Family Vacation

I returned from my first Florida vacation last weekend. I am still not sure why it is that folks in the Midwest are so in love with Florida. It must be the palm trees, sun and the tropical feel. I personally like the frequently changing weather of the Midwest, and I think if I could plan a vacation any where in the world it would be to Maine, New England or to northern Europe. I know, many would call me crazy, but I love snow and rain and wind and I don't like temperatures above 90 degrees. Give me something in between and I love it! I suppose it's a plus, with my climate preference, that I don't mind going out in inclement weather. It's just fine with me. We all have our quirks.

I did enjoy the gardens at Disney, especially at Epcot and the Animal Kingdom. Epcot was flashy with bright swashes of color. Animal Kingdom was relaxing with it's savannas and forestry--a wonderful feeling of being immersed in nature!

The kids had a really good time on this trip, especially at Disney's Magical Kingdom. We spent 12 hours at the Magical Kingdom and when we were done with the rides and the fireworks we all went back to the hotel and crashed like a ton of bricks. I and my husband were sore for two days. I am still exhausted! But it was a memorable family vacation and I was happy that the kids and husband were happy.

The day after our flight got back to Indiana, my eldest daughter participated in the State Science Olympiad. We think her school did well, but we were way too pooped out to stick around another four hours to the end and find out. So I imagine she will find out the results today at school.

I spent the rest of the weekend doing chores like grocery shopping, film developing, unpacking and laundry--all for the sake of getting everyone back to the usual schedule for today. Today, I have done more laundry, had a brief nap and begun to moan over having to do the monthly bills and prepare for a tax appointment on April Fool's Day. (There are so many ways that is an appropriate day to take care of taxes! LOL Feel the irony?)

I also am having to turn my mind back to finishing the bedroom renovations, garden cleanup and planting of bare root stock in my own yard, and the Children's Garden Project with the master gardener program. So much to do. I think I'm going to need more coffee or another nap or both.

Grant #1 Submitted

Last Tuesday, I spoke with the President of my master gardener association, and learned that because I had such a well written proposal, the grant was already completed and mailed. She said that all the information she needed was all right there in my proposal overview. Wow. Thank you two years of art ed in college!

Of course, I may need to help with other grants for this project. I received an email today with another grant suggestion. The members seem pretty excited about the garden's prospects and the board is definitely looking at this plan as a permanent fixture of the demonstration gardens. Thanks to last summer's master gardener trip to Chicago last summer that highlighted the importance and design of public spaces and places, I think we all were thinking about gardens a bit differently.

This should be a very interesting year.