Red Letter Day

Yesterday marked a milestone with the Children's Garden Project. I completed laying out all the critical design lines in the 10,000 square foot garden. Granted it's just lines in the dirt, but meaningful lines. It took me less than 12 hours of concentrated work to complete this part of the project. I admit I was selfish and wanted to do this part by myself, but it worked out as most of the MG's were prepping for our fundraising Graden Expo. Even in shades of brown-black soil, I can see the components coming together.

Now, I must set up work days for everyone to come out and help move soil, rake, dig, lay mulch on the paths, and prep for the grass seed to go down in all the grassy areas. Once we start seeing the grass green up, the garden should start to look more defined.

So much to do and coordinate: building projects, plants, bog excavation and lining. The list goes on.

What's old and new

I have not updated my blog for over two weeks. It seems I drafted two entries, but trashed them--too late, too whatever. So to bring you up to date...I recovered from the vacation; my husband and I got our taxes done early this year to my amazement, and my wonderful spouse helped me to cleanup our fall debris yesterday.

The Children's Garden plans are starting to become more concrete with the layout beginning in the field. (I found myself thinking of it as the "Field of Dreams" the other day--"build it and they will come".) I am making lists in my head of jobs to be done by master gardeners and trying to figure out dates to proceed with them all. As for my own modest home yard/garden, plans are being sketchily laid in my head for the plan of attack this spring with a determination that the weather will be cooperative!

The family's summer schedule has been perused and tentative dates for vacation(s) and possible camps have been set. I hope we all will have the energy to do it all happily. It seems insane to me that already I am thinking about the next school year and how we already have some things on the calendar for August. Life is crazy like that here.

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.

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Where have all the girls scout cookies gone...seems like only yesterday there were 7 boxes in the kitchen and now there are only two (and a half).

Ahhh...memories.

More Kudos and rejoicing

Today I attended a master gardener association executive board meeting, with the Children's Garden Plan and budget proposal in tow. (The items I have been laboring on this past week.) I presented to the board the design, its purpose and the ballpark figures necessary to complete the project as a whole and...I was actually pleasantly surprised that they decided with enthusiasm to give me money to move the project forward. The paltry sum I had been hoping for in the back of my mind was blown away. I think I was slack-jawed there for a moment or two. Wow. They gave me nearly a third of the total costs. Wow. And in this economy. Triple wow.

So the upshot of this is, the project can get started this spring! And it also means I need to apply for a grant for another part of the funds. Luckily, the Pres. of the Association is more than willing to help me do this--and she has someone experienced in writing grants to give us advice on how to proceed.

So all good. I still can't believe that they like it as much as they say they do. Maybe I don't believe it because it hasn't fully sunk in what it all will mean. This is a huge project. (Slightly under 1/4 acre.) Wild.

Kudos Deserved!

I just found out a little while ago that my eldest daughter placed 3rd in Meteorology at the Regional Science Olympiad, AND that her school placed second. SOO...they are going to the State Science Olympiad Competition next month. Whoo-pah!!