2013: A year of getting things done!

So...a long time between posts! I've never been good at consistantly blogging, but I've been busy with my now toddler, as well as pregnancy and the birth of bub number 2. So this blog took a complete back seat, as did my poor garden.

After a year of complete neglect it is pretty much a wasteland and I need to basically start from scratch. So instead of hiding in shame, I'm going to try to document the process of getting the garden going on this blog in order to be more accountable.

I'm still having trouble getting photos to work in my blog posts when using my iPad, so hopefully I can remedy that in order to show some before and after pics.

I've already got some good things happening this year, including potty training my son, starting my daughter on solids, getting a fence rebuilt (it's been damaged since 2008, so it's a big accomplishment for me!). But my garden goals for this year are
1) To get a pergola built to provide shade for the house as well as to give an outdoor sitting area
2) Replace broken driveway pavers with permeable paving
3) Create wicking veggie beds
4) New fence in front yard to keep kids safe and garden private
5) Build up soil fertility in front yard- currently clay, boggy in winter, dry in summer, lacks any shade and almost completely covered in weeds. This is the site of my would be food forest, but I've realised the necessity of going back to basics. I'll be planting some green manures and borrowing some chooks to scratch it over at various points in the year with the intention of planting it out next year, or this coming spring if my efforts are particularly successful.
6) To generally have a yard that is safe for my kids and others to play in (not full of old wood, wire and nails as it currently is!)
7) To spend time gardening with my son
8) To preserve at least 2 garden items for future use

So hopefully this year will be the year of getting things done in the garden! I don't plan on any more morning sickness (LOL) so no excuses for not getting out there and doing it!

Maybe next year my garden will be closer to this...

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:
- the first full night's sleep for a fortnight
- the sound of rain on the roof when I'm rugged up and warm
- my veggie garden, and the time to spend in it
- my generous father-in-law who is always contributing to my garden projects (thanks for the straw!)
- the lend of an oh-so-lovely camera and the hint that I might one day have one of my own
- the easy access we have to medicine when we're sick
- my lovely family who bring me so much joy
- knowing that I'm saved through grace alone and don't have to earn my salvation
- date nights

A garden day

Today I'm going to spend my time in the garden, enjoying this beautiful spring weather. In the last few weeks I've been digging in my green manure beds, so they're all ready for spring planting.
My lovely father in law is also going to drop by and help me slash down some over-enthusiastic weed growth in the front yard. I'm going to be planting my pumpkins and zucchinis and cucumbers out the front, under the fruit trees this year, which should free up a lot more space in the raised veggie beds, as well as keeping down the weeds (and looking pretty) in the front garden. Win, win, win!
I've also been doing some big tidying up in the back yard to make it safer for my son to play in now that he is walking. It really reminded me how important it is to be organised and deal with things right away- once you've put something down to deal with later it often stays there for a very long time! I found our long-lost hammer, moved ladders that haven't been used in months and cleaned out our worm farm from about 4 years ago! Hmmm, I think I need to prioritize garden clean up and maintenance a little more!
I'm also hoping to do some craft activities if I get time. Christmas is fast approaching and I really want to give all handmade things for Christmas this year, so I need to get some projects finished quickly and get some more underway if I'm going to complete them all in time. At least I have them all planned, and even managed to buy all my material that I'll need on sale.
So, a fun, frugal day ahead.

Thanks God for this beautiful sunshine!

I've just spent two glorious days in the sunshine, working in the garden and doing mega-loads of laundry.
Spring is most definately in the air- even if it's not yet on the calendar. It's made me excited to start planting things again. Yesterday I weeded one of the raised veggie beds and one of the sections of the front yard, planted kale, onions, carrots, peas, borlotti beans, raspberries and ying yang beans. I also thinned out carrots, parsnips, spinach and lettuce seedlings. Not bad given that I haven't been out in the garden for weeks!

A better additude

I was browsing through some blogs the other day, reading comments. My eye was drawn to one reader who was commenting on her need to have a "better additude". Now my inner-teacher immediately started to criticize the poor spelling (What do they teach them in these schools?) and given that the comments were riddled with bad spelling, poor grammar and little to no punctuation, I had a lot of fodder for my critique!

But throughout the day the "better additude" statement kept coming back to me. God has been rebuking me lately for my pride and I realised this is one area where I tend to let my prideful attitude take over. Instead of putting others down for their spelling mistakes, I should be so thankful that I was able to receive a good education. I really do want to change my attitude so that I'm not so critical of others.

Even once I'd reached this point, it kept niggling at me. Additude, ADD-itude. What I should be striving for is to have a heart that adds to those around me. Do my conversations build others up? Do I add or do I subtract from others lives? I'm sad to say, I don't think I have been adding. I'm prone to getting caught up in negative thinking and feeling that my choices, my way of doing things is better. But "it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no-one can boast." It doesn't matter to God how good my spelling or anything else is- what matters is if I have faith in Jesus.

So, I'm pledging to have "a better additude" from this point on. To strive to build others up. And to remind myself when I get judgemental, that it is only by God's grace that I'm saved!

Simple Things

I'm so happy and grateful that I've had the chance to break free from the consumer mindset! I'm currently sitting and watching my little boy play with a shape sorting toy that a friend made him from a margarine container and bottle tops. He's getting so much joy out of a simple object, I'm getting joy from seeing him having fun and from being reminded of the love from our friend and no money has changed hands to bring this about, just creativity and some recycling! He might have just as much fun with something purchased from the shop, but we'd lose all the rest of the joy that comes from using simple handmade things.
It's so great to be able to recognise the lies that advertising tells us- you need this latest gizmo or gadget to be happy. Actually, no, we don't! I hope I can impart this to my boy as he grows up so that he never feels like he has to buy stuff in order to be satisfied.

Cold and flu season

Well, the bug that has been travelling around my family finally caught up with me last week.
I thought I had been doing pretty well not to fall ill, since I'm usually the first in the family to get any bug, but I think it was just biding its time in order to hit me hard. I've spent the last week coughing, spluttering, sneezing, blowing my nose and trying to take it easy to recover. I think the tide has finally turned and I'm on the mend, but still not totally well unfortunately.
I still managed to make some good progress on writing up my detailed timetable (it's so nearly finished). It's been a really helpful process for working out how I actually want to spend my time. I watched a tiny bit of Joyce Meyer this morning, where she made the great point that what we spend our time on is where our heart is. I want my heart to be with God, with my family, with my friends, with my garden, with my craftwork. I don't want to have a heart for TV watching or lazing around, which I feel I've fallen into a bit of late. So writing my timetable has been very timely. I've made sure that I've set aside some designated couple time and family time and my husband insisted that I set aside some rest time so that I feel refreshed and not frustrated when I'm busy with housework or other tasks. Being a submissive wife can be such a blessing at times like this!
I think I should finally finish the timetable today, and am hoping to have some good God-time as well. It's been too long since I've set aside proper time for bible-reading and prayer, but I've got a nice chunk of time set aside each day now, so I'm hoping that will be helpful.