The Thing About Gratitude

This month, thanks to a challenge by one of my favorite bloggers, Mama Scout, I have been trying to spend a lot of time thinking about and practicing gratitude.

Summer, What Summer? Tips from a Washed-Out Garden

I've lived in the same part of the South for most of my life and I cannot remember ever having a summer like this one.  In fact, I'm not even sure I should say, "summer," because it seems like the season never really reached us here.  Our growing season has been wet, cool, overcast, and moldy, oh so moldy...a far cry from the hot, sunny summers so conducive to gardening that I'm used to...and our garden has noticed. The weather has taken its toll in the form of stunted plants, mold, and, worst of all, a spider infestation (we are, apparently, the closest high ground for the little guys fleeing rising waters in our nearby gulley).

When August rolled around, I thought, "Here we go...we still have time for a garden comeback if we get our normal August sun and heat." I guess I counted my chickens before they hatched (but, hey, hope never hurts, I say)... With a cold snap that effectively ended our pool season a month early and rains every other day, it seems, I realized I simply had to let nature take its course, hope the fruits don't rot on the vine before they can ripen, and begin looking forward to a harvest of the warm-weather plants before they're decimated by root-rot and other fun fungi.

Before I began the culling, I decided to take one last photographic tour of my private little food jungle to assess what did and did not work in this, my second year of urban farming experimentation:

A New School Year and a Solar System on the Ceiling

Our first year of homeschooling was, essentially, our "trail run:" I didn't know what I was doing, had no time to prepare, and was pretty much flying by the seat of my pants all year long.  Somehow, we survived with our sanity and relationships in tact, if a bit weary.  Equally amazing, the J-Rex managed to learn an amazing amount and grow tremendously no matter what I did.  Kids are resilient like that...something I think the more high-strung homeschoolers like myself need to remember when we're worrying about providing the perfect learning environment for our youngsters. 

Sneak Peak: Planes (in 3D!)

We were lucky enough to snag free tickets to a preview showing of Planes before it came to the theaters!
 

 This being the J-Rex's first theater experience, we stuffed ourselves on popcorn and candy, giggled and whispered to each other during the especially funny scenes, and, most amazingly, found out that the new 3D technology allows all of us, including the J-Rex who has zero cooperation between her two eyes, to see the effect!

All in all, it was an enlightening blast that will give us no excuses to avoid theaters in the future.  Oh, wait, what was I thinking?


On a Side Note: With four tickets and only three of us, I was able to invite a friend to join us.  It's hard to explain to those who don't have kids how fulfilling it is to be able to hang out with both your child and your friends at the same time without having to feel pressure to switch back and forth from parent to friend mode... It's an awesome thing to have friends like that.

Nurture Thyself

It has been a long time since I nurtured my Self.  Oh, sure, I've treated myself here and there but I have not taken the time to soothe my soul, to ground, to feel "myself," in quite a while.

The Layer Underneath

Today, I harvested herbs, not because we needed them for a dish, but for the health of the plants.

Quitting Smoking, part deux: The Things I've Learned

I've learned that smoking, for me, was not an oral fixation and that I can completely
satisfy a craving by burning paper safely in a bucket - apparently, I am extremely comforted by the smell of smoke (I blame the wood stoves in my childhood).

I've learned that doing fun things with my daughter is both the best reward and the best distraction of any I could give myself when I have a craving.

I've learned that even my subconscious is committed to this lifestyle change because my dreams about smoking are nightmares.

Quitting Smoking

For a little while now (and for the first time in the 15 years I've been smoking) I've wanted to quit smoking.  I began by researching how others have quit, creating lists of alternative activities, and planning a quit plan.  Yes, I just said I was planning to plan...and that's exactly what I was doing...planning to plan to quit.  I never could make the plan or set a quit date because I was scared:  I was scared of not being able to handle the stresses of work, money, and parenting.  I was scared of being a bitch.  I was scared of the anxiety.  Honestly, I was scared of pretty much everything because I would no longer have my nicotine-filled, burning crutch...