Gardening

My husband and I spent the weekend trying to get stuff done outside as well as attempting to enjoy the long weekend.  We spent a ton of time trying to get our veggie garden planted.  We then decided to take some time off and go to my sister in law's in Kennebunk Me and enjoy some time at the beach.  Unfortunately the weather was not as nice up there as it was down here, but that didn't stop the kids from enjoying their time at the beach.

Michael and Eva Rose taking a walk at the beach with their cousins

Thomas kissing Daddy at the beach!

Today, we spent time at Home Depot getting more plants (not like we really needed them), top soil for planting new grass, and 4 stones for the fire pit to go on.  We then went to Mahoney's in Winchester for some veggies that we thought we were going to do by seed, but realized that it was really too late to start from seed.  Again I got more flowers that I probably didn't need, but they definitely made the flower gardens look even better.  I noticed that a lot of my flowers are starting to get buds on them.  I can't wait til they bloom.  I love my butterfly garden and the gardens in front of the house are looking pretty good.  I'll be sure to post pictures sometime soon.

I still have a ton of herbs to plant.  I assumed that we were going to have enough room in the veggies garden, but wither we bought too many veggies, or I just didn't plan well.  I am kind of happy to pant the herbs some where else, thinking maybe planters?  I am loving gardening and loving watching the plants grow and bloom as the days go on!

I'm now off to make sure my oldest is asleep, then I plan to take a relaxing bath and go to bed myself!

Wishcasting Wednesday

It Wednesday again and that means it's time for Wishcasting Wednesday.  Today, Jamie over at jamieridlerstudios.ca asks "What do you wish for your space?"


I wish for peace in my space.  Last summer we bought my in-laws house.  It's a cute ranch house in the town where both me and my husband grew up.  It has a great big backyard that I love.  The only issue is that it is a small house.  We are a family of 5, but my in-laws raised a family of 6 in this house!  The biggest problem is that my husband and I so much stuff and then there is the fact that we have 3 kids that are 26 1/2 months and 16 month twins.  That means that we have a ton of toddler toys and not necessarily the space for them.  It is nice that the warm weather is finally here and some of the toys can go outside, but we still have toys inside, my craft stuff and my husbands wood working stuff, not to mention the other household things that people normally have.  I think for me to have peace in my space, it will mean going through a lot of things and re-evaluating how necessary they really are.  I then need to get rid of what I don't need and organize the things that I want to keep!  The most important thing that I need to remember and follow through with is, "if I don't a have a space for it, don't buy it"!

I really like my house and my yard and need to really buckle down and make this my family's home, not just a house.  Along with having peace inside, I wish to have a peaceful space near my garden to spend some free time in the nice weather.  I also want to have a peaceful space to retreat to when I want to be creative!  Regarding a peaceful space for creativity, it could mean the kitchen table so that my family is near, it could mean the basement away from others depending on my mood.  I just want to have a space where I can enjoy being creative!

What do you wish for your space?


Amy

Outdoor Project Updates

 As you know, my husband and I have been working on a bunch of outdoor projects.  We have completed a butterfly garden and are just waiting for it to bloom more!  I have been working on our front gardens and I'm sure that next year they will need to be done again.  I have a bunch of bulbs and annuals planted, so I think I will need to plant more perennials so that they will come back year after year.  This way we'll save money and I will just need to do up keep vs continuously planting every year.  My husband is also working on the swing set we bought for the kids.  There are so many pieces that it is taking forever to put together.

butterfly garden taken today

 

gardens in the front of the house (looking kind of pathetic)

All 3 gardens have some seed that are just starting to get real leaves, so I'm hoping that it will look better once they grow and bloom.

