Economic Collapse = Gardening

The current state of the economy has strengthened my desire to become self-sufficient. As a child, one of my favorite TV shows was "Good Neighbors", which gave a wonderfully romanticized view of living off the land. Possibly the best thing about owning a house is that I now can finally plant a real garden.

I may have gone a bit overboard, but here's what I planted:
- tomatoes
- sweet corn
- sweet tomatoes (cherry tomatoes)
- yukon gold potatoes
- Russian banana potatoes
- sweet potatoes
- ummm... another kind of potato
- bell peppers
- sweet peppers
- kohlrabi
- arugula
- sugar babies (mini watermelon)
- casaba melon
- soybeans
- bush beans
- pole beans
- eggplant
- zucchini
- lettuce
- butternut squash
- brussels sprouts
- broccoli
- yellow onions
- dill
- pesto basil
- red basil
- garlic chives
- oregano
- aloe (not for eating but for burns etc)
- sunflowers (not in the garden, but as part of a living fence)
- marigolds (an attempt to keep bugs out of the garden)

I can't walk outside without gazing at it. What a beautiful sight.


Our house came with a mature apple tree and pear tree so if things go well I will be making all sorts of fruit things to eat all year! Watch out, soon I'll be buying goats and chickens and making a solar-powered generator.... actually that sounds like a great idea!

Thankfully Zander is pretty happy hanging out in the yard watching me work and entertaining himself - for a little while anyway!

Mysterious Giggling

I put Z down for a nap this afternoon and several minutes later heard giggling. I peeked in to discover that he had lifted up his shirt and was tickling his own belly.

My First Mother's Day

I guess you could say that my first Mother's Day began shortly after midnight, when I arrived home from Kzoo to find that my wonderful husband had cleaned the entire house. While I did not successfully transfer the sleeping Z from the car to his crib without waking him, it was only a short bout of screaming and nursing before he was out again.

I spent the first 11 hours (amazing!) of my first Mother's Day in bed, with my beautiful child handed to me a few times for nursing. He spend part of the morning sleeping with me in bed (so cute) and the rest playing with his dad.

Then I had a lovely brunch of scrambled eggs, waffles and sausage and did NOT change an incredibly stinky diaper.

The big event of the day was Zander's first experience with paint. My original plan was to make the standard hand-print-foot-print-I-love-my-mommy thing. It quickly became clear that my curious little boy would not allow something so mundane to happen.


Zander, enjoying our backyard, has no idea what fun is about to take place.

Kzoo with Aunty Yvette

Yvette was in Kalamazoo for a conference this week, so Z and I headed west for a visit. I was pleased that he took to her immediately. In typically Z style, he grabbed and chewed her name tag until it was covered in slobber. She was very kind about it, and let him keep the goo-covered mess.




We went out to eat at Bilbo's, a Hobbit-theme pizza joint. It was pretty cool, with Wizard ales and Dragon brews. I had hoped that the waitstaff would be dressed as Orcs, but no luck there. Z, on his first restaurant outing since Christmas, handled himself quite well.