Trogg's Hollow

broccoli, potatoes, and strawberries, oh my

2010-05-25T22:33:00.002-05:00

The title of this post about sums it up - we now have growing in the half-planted garden: broccoli (its flowering already!!!), potatoes, strawberries (there is a ton a fruit on my plants - hopefully the dog will stop getting herself tangled in the net I have over them so the birds stay away), peas, and lettuce. There are also some volunteer squash plants and sunflowers springing up from last year...now the waiting begins. I can't wait to harvest something!!

There's alot more to plant, but there is definitely a sense of satisfaction watching what we have start to grow. The heat the last few days (and boy, has there been heat) lets us know that summer is on its way, and with it juicy ripe tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, and mounds and mounds of zucchini (and I still haven't made a dent in last years freezer stock!). So here's to summer, and vegetables, in all their glory.

I'm back

2010-05-11T23:36:00.002-05:00

So I'm pretty bad at blogging. I keep thinking about all kinds of things to talk about, its the finding the time that keeps getting me. Oh well, I'm doing my best, and if you're devoted enough (like my cousin Jeff), you'll just keep checking in.

So the garden is in and growing. Well, mostly in. We've planted the cabbage-crops (cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, cauliflower) and lettuce, and seeded potatoes, peas and beans, lettuce, and corn so far. We're behind on the carrots, beets, and radishes, but we'll get them in soon. The rain this week, while needed, put a hold on Chris' plans to plant all week while he was home. But there's plenty of other things to be done, so his time won't be wasted (oh and we have new bikes, so he can play with those!). There will be plenty of time to play with the new garden seeder soon enough. We've tilled a pretty vast area, and I'm looking forward to watching it fill in over the next few months. I'll post pictures eventually, but just getting back to writing was enough for now!

science fair

2010-04-18T21:34:00.003-05:00

He did it - Monkey 1 successfully participated in his first science fair. Our local library sponsored the event, and there were over 250 participants, ranging from Kindergarten all the way through high school. Overall it was a very impressive event, and I was surprised at the variety of projects and themes. Mostly, though, I was impressed by my little guy, his enthusiasm, and the attention and praise he received. In a nutshell, he rocked the fair. He was excited, he was knowledgeable, he wowed the judges, and he was the one of the only kids in his age category that made his own display. If there was ever a time that I was sure about homeschooling my children, this was one of them. His ability to talk to the adult judges, and his overall comprehension of the subject matter (his project was about solar power) was well beyond what you would expect for a 6 year old and, well, just wow. I hope this enthusiasm continues, and I hope we can continue to feed it. Way to go, son. Mommy is proud.

On the green growing things front, the cold frame is built (thank you husband), the newly measured out garden is 75% fenced in, and the German head lettuce has been started (yeah, so we're a little behind but we'll catch up and soon we'll have more everything than we know what to do with). Also, I have strawberries and raspberries growing like mad, and newly discovered currants that will need to be moved and tended and may end up in a jam at some point. Hooray for Spring!!

a bug's life

2010-04-09T22:07:00.002-05:00

Monkey 1 received a small bug house from his Grandma for Easter. Since then, he has been nearly obsessed with catching bugs. Every nice day, he has been out in the yard, digging around, trying to find something that he could catch. Ants are too small and hard to catch. Spiders are too fragile. Anything with wings just flew away. Well this afternoon, out in the sandbox, we finally succeeded. There, buried in the sand, was a smallish black beetle. Monkey ran into the house and grabbed the cage. We tried putting the bug into the bug maze, but the poor stunned creature refused to budge. So we transferred it to the cage, which the kids immediately filled with leaves and sticks to make the beetle more comfortable. Excited, Monkey named the little guy Ned and called Daddy to tell him all about it. Poor Ned has been hiding in a corner of the bug box all day, but it still filled my little boy with such a sense of accomplishment it doesn't really matter. I'm sure we'll release Ned in a few days, and start all over again.

On another note, today we harvested the first food of 2010. Yes, a few, small, bitter bunches of purple Romaine lettuce have grown up out of last year's crop. It's not much, but still a good, satisfying start to the season.

2010-04-07T22:17:00.002-05:00

Can anyone tell me why people refuse to take care of themselves? I mean really tell me. Give me a good answer that I will accept and find no holes in. Because I simply cannot understand why people refuse to make choices that keep them healthy. I'm specifically thinking about diet. I heard on the news this morning that Chicago Public Schools have a whole new diet plan going into effect next year, removing this and that and adding a bunch of healthy stuff. Now don't get me wrong, I think its great that they're doing this, but seriously? Why was the menu so bad to begin with? That's what I want to know.

