Sandra Tayler

Yard Projects

By / October 9, 2004 / 3 Comments

I stopped writing daily updates on my bulb planting project, but that doesn’t mean I stopped working on it.  Unfortunately it also doesn’t mean I finished it.

It began with a box of tulip bulbs which arrived in the mail. I ordered them last June knowing that if I waited until Fall to go buy bulbs I would intend to buy them all the way until it was too late (That’s what happened the last two years running), but if they showed up on my doorstep I’d have to actually plant them.  I opened the box and saw the beautiful round tuilip bulbs and a few giant looking daffodil bulbs.  Then I walked out front and looked at the front flower bed where I intended to plant them.  I couldn’t find it.  The entire bed was grown over with grass and bindweed and assorted other weeds. So I got out my shovel.

Two days of work had the bed most of the way cleared.  In the process I dug up over 300 small bulbs which I set aside to replant.  Then I took a critcal look at the bed again and realized two rosebushes had to come out.  They were planted in front of a window and the hose faucet.  I spent a laborious 2 hours digging and wrestling the thorny things out of the ground and into a box so I could take them to my neighbor who wanted them. 

Nearly a week after the bulbs arrived at my door and I was finally ready to put them into the ground.  Since the ground was already thoroughly turned over this was easy.  Shovel, place bulbs, dump dirt.  5 minutes per hole or less.  Then I decided that I wanted to try planting daylilies on top of the daffodils the way that books recommend.  This meant I had to go dig up a clump of my daylilies and move them.  Fortunately this wasn’t too hard either.  Pleased with myself  I stood back to look at the flowerbed.  I looked at the bed and the number of bulbs and realized two things.  I had a third rosebush which needed to be removed (There were 20 rosebushes here when we moved in, now we have about 12, it’s plenty.), and I was going to run out of flowerbed long before I ran out of bulbs.  Discouraged I went inside for awhile.  Then the doorbell rang and the postman handed me another box of bulbs.  I stared in dismay at the box which contained mostly daffodils (with some tulips and hyacinths for variety) and remembered that, yes indeed, I had ordered these flowers too.

Yesterday I gathered energy and wrangled that third rosebush out of the ground.  This one I freecycled (Thanks for the idea cymrullewes).  Exhausted and scratched I wandered into my back yard trying to figure out where else I was going to put bulbs.  Back there I saw a dozen Fall projects that need doing.  Plants that need moved, weeds that need pulled, vines to chop back.

Today I tackled some of it.   In all I spent 2-3 hours out there working today.  I’ve still got over 100 bulbs to plant.  Had I kept up with the yard work all summer long I wouldn’t  be under so much pressure to get it done so I could plant bulbs before they die.  On the other hand had I not ordered bulbs last spring it is unlikely this yard work would have gotten done at all.  Next spring I’m going to be so glad for all of those bulbs.

housework

By / October 8, 2004

I guess I’ve already gotten used to having Howard here at home. Since he left yesterday morning zero housework has gotten done because he isn’t there to wander through and keep me company while I’m doing it. Or to do it for me. Or to admire work that has been done.

Tonight I’ve got to get the dishes done and mentally prepare myself for tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is Saturday. With it comes “Saturday Work” each child is responsible for cleaning their room and one other room in the house. I’m responsible for making sure they actually get the work done. Usually the work is done by noon, frequently by 10. Saturday afternoons are full of clean house and relaxation.

The long walk home

By / October 8, 2004

Walking the kids home from school was a bad idea. It seemed like a fun idea early this morning when the weather was cool. Kiki and Link were enthusiastic and left the car happy to know that today was a walking day.

Halfway through the morning I remembered that I’d promised to watch a neighbor’s children at 4 pm. I did some mental math. Bell rings at 3:30. Kids take 10 minutes to gather stuff and find me by the playground. The walk takes 15 minutes. It was tight but do-able.

Things I forgot to account for:
Gleek needing to go potty
The school bookfair with candy for sale
Kiki and Link walking slow because they were eating candy
Kiki and Link both tripping and skinning their knees

I got to watch the neighbor drive away from my house while I still had a block to go. She didn’t see me. I rushed the rest of the way home, dumped all the kids into the car and drove to the church building where the neighbor was setting up for the activity she was in charge of, apologized, and took her two boys home with me.

Now I’m hot, sweaty, tired, smelly, I have a headache, and I need to appologize to my own children for venting stress in their direction. On Monday I’m DRIVING.

Immunizations

By / October 7, 2004 / 9 Comments

There is no doubt at all that the federal childhood immunization programs have saved lives. 30 years ago parents considered immunizations a godsend and lined up to immunized children as fast as they possibly could. 30 years ago parents had actually seen polio and measles and mumps and diptheria. They may have actually experienced them first hand. I have never seen any of those diseases. In fact I’m one of a few of my contemporaries who has actually parented a child with chicken pox. Instead of praising medical science for freeing us of fear of these child killing and maiming diseases, today parents fret whether or not immunizations themselves might be dangerous.

I’m one of them. I fret. I have a close friend who believes her son would not be autistic today had the MMR vaccination given to him been mercury free. I’ve read articles and seen some compelling evidence that certain immunizations administered unadvisedly can cause lasting damage. One of my own children may have been given some long term challenges by a dose of Pertussis vaccine administered at the wrong developmental moment. “May”, “might”, “possible” nothing is certain, I wish it were. Then I wouldn’t have to fret every time I take a child to be immunized.

