Vertical Gardening-Transplanting

Well, this week I have spent my garden time transplanting plants into bigger containers. Today I just did the watermelons. I wanted to try hanging watermelons, so I snagged my strongest plants and went to work. I used larger containers such as a 2 liter bottle, half gallon jug, and a juice container. I cut the bottoms of them off. This part varies on how much you want to cut pertaining to the size of container and what type of plant you are transplanting. Next I drilled my hanging wire holes, one on each side at least 2 inches from the cut end. Then I drilled to holes in the back so I could thread another wire in the back so I could have a pretty sturdy planter. I threaded the wire through, 18-20 gauge is good, I used 16 on most. The wire I cut for the back I had to measure and make sure it would be long enough to attach to the fence. My sunflowers are really starting to take off, so is my corn. I need to plant more corn though, they do better when they are in a sizable crop. My pocket gardens are going slow, but the Beef Steak tomatoes and cherry tomatoes just started to grow. Who doesn't love huge juicy tomatoes? My sweet Peas Well, there's more, much more, but until next time. Growing food, is like growing your own money :)

Vertical Gardening Pt. 2

So this week has been fun in the garden. I researched and asked around about what I could do with my burn barrel ashes. Well, I was told it makes great soil when mixed properly. So I cleaned out my fire pit and burn barrel and mixed it in with the soil everywhere. I've already seen a lot of improvement on the growth of some of the plants :) So apparently, the people before us had a lot of things in the burn barrel. I've ended up using one of the wooden pallets has a showcase shelf for the strange objects I have found. Hopefully, we'll have chickens soon. I'm trying to fit it all into our budget :) Plus, it'll be nice to have fresh eggs, and extra income coming in from the eggs :) Other than that, we've moved the fire pit and I've set up the old spot where the fire pit was initially, filled it in with dirt, then planted a ring of flowers with a walk in space, leaving plenty of room for a small chair/bench. I'm planting flower vine plants, morning glory is one of them. I want an enclosed flower space for meditation and prayer. Here are a couple of sprouts that are coming up:

Vertical Gardening For THIS Beginner

So I've decided to do a vertical garden this year. Just for a hobby. I'm getting some laying hens too, but that's for another post. I've done tons of picture and idea searching for what kind I can afford and would enjoy doing. Well, first I took a look at doing raised beds or slanted vertical beds with the use of wooden pallets. I plan to paint them all a bunch of fun colors, the set them up individually, depending on how much space each plants needs. Right now as you can see it is just holding up baskets. The next idea I wanted to do was use the cotton pocket "shoe" holder , the kind you hang on the back of a door. What I have done with these so far is fill them with dirt and write in permanent marker which pocket has what plant seeds. Now I am currently waiting on more pallets and scrap wood to build a hanging stand for it. Finally, what else I am working on when it comes to a vertical garden is the awesome use of recyclable materials such as plastic bottles, milk jugs, cans and I plan to hang them all on a piece of plywood that I painted. Well, until next time. Have fun!

