The School Garden: Progress!

A Sweet William in bloom

Our little garden at school is really coming along!  Little by little, my writing groups, social skills groups, fifth graders, and classroom of kiddos with autism are making a difference in this little plot of land by our basketball courts!  (See the "before" photos here.)   It's so neat to see the changes from day to day in the garden.  It's like a little bit of magic when a new plant takes root or flower blooms.  

And the neatest thing?  The big, burly, ultra cool fifth grade boys who beg me to let them work in the garden during their lunch breaks.  Apparently pulling weeds is all the rage these days.

Butterflies on Daisies

A pond flower...just gorgeous! (I took this with my phone, but will have to get a better shot with my real camera for you soon!)

planting some herbs (rosemary & basil)

This is my new favorite picture in all the world!

pulling weeds

What little project is bringing you joy right now?

Experience Nature

I am so excited that spring is here.  I just love the transition from one season to the next.  The comfort of warmth after a long cold.  The freedom to be outside after months of feeling sequestered.   The fun of all the blooms and newness.

Last weekend, Flannery and I transplanted some of our seedlings into pots outside.  We had shovels, but Flannery decided to use her hands because, as she says, "I love to get muddy."  So far, only a few of our seedlings have been stolen by squirrels (or flexible rabbits?) :).  And we're hoping to get our herbs and tomatoes transplanted soon.

Being in nature is so restorative to me.  There's a calm that I don't think can just be attributed to a relaxing day off.  That's why I've made "Experience Nature" one of my happiness commandments.  When I follow it, it really does boost my happiness.



And now, for a weekend of muddy hands once again.

How are you going to experience nature on this "spring commencing" weekend?

The Beginning of Bounty

Our little porch garden is really doing well, despite my tendency to forget to water it! It's pretty amazing! Luckily tomato and pepper plants seem pretty forgiving.


We've been enjoying fresh basil regularly, and this morning, we got the chance to eat our first bell pepper from our own garden. We had it for breakfast in some "garden eggs" (scrambled eggs with whatever fresh veggies we have on hand to throw in). Today, the scramble included tomato, bell pepper, fresh garlic, basil, and feta cheese. We had it with some bagel bread toast and watermelon. Tasty!



Our tomatoes are really coming along. It's exciting to see the red emerge slowly, and then suddenly they're ready! And so far (knock on wood!), no squirrels have bitten any of them.

We also have some fancy chili peppers of some sort. They are curly and cute, but I'm not brave enough to try one. I'm not a fan of spicy hot stuff.
Oh, and happy birthday to my wonderful father-in-law! My in-laws dropped by for an impromptu lunch today on their way back home from Virginia, and it was so nice to get to see them! When we visit their place next week, I'll try to snap a few photos of their garden...it's the real deal!



What are you growing right now? What do you want to grow soon? What do you suggest I think about for late summer/fall planting?

I love peppers?

I really don't like peppers, but, seriously, if they will grow despite my lack of a green thumb, I really must at least learn to appreciate them a little. Check them out...real peppers from my own back yard! (I took these the morning we left for our trip...sorry I posted them out of order. If you're kinda OCD like me, little things like that might drive you cuh-razy!)






What's a good family friendly meal I can make with all of my future peppers? Any ideas?

Grow Each Day

One of the major things I've learned about myself during my little happiness project so far is that, for me to be happy, I have to be growing in some way at all times. You know, like learning Spanish, or exercising more, or learning about gardening. Right now I'm on an herb garden streak, so forgive me the zillions of photos I'm posting today if you're not at all interested in plants.

Our basil that we started from seed is now all grown up! And it graduated to a bigger planter this weekend. The cutest planter ever, if I do say so myself. Which I do! I used some for homemade bruschetta today. Yum!

Our marjoram is also growing to be gorgeous. I still haven't used any yet, though. Maybe I'll put it in my pasta tomorrow. Ideas?



We started some new basil and oregano seeds in our windowsill this weekend. Flannery has dutifully (over)watered them every day. And I love that she has crazy bed head in the watering picture. It's kinda endearing.


The roses are my neighbors' bushes, but I just had to share them! So beautiful!

The herb "garden" now consists of: basil, cilantro, rosemary, mint, chives, & marjoram. I'm also trying to grow some peppers and tomatoes. I had no luck with starting my strawberries from root bunches. I've been faithfully watering a planter full of soil and rootlets for 2 weeks now, and I'm rather disappointed. Apparently there must be a trick to that. A very secret trick. Oh, well.




