Pinterest

It has been crazy busy here. My children have seen every one of their grandparents within a six week time frame. And, with the amount of fractures in our family trees, that means lots of separate family visits. Plus we fit in a nasty flu for my son and a head cold for me. It was a scheduling miracle.

Realizing that I needed more time I went searching for ways to fit a few more minutes into my day.

So I had this great idea that if I gave up Facebook it would give me enough time to blog. What I failed to realize is that I am still the mom of small children that create a mountain of laundry every 15 minutes and need a five course meal every 30 minutes. Facebook fits nicely into the 5 minute time slots. Blogging, not so much. Then, when I got sick and had to take it easy I was introduced to Pinterest. Oh, dear. It filled those 5 minute slots nicely (and then some).

I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. Hate it because it makes me feel like I should be working out all the time and eating amazing desserts while doing it. And, I feel like my decorating is insufficient. And my nail polish isn't creative enough. I love it because, well, um. Hmm, I'm not sure why. Oh, because it has redeemed itself with a few good project ideas.

Like the time I came across the rugs that people were painting. I realized that they were actually going out and BUYING! the ugly rugs that I had sitting in my garage (I bought them from IKEA because we needed a cheep rug at one time but I hated them and so they were relegated to the farthest reaches of our currently very messy garage).

So I excavated the rug and, look how nice it turned out! Thanks Pinterest (I hate you slightly less).

Spring continues to inch forward. We are trying a new idea for gardening this summer. Again, Pinterest inspired. We were going to try raised beds but couldn't agree on where to put them. Then I came across the idea of planting directly into straw. I'll keep you posted on how it works. We sign up for a CSA (community supported agriculture) we decided to start small with our home garden and only plant what we could not find easily. So we are planting 3 different types of heirloom tomatoes and 3 different types of rainbow carrots. Plus herbs and potatoes. Our potatoes are going into a round straw/dirt cylinder made out of wire fencing.

I think my extended family is starting a betting pool to see how many of my new projects actually produce anything edible.

Here is a photo of the bales of straw hanging out and mellowing to be ready to plant our seedlings in. I hope, if they ever sprout. I am trying to grow from seed in my kitchen window.

I have the bales on their sides (strings go around from top to bottom instead of around the sides) to retain moisture. The web sites I looked at had differing opinions on this. Some said to have them cut side up (the end that does not have the strings you can see distinct cut ends of the straw). But all agreed that if you have them cut side up you loose a lot of water. So, we will see how it works having them on their sides.

And, finally, a random kid photo. We did Easter photos, so here is a super cute one of my kids...