Home

The grass can be greener on the other side. Peace can be found, but are you willing to make that choice and keep that promise? The promise of letting God take control of everything that happens all around you. Just rolling with the punches, accepting that things can happen or not happen as you planned. The beauty of just realizing that if something has to wait until another day because it is out of your hands, then its okay. It's set up to be taken care of as soon as possible. I've also learned that it mostly comes around at the last minute. Experiencing different peace-in-action scenarios, I've learned how to bring peace around me. Having Bipolar Disorder, I have recently learned to let things that bother me go if there is nothing I can do about it. I just pray to God to take care of it and He always comes through. Not always how I imagine it would, or think it should, but it always works out. And most of the time it works out better than I had initially planned. My husband and I thought we were going to buy our very first house. We paid off debt and waited for our credit to get better. Well, we never had rent the previous 5 years and with my health issues I couldn't work. Either way, we never owned a credit card, and didn't think we would need one in order to make our credit better. Well, we were wrong. About a month before I was planning on using our tax check towards a decent house payment, we tried getting a pre-approval for a mortgage. We failed by 3 points. Just under what we had planned. We had found the perfect house in the perfect location. Our dreams and plans were crushed. Okay Heather, just brush it off. Plan B:Rent and better your credit over the duration of a year. My husband and children were severely bummed we weren't getting into "our" own home. It was hard controlling my emotions to just keep looking forward and deal the hand that was dealt. I found a place off of craigslist, in my area and price range, size was good too. Well, the day before my husband and I were suppose to look inside the home with the owners who were wanting to rent the place, he drove by the home. No siding, it was by a trashy trailer and from the outside the place looked like a wreck. He was almost entirely decided it was not the place for us. I told him we were going to look inside and speak with them, then make a decision. I immediately fell in love with the woman. She reminded me of my late mother-in-law. Creative and excited about life and strong in her faith. When we walked inside, the place was still under construction, but it was all brand new in there. We walked through and immediately fell in love with the place. It took us awhile to get in there. A lot longer than both us and the landlords planned, but we tried to wait patiently. Unfortunately, every time we got bad news about it taking longer for us to move in, we got hit with other bad news. We needed to spend a lot of our move in money towards fixing our car. Let's just say, it was always something stressful going on and we were struggling with it. How I would deal with it, was stamp out an expletive and sigh, then try to figure out if there is another solution or if we just have to be patient. It is very difficult being patient with 9 people in a small house :) Finally, the day we have all been waiting for comes. A day I haven't seen coming in a very long time, finally was here. We moved a lot of the furniture, just placed the mattresses down and fell asleep once the house was functional enough to survive the next morning. After a week of unpacking and settling into our new home, we can finally breathe easier. Honestly, this home has better qualities in a home and land, I could see us living here for a long time :)

Dreams.........

I'm a totally different person when I dream. A lot of the times I am so angry I end up fighting someone and always feel like I'm the only one left out. Or there's a huge disaster and I'm the only one who can fix it. I've had my children kidnapped, die on me, reseen people who have past away............all in my dreams. What are dreams really? Just some thoughts I've been having. And does this mean I want to be a violent person o already am?....No to the second :)

Another Day in Bed

Well, I went to the OB/GYN today. Apparently the cyst is the same size of my ovary, and is inflamed which is why it is causing me pain. I have tomorrow off and return to Thursday. I hope they don't move me into a different department. Either way I'll do my best to work in the other department. As for my cyst, they normally go away on their own and that's what NP is hoping will happen. If I get a sharper pain, I need to go into the ER for an ultrasound to make sure its not bleeding out. Either way, here I am. Out of work and missing it. Random note: Asa just asked me to duct tape plastic cups, one on each side of his butt lol. Well, much to think about and too drowsy from the medicine to think about it. Laters.

So, last night I went to the emergency room due to a stabbing pain in my lower left pelvis. They ruled out appendicitis, but found a cyst on my right ovary. Still in a lot of pain today, but with the pain medication it is a little bit more tolerable. The doctor said they normally go away or stop being painful on their own, but if it persists, then I need to get it checked out. I've decided to take the day off tomorrow due to the pain and loopiness the medicine gives me. I'm afraid I'm going to lose my job. It's been really good working for me emotionally, and the financial addition it brings helps a lot as well. I pray this pain goes away very soon, so I can return to work. I'm sure if I needed to take a medical leave and explain what is going on, that they would take me back, but it just sucks just starting a job and something like this happen. Mikah's been sick for the past several weeks and it doesn't seem to be getting better. He's still nauseous. He's making me worry, because he's getting so pale. I need to make him an appointment tomorrow as well. I'm reading The Element Chronicles by Eric Ruebeck. So far it's got me interested. It's not the kind of story I would usually read, but that's also why I like it. Well, off to rest. Hopefully tomorrow will be an easier day.

This cat is crazy!

