Susiej

Years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child, there was an email circulating, listing 10 reasons on how to tell if you’re ready to have kids. One of them was to throw broken glass all over the floor, and walk barefoot over the pieces. The experience was to prepare you for the pain you will encounter when you step on your kid’s legos. No amount of prep work can prepare you for that kind of pain.

My boys promise me that if I buy them plastic bins, they will sort each piece by color, and put them there every night.  (Yeah, right.)  Until then,

We spread them out on one big blanket. When they’re done, we just roll up the blanket and put them in a basket.

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Peas love cold weather, and I would have planted them by now if not for the icy mass of snow covering my garden spot. At the same time, I was thinking about all that money I can’t resist spending on that first pack of cool-season annuals – petunias and violas for my flower pots. (Which are edible, too, by the way) So, instead of planting those pea seeds in the garden, I decided to spend just a few dollars and plant those pea seeds in the flowerpots that sit at my front and back doors — the only snow-free spots around. Here’s a photo from a Container Garden Book that inspired me.

Those pretty flowers are actually sweet peas (seed packs available everywhere for under $2) that are mixed with the snow peas, which we’ll soon be eating for dinner.  Growing this is just as simple as it sounds. (Can I just tell you how great that dirt smelled?! Almost free winter therapy!) My containers were already empty from last fall, sitting in the garage, just waiting for spring. I filled the containers with potting mix, planted the seeds, and watered. I did not skimp on the seeds — they’re cheap, I want a full, lush basket, and I can always give away the extra seedlings if I have to.

Photo of nurturing gift to myself for the week.

This may not be necessary, but because it’s still very cold, just to be safe, and to give the seeds a head start, I covered the pots with plastic just to get them going. (See the snow in the background!)

There are actually quite a few cold-season varieties you can start planting in your pots — broccoli, spinach, lettuce, arugula. More photos from the book for inspiration:

Tulips, lettuce

Onion sets and spinach

When the weather warms up, and as the peas are done, I can begin planting the next crop of food:

Nasturtiums and Peppers. (Pepper plants will either be bought, or started from seeds indoors.)

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Her presence was a constant in my childhood. Hers was the big wide chest I snuggled on as an infant, the shoulder I cried on, the large lap I sat on with scraped knees and bee stings, and the sounding board against the bullies at school. She was my shield when my parents were too harsh.

She understood that childhood served one purpose; to eat all the sugary-home-made jam you could fit on a single piece of buttered toast.  Christmas was for popcorn balls, and yet she shooed every child in her kitchen out when the hot syrup was just about to be poured on the marble slab on the days she made hard-tack candy, for fear that someone would get burned.

When the men’s work pants, shirts, or the sisters’ summer dresses became too worn for patches; she used her seam ripper to take off every single button, to save them in a tin. For what? For the odd button that bounced off a blouse?  She had oodles of buttons – beyond the limit of what she could actually ever use.

As I run my fingers through these tins, the discs slip between my fingers like satin against my skin — can you hear that sound of applause they make as they clink against each other? I wonder now if maybe Grandma had stepped out of her waste-not-want not mode with these buttons. Perhaps she saved them because she simply loved them; not because they were useful. These buttons glisten like massive jewels, and that would have been a luxury that was passed over by this depression-era girl that grew up working out in the onion fields. Her single indulgence. But, she never told me that.

She died while I was pregnant with my first son, in 1995. One morning, after pulling an all-nighter with my colicky baby, I learned that the young family that had moved into her farmhouse had a little girl; and Grandma, apparently, was looking after her. The girl’s favorite lost doll would suddenly appear the next morning in plain site – stuff like that.

I was crushed over this news. Grandma should have been there with me, to help me calm this baby. It was hard enough sharing her with my cousins and grand cousins — but now a complete stranger? It took some effort on my part, in those early days, to not associate every cry my son made with her absence in my life.

Although, she never did like to leave her house…

Since then, only one or two times, (this marks the third), have I ever let my mind drift to the reality that my little boys do not know about the taste of her jam, the feel of her lap, the comfort of her shoulder, the smell of her powder, and those eyes, so deep with compassion and love that just one look made you want to grow up and do only those things that would make her proud.

That loss is more than I can comfortably bear. I can search high and low in every toy catalogue, and never scratch the surface to come close to bringing what she could have brought into their lives. If maybe they knew her, then missing her would be more fun. We could easily say, “Remember that time when Grandma …”

So, I make these button dolls out of her buttons. I use pipe cleaners to twist the doll into shape, and then add the buttons, twisting the ends of the pipe cleaner at the end to hold the buttons in place. The flat ones make nice hats. Simply my way of leaving a little bit of Grandma around the house for the boys to see.

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The soap boy is now into WRENCHES. He really likes wrenches. So, of course, he wanted a “wrench valentine” box. After puzzling for weeks, I finally convinced him today (the day before the Valentine party) to create a toolbox valentine box, complete with a bolt and wire secret clasp. We can now add this latest creation to our ongoing list of valentine boxes.

Must add the caption, “We Work Great Together!”

This was a “learn as you go” project, but oh so easy. You can reap the benefit of learning from my mistakes.

We found that it was best to cut the box, without the aluminum foil, first, and then wrap it in foil. Once the cardboard was cut, it was easy to just feel around for the slits and use an exact-o knife to cut the foil.

• Glue or tape closed the top of an empty cereal box.
• Cut the top off the box, only on three sides, so that you have a “flap” lid.

