Not about Julia

When David says that it's time to update the blog . . . well, this is the first time he has ever said such a thing. I have been a bit blue about the lack of employment and thinking about how I should be using my time. When it was hot, I was staying inside, reading about attachment, trauma, autism, and the best interest of the child, the last for the GAL work that I would like to be doing. Then, at the beginning of the week, it turned cooler and I have been outside gardening and offering myself to any underfed mosquitoes.

I haven't written about the garden here although I am working on a garden blog that is mostly pictures right now. I pull weeds and muck in the dirt to find out what I am thinking, and it works every time. This is such an odd freedom. For a long time, I really wanted to see what being a SAHM was like -- like all through Cheshire's growing up. It was impractical and financially impossible. I am not complaining about working, because I really like to work and be involved in the world to the extent that I am able, but at the same time, I wanted to see what life on the other side of the track was like. I wanted to see if the grass was greener. Well, my grass is greener with me home to water it.

And so, I have been a SAHM for a year and a half now. Umm, I didn't expect to do it for such a challenge of a child. I have to smile. When else?? I didn't expect to have the chance to do it while I still had to worry about finding a job and working. And it is not just the money that worries me. Of course, the money is a worry, but more I am worried that no one wants this old lady. Oy.

Oy.

How old could I be? I can parent Julia, and learn more about parenting than I ever had to. I could learn anything! Including some new standards and procedures for some legal work.

Gardening: This is an interesting garden. I have plants that I would have never bought and many that were part of my old garden. This is a more work intensive garden work than what I had in Indy because there I planted an "easy" garden. The plants were probably not as exciting but I did plant what I liked as long as it didn't need to be dug up or fussed over. The last gardener overplanted in the front garden beds and did not do enough for the back. I spent the last few days digging up stuff in the front and moving some of it to the back. I will also move plants within beds -- like moving the big plants to the back of the beds so that the little plants can be seen. Why does that seem so simple? Why didn't MJ do it that way? There is also one bed, mostly in the shade that is planted in sort of a prarie style -- not the architectural style, more like lots of grasses and messy plants that lean towards the sun and fall over on to the sidewalks. I am moving the grasses to the back garden. I am not sure what I am doing with much of the plants. I might just pull the ones I don't like. In the spring I found a good deal on two small Rhododendum bushes. I put one in this prairie bed where there was an empty space. That plant is staying and I hope to see it grow big and flower.

As for the wisdom the dirt taught this week. I will do more volunteering both at school (get into Julia's classroom this year. It was my own decision not to spend time there last year) and with some group providing legal help for the underrepresented. And get back to changing the house in small ways -- maybe repaint the kitchen and back hall, and the blue window in the bathroom.