So every time I lay down and get comfortable my cat gets right in my face and demands attention. He will nuzzle for a moment then turn around and put his Burt in my face. Seriously?!?!? I do love him dearly though. So I survived another day at work. I've been lifting a bunch of cushions today up and over my head. I know what you're thinking they're cushions. They're light. Well yeah one or two maybe but these are like couch cushions and I carry at least 8 at the same time over and over again. I trim the excess threads..carry the cushions to the squishing machine so I can slip a bag over them then push a button to release the part that shoves them into the bag /box...tape it then label it and run it where it can be scanned and come back and do the whole process all over again. Yes it's menial, but honestly I love it. Did some deep cleaning here at home. I have to say if you give me a choice of a spot cleaning mop or one with cotton ropes, I'll choose the cotton any day. It has to be hilarious how I mop floors. Here there is no carpet so there's a lot to mop. Well I get a fluffy, but ragged towel and step and slide around on that while I take the very much dripping mop all over the floor in figure eights. As I walk around with the towel under my feet it dries the floor as I go. Someone at work today asked me if I had any hobbies. I just laughed and said too many. Let me see if I can make a list...: Henna art jewelry making wire art mosaics tiedye painting sketching singing song writing crocheting reading writing novels sewing refinishing furniture oil pastels photography Give me time...............I'm sure there's more :) Well, my shoulder is burning fom the lifting at work, so I guess I best ice it and lay down. Blessings friends.

A New Beginning

So I've started working again, and it is full time. Pretty much I clean up the threads off of cushions, then pack them up. Simple enough. It's not much of a job, but I enjoy the people I work with, and I can do the work.

It's been hard, though, not being at home when the older kids are sick, or missing Scotty, my hubby, on his lunch breaks at home. Coming home tired and still trying to push through to feed the kids and keep the house going.

Focusing on the family has always been important to me. I feel like I didn't have much when I was growing up. Not that I'm complaining, but ever since we've started having sit down meals with everyone, the vibe in the home is so much better.

We're on the search for what houses are out there that we'll want to look at when April comes around for when we will purchase our very first home as a family. We'll finally have a space that we can call ours.

What else can I say about what is going on right now? I've been teaching my daughter how too cook. She is always so eager to help me out in the kitchen when it comes to cooking. She's only 11, but I tell you what, she can fry chicken better than me! My little mini-me, except with blue eyes ;)

I've been playing video games with the boys and loving every minute of it.

Where am I spiritually? I'm needing fellowship. The real deal. Next week the whole family will begin the search for a local church. I'm not really looking for a place to stay but a place to branch out of. I know I eventually want to have church/prayer/study/discussions in my home, but I can't do that now, nor am I ready to. That season is yet to come, but I feel it on the horizon.

Before I can even consider this I need to find a mentor of some kind and also pray deeply about how to work it into my family life.

Greenage in the sky, holes in my minds

My mind is going yet again. This time if I were to put it in quick words it would be: Vertical greenhousing, poverty and how I could have an affect on it, living in community and what that means, how I can better live in community intentionally, what can I do to cause a stir in my children's minds, how can I make art a huge part of my life, how can I live without chemicals going into my body and still be mentally healthy/stable...... and I'm just getting started.

Yeah, it's never easy inside my head. Well. we are back from our trip to Indiana and it was wonderful. We visited our family and got to spend much needed time with all of them. Scotty's sister, who has been sick for a long time now with many different health issues, has recently went through a whipple procedure that rerouted her digestive system after removing a part of her pancreas. She has been suffering with pancreatitis for almost two years now. Everything she eats gets tossed back out before it can be digested and on top of that malnutrition, she's been in some excrutiating pain. When we last saw her, she was very pale, and swollen. She was in the hospital and just miserable. This time when we saw her it was like looking at a whole other person. She had lost a lot of weight due to the lack of nutrition, but also she seemed emotionally better. Her pain is down more now than it has been in many years, and she's not throwing up as much as she has been this past year. She has a feeding tube that provide her body with food, but the nutritional absorbtion is no where near what it could be if her body could handle the digesting of the foods properly.

I do ask you all to be praying for her recovery of this and to keep moving strong on God's path.

While I was up in South Dakota this year I learned a great deal about solar energy and vertical greenhousing. AMAZING stuff. They are now building greenhouses where the plants are inside these sheets of plastic or something that hang vertically. They are rotated throughout and the sun shines right on through. With this you get organic plants and food without having to prep land and wait years for it to become organically certified land. On top of that you use a watering system that gets recycled with a pond on the lowest level where the fish live and reproduce and in turn they clear the water of any acids or gases that would normally prevent the water to be properly reused. To energize such a system they put solar panels all around to help cut the costs. For one acre of vertical greenhousing it is equal to 30 acres of horizontal land farming. HUGE. On top of that you can provide food cheaper, no need for pestisides or huge farming equipment, gas to run it. And if it were on rooftops, no land to buy, just renting/buying of the space.