Our big project, our veggie garden, still looks the same.  Tom still has to till in the fertilizer, then we need to plant.  We spent a ton of money this weekend, buying plants and seeds.  I am amazed that you can still plant veggies from seed.  I am so looking forward to this garden.  I know that the kids are little, but I am so ecstatic that we get to show them a garden and where their food comes from.  I am trying really hard to eat healthier.  Unfortunately, I have gotten away from eating beans and have started eating more meat.  I really don't like that.  I don't know why all of a sudden I started craving meat again.  I had been doing so well eating less meat and want to get back to that way of eating again.  I have put a pork loin in the slow cooker for dinner tonight, but have frozen most of the other meat that I have recently bought.  I probably should have portioned it out so that I only had to take out a small amount at a time.  I am so looking forward to being able to just walk outside to my garden for veggies.  I am hoping that I will not have to frequent the grocery store this summer and hopefully I will be able to save enough to eat some through the winter.

These are pictures of the different plants that we bought for out veggie garden.  We have a bunch of different kinds of veggies and herbs plus seeds!  I can't wait to plant them!

I know have to find time for my creative outlet.    I have so many projects, it's just hard to 

find the time to complete them.  I know that I have repeatedly said that I need to watch less tv, but I really do.  That will give me so much more time.  It's kind of nice that the season is coming to an end and the nice weather is here.  Hopefully I'll get away from the tv and have more time for other interests.

There are so many things that I want to learn and do.  Right now time and money are the things that are holding me back.  I only hope that some day, I will find something that I love to do and be able to make money at it.  I am looking forward to Wishcasting Wednesday over at jamieridlerstudios.ca tomorrow.  It always makes me think.  I also need to go back and look at what I have written in the past and see what I have wanted!

I went on a job interview yesterday.  I applied for the job back in January and finally got an interview.  I am so disappointed that I may get a job for the summer and beyond.  I know that it would help financially, I just wish that I was able to get through this summer without working.  It will be in my field, but I am thinking that I would like to do something outside the box.  Maybe I'll just have to wait til the kids are older and maybe even in school.  Oh, well.  Wish me luck in making whatever decision is best for my family!

Hope you are able to enjoy some nice weather.  We should be close to 90 degrees here in MA and hopefully we can keep cool.

Amy (who is totally craving some iced coffee.  I may be back on the coffee bandwagon at least for the summer)

Outdoor Projects

This year, my husband and I have started multiple outdoor projects!  Last year, we had a tree cut down, and this year we added a butterfly garden to where the tree was.  I posted pictures of it when I first planted and here it is now!

The butterfly garden still has to grow and it may not even be what I want it to be this year.  I may need to wait for next year for it to really grow and bloom like I want it to!

Last year, we also took out all the shrubs in the front of the house.  We were going to plant a bunch of bushes, but we decided to save some money this year and just pant some flowers.  It look ok, and you really can't tell what it looks like from the pictures, but it is nice not to have huge bushes blocking the front of the house.

My husband tilled an area in the backyard for our veggie garden.  I can't wait to plant veggies and for them to grow so that we can just go out  into the backyard and pick them instead of going to the store!  I think either this week or next week, we will start planting.

Finally, we bought a swingset for the kids.  We weren't going to, but decided that it was a good deal and bought it.  There are so many parts, but my husband is doing awesome getting it put together!

I can't wait for these projects to move ahead.  I am really liking the nice weather and can't wait for it to stay here.  I will put up with the heat, since I know that it will let me get out with the kids.  I think it will be lots of dun and hopefully we can get together with friends this summer!

Amy

Father's Day

I have spent a ton of time trying to figure out the perfect father's day gift for my husband.  Part of the issues is that I don't want to spend a ton of money.  I had decided on going to a pottery store and having the kids do a handprint on a mug for my husband.  Then we were cleaning out the garage and I found a stepping stone mix kit that I had planned for last year, but didn't get around to making it, so I have that to give him.  Then the twins group that I belong to, put out the idea of taking pictures with letters that spell out dad and putting them in a frame or on a mug or anything else that you may be able to do with pictures.  I love this idea and want to do this too.  So this year, my husband will be getting a few gifts not just 1.  I can't wait to start these projects.  I am also planning on decorating a cake.  A friend and I have been learning how to decorate cakes and I can't wait to make one for an actual occasion.  I did make one for Michaels birthday but that was  a simple one made with jut a star tip!

