Brief garden update

Last night we laid the last stone and mostly flattened out the walkway in our front yard.  When it rains again, I'll go out and stomp on the stones to settle them better and hopefully even the path out even more.  This morning I bought some Miracle-Gro soil to mix in with the dirt already in the herb/flower plot.  The dirt wasn't doing a great job of growing grass, and I hit clay about five inches down.  I think it could use a Miracle-Gro boost.  I'll transplant herbs and plant some seeds and a tulip bulb this weekend.  Matt will be glad to get the herb sprouts out of the study.  Of course, I like planting things so well that I may start something new in the pots as soon as they're empty.

Before buying soil, I went out to the vegetable garden to weed and plant.  I planted one hill of acorn squash, one hill of watermelon, and seven pea plant seeds.  The zucchini and squash I planted last Wednesday have sprouted and are growing well.  My tomato plants are now taller than the surrounding weeds.  Purple hull peas and green beans are still looking great.  In fact, I think I saw the beginning of beans on the green bean plants.  When I go back to the garden this weekend, I'll need to thin out my rows.  I hate the thought of getting rid of healthy plants.  I'll try to find someplace to transplant them.  I'll take photos again before I thin things out so that I have a record of how well things sprouted.

I have a website!

There's nothing on my website yet, but I have one: http://www.natalieroliver.com.  I got a domain name and a web host and am now a website owner!  I'm pretty excited.  A year ago, I never would have guessed that I'd have my own site.  When there's something interesting to see on the site, I'll post about it here on my blog.

It's an investment ($35 for one year) towards my career as a website designer.  I've worked on two websites, but I don't have anything reliable to show people who want to see samples of my work.  The synod got a new website, so none of my work is on their site.  I designed the Luther Memorial site, but someone else is now maintaining it, and the changes that have been made don't reflect my design aesthetic.  So I got my own site so that I can display my own designs without fear that it will be altered by someone else.

I also want to learn PHP, a programming language that makes websites interactive, and access to a server is necessary.  Now that I have my own website, I have access to a server and can work on learning more to make even better websites.  Also having my own site will give me a chance to learn more about the behind-the-scenes part of websites so that I will be able to help organizations that don't have a site at all to get things set up.

So now my days will be filled with gardening and my evenings with website design.

Planting Addiction

I thought I'd show how my herbs are doing now since I shared a photo when my basil first sprouted.  The basil is at the top of the picture.  The chives are at the bottom.  The parsley I planted about a week ago is in the middle and is just sprouting.  The tiny pots on the left are marigolds that I planted a few days ago.  Everything is doing really well, I think.  They aren't big enough to use or transplant yet, but I think the basil and chives will be transplantable by this weekend.

This morning I had coffee with Beth and then came home and planted some more seeds in pots.  I planted the tomatoes and strawberries that I will transplant to hanging planters on our back deck.  I also planted two kinds of attractive lettuces, some mint, and more parsley in a rectangular planter I bought at Dollar Tree.  I plan to transplant these to the herb/flower garden.  I saved a corner of the planter for cilantro seeds, which I plan to buy today.  We need to get another walkway stone, and I want to get one bag of potting soil to enrich the front garden soil.  And I'll look for tulips and daffodils on clearance to keep Neil's tulip company.

I also have some more seeds to plant in the vegetable garden.  I got some pea seeds so that I can eat the raw pods and some acorn squash for soup this fall.  I've also got more summer squash, zucchini, and lettuce seeds that I can plant.  If I get up early tomorrow, I may try to get the rest of the veggies planted before it gets too hot outside.

So far I've probably spent about $25 on seeds and growing kits and another $20 on a shovel, other gardening implements, and a pair of gardening gloves.  $25 for the walkway and probably another $20 on another stone, some tulips and some good soil.  It would be a moderately expensive hobby if it were just something to keep me busy. (Golfing would be way more expensive.)  But we could easily save $100 this summer on produce if even half of what I've planted is usable.  Zucchini and herbs are crazy expensive, and I eat a lot of them in the summer.  And next year all we'll need are some seeds.  I think it's a good investment.

Fine Bean Plants

On Wednesday, we went to the garden and discovered I've got some good looking green bean and purple hull pea plants.  Everything I planted has sprouted, but the beans look especially healthy.  While we were there, I weeded all my rows and planted a hill of zucchini and one of yellow summer squash.  I think I'm going to plant a little more.  I bought some seeds for acorn squash, some lettuces, and peas.  A fellow gardener needs to thin some carrots and beets, so I want to prepare space to transplant the plants they want to get rid of.

On Thursday morning, I got the rest of the front flower/herb garden dug up.  In a few days, some weeds will probably have sprouted.  Once I've cleaned them out, I think we can plant.  Some of the lettuce seeds I bought are for a reddish-pink lettuce that is pretty enough to plant in a front yard garden.  Lettuce and herbs around some tulip bulbs sounds attractive and convenient.  While we're waiting to plant, we'll get the walkway leveled out and finished.  We still need one more stone.  I'll take pictures when we get the front garden closer to finished.

Sprouts!

