More Than Motherhood

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One day I was done with my kids. Every little thing that they did annoyed me. My husband was around, so I called him over and took a little break before things got ugly. After ten minutes alone to think, I felt much better. One oft repeated piece of advice for mothers is to get some alone time. Taking breaks can enable a better perspective on being a mommy. But I can’t think of a scripture or advice from church that says we need breaks from motherhood. Instead, I hear thoughts such as, “Lose yourself in the service of others,” and “Be more diligent and concerned at home.” There is a call to return to home, not one to get enough “me” time.

I wanted to gain a better understanding of the situation, so I set to work studying and listening. The first thing I wrote down was “More than Motherhood.” In that small phrase I found my answer to the conflicting advice. I don’t need a set amount of me time. But in my life, I do need to do more than just be mommy. By doing more I fulfill my potential. Simply being a mom, even a good one, and idling away other good opportunities to use my talents and time leads to annoyance and a less fulfilling life. I need to engage in good activities beyond housework and mothering.

Check it out: My sister-in-law posted pictures of us after visiting. She takes amazing photos.

Our friends had their baby. They grow a lot in 5 months!

Another messy, fun activity. The parents liked this one better than PB. He thought it was a bit too icky. 

Manual on Children

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When people have babies for the first time you often hear about feelings of fear and not knowing what to do. I’ve heard people say jokingly, “Wouldn’t it be nice if children came with instruction manuals?” My Lamaze teacher had a better view about it. She said that there’s no reason to not know what you are doing and feel helpless, there are plenty of books out there. She suggested Penelope Leach. I bought the book Your Baby and Child.

It’s divided into chapter based on age. I read each section right before PB entered that age group. It helped me understand my kids and how to handle them. Sometimes I have a parenting issue, read a section (re-read now, I’ve read the book cover to cover) and feel much better. There aren’t  magical solutions, but it’s good to know that first; your child’s erratic behavior is perfectly normal and second; there are good ways to deal with the erratic behavior. I don’t follow everything in the book, but I get a good place to start from instead of starting from nothing.

I also read and loved (again I think I made it through this book cover to cover), The Nursing Mother’s Companion. I ended up nursing Peter past a year, nearly exclusively. Curtis is on the same track.

In one of Bill Cosby’s albums he says, “Intellectuals go to study things that people do naturally.” Reading up on child-rearing can be like that. But I believe that all my book reading has helped me be a better parent. What books do you like to read about parenting?

Horticulture Curriculum

My son is growing from a toddler to preschooler, and I am suddenly confronted with the task of education. As I was thinking about school my mind turned to my own schooling.

I loved biology in high school, and felt a strong push to go into a science related field. I choose horticulture. Plenty of my peers had no love of science, but loved the art of designing and showing gardens. My peers complained over the science classes we had to take–chemistry, biology, genetics. They would rather take flower arranging, advanced landscape design. A professor told me that horticulture was a science degree. He did not look highly on the artsy design classes.

Both my professor and my peers lost the beauty of horticulture. Horticulture is a wonderful combination of both art and science. Nowhere is this more evident for me than in pruning trees. My favorite class in college was a graduate level class on environmental plant physiology. It involved a lot of hard-science and math calculations to determine exactly how plants grew. It also gave me the best education on pruning. As I understood how plants grew, I knew what I was trying to achieve in pruning.

When I’m in front of the tree, I’m not running calculations through my head. I use the science I know and turn it into an art. I envision how that tree can best get light and grow healthy and strong. With the skillful stroke of my pruners, I shape it into my vision. Pruning is my favorite art from. But if I had no understanding of the science behind it, it would not be beloved art, but a misunderstood chore.

I went  into horticulture as a scientist. But horticulture taught me to be an artist too.

Joyous Repetition

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This last week I happily was able to break out my beloved loppers and prune some shrubs. I miss having a garden. I am hoping that next garden season I will have a place to live that is not a temporary pit-stop. Apartments stink. I want land.

Most of life is simple, repetitive. But joyful too. I’ve been thinking about how sometimes life feels like a washing machine cycle. Wash, rinse, spin, repeat. Laundry never seems to get done. But even though life can get repetitious, it never does truly repeat itself. The varied repetition is the best way that we can learn and grow. We learn repetitiously, like performing math problems over and over. Muscles grow by doing the same exercise over and over. So life is the same way.