I can't wait to start creating!  I will post pictures when I finish.

Amy

Wishcasting Wednesday

Jamie Ridler at jamieridlerstudios.ca asks "What Do You Wish To Have?".

I love participating in Wishcasting Wednesday because it makes me think about different things that I wish for.  I often think about what my dreams/wishes are but very seldom so I out them down in words.

This week, when I think about what I want, a few things come to mind.

1.)  I wish to have energy.  I have 3 little kids so I am always tired, but at least sleep is better the last couple of days.

2.) I wish to have the ability to follow through with my dreams, desires, wants and wishes.

3.) I wish to have enough money where we don't have to think about every penny we spend.

4.) I wish to have the confidence to start my own creative business.  I have an interview coming up on monday and I really don't want to do it.  It's only 3 hours a day, but summer is coming and I was so looking forward to having a relaxing easy going summer, but we do need the money and it would keep me in my professional field.

5.) I wish to have knowledge of what I want to do for a career.  I have been a social worker for the last 13 years (have been a SAHM for the last year and half).  I have spent a ton of time, money and energy getting my degrees, but I'm not sure that this is my true desire in life.

6.) I wish to have more time with my husband.  I love having the kids around and being together as a family, but I would love to just spend the day with my husband doing romantic things, not worrying about the kids, what needs to be done around the house, etc.

7.) I wish to have time to be creative.  I am doing better, but sometimes there just isn't enough time in the day.

8.) I wish to have the ability to follow through with exercise and diet!

9.) I wish to start doing Yoga!  After attending a conference on Yoga and Social Work, I decided that this was something that I wanted to do.  Now it's just doing it!  I bought a yoga mat and now I just have to do it!

I wasn't sure I knew what to write about, but obviously there are plenty of things that I wish to have.  After reading some other people's wishes, I decided that I also wish to have the faith and belief that my wishes will come true as the universe/god/higher power sees fit.

Amy

Diet

As many of you know,  I am trying really hard to eat healthy.  I am trying to eat healthy on a budget, as locally as possible, and as natural as possible.  Unfortunately, this has been a pretty major struggle for me.  I have had a pretty horrible weekend, but I am back on the bandwagon and am planning on eating healthy, the way I want to.  I am planning on eating curried quinoa with veggies for dinner tonight.  I may have to put this in some egg for the kids to make it so they can eat it independently.  I really need to sit down and plan out my meals so that I can maybe stop at the grocery store on the way home from the lab today.

I really want to check out farmer's markets more in the western part of the state.  I feel like the farmer's markets in my area aren't real farmer's markets.  It seems like we are too much in suburbia for it to be what I am looking for.  Unfortunately, going to the western part of the state is not going to be easy for us.  I just want to see what they may be like and it may be a nice way to spend the day!

Amy

Creative Play with Photos

I had a lot of fun playing with photoshop.  I am learning slowly, mostly from watching scrapbooking shows.  I should be scrapbooking the kids' albums, but I am playing on the computer.  At least this way I'll hopefully have some fun pictures to add to their albums!

God, did I have fun playing!

Amy

Creative Every Day Challenge! (week 1 for me)

This week, I decided to join in the the creative every day challenge.  Being more creative, or at least acting on my creativity and completing projects has been a goal that I have had since the beginning of the year.  I actually started another blog because I wanted to write about and post pictures of all the different projects that I was working on and wanted to create and post daily.  Unfortunately, with 3 little ones, that was not possible and I stopped.  This time around, I am going to post on this blog instead of having more than 2 blogs.  I just don't have the time.  I am also not necessarily going to post daily.  I will try to post weekly the different things that I have done that week to be creative.  I will attempt to something creative every day, but as with everything, I won't beat myself up if I don't make it.  I will also try to post pictures of what I have been working on, but if I don't get to pictures, then oh well!