In what area are you currently "growing", and is it boosting your happiness? Or, if you're not growing right now, what area of your life might you think about "growing" in?

Honor the Gifts You Receive

So here's the big reveal! Here's the family tree I made for my dad for his birthday! Tadaa! My vision was a little less crafty and a little more classy, but I did my best and now I'm done with it, so yay!

It feels nice to honor the gift that my dad gave me of all of the time and effort and money he put into researching our family tree. There are some really cool stories he found along the way, too, that maybe I'll put into a scrapbook one day. You know, the same day I'm gonna do all the eleven million other little projects in a zillion unfinished stages all around my house. Hah!

Anyway, working on this project made me really focus on honoring the gifts I'm given. I think there are tons of things that others do for me that I regularly take for granted, and I'm trying to be cognizant of that lately. So, I've been trying to honor gifts lately.

To not just let the sweets and trinkets Flannery got for Easter go to waste, but to allow her a little treat each day. So far, the egg carton of tiny bubble gum eggs has been her favorite! (And my favorite was the dove dark chocolates....yum!)

To take the time to help Flanna decorate the cool birdhouse my brother-in-law made for us. (Next step in the honoring process is to actually hang it outside in a place safely away from cats!)

To work hard to keep the communal herbs that dropped from the sky (er, actually from my landlord, Edna), alive and thriving. (I found out that I have mint, chives, basil, and rosemary. And I did have oregano. Until I killed it by underwatering. I guess honoring is a work in progress when delicate plants are involved.)

To appreciate the gift of a good, flexible job even amidst busy, stressful times. To take in the thousands of little gifts I get each day from my sweet clients--the little giggles, grins, smiles, funny things said, silly dances, hugs, and amazing accomplishments I get to witness every day.

To remember to gaze upon my wonderful family as a gift, a real treasure, and to treat them as so.




What gifts are you trying to honor lately?

A Little Gift

Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I've been doing a little planting lately. My window herb garden (see the pic?) is doing pretty well, which is really satisfying to me. And just as I was pondering what I wanted to plant outside once the rainy streak finally ends here, an amazing gift kinda dropped in my lap. My landlord, Edna, told me that what I had thought were abandoned flower pots on the back landing are actually communal herbs for everyone who lives in our house. There's some pretty established rosemary, some mint, and two things I'm not quite sure about. (Maybe thyme? I'm a newbie at this!) But Edna promised she'd explain it all to me soon. Yay!

Check out the lovely pic of the rosemary. Some days I'm amazed at how lucky I am.

Really, I'm kinda lucky.

I actually once got a fortune cookie that told me, "You will succeed at everything."

See? Lucky.

I mean, I met the perfect guy for me at 16. I ended up loving the job I naively chose as a teenager. I stumbled into a really cool assistantship in grad school that was amazingly perfect for my skills and interests. I accidentally got pregnant while tons of my friends struggle with infertility. My daughter was born healthy and strong, and continues to flourish and learn.

And now these cool herbs drop from the sky on my back steps.

What luck!

Perhaps I should go buy a lottery ticket.



How have you been lucky in your life?

Grow a Little Bit

My basil is beginning to sprout. (Chives, too, but I didn't post that pic!)

My windowsill herb garden is beginning to actually work! I picked some fresh cilantro to go with our chickpea masala last night. Yum! And the little basil and chive shoots make me really happy every time I see them peeking up through the soil. My daughter just wants to touch them and water them constantly, which I'm sure isn't the best gardening technique, but I like that she's excited by the growth.

The whole idea of growth has been really important in my happiness project so far. I've found that the times I'm the happiest are when I can see myself growing (not wider..hah!). When I stick to my happiness resolutions and actually do get more exercise and clean my house regularly and learn my Spanish each week, I really am happier.

And those times when I get overwhelmed by work and laundry and dishes and let things slide and don't work on Spanish for a few days...well, you really don't want to hear about that. Lemme just say that it's not pleasant. Definitely not happy.

There's something about continual growth and learning that is a safety mechanism for my mental well-being.

Maybe it's just feeling productive. (I heard an interview on NPR today about the qualities NASA looks for in astronauts, and was really interested to hear that one of the ways they try to preserve the psychological health of their astronauts is by building little daily successes and daily productive tasks into the astronaut's work schedule each day. Cool, huh?)

Anyway, growth. It's pretty cool to watch. And even cooler to be a part of.


In what ways are you growing right now?