And then learning this, I headed down here in Dallas. Right now I'm currently going to school full time to become a nurse or diagnostic sonographer. Why do I not yet know what I want to go for? Mostly it is due to the fact that I am a dreamer. I dream of many ways that God can have my family living radically in ways most people couldn't even imagine possible. Most of the time I don't even see how it could be possible, but I still go ahead and dream of the many different aspects of how God views the possibiliies of our lives. It's not all about me, ya know. I love the medical fields. I can grasp it and understand it. My mother is a nurse, and it all just seemed to make sense to me. There would always be a job for me, I would be in the care of people and with people. It was a great way for me to reach out to people that also had a financial security.

Don't get me wrong, I love the medical field. I just wish I knew what I really want to be when I grow up....if I grow up.

On top of the vertical greenhousing coming back up into my mind, I've been finding myself in a bunch of different conversations about people who are homeless, and poverty, and how if more people cared there would not even be poverty. I watched a part of an interview of Shane Claireborn about what he has learned about poverty and working and building towards a solution and getting people involved. What would it look like if I dedicated my life to such a cause. How huge of a difference would I be able to make? None really without God backing me every step of the way. But I believe in a God that has endless possibilities and I believe that I am anything He makes me to be.

I guess one thing I always struggle with when I go on these tangents is how can I do that while being mother and wife? Is this what I am built for? Do I have the guts to attempt this let alone try those shoes on? What if we could all just gather together, unite the church as a whole and build to solve the hunger, solve it without killing our planet anymore, and in turn possibly make this planet better than it was before? If we were mto incorporate verticale greehousing in many, many places, we could replace the deadened farm lands into a home for trees and other plants.

Another ordeal crossing the mind of insanity is how would our house look if we did this community living on a more intentional scale. If we got more organized in our doing and following God more. If we focused more on bringing God to the center of it all and keeping Him there. Praying more, spending time together more, relating more. Also what kind of boundaries do we need to set up? How can we provide a strong community with each other that is shared amongst those we are constantly around? Digging into Scotty's library soon and will be having many discussions with the adults in the house.

I guess I need to get some sleep. I hope to finish this blog too, but like my others it may not happen totally. Blessings upon you.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, it's thankgiving already. Wowzers. Well, this means this semester is almost finished and I will have a fabulous break off of school. I am really excited about this. Breathing space is about to come.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

drop me

I am so behind on my homework. Losing control of that peaceful part in your body where you don't freak out and just want to scream, at anyone, everyone. Just because, not that they are doing anything wrong, but when your emotional control is wrong then everything is wrong. Whether it was a smile or a laugh, it has to stop. It just needs to stop, even if just for that one second of clarity. Don't forget to breath, slowly. Repeat, I am okay over and over until maybe one day I will believe it. I know it sounds like I'm losing my mind, and maybe I am.

I am, currently in a house that lives, moves, is turned upside down constantly. But ever since I have had children, this has always been true. Nothing different. Just take my family times three minus two and you have our house.

Well back to brain crunching. Finish the paper I just can't finish, finish my math work that seems never-ending, then study for the test, then prepare for the other test I feel so far from being prepared for..... I haven't even thought about it yet. One step, the first step counts the most,,, just keep swimming , swimming, swimming. What do we do, we swim, swim.

Losing things like days...minds.....

Emotional, offset, crazy, flighty, forgetful, space-case, over-whelmed, under-whelmed........is there ever a time to just whelm it all around?

Hello, my name is Heather and I suffer from anxiety& depression. Wow, it doesn't sound so crapped up when you type it out. Huh, maybe that's why at support meetings you introduce yourself not only to other people and what you are going through but also to yourself. I know that idea may cross others, as queer, strange and odd, but maybe you just have to step outside yourself to get to know who you are. what makes you what defines the inner uniquity that makes you you.

Here lately I have felt like I have been losing my mind, having memory loss episodes that throw me straight into chaos. Before this happened I would wake up in the middle of the night with an anxiety/panic attack. Or I would just be sitting there, most of the time that means Studying, calm and what not and my heart will just start pumping, adrenaline is surging and I feel like I'm freaking out and I DON'T know why. NOT COOL.