So, for my first week, I have actually done pretty well.  I have taken pictures or my kids and my garden, spent time working on my garden, worked on a Mother's Day project (which I have to re-do),  thought about my husband's Father's Day gift, made 2 fairy doors, and bought materials to make more diaper covers (which I will be working on after I finish this post).  It has felt really good to work on my butterfly garden.  I can't wait for it to bloom.  I have put my fairy doors in that garden as it looks like it really fits there.

I am really enjoying my time creating and not feeling the pressure to complete something every day.  My goal is to do something every day, but if I don't not a big deal.  I plan on continuing to try to be creative and think outside the box so that I don't feel pressure to do something creative with a limited definition of creativity!

My butterfly garden with the 2 fairy doors.

Garden on the left front side of the house

Garden on the right front side of the house

The gardens in the front of the house haven't fully bloomed and they will probably only be fully in bloom for a short time, but I can't wait.  Of course, it may not fully bloom since most of the plants have bee transferred here this year, but we'll see!

My second fairy door (I'm not sure I like it)

Picture of my 3 kiddos!

I'm now off to make at least 1 diaper cover before the twins wake from their nap.  I am also going to attempt to have Michael draw while I sew!  I really want to foster creativity in my kids from a young age, so anyone who reads this post, if you have any ideas on how to get toddlers involved in crafting, I would love any advice or suggestions!  My kiddos are 26 months and 16 months.

Amy

Wishcasting Wednesday

It's Wednesday again and Jamie over at jamieridlerstudios.ca asks:

Wishcasting: What Do You Wish to Experience?

This week I wish to experience creativity.  I joined in with creative every day to try to increase the amount of time that I spend being creative.  I know how much better I feel when I am creative.  I also wish to realize that I am being creative, even when I am not directly being creative, such as working in my garden, cooking, taking impromptu pictures of my kids!


This week I have been working on my garden.  I finally attempted to make a fairy door for my butterfly garden.  In my opinion, it came out decent for my first attempt.  I had learned about dairy doors years ago and now that I have a butterfly garden with a tree stump, I figured this would be the perfect time to attempt making one.

My first fairy door

I did some shopping yesterday to help me continue to be creative.  I bought some more plants for the butterfly garden.  I got a few geraniums which technically are not my favorite, but they were my grandmother's favorite.  This is a little tribute to her.  I then went to my local craft store and bought a magazine to give me ideas to start making Christmas gifts (I always want to make my gifts, but I never start early enough).  I also bought some more fleece to make more diaper covers.

 I hope that  can continue to experience being creative.  I need to ensure that I make time to be creative and decrease the amount of time that I spend doing things that take away time from being creative.  I also wish to involve my children in my creative experience.

What so you wish to experience?

Amy

Creative Every Day Challenge!

I just joined in a new challenge at creativeeveryday.com .  I had been wanting to do this on my own and actually started a blog just for this, but it was way too much work.  I figured I can tie in being creative, which is a goal of mine that I have written about even in this blog.  I'm not sure what my creativity for the day will be today, but I will find something as I feel so much better when I find some way to be creative.

Wish me luck,
Amy

Living Well!

I continue to try to live my life the way I truly want to.  There are many things that I am working towards at the same time.  I am trying to use as many handmade items as possible, eat as healthy as possible, exercise, be creative, garden, raise my children as naturally and healthy as possible, and be a good person as well as teach my children to be good people!

Handmade items:  I am trying to cook at home, make most of my products ie: body care,  house cleaning, gardening, even some clothing for the kids (If I get good enough I will eventually include myself in this).