Everyday there are reports about rising obesity levels and all the heath problems that go with that. People, c'mon. Eating well is not that hard, and its really delicious and rewarding and makes you feel great. How is that bad? Is it easier to drive thru and grab a burger? Sometimes, yes. But is it worth it to wait until you get somewhere where you can make a better choice and actually feed your body? Yes, yes, yes. So where is the disconnect? Why aren't people doing this? Are we really that taken in by fancy advertising?

I know I'm a lucky skinny person, and for that I am thankful. But there's alot of thought that goes into what I put in my mouth, whatever it is. I have my own reasons for the choices I make, and I don't like to regret eating something. I like to enjoy it. Mostly I like my body to enjoy it. I like to feel good, have energy, keep going. So tell me, what's going on out there people? I just don't get it.

the inevitable

2010-04-01T21:57:00.002-05:00

It's finally happened. Monkey 1 needs glasses. Really not a big deal, and considering the eyesight, or lack thereof, of his parents, hardly a surprise. But still it makes me a little emotional. Its kind of a big change. The glasses we picked out are really cool (just like Daddy's), and he looks super-cute, but its the permanence of the change that gets me. I am a person who wears glasses, as is my husband. They're kind of part of our identity. I used to wear contacts, and I find that wearing glasses makes more of a statement. THAT'S what gets me. Its almost like he's adding a body part - a very useful one, yes, but something new and unfamiliar, on a little body I know so well. He's excited, as I was when I was 6 and got my first pair, so that's good. Just a big change for such a little guy, who's rapidly becoming not such a little guy.

Hopefully he'll be able to avoid braces.

Grouting the bathroom floor.

2010-03-25T19:19:00.001-05:00

"Okay, so, if you were in the water and there was a cement man and you were sweating and your sweat got on him you would get hurt, right?", says monkey #2.
"If I was in the water and there was a cement man and I was sweating and my sweat got on him would I get hurt?", says I.
"Yeah", she says.
"Um, yes," I says.
"Mommy I have to go poopy. Can you turn on the light and shut the door?" says she.

Mind your children

2010-03-24T21:28:00.002-05:00

I came across a great quote today, from Kittie Franz, a nurse and breastfeeding guru:

Remember, you are not managing an inconvenience; You are raising a human being

and it hit me. It hit me because its something I have been thinking about alot lately. Not for myself so much, but for the world around me. I have three small kids, so I spend alot of my time around not only other small kids, but their parents. And so many of these parents seem so, well, disconnected (before I go any further I want to assure my many beloved friends that am I not talking about any of them). We go to the park, and so often I see mothers sitting off on a bench, waiting for the time to take the kids back home again. The other day there was a mother waiting in the car. I think she might have spent some of the time cleaning it (hey, I understand taking advantage of a cleaning opportunity), but she basically waited in the car. We go to our library, which has an extensive children's section including a play area, and there are parents sitting back, staring blankly into space while their children run wild and fight with other kids.

Now believe me when I say I understand the need for a few quiet minutes. Really, I do. REALLY. But I just find it so sad to constantly see kids being "dumped" by their parents, who seem to have little to no interest in what their kids are doing. Kids are small for such a short time, I feel like as a parent you need to work extra hard to soak up every moment you can with them. Our Monkey 1 is only 6 and already I am starting to see his big-boyness. Before long, he's not going to want me hanging around. I don't want to miss out now. Being a parent is complicated. It's hard hard work, it's exhausting, but it's not an inconvenience. People should celebrate their children. Don't just take them to the park, go to the park with them. Run with them, play with them. Because before you know it they won't be kids anymore and you'll wonder what happened.

Stuff and nonsense

2010-03-21T11:49:00.002-05:00

We have alot of stuff. With 2 adults and 3 kids and a large extended family, I guess its kind of inevitable. The thing is, I'm not really a "stuff" person. I would love to get rid of stuff, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. My kids have a whole lot of stuff, but really with 3 kids, that's just the way it is. I can't get rid of their stuff. So far, when one child has grown out of something, another child has come along. I know that this cycle is not infinite, and someday I will start getting rid of that stuff, but honestly I am not emotionally ready to go there. Anyway, my kids use their stuff and alot of what they have is pretty fun.

So that leavesthe the two of us, surrounded by our stuff. It seems the simpler life is supposed to get, the more stuff it requires. So here we are, fighting with our time-saving stuff, trying to get the printer to work, the phone to ring the way we want, the computer to play the movie. But that's a whole different cycle of craziness. It just seems that no matter how much stuff we get rid of (and we've actually gotten really good at getting rid of things), there's more stuff we should get rid of, or use, and can't figure out where we put or why we even have it.

