To garden or not to garden

...That is the question on my mind this week.

It seems (and I realized I'm jinxing things here) that we may be getting an early spring this year, after a very mild winter.  And so, I'm starting to think about gardening.

We bought our house four years ago. The first year I did nothing in the back yard, but the 2nd year I decided to plant a small garden - I've never considered myself to have a particularly green thumb, but I love tomatoes warm and fresh from the garden, so I gave it a go.  And, it turns out, I LOVED gardening. My tomatoes, zucchini, and jalapenos grew like weeds, and I had a great time in my little garden.

Last year I planned and planted a much more ambitious garden, but a late freeze followed by a horrible dry spell meant that not much grew, and it was a little frustrating so I spent most of the fall and winter thinking about how to lay my garden out better, considered raised beds to help keep things growing, and strategized what and where to plant.

However.

I have a new baby.

When we added Kid1 to our family, the transition was honestly not nearly the challenge I had been told to expect.  As it turns out that was because she was just a ridiculously easy baby, but of course like any woman with OEB (one easy baby) syndrome I thought it was my wonderful skill as a mother and knew adding Kid2 would be just as easy as Kid1.

Kid2 knocked me flat to the ground down a few pegs. He was NOT an easy baby and Kid1 was not an easy toddler. It wasn't three times as hard to have two kids, as I had been told, it was so much more than that.

Kid3 was another huge transition but I assumed that it was because Kid1 and Kid2 were firmly out of the "baby" stage. And because he has no fear.

So I assumed, and joked with friends, that adding another baby to our family after we already had 3 was really just going to be a matter of "adding to the chaos." And it is, but it isn't.  I know she's my fourth baby but I am woefully out of practice managing two SMALL children together, and in some ways I feel like I'm right back in the early days of learning to juggle two kids again.

So I'm wondering if I should even bother with a real garden this year, or if perhaps I should do a couple of small containers with my favorites (tomatoes and zucchini) and save the big ambitious garden plan for next year.

I don't really want to do so, but a very wise friend told me recently that when she had her 4th baby, she felt stressed and overwhelmed until a lightbulb went off at about  6 weeks, that she just plain couldn't do everything she'd done with only 3 children and she had to let some things go until her 4th baby was a little older.  Well, Kid4 is almost 7 weeks old, and a lightbulb is going off.  Maybe this year isn't the year for a big ambitious garden.

But boy, will I miss the nice big planned assortment of home-grown veggies this year!

Compromise.

Kid1 and Kid2 are learning about early US history and the formation and structure of the US government for school right now. One of the lessons they are doing discusses how (theoretically) congress, the senate, and the president must compromise to make laws and run the country. One of the questions asked is "Have you ever made a compromise with someone?"

Kid1, stubborn kid that she is, answered that question with a very simple, straightforward, and honest "No."

I had to laugh and when she asked why, I explained it to her and she chuckled and said "well I don't remember ever compromising with anybody!" Of course, I just laughed harder.

Points for honesty.  She's such an awesome kid, but she definitely is not lacking when it comes to being stubborn.

Stuffed Cookies.

Kid1 had a party for Girl Scouts this week and asked me to make cookies. I had some hershey's hugs and kisses in the house and figured I'd try hugs-stuffed chocolate chip cookies.

I was expecting a much smaller version of this crazy cookie from picky-palate.com and with the hugs, that's pretty much what I got. The girls in Kid1's girl scout troop were thrilled and devoured the cookies.

The kisses, however, were a different story.  I used caramel-filled Hershey's kisses, and while they were baking the caramel oozed out of the chocolate shell and pretty much throughout the entire cookie. We were left with chewy, delicious, caramel-y chocolate chip cookies.  They were amazing. Possibly the best cookies I've ever made!

I'm going to have to stash a bag or two of the caramel kisses in the house, for whenever I make cookies again. Yum!

Wonderful.

"To love what you do and feel that it matters -- how could anything be more fun?"- Katharine Graham

Princess

One of the downsides of having a baby girl in the middle of winter is that she doesn't have as many opportunities to wear cute girlie dresses.  But, I had some hand-me-down dresses from my oldest daughter, and I realized that I better dress Kid4 in one of them if she was ever going to wear it - she is growing like a weed!  Kid3 was watching, and when he saw that she was wearing a dress he gasped and said "you made the baby a princess!"  Super cute.