Eating Healthy:  I had started out saying that I wanted to be a vegetarian or even vegan maybe, but I am now actually doing the Body Ecology diet.  This diet is for people with issues with Candida.  I am trying this diet for a multitude of reasons, but I have an allergy to candida which I am taking weekly shots for, and there are other issues that I have that I won't  go into!  I mentioned this diet to one of the nurses doing my allergy testing and she said that this is a diet we should all be following for just basic health.  My husband did the diet a few years back and when he retested for Candida, he was in the normal range!  That is good news.  He wants me to get tested so that I can know wether or not I have it and that will dictate how seriously I follow the diet.  Either way, this is a diet that I want to follow to help with my carb issues.  I have been following it for a couple of days with some difficulty, but this is probably the best I have ever done on it!  You'll be reading more about my struggles with the diet!

Exercise: I need to exercise more.  I am planning on trying to get out and walk daily, with or without the kids.  I am also planning on doing some yoga.  I am really looking forward to getting healthy and getting back in shape after being in grad school (was not healthy at all), getting married and pregnant right after graduation, then having twins 10 1/2 months after my first son was born!

Be creative: I really love to be creative!  I used to scrapbook, rubber stamp, make jewelry, and so much more.  Unfortunately 3 kids limits the amount of time that I have to do any of this!  I think it is really important for me to maintain this since it is something I love to do!

Gardening: We pretty much finished the butterfly garden and most of the gardens in the front of the house.  Now it is just a waiting game for them all to bloom!  We need to get started on our veggie garden since I would love to not have to rely on the grocery stores this summer of at all possible!  I would love to go to the farmers markets to buy what ever I can't get from our garden or from family and friends.  My only issues is that i feel like the farmers markets near me are more for people to go to since it is the trendy thing to do, not because they truly want to be healthy and eat local, but that's a rant for another day!  I plan to look at some farmers markets out in Western MA to see if they are any different since I truly believe that there is a different way of life out there!

View of the butterfly garden from the kids window!  Doesn't look like much now, but once it blooms, I think it will be beautiful!

I just want to raise good kids and live a good healthy, happy, life!  It is going to be an ongoing struggle to live the way I want to, but it is a struggle worth doing!

Body Ecology Diet

Today is day 1 of the body ecology diet.  I decided that I really need to do something to get my health in order.  This morning I had my tea, a blend of oolong, mate, and herbal, which now that i think about it is probably not great, but not as bad as it could be (it's a mix of raspberry and orange flavored teas).  I really enjoy my tea and it's really expensive so I want to use it.  I also had my eggs, an omelet with spinach, onions, and cheese.  The cheese isn't really on the diet, but I figure it's better than eating my traditional breakfast of total carbs and fats.  My morning snack was corn chips with hummus, which I'm not sure is truly on the diet, but again a better choice than more carbs or sugar or both.  I'm not sure about lunch but dinner is going to be chicken with broccoli.

I just ordered the newest body ecology diet book and I can't wait for it to come in.  As much as I have read about the diet already, I certainly need a refresher and I'm hoping for more recipes.  I am really hopeful that I can do this.  Unfortunately, tonight is my husband birthday and I am making a cake and I will have some!  I don't feel as bad about this since it is only my first day.  After tonight no more sugar and there will be no more sugar throughout the day.  I believe that I can have rice milk and millet puffs and my husband said that is how he dealt with sugar cravings.  I think I can get by the sugar, but I am nervous about making sure I don't eat starchy carbs.  That is truly my addiction.

Along with the diet my goal to be healthier includes exercise.  I went to a yoga and social work conference the other day and I really want to add this practice into my life.  I also want to try to walk every day, wether it is outside or on the treadmill.

This is definitely going to be a struggle, and I'm sure one with set backs, but I am going to keep going an not give up no matter what happens!