Several weeks ago I bought some herb growing kits at Dollar Tree that contained a pot, soil, and seeds.  I planted the seeds in the pots toward the end of last week and put them in front of the big window in the study.  This morning I checked on them and found I have sprouts.  I'm so excited!  I've got three pots of basil sprouting and a few hours later I checked again and had three pots of chives barely poking out of the dirt.  I plan to transplant the herbs to the front flower garden.  By the time we have the garden patch prepared, the herbs should be mature enough to move.

I want to buy more herb kits.  They were really fun because the soil came in a hard puck that expanded to more soil than could fit in the pot.  It was like those dollar store toys that "grow" when you put water on them.

Now that I've seen something I planted sprout, I want to check on my vegetable to see how they're doing.  Because I've been sick, it's been over a week since I was at the garden.  It will probably be a few more days before the storms are completely past, and then the garden may need to dry out a little.  Maybe by Monday or Tuesday, I'll be able to check on my veggies.

Gardening is super!  Maybe I'll buy some big pots for the porch or the deck.  I could grow more herbs and strawberries and maybe tomatoes.  Oooh!  I could try one of those hanging tomato growers on the deck.  A summer of fresh tomato and basil!  Pasta and caprese salad and margherita pizza!  Oh my!  Now I just need a cow so that I can make my own fresh mozzarella.  Perhaps I should successfully grow mature plants before attempting to care for livestock.

Super!

I woke up feeling significantly better today.  I got about six hours of sleep last night, and I slept soundly.  I could tell that any fever I had had had broken overnight.  (I thought about rewriting that sentence, but using the same word three times in a row in a sentence that makes sense made me happy.  It's an English major thing, like Etymology in the Morning)  I went without coughing for at least half an hour after I got up.  I felt human.  I was no longer a virus-infested zombie.  My cough is productive, so the chest congestion is improving.  And I've continued to blow my nose all day.

A few minutes ago, I cleared my right sinus by blowing out a "super booger"!  It's my fourth or fifth super booger of my life, so I was able to contain my excitement when it happened.  I wanted to burst in on Matt in the bathroom to tell him about it, but I was able to restrain myself.  I'm never met someone else who has had a super booger experience, but I found at least one person online.  My super booger was during a semester-end cold after my first year at Evangel.  I had been really sick for several days and had been blowing my nose constantly when one blow felt semi-solid and still attached to something in my sinus.  So I blew again and more came out but it was still attached to something in my sinus.  So I blew again and again and again.  I started to get scared.  Suddenly, a final blow went plop in my Kleenex.  The wad of snot in my Kleenex was huge!  It filled the palm of my hand.  As soon as it was out, I could breath through that side of my nose again.  I had another one the next summer while I was in Normandy.  I didn't even have a cold but felt the need to blow my nose.  A gush of salt water poured from my nose when the booger finally plopped out.  It was really weird.  I've had at least one other one.  I remember being excited that I could show Matt.  He was impressed.  This latest one wasn't the biggest, but it was still exhilarating and it cleared one side of my nose.

I've still taken it easy today.  I sometimes over-exert during recovery.  I was able to make a few phone calls that were on my to-do list.  I may try to work a little more on getting my wardrobe switched out.  And I could probably get enough dishes in the dishwasher to run it.  And I've got some papers to file.  I'd like to make a little more progress on the flower garden before thunderstorms arrive, but I'd need Matt to do most of the work.  That sounds like plenty for today.

Semester-End Cold Ends Fun and Productivity

Last week I was very busy and social.  This weekend my to-do list was untouched, and my social calendar was cleared by a cold.  I used to get a cold at the end of every semester in college because I'd wear myself down doing final projects and taking exams, but it seems I don't have to be a student to catch the semester-end cold.  I had wanted to take a little trip to Cincinnati over the weekend to get away during Mother's Day, but Matt had too much grading to do.  So instead I got a cold, which effectively kept me away from Mother's Day.  The cold started with a sore throat on Saturday morning and has now progressed through sinus congestion, coughing and--new today--chest congestion.  Hurray for progress!  I'm drinking a lot of tea and water and making trips to the bathroom as if I were still pregnant.  I bathe in baby vapor bath and slather Vapor Rub cream on myself. I've blown my nose so much already that I'm getting occasional nose bleeds.  And although I lounge on the couch all day, I'm not sleeping well at night.  I got less than 4 hours last night, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to nap today.  Even with all that ickiness, this cold isn't as bad as the one last fall.

I'm hoping to be well enough by Thursday to have coffee with Beth in the morning while her 23-month-old son Elliot is at "school" (a.k.a. Mother's Day Out).  And on Thursday or Friday we should go to Elizabethtown for our car's 50,000 mile check up and oil change.  But I'm not going to push myself if I'm not healthy yet.  I need to get completely well so that I can work in the garden(s) and clean the house and exercise and have fun.

