Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Spring!!

The sun has been shining here today and there are flowers blooming in my yard. You have no idea how happy that makes me!! I'm not a winter person. It's long, it's dark and by the end of it I have serious cabin fever. So for the past several weeks I've just been craving green grass and sunshine. I want to go to the park and sit in the grass. I want to lay in my hammock and read a book. I want to pull weeds and plant flowers and feel the sunshine. I need spring!!

Today it finally feels like we might get spring after all and I'm giddy about it! I've been pressing my nose up against the window like a puppy waiting for his people to come home!

Shawn and I have been discussing our big gardening plans this evening and I'm super excited about it! We have a big garden area in our backyard and it's pretty much the bane of my exsistance every summer. There is a house behind us that has been vacant for at least two years (does anyone want to buy that house and be my neighbor PLEASE?!) and that backyard, which boarders our backyard, is just a big mess of weeds all summer. I HATE IT!! As a result our garden area is just a nightmare to keep weed free in the summer. It's practically a full time job to weed that garden and as a result I've given up planting anything there. It just frustrates me.

So last fall we heard about square food gardening and we're all over it! If you've never heard of square foot gardening, it's way cool. Instead of planting veggies in the ground you plant them in big wooden boxes that are divided into square foot sections. The idea is that you can get a lot more veggies in each square foot than you can get in a traditional garden and it's way easier to manage and to weed.

So what we're going to do is fill our whole garden area with weed cloth and pea gravel, which will take care of the big weed problem back there, and then put the boxes on top. The square foot gardens that I've seen are awesome and they seem much more enjoyable to maintain. We're going to make it a fun family project and give the kids their own sections where they can plant whatever they want and then we'll let them take care of it all summer and enjoy the harvest when it's all grown.

I'm super excited about it!! I'm excited for our garden spot to look nice this year instead of being a big mess of weeds and dirt. We'll plant strawberries and peas and beans and corn and pumpkins and all sorts of other fun things. I'll take photos of it to share on my blog as we go along.

So that's project #1. Project #2, which I can't believe I've forgotten to mention is that we finally have a lawyer and we're in the process of finalizing the adoption!! There were a few hoops we had to jump through before we could start the legal process and that part is done now, so we had a meeting with our lawyer last week and she's working on the paperwork so that we can get a court date!! I'm so excited to be able to say that the whole adoption process is finally coming to an end. I want that piece of paper in my hand that says that Clarissa is ours forever. We've waited a long time for that! I'll update when we have more information. I'm shooting for going to court around the middle of May. We're getting closer!!

In other Clarissa news, that kid is walking all over the place now!! She's still a little unsteady but she's doing awesome and she's so proud of herself. She's a determined kid. Now that she can get around more easily she wants to inspect every inch of this house. We have a rather large house and babyproofing has been tricky. I'm always trying to stay one step ahead of her, but she's catching up with me!

So that's what's going on around here today. We have sunshine, garden plans, a lawyer working on paperwork and Clarissa is taking off. Spring has come and things are blooming quite nicely around here!

2 comments:

Lori said...

Congrats on the adoption process! I hope things move quickly and you can finally have that piece of paper.

Your garden sounds interesting. Any links to get more info?

Have fun chasing Clarissa around!

PS Do you think the ducks will be back this year?

Jill said...

We are making a square foot garden this year, too! I am interested in seeing your example!