this time in our life b/c we both feel lost at to how to communicate...er finding time to communicate, how to communicate and what the hell does it look like to "do" this family thing together?? Counseling has been very good albeit painful but nonetheless good.

My kids...i love them dearly. They're so goofy and infuriating and clever etc, etc. I'm grateful for them but sometimes you wouldn't know that. I see how my selfishness affects them and it grieves me. But literally they wake up the next day or from the next nap and it's as if nothing happened. Their little hearts are so big and forgiving.

Being almost 29 weeks pregnant now, i'm not sleeping all that well. I think it's anxiety related but i'm not sure. I tend to be an anxious person in my core and so it wouldn't surprise me if i'm not sleeping b/c of that. There's been a lot of change recently in my life and I'm not fond of that. I do in general enjoy the idea of change but the reality of adjusting to change...no thanks! But that's where my life is at and that is what is being required of me so...

My friend Kristin had her baby. I'm so excited for her and her family. I need to remember to pray for her at this time b/c it's going to be an adjustment for them. I remember that i cried a lot during the last few months of my pregnancy with Nora and after i had her. My tears were mostly b/c i felt guilty for not being able to give Will what i wanted to give him. It took a while for me to adjust and realize, he's okay, i'm okay, we'll be okay. Fortunately, with preparing to have Joseph i'm more at rest with this stuff and I don't think it's going to be as overwhelming. I've had to research ways to keep the other babes busy so i can nurse Joseph and that in itself has relieved a lot of anxiety off my heart. I fortunately too have a close network of friends these days who are nursing or recently stopped that can give me tips and encouragement to battle through the adjustment stage of returning to breastfeeding.

Congratulations Kristin you hang in there Girl!!

Our Little Beef Cake

Now we know it's probably not appropriate to give your daughter the nickname Beef Cake but this is the title that truly resonates with Jason and i when we think of Nora. She's this stout little thing who just barrels through life. Something her nickname doesn't encompass is her contagious smile and giggles and her silliness. We are so overjoyed with this baby who continues to make a us smile and crack up daily. What a breath of fresh air this little girl brings to our life!

cereal

So i've had 4 bowls of Honeycomb today. Other than eating the lasagna leftovers that Will and Nora left from lunch that's all i've eaten today. I hope this craving ends soon b/c i think i've only got a few more days then Honeycomb won't be on sale anymore. :)

Baby Girl or Baby Boy?

Here is the first ultrasound for our soon to be third addition. I will find out in 3 weeks whether the baby is a little girl or a little boy. Since my grandpa recently passed and he meant so much to me we felt that we would name our baby after him. So if it's a little boy we'll call him Joseph and we'll call her Josephine if we have a little girl.

Family Picture

Here's our current family picture.

Daddy reading

The kids love it when their dad reads to them. Nora especially enjoys looking at book these days and we often catch her flipping through books upside down looking at the pictures.

How many rolls can you eat?

Jason showcasing his talent for roll consumption at Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving with the family

Besides Will getting bitten by Polo Thanksgiving was nice for us. We enjoyed being with family once again and enjoying yummy food. Here are a few pictures showing the kids playing and the family eating. Jason of course had about 10 rolls.

Gettin Along

W is now 32 months and Super N is almost 16 months. They're really cute together when they get along.

Removing the Stitches

I took W to OSU today to have the stitches on his cheek removed. Hopefully the scars will fade over time since he's only 2 years old. The stitches in his eye should dissolve over the next few weeks.

This Thanksgiving was a bit stressful. It started out normally but ended a bit stressful and sad. While spending time with family at a relative's house, Will was bitten by a family dog. The dog bit through Will's lower right eyelid and clawed his face in two spots. Will received 10 stitches but as you can see from the picture he's mostly back to normal. We're very grateful that he's okay.

Corolla Beach, NC 2007

We went to Corolla Beach in North Carolina this year for vacation. The trip down was an estimated 11.5 hour drive but it took us about 14 hours as a whole. The night before we were to leave Jason had to go to the ER with an 104 degree temperature, dizziness and chills. He was diagnosed with the flu and released that night. He did get better as the week progressed but the drive down required me to drive so he could try to rest. I drove us to Charlottesville, VA which is about 8 hours south of Columbus. We stayed the night at a hotel and then picked up the next day and Jason drove another 6 hours to the Outer Banks.

The kids loved the beach right away! We couldn't keep Nora from crawling toward the ocean! Every chance she got she was in the water. She sometimes got hit with a wave and still giggles and squealed. Will wore his daddy out by wanting to be held while they played in the waves.

At one point Jason and our friend Eric dug a hole and put Nora in it, she fell asleep immediately. They then buried her arms to protech them from the sun and then proceeded to build a castle around her. Nora won the coolest baby award that week! She slept for over an hour in that hole. She's such a fun kid!

I think we plan to wait a few more years before we plan another beach vacation in North Carolina. Summer doesn' t feel like summer unless we go to the beach but with little kids, it's very tiring.
We plan to wait until the kids are a little older and self reliant, we will also stay for 2 weeks instead of 1 week.

Super N's 1st birthday party

This year we celebrated Super N's 1st birthday on August 18th. We threw her a party and invited family and friends. She seemed to really enjoy the time and it was fun to watch her enjoy her first cupcake! I'd hoped to get pictures of the cupcakes but i guess i forgot to!

Siblings

Here they are at one of their "good' moments. Sometimes Will is just the sweetest big brother to Nora, but sometimes his two year-old schizophrenia will set in and the baby poop hits the fan! Sometimes it feels like we have to walk on eggshells around our house so as to not incite the two year-old wrath. But Jason and I are trying to learn constructive and loving ways to address the tantrums so they're not controlling the whole household. I guess be proactive versus reactive. These are the times that remind me that raising children is difficult.

Super N Is Officially Crawling

Super N is crawling now. She is starting to just go, go, go! She is very independent and it's almost as if a bubble appeared over her head and in it were the words "I'm so bored I've got to move around this joint and get to my toys before my brother does!"
As Super N's starting to change a lot more, I'm finding myself very excited. I'm excited mostly to see her and W playing together and talking together. I anticipate next summer will be a lot of fun. I plan to get a membership to a pool and take the kids a lot during the week. The little kids are such a blessing!

Super N's New Tooth

As you can kind of see from the picture, Super N has gotten her first tooth! And her second one has crowned, you can't see that from this picture. It was a crazy struggle to get her to let me photograph her new teeth. This was the best shot i could get!

Super N's cannonball

Super N is fearless. today she scared me and her daddy to death. i sat nora on her changing table/laundry room counter and held her leg while i leaned over and looked for a shirt for her in a laundry basket. I got distracted by will who was behind me and i must have taken my hand off of norals leg b/c the next thing i see is nor hitting the floor in a cannonball position. It was very loud and there was lots of screaming. I was scared to death that she was going to die so i ran immediately to the phone and called an ambulance/paramedics to check her out. before they arrived Super N had stopped crying (which frightened me even more) and was very calm. the paramedics didn't seem the least bit rattled and said she looked fine and they inspected her and said she seemed fine. i was just encouraged to watch her for and make sure there were no unusual behaviors.
forunately she's okay. as you can see from the picture she has a scratched up face and forehead and rug burn but overall nothing major...thanks God.

Little toothbrusher

W is getting so big. He can say so many words now and very clearly. He's now almost 27 months and is such a little helper. He likes to help mommy and daddy unload the dishwasher. He'll grab a piece of silverware at a time and throw it into the silverware drawer and keep doing this until the pile is so big you can't shut the drawer. Mommy and daddy appreciate the help and have to contain their giggles and sometimes tired frustration at this cute kid.