Mom is Just a Nickname

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, is probably one of my favorite places. It lies at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, which also just happens to be an area where Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland all come together. The town perches amidst the Blue Ridge Mountains, with heights towering above. One overlooking mountain face has a large advertising mural that was painted around the beginning of the 1900′s.
The town is probably best known for it’s part in the Civil War. But, I’ll quote from the National Park Service, the town has seen so much more history than that:

It is more than one event, one date, or one individual. It is multi-layered – involving a diverse number of people and events that influenced the course of our nation’s history. Harpers Ferry witnessed the first successful application of interchangeable manufacture, the arrival of the first successful American railroad, John Brown’s attack on slavery, the largest surrender of Federal troops during the Civil War, and the education of former slaves in one of the earliest integrated schools in the United States.

I’m not sure why Harpers Ferry has such appeal for me. The rivers, mountains and forests definitely have appeal. The historic feel of all of the old buildings certainly holds an appeal. I found magic in the town, wandering amongst the stores aimed at tourists. I found a pottery shop that completely captured my interest. Actually, I was so intrigued by the dragons that the potter had on display that I insisted my mom and dad drive me back to Harpers Ferry months later, after I had saved up the money to buy one. I searched online today for that shop, but did not find it. I did find two other pottery shops listed in the town though.

Certainly, if you’re ever near Washington, D.C., you should try to visit Harpers Ferry. It’s not much more than an hour’s drive away. The experience of Harpers Ferry is very different from that of Washington, D.C., yet complementary. In D.C., life has continued moving. Although there is a certain sense of history in parts of D.C. it is a cold history. It doesn’t make my imagination come alive. The history in Harpers Ferry is alive, though. I felt as if I had stepped back in time when I visited.

If you’re ever hiking the Appalachian Trail, it runs right through Harpers Ferry. Keep hiking further on the Trail to the North and/or West of Harpers Ferry and you’ll quickly find yourself across the river from my old college in Shepherdstown, WV.

Speaking of all this, I really need to find my way back there someday. The steep streets and towering trees, the quiet churches and the echoing history all call me back. Something about those mountains, and the rivers, they all speak to me. I felt them so much more deeply than I ever have any other landscape I’ve seen.

As a teenager, I like to think I had a rather green thumb. I had my own plot of garden in my parents’ backyard where I grew bleeding hearts, clematis and ferns. I had a multitude of houseplants and bonsai growing on a shelf in my bedroom. I read all I could about growing things, I talked to everyone I could find who could teach me more. I also helped in my parents’ vegetable and flower gardens.

Between caring for my kids and the house, the garden fell to the wayside after I got married. My house plants all died. I decided not to get more because we have mold allergies in the family and the soil in the house plants can harbor mold. My garden only survived if I managed to get perennials and pot them in as soon as I brought them home.

So, for years, I’ve said I have a black thumb. I could kill whole flats of seedlings just by blinking. I killed almost every potted plant I had over the course of the last 6 years or so.

But still, I’m intensely interested in plants. I am fascinated by herbs for cooking and medicines. I’m intrigued by other people’s lush gardens. I love the way a home feels when there are live and growing plants throughout.

So, I’m trying to turn my black thumb green again. Thanks to plants shared by family and friends my garden and house are starting to perk up. I’ve only killed one plant, a strawberry, through neglect so far this spring. I almost killed a rosemary bush, but it has greened up since I got it in the ground.

Now, the kids and I are sprouting seeds and I’m hoping I don’t manage to kill those. We planted forget-me-nots, moss roses, thyme, basil, oregano, catnip and johnny jump ups. So far, the basil, moss roses, thyme and forget me nots have sprouted. It’s fun for all of us to watch the green sprouts push towards the sunlight each day.

I’ve got mint waiting to be potted and a few houseplants I’m trying to go without soil (hydroponically) to avoid the mold. So, here’s to turning my black thumb green! The kids are enthusiastic helpers and I’m relearning how fun digging into the dirt can be.

Theology, Herbology, Mythology, Biology, Psychology and today’s version of Justice:  It makes for an interesting mix in this book.  Really, I think the herbology and theology are what hooked me into the raveled story of Aslaug.  The unraveling of her words, combined with the events in a courtroom, led me through so many twists and turns. I was constantly unsure of how the story would end.

But end it did.  Although the end answered several questions, it left many questions hanging.  Unsatisfied, I find myself contemplating the story and trying to unravel a few more ends.  Perhaps that is one of the best parts of the book though.  It has left me thinking, pondering the possibilities.