• Cut a slit below your lid so that kids can insert their valentines. (Resist the urge to follow your 6-year-old’s please to cut this slit into the shape of a wrench. The effect will be lost, and you’ll end up with a crooked, off-center slit. See box above.)
• Wrap box like a present with aluminum foil, using duct tape as tape.
• Find your cuts, and slit the aluminum foil with an exact-o knife.
• The cut edges will stick up, so finish them off with a nice layer of duct tape to hold them down.
• For the bolt closure, reinforce, with duct tape, a spot on the inside and outside of the box where you want to insert your bolt. Directly above the slit, centered.
• Somehow make a hole, smaller than your bolt, and work your bolt through by twisting. You want your hole to be smaller than the bolt so that it will stay in place.
• Follow the same procedure for the wire on the top of the lid, only a much smaller hole.
• Cut 4 inches of picture wire and insert through the hole, securing with a knot and duct tape on the inside of the lid.
• Now, you simply pull down the wire to wrap around the bolt. You now have a secure “seal” on your valentine box, so no girls can get to your stash.
• My teenager used sandpaper to cut out letters to write his name. Wire would have been best… but, it’s the NIGHT BEFORE THE PARTY!
• For embellishment, we added a real wrench. (Try saying that 6 times real fast.)

He is thrilled to have this toolbox valentine. He thinks the picture wire is real “electric wire” and wonders if his kindergarten teacher “will even allow it!”

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I found these cookie crafts around Christmas time, and I tucked the idea away in my head, saving it for a humdrum wintery day, when the excitement and hullabaloo of Christmas had faded. This was the perfect day. The kids came home from school early, and thankfully, we had this little project.

They were very easy, a lot less messier than making paper snowflakes, and the kids were delighted, and happily entertained; for all of about 20 minutes. You cut these into snowflake shapes before baking them. The dough is won-ton wrappers, which are nice and soft, and can easily be cut with kid scissors. Here’s what you do:

Start with one won-ton wrapper,and fold it in half, and then over again to make a square. Then, fold over to make a triangle, and start cutting little divots and triangles — cut only on that folded side. We had to look up some of our favorite designs.

Then, we spritzed our designs with olive oil, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and finally baked at 325 degrees for 5-10 minutes.  However, I remember the recipe I read (in a doctor’s office waiting room) said to sprinkle them with sugar — or cinnamon and sugar. Try that — maybe with a bit of butter mixed with the olive oil, because, these, in the words of my teenager, “really tasted awful.” Still, they couldn’t stop eating them!

As a side benefit, I think we can now add these cookies to our snow day good luck charm, as, since we made these, they are now forecasting a winter storm that could start early in the morning. They say, “Lots of snow.”

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Last summer, my salads never had quite enough radishes, basil, parsley or arugula. The cucumbers and zucchini vines always spread their wings just enough to pipe down the shoots of my salad seedlings so that the little veggies could never take off and spread out and stand up like proper vegetable soldiers.

Photo, my future garden, courtesy of Sunset Magazine: For the names of plants, click here:

So, that exciting day when I planted my garlic last fall, I spread out more newspaper and leaves and expanded my garden. Still, I wanted more space, but I didn’t want the place to look like a farm. Since then, I’ve learned that the problem with garden space lies in the rows. Straight vegetable beds, with rows for walking, take valuable space away from the plants. For example, a traditional row garden of 13 square feet only provides 3 feet of plantable area (when factoring walkways) – a waste of 75 percent of the garden space.

A keyhole garden, is a circular garden, with a walkway up the middle, and has no rows. This consolidated garden allows you to harvest your plants from one spot, as you work your way around from the circle in the middle. If a keyhole garden takes up over 29 square feet, (size is up to you – this is for an example) it has a plantable area of more than 19 feet – 75 percent productive land, versus only 25% plantable land with a row garden.

In addition, the keyhole garden design lends itself to planting your seedlings densely, which does minimize weeds, allowing you to plant more, and encourages the roots to go down deep to the water, rather than spreading out. In short, it’s for the lazy gardener.

I was worried about having enough stones and rocks to build up the walls. Then, I found this simple efficient design from the Urban Oasis Project.

I can certainly find enough rocks for this garden. Besides, the rocks are an excellent way to help build up heat in the garden for the vegetables.

It’s not that I am a lazy gardener – far from it – because working the soil is relaxing for me. But, I am unable to be there to tend to my garden as often as I like. This brings me to the next feature that I love about the keyhole garden. It’s self-sufficient.

The key (no pun) to this keyhole garden is its inner fuel tank – a constant source of water and fertilizer is the compost bin that sits in the inner basket of the garden. This is where you put kitchen scraps, grass clippings, and leaves, and organic material (no meat or dairy). As this material decomposes, it provides water and fertilizer as the material turns into compost. The compact design of the keyhole makes the turnover from potato peel to dirt happen very quickly.

The central basket means the garden survives with no to low watering and no fertilizing. In fact, this is a method specifically designed for those in parts of the world who suffer from low rainfall. The keyhole garden takes all of the effort of watering and when-to-fertilize out of the equation for me – perfect for those who say they can’t grow anything. I might be able to grow two gardens. One for the lake, and one for home.

Traditionally, the keyhole garden is a circle, with a path cut into the middle in one place to give you access to the garden. But, mowing around circles is a problem. My solution will be to keep the garden bed in its rectangular shape, and to fill those triangular pockets around the corners of the circle with something else. Such as bean fort teepees, or tomatoes in cages, or dry herbs, such as rosemary. The possibilities are simply endless.

Instructions for this keyhole garden are coming.

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