I've been in and out of the doctor's office twice the past couple of weeks, trying to get a grip. The first med change turned me into a zombie and I have yet to wait for this next med change to take action. I know a lot of people are anti-meds, but honestly, without the Lexapro I have been on, my life would still be an extreme up down and back to hell again broken roller coaster ride that never ended.

Now I'm just taking a break, just to put my random thoughts of weirdness down. Is it entertaining for you? It does good for me....

I am biased, but my kids are too frikkin cute. Asa is talking like a madman and has a personality out of no where. He feels the urge to be stronger than everone because he's use to being the youngest one who couldn't keep up.

Kiara is the quirky little princess of mine who tries to be prissy with a baby-talk accent. She let her daddy take out a tooth today, that's her second gap right now, and she's got three others that want to come out, so she will soon be the toothlessth wonder. She's still my power prayer warrior.

Mikah, he's just funny. He makes up scenarios in his head like a comic strip. He's creative, and super sensitive. God's tugging at him, I see resistence here and there, but that natural love for God is growing inside him. I look at him and just get that feeling that greatness awaits just around the corner. Not sure what, who or how, but just something.

My sweet husband. Always working harder and harder to be that daddy he knew he could be and in my eyes, he done passed it. He's been so patient with me during this emotional time, and I have been able to lean on him and just trust him to care for me when I cannot do it for myself. When I see how much better we both are in our marriage I just want to praise God. We all need work, this is a journey after all, but day in and day out I'm so grateful that he is my life partner in crime.

We looked at a house today, it was awesome. Keep praying for everything to go and grow in God's way, not our's. Good night.

Blessings

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

My brain is tired, my body feels exhausted and yet again I have a paper due tomorrow I am getting stuck on over and over again. Grrrrrrrrrr. So here I am writing about something else in hopes that my brain and I will begin to work together once again.

My oldest son Mikah always as something to make me think and feel I am so not ready to have him grow up yet, and at that same moment I'm excited and hopeful about the man he will become. Of course I feel the same way about the other two, but he's older and I see more maturity in him than the other two for obvious reasons.

When I study, I go and hide in our big family bedroom. He comes back there to grab something or whatnot, then comes over to me and hugs me and says he's proud I study so hard, gives me an almost tearful smile then walks out of the room. This he has done in scrambled ways many times. Makes me all fuzzy inside.

There is a little 2 year old girl and a 3 month old girl living with us as well. There was a time when the 2 year old was not able to get out of her crib yet, because the adult had said no. Apparently when the adult came in to get her 15 minutes later, she found Mikah sitting there reading to the 2 year old. And on top of that he is the only one who can get her to repeat anything (which we have found that Mikah can be a jokster at this) The 3 month old, he just melts over, anything that can make her smile, he is so willing to go the extra mile to do it. THAT GUY JUST ROCK!

Kiara has been my little singer. She's just in love with singer and asks me to sing to her every night before bed. The night of church, I saw her drummin on someone's guitar case, singing "There's a Stirring" (thx Kristen,luv ya) which is one of Kiwi's favorite songs.

Well, my brain is finally allowing me to do something called an essay so I best jump off here and take advantage. Blessings everyone!

Yes this is personal, but why hide God's Love

Danae, the only thing I can tell you is that living with our pastors and in community has been the one true thing that has helped us. Scott and I lost each other long ago and were just barely surviving each day. Eventually when I was right about to take the final step of making an end of our marriage, God threw truth in my face and showed me where I needed to be by showing me where the best place for the ones I hold so dear are-my children whom I just happened to let Scott take when I told him I gave up.

I had to see the sins I had and that it wasn't all Scott. Yes he had his part too, but honestly when I came back, I had a great friend that God spoke through to me and how she didn't even recognize me anymore. Yeah it hurt and burned hearing it, but hey sometimes love hurts and sometimes when we as people need change in someone so bad, we normally have to begin the change with ourselves. I don't know what you are going through recently, but all I know is that I'm praying for you. I have never forgotten you in my prayers.I will email sometime son and we can do our prayers and whatnots then. Love you girl.....sorry if blogging this was weird, but I felt that this was something a lot of people didn't know.