Git 'er done!

Tons to do today! The weather here in southwestern Ohio is just about as perfect as it ever gets in mid-July -- low 60's this morning and low humidity! I wasn't even sure such weather was possible here! But I'll take it... I'm off to the garden center this morning. Yesterday Jeff, Mr. B and I went on a trekking adventure through the jungles of what has always been my vegetable garden -- a fenced in plot of land about 30 x 80 feet in the back corner of our yard. It breaks my heart to go out there and see the weeds taller than Mr. B (oh heck, many of them were taller than ME!), perennials trying to fight their way through the weeds -- and not a vegetable in sight. This is the first year in nearly 30 years that I've not had a vegetable garden of one size or another. I was willing to live with the fact that my back will no longer allow me to spend hours and hours tilling the garden, planting the seeds and plants or weeding, but then this precious little grandson of mine looked up at me in the middle of the larger-than-life weed forest and said, "Umma, where's the tomatoes?" Sigh sigh sigh... Yes, I'd forgotten I promised him last Fall we would plant tomatoes and green beans. Obviously it's too late to turn my vegetable garden around (though the three of us did spend about two hours pulling the larger of the weeds just to keep the neighbors from complaining), but it's not to late to head to the garden store today and buy a mature tomato plant and drop it in a large container on the back deck. A second container for green beans or zucchini (depending on what seeds I can find this time of year), and a third small container for some lettuce. The vegetables in pots will be enough for Mr. B to understand the concept of gardening - put a seed in the ground, take care of it, pull weeds, watch things grow, enjoy the fruits of your labor. But it's also motivation for me to get my sorry butt to the doctor's and get this back problem taken care of once and for all so that NEXT year Mr. B and I can have our big vegetable garden back again! But that's not all... Oh, no, my To Do List is overflowing today! Today I am also tackling my dum dum dum dummmmmm office! Now that I am flying free with my wireless laptop, I really no longer need my office or my old desktop PC. (In case you're wondering, I already have a quilt/sewing room separate from this area, and my husband has his own office in an extra bedroom upstairs.) My office is located off the kitchen and, as rooms that don't get used often have a tendency to do, is quickly becoming a "landing zone" for things without a home. Ummm... no. Not going to happen. Time to nip this in the bud before it goes anywhere. I've been debating about what to use this room for, and realized, as I was tripping over toys in the family room yesterday, that it's the perfect room for a temporary playroom for Mr. B. It already has a wall of shelves (toy storage) and a table (crafts), and all I really need to do is clear out the computer, computer desk and chair, and the shredder (I'm thinking a shredder and curious 3 year old fingers might not mix) and a few miscellaneous office supplies, and it will be the perfect room to contain Mr. B and his toys while he's here with me five days a week during July, August and September. It will give him a good place to play but where I can still see him when I'm working or cooking in the kitchen. This will, hopefully, be temporary. We have a playroom in our basement already, but it's not a place I'm willing to send Mr. B down to by himself. Too much down there he can get into if he's not supervised. But this temporary playroom will keep me on track with my quest to have Mr. B adopt to MY schedule, not vice versa. After that? I'm thinking this little room will make a wonderful cozy library/reading room. So now it's off the computer and on to the To Do List! Maybe I'll even take some before and after pics for you!

Stuck between a rock and a crazy place

I cannot believe it's been three weeks since I last posted on my blog. Me, the daily blog poster. I'm pretty sure I've lost all my loyal readers (who, in turn, must be wondering why on earth I never visit their blogs anymore!), and that does make me sad. My excuse? Life. Life just keeps getting in the way of my doing the things I love to do. I wrote this long blog posting about my past week and realized I can be far more concise. Mr. B was sick. My daughter was sick. I babysat 4 out of 5 days and I got sick. Mr. B is better. My daughter is mending. I'm fine. See? It says it all without the icky details you probably don't care about anyway! Starting July 20th, I have Mr. B fulltime through ? mid-September while Mrs. H, his other babysitter, is busy having a baby. At first I thought this was pretty much going to put an end to my "normal" life as I know it, but then I realized that the best thing for Mr. B (and my mental health) is to 1) find activities I can take Mr. B to and 2) adjust Mr. B to MY schedule, rather than spending every day all day entertaining him. When my kids were little I didn't entertain them 24 hours a day -- they had to play on their own while I cleaned house, they had to go grocery shopping, they had to amuse themselves while I cooked dinner, etc. It's never a good idea to let the inmates run the asylum! So I enrolled Mr. B in Vacation Bible School for a week, signed him up for one day at "The Little Gym" each week, and plan on taking him to Story Hour at the local library each week. I may find some other activities as well. Since he's an only child, he craves playing with other kids, so anytime I can get him involved in group activities, I will! Again, as an only child, he needs to learn to sit and play on his own while I (or his Mom) get other things done. I recently showed him how to use my computer and he's actually got very good "mouse skills" now. There are two web sites I have set up for him to play -- one that teaches him his letters and one that has a wonderful game called Nana's Helper. He will spend up to 30 minutes playing these games while I get other things done. Yay! It's going to be all about scheduling and adjusting Mr. B to my schedule. There will be plenty of time outdoors, scheduled time for learning activities and crafts, scheduled activities at other locations. But there will also be time for me to get done the things I need to get done, time to show him how to help with things like dusting, folding clothes, making the bed, and, hopefully, time for me to put my feet up now and then and read or quilt or blog. I always have in my mind all those grandma's whose grandbabies live half-way across the country and grow up without Grandma around, and I know how lucky I am to have this little guy living so close and in my life, and, quite honestly, how lucky he is to have two grandparents who want to spend time with him and who enjoy his company. And now, because I can never seem to get a photo of Mr. B while he's smiling and laughing -- here is the young man that brings so much joy to our lives!