Sometimes I think about all the people and all the stuff they have. What happens to all that stuff? When we're all gone, who gets it? All of these houses, these containers full of all this stuff? I wonder, is it really possible to live a modern life without stuff? I think we could maybe do it, but it almost seems harder than to just give into the stuff. Chances are, unless some great calamity should occur, I will never be completely stuff-free. Maybe the best thing is to be careful about the stuff we accumulate. Selective stuff. Stuff that means something. Now I have to go clean some stuff, move some stuff, store some stuff, and freecycle some stuff.

airing out

2010-03-18T22:51:00.003-05:00

I hung a load of laundry on the line today.

Nothing earth-shattering about that, I realize. But there was something so satisfying about it. Spring is here. OK, this IS northern Illinois, so Spring will come and go in waves of hot and cold. It was in the 60s today, and sunny. There are buds on the honeysuckle and crocuses flowering and even some brave broccoli attempting to regrow. It's supposed to snow this weekend, and I'm sure there will be a few more days of cold and ice and frozen dog poo. But somehow the hanging on the line of that load of clothes signified something important to me. It was like letting out a breath I had been holding all winter long, without knowing it. It was such a normal, everyday warm weather thing to do, and in doing it I knew I would have to do it again. And again. And that means, my friends, that winter can't last forever.

I know alot of people hang their clothes out. I know people have been doing it for centuries, out of necessity. I do it to save a few bucks, to conserve some energy, and for the pure pleasure of the task and its results. Laundry from the line is different - feels different, smells different. Even the kids recognize this. But I only do it in nice weather. I don't like frozen underpants. And by doing it today, it was a recognition that nice weather is here. That nice weather will stay. That the sun will shine and the breeze will blow and the shirts will dry and that maybe it will snow this weekend but the pants and nightgowns and t-shirts will be back out there soon.

So I feel good. I feel better than I have in months. And I owe it (almost all) to the sight of underwear flapping in the breeze. Happy (almost) Spring.

greetings and hello

2010-03-17T22:59:00.004-05:00

So let me start out by saying I am totally new to the world of blogging. Oh, I've read many blogs, searched blogs, thought about blogging, but now here I am, actually doing it and I'm not really sure WHAT I'm doing. I like to think I have alot to say about interesting things, and I like to think that most of what I say is interesting. Most people I know are too nice to tell me its not, so I'm just going to go on assuming that it is and, well, blog my little heart out.

I don't know that this blog will be about one specific thing. Scratch that - I KNOW that this blog will not be about one specific thing. Life in general is too complicated for that. I can only hope that this blog will grow along with life, and roll with it, and fit into it in some way. I plan on enjoying this.

So while this blog isn't about one specific thing, it is, I guess, about me. And my family. And what I think is our interesting life. So I'll start there...

We're a bigger-than-average family, I think, by America's standards, living here in northern Illinois. We're a husband, a wife (that's me), and three energetic children. Monkey 1 is 6, our only boy and full of more crazy energy than I have ever seen packed into one human being. Monkey 2 is a beautiful, moody, silly 3 year old girl who, I predict, will be our greatest challenge as a teenager. And little Monkey 3 is our 1 year old daughter, already keeping up with her older siblings in energy level, silliness, and the ability to be amazingly loud. They're the most amazing, wonderful people I have ever had the privilege of knowing.

So that's our family, in a little nutshell. In a rather larger one, we fit in homeschooling, small-time farming, landlording (is that a word? if not, then it should be), historic preservation, music and accounting. Yes, we homeschool our kids - actually we unschool our kids, which in our humble opinion is way better. I know, it's a big time consuming commitment and I'll never have a moment of free time until my youngest child moves away. Whatever. So what. It's a decision I stand by and am damn sure of. And yes, we farm. Right now on a much smaller scale than we would like, but we're working on that. We're trying to be self-sustaining right now, and hoping to move up in the ranks and start a CSA, and sell people our food, and make people happy. And we rent houses to people - that's not all that exciting and I won't say more about it right now. And yes, I work in historic preservation, evaluating architecture for historic significance and even doing the occasional archaeological dig. And yes, for now my beloved works in the world of accounting. For now.

That's all I'll say about us - for now. I've said alot - I guess there's alot to say. Soon I'll say more, about my kids, homeschooling, farming, historic preservation, music, and maybe even accounting. It should be interesting.

Marcy's new blog

2010-03-09T11:26:00.004-06:00

This will be where Marcy (and Trogg) post unschooling/sustainable local farming/life wisdom info and commentary. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.