Sunny Days are Here Again

In my last post I said I planned to post more often. And then I got sick. I have kept a cold that turned into a sinus infection for a month. When it was obvious that it had turned into a sinus infection, I went to the doctor and got antibiotics and am feeling much better.  So now I am posting as promised.

My return to health is coinciding nicely with the return of warmer weather. And warm weather means gardening. I already have pictures.

Just before I got sick last month I started some herbs and lettuce under a grow light. I enjoyed gardening in my dining room so much that I bought another grow light. Here's my set up: Walmart grow lights with aluminum foil reflectors sitting on long free-standing wire shelves on the floor next to the dining room table. I put my aloe vera near the light to perk it up, too.

The plants have done well. I put them outside in a shady area for a little while this afternoon. They seem to like it.

I also checked on my previous soil bags and found herbs already growing. Parsley, dill, mint, and thyme are going strong.

I've also put out some new soil bags in hopes of foiling my arch-nemesis, bindweed. I dug a trench in the little front garden, lined it with weed retardant fabric and newspaper, and put soil bags on top. I'm not sure if it will work, but it's worth a try. I've already planted snap peas near the little fence in front of the garden. I plan to put in herbs and lettuce soon. I'll also prep the containers from last year to plant beets, radishes, carrots, and tomatoes. I will probably start seeds indoors again and hope for better results now that I have grow lights.

Now that I'm feeling better, I've also gone to the pool once and experimented with eggplant recipes (not at the same time, obviously). The ratatouille and moussaka I made were really good. We discovered that Matt has a slight sensitivity to eggplant. It made his mouth tingle. I researched and learned that eggplant is high in histamines. Since he's never had problems with eggplant in the past, I'm assuming that his allergy to Kentucky is making him more susceptible to allergic-like reactions to histamines. By that logic, I shouldn't eat eggplant in southern Arkansas or east Texas.

I've got to wrap this up now. I'm making waffles for lunch. The waffle maker is on the counter and is calling to me. I tried some Krusteaz waffle mix and thought it was great. Krusteaz does everything well. I've also got some past-their-prime strawberries to puree to put on top. Waffles with strawberries and puttering around barefoot in the garden sounds like a good afternoon.

A Fresh Start

Life was so busy last semester that I wasn't able to do many things that I wanted. I didn't make it to the pool all semester. I cooked far less than I'd like. Our house reached new levels of clutter and filth. And I just wasn't doing anything very well, including taking care of myself. So at the end of last semester I realized I needed to take a semester off from teaching. So that's what I'm doing. And it it fantastic! Almost all of our meals are home-cooked, and I'm trying out new recipes. Parts of the house are noticeably cleaner. I'm exercising more and have lost a very little weight. I'm working on scheduling swimming lessons, and I'm already planning my garden.

One of the other things I'm trying to do is blog more often. I figure I can write 140 characters a day on Twitter, so I added a Tweet a Day box to the side of my blog. If I post nothing else, at least you'll hear a little about what I'm thinking or doing.

Garden (and Life) Update

A bountiful final harvest!

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've been really busy for the last few months and just haven't thought to communicate with anyone. I'm not trying to slight anyone; I've neglected you all equally. But since at least three of my readers (that's probably a majority) have mentioned the lack of posts, I thought I'd make a special effort to post something, and the garden is a popular topic.

I haven't really done anything to my garden for a while until today. It was unseasonably warm, so I decided to pull out the dead plants and start preparing the garden for next year. I had considered leaving the carrots and digging them up as needed this winter, but I want to clear and cover the bindweed-infested area it's planted in. So now I have several carrots, a couple of small beets, some greenish tomatoes, and some green onions to use. I left some parsley, cilantro, and snap peas to continue growing. I also had a couple tiny jelly bean tomatoes, but I ate those right off the plant instead of photographing them. And they were good, so sweet. I will definitely plant more of those next year. I'm already excited about planning next year's garden.

The cage after I rescued it from my monster tomato plant

Two little snap peas almost ready to eat

Even though I've been busy, I don't have a very long list of accomplishments for the last few months. Mostly I work and teach. I have fewer students this semester, but only one third are passing again. I was hoping that more individual attention would improve my pass rate, but the biggest problem is that most of them don't bother to turn in any work. I've tried some new and interesting things this semester. Some have worked; others haven't. They do much better when they have individual conferences with me, so I need to find a way to do more of those. My fun grammar games haven't typically been as successful as I'd like. I had hoped that hands-on learners would have a-ha moments while they played, but only one or two seemed to catch on to what we were doing. We've done worksheets together in class until all of our minds were numb, but after all that repetition, I'm seeing some improvement, which is heartening. I've tried giving them more thoughtful writing assignments the second half of the semester. Their thoughts are often disappointingly shallow or incomplete, but sometimes I get interesting ideas from one or two of them. Those occasional sparks of insight are worth giving them more thoughtful writing prompts in the future.

Snap peas in November

At this point, I'm planning to teach again in the spring. The English department chair has shown interest in my teaching adolescent literature. I've never taught it, but children's literature was my Master's concentration. I'm OK with continuing to teach English 110, but having a literature class on my resume would be good. The department chair is going to make sure the education department is OK with my teaching the class since I don't have a Ph.D.  We'll see what happens.

Matt normally teaches five classes in the fall and four in the spring, but he took on another class this fall after another professor broke her leg. He enjoys getting to teach another upper level English class, but he's extra busy this fall. We haven't even been to Elizabethtown in a couple of months because he's spent nearly every weekend grading.

Parsley still growing in the garden

Other than work, the only other thing that we regularly do is attend game night at the university. Matt and I are part of the board game club. Every Thursday night we get together with professors and students to play games like Vikings, Agricola, Dominion, and Carson City. The games aren't party games. They tend to take strategy. Some games are about combat; others are about settling the Old West or cultivating farms. Sometimes we also get together with professor friends on weekends to play.  And sometimes Matt and I clear off the dining table and play a long game like Twilight Struggle, which is about the Cold War.

Other than gaming, we watch some favorite TV programs. We read. We do at least one Sudoku puzzle before bed. Matt watches lots of football. I take lots of naps during football, but sometimes I watch, too.  That's life for us right now.