My stand on immunization: There is definitely a risk in immunizing children. The health risks associated with immunization are much much smaller than the health risks of actually getting the disease. There are a few cases where parents must use their judgement about whether to delay or omit a certain immunization. That said, if you choose not to immunize your child you are not only putting your child at risk, but all the children your child comes into contact with. The more unimunized children there are, the higher the odds that these diseases will have outbreaks. None of the childhood diseases are extinct, there are cases of every single one of them every year. I’m scared, but I immunize.

This is on my brain today because I took Patches to get his DT immunization. The standard immunization is DTaP which includes Diptheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis(whooping cough), but having demonstrated that one of my children was sensitive to the Pertussis vaccine, all my children fall into the category of people who might want to skip this one vaccine. I elected to only immunize for Diptheria and Tetanus. This meant a trip down to the County Health Office since it is the only place that carries the specialized vaccine. Long lines, cranky kids, kids who know they’re about to get shots, elderly people wandering through wondering if this is the place for flu shots, Wheee. The good news is that the shot only cost $5. Everything else was pretty unpleasant. I’m glad to be home. Now if only I can get The back brain fretter to shut up the rest of my day could be nice.

Things Which Got Done

By / October 5, 2004 / 4 Comments

Busy day all day long and the list of Things Which Need Doing doesn’t appear to be much smaller. That part is a little discouraging, but when I look at the list of Things Which Got Done I feel much better.

Things Which Got Done Today:
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Kids went to school
Kids picked up from school
Gleek to class
Me to library
3 loads of laundry
2 rosebushes cut down
2 filthy duffel bags washed
Patches put down for nap
dishwasher unloaded
dishwasher reloaded
dishwasher re-unloaded
dishwasher re-reloaded
kitchen counters wiped clean
kitchen floor swept
2 chapters of book read
kid made to do homework
4 kids put to bed
garbage bins to the curb
garbage bins back from curb
1 large garbage bin washed out
brushed hair

The above list is in no particular order and is not all inclusive. I’m not going to write a list of Things Which Need Doing. In my current state of fatigue such a list would only make me cry.

Tantrum.

By / October 4, 2004 / 5 Comments

Today featured a screaming shrieking tantrum. Upon arriving back home from dropping kids at school Gleek became very angry with me because she’d carried her shoes to the car and failed to get them onto her feet. She expected me to sit in the driveway and help her put shoes on so she could walk into the house and take them back off. I refused and herded her into the house where she disolved into a screaming shrieking tantrum. After a few minutes of listening to her kicking and screaming and shouting “I hate you!” I picked her up and put her into her room. She knows when I do this she is supposed to stay there until she is calm. Instead she went running for the door and demanding her blanket. I put the child safety doorknob on so that she couldn’t get out of her room without permission and retrieved her blanket from where she’d thrown it in the living room. I gave it to her and she hit me with it. So I shut the door on her and tried to ignore the screaming and pounding.

Howard came up from his office wondering what all the noise was about. I’m fairly certain the neighbors were wondering too, but fortunately they didn’t come and ask. I’m so glad Howard was home because we were able to exercise some tag-team parenting. When one parent is in conflict with a child, then the other parent gets to step in and be understanding. Gleek resisted Howard in that role. She was demanding that she wanted mommy, but I was feeling abused and I felt that it was important that she appologize for her behavior before I became sympathetic. I’m not sure what magic Howard worked on Gleek, but within a minute all was quiet in her room. It stayed quiet for 5 or 10 minutes at the end of which a very appologetic and teary Gleek came running to me for hugs and reassurance.

I love that Howard now has the time and sufficiently low stress levels to do this kind of thing.

Making Christmas . . .

By / October 3, 2004 / 1 Comment

It’s October, tis the season for beginning Christmas projects. Yeah I know, I should be focused on Halloween and costumes. But I’m anticipating a necessarily low-budget Christmas and so I’m also beginning making gifts. The last hour or two has been spent helping Kiki make a gift for Patches. Link came a long and decided the project looked like fun and so he has pitched in to help as well. In fact the two of them are happily at work while I write this entry. I have the tune “Making Christmas” running through my head and now I want to watch “The Nightmare Before Christmas” because I’m feeling Halloweeny and Christmasy at the same time.

bulbs again

By / October 2, 2004 / 2 Comments

14 feet of flower bed done. Only 6 feet left and over 300 little bulbs to plant. And it needs done in the next week before all the bulbs die. I’m tired.

Bulb season

By / October 1, 2004 / 1 Comment

Yesterday 50 tulip bulbs arrived in a box. I ordered and paid for them months ago and had nearly forgotten doing it. I’d intended to spend the second half of the summer clearing out the front flowerbed so that when fall came I could dig the whole thing up and completely re-plant it. It never happened. So now I have 50 bulbs to plant and a 20 foot long flowerbed choked over with grass and bindweed.

Today I began at the corner of the bed and started digging. No careful pulling of weeds from around existing plants, the only plants left are weeds, so I took a shovel and pulled out everything. Unfortunately I also have to get “everything’s” roots as well which requires sifting through the soil. While sifting I found dormant bulbs that had somehow managed to survive multiple years of neglect. I’ve got 6 feet of the bed done and now I’ve got 100 bulbs of various sizes to plant.

It seems like 4 hours of work should get me closer to finishing, not further away.

Laundry

By / September 30, 2004 / 5 Comments

Our backyard contains tomato plants with ripe tomatos. It also contains a baseball bat. Link is 7, Gleek is 3, Patches is 18 months. Guess what I’m washing out of their clothes today. . .