MIA

MIA... you know, "missing in action." For me, not in the military sense, but in the literal. I have quite literally disappeared these past few months into the never ending action of summer living. Oh, there's so much that has been going on here lately and therefore, that much more to blog about if I can just kick the writer's block.

So where to start? It might be helpful to recall where I left off, but it's been that long that I no longer remember. But as you all know, lack of a good or coherent topic has never stopped me from writing, so here goes. Let's see... so from about December when Joseph was born, to March, I went through some pretty awful postpartum blues. I wouldn't go so far as to call it depression, but it was bad enough. Then I remembered my chiropractor back in Ann Arbor, Michigan and gave her a call. She is also a naturalist doctor and had given me some very helpful supplements after I had Greta. This time around she ran a few tests and determined that my hormone levels were non-existent and I was deplete in all sorts of minerals, all of which indicated a thyroid problem. The happy part of the story is that the supplements she prescribed worked in weeks and thank God! I've been alive ever since then.

What happens when this girl's energy level is normal? Stuff gets done :) I've spent the last month or so making a home in my front yard. When we first moved here, it was a very nice yard for old people, which makes sense as the previous owners were in their 80's. However, the over-abundance of red gravel and pinon bushes were neither friendly to plant nor family life. A good part of May I spent hauling gravel out of the yard. Even now, I shudder when I see a yard full of gravel. I HATE GRAVEL. There. That feels much better. Moving on.... Then Josh and I dug out the pinon bushes and put in a patio area. I dug out a garden plot in front of the patio. I bordered off areas along the fence in preparation for privacy bushes. We built a dog kennel and fenced out our neighbor's yard. After gravel, I hate that neighbor. But that will be a story for another post. The fun really began when we planted tomatoes, peppers, beans and squash in the garden; lilacs and honeysuckle bushes, along with irises and day lilies went along the fence line. Just within the past two weeks, we laid sod. Out here they call it sod. What it is back home is beautiful, beautiful green grass. It ranks as child abuse to deprive kids of grass to run, play and tumble in. I tell Josh we "did it for the kids" when really (as he knows, I'm sure) we put in grass so this Ohio girl won't feel quite so desert bound. The grass really is beautiful. Whatever unhappiness I'm feeling just vanishes when I'm in my yard, watering things, hoeing things, planting things... but never weeding things. Unless it's a thorny, pokey plant, I leave all living green things to grow. After all, it's a veritable miracle that they grew in my yard at all.

Joseph has just saved you all from further ramblings about my garden. Lucky for you :)

Gardening!

We grew up in Ohio and every summer, we put in a garden. It consisted of thousands of tomatoes, a goodly number of peppers, mounds of zucchini, squash, pumpkins, and of course, lettuce and swiss chard. So I consider myself quite capable of gardening in the temperate soil of Ohio. However, this year I am making a tentative stab at gardening in the high altitude, desert climate of New Mexico. Boy, am I out of my element! All I know with certainty is that carrots grow well in sandy soil... but I'm not even sure what you call the soil type here. At any rate, we are going to build some little raised garden beds in the sunny backyard and water the heck out of everything.

I think that by early June it will be warm enough to put plants in outside, so today we started our seeds indoors. It was fun! Greta "helped" fill the little pots with potting soil until (thank God!) it was her nap time... during which time we actually put in the seeds. Now there is a cute little garden in front of my big living room window. God help those seeds because I'm only half sure of what I'm doing.