lazy Saturday

We had a nice lazy Saturday yesterday, as I recover from the heinous virus that has had hold of me for the past 7 days.

First, Elisabeth worked on her CSI skills. It is rather awkward to lay flat on your back in your driveway as neighbors drive by gawking. But, it beats playing Soooey Sooooey which requires picking Elisabeth up and spinning her, so laugh all you want, neighbors of mine.

Then, I taught Elisabeth how to play hopscotch. She rather enjoyed the game, I mean it involves throwing rocks and jumping - what's not to love? And, I almost won. She was kind and let us call it a tie.

The rest of the day was filled with Elisabeth playing with our neighbor's kids, all day long. I think she was the happiest she could possibly be. She's definitely a type A personality (we are absolutely dumbfounded as to how she became a type-A), a natural leader. I love it when kids twice her age do what she tells them to. She has no idea she's just a little one.

Charlotte apparently learned to crawl up stairs yesterday. We know this because I looked up and said "OH MY GOSH!" and sprinted to the stairwell as Charlotte teetered perilously 5 steps up. Just before snatching her, Doug said to wait and he grabbed the camera (the real difference between a mother and a father).

With Elisabeth, I'm pretty sure we were never an inch away from her, so things like this just didn't happen. I don't think this is all attributable to Charlotte being a second child, though. Charlotte is just a different kid. She plays by herself. You could actually sit and read a book while she plays around the house. You still can't sit and read a book if Elisabeth is awake. Elisabeth demanded that we stay within an inch of her at all times. Charlotte is happy to explore on her own.

Then I went to Home Depot and Target. On a Saturday. This is not advisable, especially Home Depot on a Saturday in April when everyone in the world is buying gardening supplies. I needed peat moss. Our garden center at Home Depot is arranged in two very long aisles, with only 2 points where you can cut from one aisle to the other. As you can no doubt guess, the idiots were out in force yesterday, parking their empty flat bed wagon shopping cart things in the cross overs, making no attempt to move over so that anyone could get through. I was forced to go the length of the aisle in order to get to the other aisle. The aisles were completely clogged with people with their enormous carts. I think each cart came with two people who were inevitably arguing about the color of the mulch they wanted, how many bags they needed, or, I kid you not, what mulch even was. IT SAYS IT ON THE BAG YOU MORONS.

Once I found the peat moss section, I managed to wrangle a 3 cu ft bale into my cart followed by a 2 cu ft bag that was mixed with some fertilizer. At this point, the fact that Home Depot was filled with idiots began to work in my favor. At the end of one of the two long aisles there were about 8 people in line for the two checkers. In the other aisle there were two checkers frantically waving their arms for people to come to their checkout. Being idiots, though, these people failed to see them. So I checked out in 14 seconds. And then I was off to the car.

I know I'm a little small, and maybe look kind of puny, but I am capable of a fair amount of wrangling. I know (hope?) people are just being nice, but I'm way too skeptical of people who loiter outside 7-11's with brown bags, who offer to help me, to actually let them. After I politely turn down their help and then manage to get one bale of peat moss that has now developed a leak and one bag of peat moss into the trunk, I especially do not appreciate it when these people laugh and say, "huh, I never thought you'd be able to do that."

So today holds cleaning up for the cleaning lady who comes tomorrow. We have to actually find the floor so that she can vaccuum. And then I am going to plant my veggie garden. I'm trying a new style of gardening called "lasagna gardening" or sheet mulching. It involves sort of composting in place. You add layers of organic material and then just plant in it. Most importantly it involves NO DIGGING. So, I will place cardboard over my garden plot, right on top of the grass. Then I'll start layering. First layer, peat moss, then some old old mulch that is mostly degraded, then more peat moss, then grass clippings, then some lime or bonemeal, then some chopped leaves, then peat moss, then some leaf mulch mixed with soil that I bought from the garden store, then more peat moss, and then more of that soil. I'll build it up to approximately 18 inches. Apparently you can plant in it as soon as you finish the layering. The goal is to only have to buy the peat moss, and to collect the rest of the organic layers over the course of the year - you can pretty much use anything organic as a layer. We're composting this year, so that will be one of next year's layers.

The crops for this year are: tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, zucchini, carrots, and cantelope. Pictures to come. and if you've read this far, you're really a true friend! I did not realize I was quite so long winded this morning. Obviously I am postponing cleaning up for the cleaning lady. But time has come...