I’m very excited about sharing this book with some friends tonight! We’re meeting to discuss herbs and as this book as such a high concentration of information about herbs, it just seems to have come to me quite fortuitously!

This book review has been brought to you by Blog Stop Book Tours.  Please check there for more information about this book, its author, and what other reviewers had to say about it.

Kermit was always my favorite Muppet, so I’ve aspired to “be green” for a lot of my life. Now, I guess that’s taken on new meaning for me. Now, I’m just doing my best to make my family’s footprint on the Earth smaller, rather than trying to live in Kermit’s swamp!

We’ve taken a few more baby steps in the last few months. I’m using tote bags instead of plastic ones when I grocery shop. Sadly, they aren’t homemade bags, like I was hoping. Still, they are sturdy and handy. I always feel good when I remember to bring them along and use them. I’m remembering them more than I’m forgetting them these days, since I now keep them stashed by the passenger seat of my car. Any that are brought into the house after shopping are set under my purse so that I grab them on my way out the next time I leave the house.

We just changed another of our light fixtures over to CFL’s this weekend. There is only one light fixture left to change out now. All of the rest of the light bulbs in the house are CFL’s or regular flourescents. As expensive as the CFL bulbs can be, they last so much longer than incandescent bulbs! We are still using some that we got as a gift back in 2006 (or was it earlier than that?) and they are in heavy usage light fixtures! (Thank you, John, for making the investment on our behalf. We teased you at the time, but we really do appreciate them!) We have moved them with us twice now and they will continue moving with us as long as they last.

I think the next “green” step I will take is composting. I’m still weighing what kind of composting I want to do. I’m pretty intrigued by worm composting, or vermicomposting. Toph’s not all that keen on having a worm composting bin in the house though, and that’s the only way we could do that. I like the idea of having a composting pile outside, but I’m not sure the neighbors would think it was so cool! So, I guess that leaves an enclosed pile. I just have to figure out the best way to do it.

Composting has two huge benefits: For one thing, it reduces the amount of waste going into the landfills. So much of what I throw away, I guiltily realize could be composted or recycled. We do recycle, but our city’s recycling program only accepts a few different types of things. So, other things that seem perfectly recycle-able to me end up pitched. The second benefit for me is that compost provides excellent nutrients for my garden. My garden is growing in leaps and bounds right now, and not having to buy fertilizer or other things to improve my soil would be a definite bonus.

What do you do to save resources, to be “green”? Do you vermicompost or have a compost pile? What have your experiences been with composting?

Also about my adventures in Greener Living: Disposable World

I’m not sure what possessed me, but a few days ago I decided the kids and I needed a schedule to follow this summer. It had to be flexible enough to be spontaneous, but firm enough to guide our actions in the day to day.  I dedicated Mondays to sticking around the house, Tuesdays are grocery shopping day, Wednesday we go to the pool, Thursday to the library, and Friday is our Adventure Day, where we go somewhere exciting around town and explore. Adventure Day should mean the zoo, or a museum, or the beach. But, I’m still trying to recover from our late night Wednesday so I wanted to to stick close to home.  So we followed Monday’s schedule more than Friday’s, yesterday.

Here’s what we did:
7-8am: read in bed, watch TV, or check email
8-8:30: breakfast and get dressed
8:30-10: Gardening: planted the rest of the iris and started some seeds in containers
10-10:30: Shower/change clothes, have snack
10:30-12pm: Craft Projects (I was collaging our summer schedule, J was doing a sort of engraving project and X was painting)
12-12:30: Lunch
12:30-1:30: Chores (Clean up lunch dishes, clean kids’ bathroom, scoop cat litter)
1:30-3: Shopping at Home Depot and CVS
3-4: Quiet time
4-5: TV watching

About that time, J got a phone call from a friend inviting her over for the evening. So we dropped her off for that and then went out to eat, instead of eating at home like we were going to. Ooops.

So far, the schedules are popular with the kids, and I liked it too.  I feel like I was more productive today than I normally am, and this made me happy. I felt like the kids enjoyed their day. There was enough time for them to go off on their own and do their own thing, but not so much free time that they were whining at me about boredom. They got to do fun things (gardening and crafts) but it was balanced by getting things done that we needed to get done (chores and shopping).  Jillian especially seemed to appreciate being able to look at the schedule and know what was coming.

I really hope that we can keep up this schedule. I’ve never been one to stick with things like this, except when necessary. But I really think we NEED this structure to our days this year.

So, if you’ve got kids, what do you do to help tame the wild days of summer? How do you keep from hearing “I’m bored” all summer long?