Our cousins came and visited. We all got sandy and wet at the Chattahoochee river. By the end of their visit, PB had a meltdown due to fatigue and hunger. Cousins were much too fun to bother with eating and sleeping.

Fun at home

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Ready? Go! Step on the yoga block, go under the chair, over the mat, bounce the ball, go under the baby gym, rock on the bouncer and jump over the finish line. Repeat. A lot. Then go play cars. Eventually:

I thought he was getting to old to do that. Apparently he got tuckered out by the obstacle course. And if you need something else to make you laugh:

Cornstarch Putty

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Do you remember what happens when you mix cornstarch and water? You get a great homemade putty: gooey, a liquid yet solid, and wonderful fun.

Cornstarch putty is very washable. The day we did this, the water was off when we went to clean up (leak in the mainline). With a few baby wipes we were okay, and it dries back to a powder that brushes off.  My husband enjoyed this one much more than Peter actually did. Don’t forget the food coloring (a must for half of the kid projects I do). We used orange and put it in an ice cream bucket: I was suddenly craving orange creamsicles.

I was wondering if you could save this: just let it dry out and add more water later. It grew mold, so no. But it’s less than $2 for a box of cornstarch, so still a cheap hour of fun.

Little Mulberry Park to Ravine Outlook

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Last Saturday we went hiking at Little Mulberry Park. The weather forecast seemed cooler than normal, so I decided it would be fun to make it out on a hike. We hiked up a hill and down to a ravine overlook. There was a small stacked stone waterfall, that you couldn’t see from the overlook. We crossed the barrier and climbed down to get a better look. (It wasn’t that steep.) The water was at a trickle, but combine that with the dense forest, humid air, and the hike/climb to get there and it was beautiful. Peter actually likes hiking now. He’ll say, “We going hiking,” with a smile on his face. He was anxious to get to the playground afterword.

 The humidity increased down in the dense forest by the ravine. Hiking back up to the meadow, elevation and a small breeze felt wonderful. It is hot here…but I realized I would rather be in hot Atlanta than in Utah with no AC or bad AC. The last four summers (for that matter most of my life) have been devoid of the blessing of central air.

Atlanta Botanical Gardens

Prepare to be bombarded with pictures. I went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens (and if you like visiting public gardens, become a member of AHS and use the reciprocal garden program). It was cloudy and the gardens were gorgeous so I was a super happy photographer. The only reason I am able to fit all the pictures from my trip into one post is because I had a nursing infant and preschooler along with me.

While there, I though about how beautiful everything is and how I like Atlanta. But although Atlanta is filled with fun stuff to do, has the most amazing wooded gardens, and has been a place I’ve been able to thrive, I also don’t considered it home. Home is Utah. Home is where I can actually give good recommendations on plants, I know exactly when the average last spring freeze is, and I know how to grow the biggest, juiciest melons. Home is where my family lives, where I grew up, and where the landscape is familiar and comforting even if it is covered in dry grass and sagebrush.

I wouldn’t mind if I did end up here, although that’s not the plan. Even if I do, Atlanta will always be an exotic location. It’s not the home base where I grew up and first grew a garden.

Grandma Visit

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Strong boy. This is the result of his daddy being a little ambitious. 

Chubby baby smiles. What could be happier?

A playhouse at the Atlanta history center. Wired, wallpapered and ready for little guests. PB had the idea for the set up. 

Playing doctor

My mom came out and visited for my birthday. We went to the Atlanta History Center, a children’s museum, and a park. But mostly we spent lots of time talking and playing with the kids. Grandma is imaginative and expressive with the kids. I loved watching her play with them, and listening to her stories. She is a wonderful storyteller and I enjoyed her stories as much as PB did.

Star Box

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This creation is all my idea. I don’t know if it is necessarily one people will be running to duplicate, but we had fun. I try to do “school” with PB, and our theme was space. I had this great idea to make a star box.

We took a box, painted the inside black, poked holes in it and added a paper moon in a larger hole. There is paper over the box seams to prevent light from entering in.  Decorated the outside with spaceships and stars. The idea is that you get inside (or in this case use it as a strange hat because it’s a smaller box) and you experience the night sky. It didn’t turn out too bad…I was very pleased when I went to take pictures and ended up with this:

The view from inside

The experience was not so great in real life. But still a fun, easy idea.