Stalling

by Melissa // March 28, 2010 // 5 Comments

So, lest you think I overstated my plant-killing skills, I just want to let you know that a scant few weeks after our seeds sprouted, they are all dead. Dead, dead, dead. It’s kind of depressing. When they started showing signs of distress, I tried everything I could think of, but I’m not really good at reading sick plants. Were they getting too much water? Not enough water? Too much sun? Not enough sun? I have no idea. However, our strawberry plants are not only miraculously yet alive, but somehow flourishing. They’re making new leaves and everything! I think we’re going to try again – maybe I just planted too early for our wintry northern climate. Maybe I just need to conduct more research on the plants I’m trying to grow…we’ll see.

In the meantime, I’ve been in sort of a slump over the past few weeks and I pulled out some of my old toys. Back in the day I was quite the avid artist, although I don’t use my skills much for their own sake anymore. (My kids enjoy the pictures I draw for them, though.) The octopus on the front of one of Max’s library books caught my imagination, though, and I wanted to create an image of a happy little octopus with my pastels.

I’m not sure why the paper in the scan looks so dirty. I like my little octopus, though!

I Stand Corrected

by Melissa // March 10, 2010 // 5 Comments

Not spring yet.

Definitely not spring.

Definitely, definitely not spring.

This was so sudden. One day it’s sunny, warming, with barely a snowflake on the ground – twenty-four hours later, you have this. INSANE. I’m so glad that I hadn’t moved any plants outside, like I had started planning. Speaking of plants, we have some sprouts!

The alyssum is going nuts. This seems to be a good choice of seeds for egg cartons – they are very small (so I imagine it will take longer before we need to transplant), and sprouted within a week.

The zinnias were also quick to come up, and are a little more substantial.

The other seeds to have sprouted are our carrot seeds! (Please excuse the blurry photo, but those things are tiny! I really had no idea that carrot seeds were so small. The boys and I investigated the first little seeds to sprout with the help of a magnifying glass.) The jalapeÃ±os and the morning glories are still working – I found a few seeds of each that hadn’t gotten properly buried and I can tell that they are swelling. Theoretically the jalapeÃ±os will take a few weeks to sprout. I can’t wait.

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Snow!

by Melissa // March 8, 2010 // 2 Comments

(Pretend snow. Shh, don’t tell.)

I’ve been reading about bento boxes this week. (Bento is a form of Japanese boxed lunch, carefully packed and balanced to create nutritious individual portions of food.) The premise – as far as I can see – is that the presentation makes the meal about more than just the food. Since I’m trying to seize the day and enrich our lives and all that, when the boys asked for a snack this afternoon, I thought I’d try something interesting.

Huh. That wasn’t too hard, actually!

Um, no, those aren't the seeds I planted the other day...um...

I used a silicone muffin cup liner to shape the “snowballs” from homemade quickie sticky rice (1 cup rice and 2 1/2 cups of water brought to boiling point, then covered and simmered for 20 minutes) to avoid getting rice all over my hands. The snow on the ground is shredded coconut, the buttons and eyes are raisins, the nose is a baby carrot, and the arms are pretzel sticks. It took me less than five minutes to turn food – that they would probably have been only mildly excited about, to be honest – into something so fun that they’re going to remember it for a long time.

Go figure.

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