Amy

Diet

I've written a lot about my issues with my diet.  I recently wrote how I  planned to start the South Beach Diet given my issues with carbs.  Well, so far, it's been a total failure!  I am still eating more carbs than I should, never mind eliminating them from my diet.  I know that technically most people don't have to eliminate a food from their diets, but right now I can't eat carbs in moderation.  Without giving out too much information, I am thinking that I may have an issue with candida, which is basically a systemic yeast infection.  There are multiple reasons why I think that I may have issues with this, but I think from a health perspective I really need to change my eating.  I know that there will be lots of ups and downs and probably a lot more downs, but I think I really need to do this.  So as of right now, I plan to follow what ever diet is going to help me win this battle.  My hope is, that after I get rid of my candida issue (which I only assume I have given certain symptoms) I can go back to eating carbs, only this time I hope that I can eat them in moderation!  If anyone has any thoughts, recipes or suggestions, please forward them to me via comments or e-mail.  I am going to need all the help I can get to follow through with this.  The other plus to following this diet, other than feeling better, is that I should find myself losing weight and that is a very good thing!

On another note, I attended a yoga and social work conference today that was wonderful!  I spent from 9am til 4 pm learning about yoga and it's use within therapy as well as practicing therapy.  We learned about certain poses, breathing, and meditation, practiced these, and talked about the benefits of yoga within the social work practice!  I plan to learn more about yoga and start practicing it myself.  Maybe one of these days when I go back to work, I can incorporate this practice into my social work practice.  I only hope that I can learn more tools that are not the typical set of social work tools that I can use in my practice.  I will be looking into other conferences that spend time teaching social workers how to incorporate more min/body practices or complementary medicine practices into social work practice!

Amy

Living Naturally

So, here I am writing about how I am living naturally and a Tylenol recall comes in and it makes me think that i ma not living as naturally as I really want to or claim to.  It's amazing how when you re-evaluate your life, you realize that you are not practicing what you preach and not really living the way that you want to be living.

Because of the recall, I started looking at other ways to to what Tylenol would be doing for my children.  I got a couple of good ideas and now am thinking that I need to not keep Tylenol in the house, but need to get some essential oils that will help with teething, since that is really what we use the Tylenol for.  Not just Tylenol for the kids, but I really need to start looking at more natural ways of dealing with medical issues for the whole family.  I'll leave my husband to make his own decisions, but I need to start looking at ways to say take care of a migraine, back pain, and other issues that I find myself struggling with.

I often write about my eating and the difficulties that I am having with it.  Eating well and eating local along with feeding my family on a budget are an ongoing struggle for me.  I so desire eating well, losing weight (in a healthy way), saving money and cooking, but there are so many times that this just doesn't happen.  Sometimes, it's because I'm too tired (lazy), I crave all the things I love that are bad for me,  and just because I don't follow my own healthy desires for no good reason.  Eating healthy and local remains a goal and will most likely always be a constant struggle!

I need to get back out in the garden.  I have started my flower garden and my butterfly garden.  I need to find ways to decorate the gardens so that i don't break the bank.  I know that i can make a simple birdbath from clay pots and need to do that.  I would love to find a way to make figurines or some other decorative means for the garden.  I am thinking that I can make simple bird houses to add some fun whimsy to the gardens.  That I can do simply.  We also need to start the garden for our veggies so that we don't need to rely on the store for our produce!

I also need to find a way to start sewing more often.  I made 1 fleece cover that I love.  I need to make more so that I can use them instead of the PUL (Polyurethane Laminate).  I think it will help with the kids rashy bottoms.  It will be more breathable and with the summer coming I think it will be more comfortable for them.  I am also thinking about and have actually attempted to EC (elimination communication) the kids.  I need to be more on top of it when I am doing it.

Well, these are just a few of my goals and things that I am constantly working on!  On of the best things about this blog is that I get to write down where I am and where I want to be and some people actually read it.  It definitely helps to keep be on track.  I really like to journal also, so sometimes I blog here and sometimes I physically write in my paper journal.