Independence Days week ending 5/23/09

We had a good week this week. I finally got some things done and it is really feeling like summer. The kids go back for 4 more days of school next week and then summer vacation begins. Love it!

Here's my list of Independence Days activities for last week:

Plant Something: bell pepper, hot peppers, roses, strawberries, blueberries

Store something: stocked up on multi-vitamins, vitamin C, rice, beans, canned pumpkin, canned turnip greens, kids Tylenol, cough drops, spaghetti sauce, and last (but certainly not least) a bag of candy

Reduce waste/reduce dependence: sorted recyclables and delivered to local recycling center, used leaves cleaned out of the back of my mom's yard in layering new lasagna beds.

Feeling great! Hoping to get strawberries this summer. I guess we'll have to wait at least a year for blueberries, but I'm sure it will be worth the wait. I'm not going to win the debate over replacing the ornamental pears out front with actual fruit-bearing trees, so I'm working on plotting out potential planting sites for peach trees in the back yard. It may mean pulling out the privet in my butterfly garden to make room, but the privet's become rather unruly anyway.

I love this Independence Days challenge. It helps me on a couple of different fronts. First, since I've never done serious gardening before, the challenge kind of keeps me going. My previous experience lies in a few common culinary herbs and a couple of tomato plants. Without the challenge to spur me on, I may have just planted in my raised "vegetable" bed and been done with it. Instead, I keep thinking, "What can I plant now and where can I put it?" I'm re-thinking current beds to include edibles and making new beds to hold even more. Second, the challenge keeps me encouraged because I keep track of what I do and how I spend my time. I find this very helpful for those days (weeks?) when I run around like crazy but feel that I have accomplished nothing. When I look at my notes, I see that I have, in fact, accomplished many important things.

These are things I have metioned before, but I think it bears repeating. Especially in light of Memorial Day. What better way to honor those who have died in service to our country than to live the most independent and abundant lives we can? Historically, isn't that what America stood for? Independence from oppression and tyranny. Abundance through hard work. These are beautiful and wonderful values and we can return to that vision. They were common values as recently as my grandparents' generation. We have departed from that vision in a way that is similar to how a rebellious teenager veers off from his parents. But it is important to remember that rebellious teenagers, through experience and success and failure, often return to the ways of their parents. We can do that, too. We can say, "You know what, we tried it our way and it just didn't work, so we're going to go back to what DID work." We can decide not to keep up with the Joneses, but instead to keep up with the needs of our families. We can choose to provide for our families in ways that will help to provide for the next generation of our families. We can do it. We will do it. It's hard, though, isn't it?
Brooke