Yesterday I worked for a little while on switching out my wardrobe from winter maternity to regular summer clothes.  I think all of the maternity clothes and pregnancy books are in boxes and ready to go to the attic.  While we were at Walmart last night buying cold medicines, we bought another storage tub and I put the 3-6 month and larger baby clothes in it.  That can go to the attic, too, to free up some space in the nursery so that it can be used as a guest room.  The newborn and 0-3 month clothes are in the plastic chest of drawers, so I'm just going to leave them there.  We haven't set up the crib, so it can be taken to the attic with most of the baby gear.  I like the arrangement of things on the changing table and it's a pain to assemble, so I plan to just cover it so it doesn't get dusty.  We will probably move the rocker/recliner to the study and leave the little bookcase and books where they are.  I'm looking for a daybed/trundle at a reasonably price so guests have somewhere to sleep.  It could be moved to the study as a couch when we need a nursery again.  We probably won't actually move the baby stuff until we have something else to put in the room.  I find it helpful to work to make the room useful, since it can't be used as a nursery until next spring at the very soonest.  I put a lot of energy into making it a nursery, so I'm redirecting that energy to make it a guest room.  For a while, I was having trouble getting interested in shopping or eating because Neil had been my motivation for those things for several months.  Now I'm making a list of things we need to buy for our house (several number buttons on our microwave no longer work), and I'm back to my pre-pregnancy state of having strong food cravings.  While I'm trying to focus my energies forward, it's kind of weird to realize that my due date was exactly one month ago.

Staying Busy

It's been about a week since I last posted.  We've been staying busy.  This is finals week at Campbellsville University, so Matt has lots of grading to do.  Graduation is at 9 a.m. Saturday, and grades are due by 10 a.m. Monday.  I've been doing some projects.  I reorganized the bathroom shelves a couple days ago.  Yesterday I tried to work at the vegetable garden, but it was still too wet after last weekend's flood.  So I dug up a bit of the front yard right in front of our big window for a small flower and herb garden.  I dug about half of it--the difficult half--so that we could put a little walkway in front of the flowers leading to our front porch.  We need one more stone to complete the walkway.  I think we're also going to get a few stepping stones to put between the walkway and the driveway so that people will use our front door, which opens into our study.  The side door opens into a tiny space between the basement stairs and the kitchen, not a great place to greet visitors.  We're going to plant the tulips that the church sent to Neil's funeral.  We'll also probably get some other perennials and some parsley, lots of basil and maybe one cilantro plant.  Lowe's has lots of plants on clearance, and there are a few nurseries around.  I'll take and share pictures when the front flower garden is done.

We've also been socializing quite a bit.  Last Friday, we had hors d'oeuvres with Annie, Shawn, Susie and Thomas at Annie's farm after we worked in the community vegetable garden.  Then we went to Shawn and Susie's house for pizza and Scrabble.  Shawn is a new political science professor at the university.  Susie has a background in art.  We've had dinner with them several times and always have a lot of fun.  After church on Sunday, we ate pizza at The Snappy Tomato with the pastor's family--Mitch, Beth and Elliot--and Shawn and Susie and John, who owns the farm with his wife Annie.  Last night we went to a Cinco de Mayo party at Shawn and Susie's house.  They are from Texas, so they know how to throw a fiesta.  About half the church--it's a small church--was there.  Tonight we're going to the garden again.  It should be dry enough to finally plant some seeds.  Beth, Susie, and Thomas (another CU employee) have plots at the garden, too, so Annie has invited us all to stick around for a potluck after gardening.

From all the activity, you could probably guess that I'm feeling OK.  My stamina isn't great yet, but I haven't gotten dizzy for several days, so I'm making progress.  My nurse practitioner upped my anti-depressants and recommended some counselors.  Her top recommendation works for student counseling services at the university, which is free to us.  I'm going to call to get an appointment for us, hopefully for next week.  My gastro-intestinal woes are a bit better but linger.  I've been having problems with heartburn, and discomfort after eating isn't uncommon.  My stomach may have shrunk while I was pregnant, but I don't think I'm over-eating now.  But most of the time I'm OK.

Tomorrow the movie Iron Man 2 comes out, so Matt and I are going to see it at the theater here in town.  I wanted to go out of town for Mother's Day weekend, but Matt has to grade.  So we're planning a mini-trip to Cincinnati for some other time this summer, maybe later this month.  Tanner family vacation in Sevierville, Tennessee, is mid-June.  Since it's after my 6-week check up with the OB, I'm hoping I'll be allowed to swim again.  I'm not sure what else we have planned this summer.  There's always plenty of cleaning to do around here.  I'd like to learn proper swimming technique so that I can swim laps.  I need to get my bicycle tires aired up.  If we got a bike for Matt, we could bike to church together.  The tennis court is also across the street.

And I've applied for a few jobs.  There's a Baptist church that needs a part-time secretary.  I've also applied to be an adjunct professor at the university.  If I'm going to teach this fall, I'll want to prepare a syllabus and some worksheets/assignments over the summer.  I'm considering getting my own website so that I can continue practicing web design and can learn PHP (a programming language that makes pages more interactive).  It's not expensive and will give me a place to show my skills to potential employers.  I had planned to contact area churches last fall to try to get some web design/maintenance clients, but I never got around to it.  I guess I could do that this summer when I know what other employment I've got lined up.  I don't want to over-commit.

My summer will not be what I had been planning for, but it should be fun and productive.