let me just preface this by saying that I LOVE TO SHOP FOR THINGS I AM EXCITED ABOUT. and when there is no one there to control my impulses (aka Jared), i buy not what i think i need, but what i think i might need. understand the difference?  haha.  plus, i forgot my list at home.  so i had to go by memory and i couldn’t really discern between our “must haves”, “wants”, and “if we have room/time”.  next time J really should come with me and remind me to bring the list.

we walked out of Koolau Farmers with a handful of seeds and a couple starter plants.  here’s the quick list of starters:

thai basil (J said he doesn’t know what he will do with it but he wanted to try it out!),

sweet basil (again, J wanted it and i refused to repeat the sweet basil fiasco so didn’t buy any seeds),

roma tomato (recommended by the worker dude because it’s thicker-skinned, less seeds, and good for slicing… but these are determinate tomatoes and will ripen all at once and then be done.  so NOT what i wanted.  if only i had remembered the damn list.),

spearmint (recommended by the school-teacher volunteer who heard me asking about raised beds and what kind of soil we have in kaneohe… she said it makes good tea so i’m kinda excited to try it out!),

sweet potato – hawaiian variety called “kaneohe maoli” (we were about to leave the nursery part when i saw these and didn’t really know what they were but thought it would be fun to try one!  and the leaves are so pretty and purple!)

and 2 purple flowers the boys picked out.  they actually picked out the purple sweet potato too so i guess that means the color of the day was purple!!!

we sowed our seeds as well, so i will check back in to update you on their growth.  hello my pink zucchini seeds!

we ended up with 8 different types – i brought home buttercrunch lettuce, sweet (maui) onion, zucchini, japanese cucumber and edamame (soybean), and we had koba green onion, kaala bell pepper and hawaiian chili pepper from the arboretum plant sale at the beginning of april.  split that into the tray of 72 jiffy seed starters and we’ll have a lot of nice plants to raise and a handful of extras for family and friends!!

and the boys had a TON of fun planting those seeds…

until Albert got both his hands all dirty…

which is bad because then mommy won’t let you touch the lollipop in your mouth.  and even worse when your solution is to wipe the dirt off on your pants.  but hey, at least you get to touch your lollipop again.

Amare is proving to be more of a rough and tumble boy with his fascination of dirt on his hands…

i absolutely LOVE it all.  a couple things have sprouted and moved outside into big boy pots, and i can’t wait to see what else grows and trying my best to be patient for J to green-light installation/prep of our raised beds.  we also picked up our worm factory + worms yesterday and set them up… and by the night they were settled in and eating.  awesome!

i know i’m short on crafty goodness but i promise i’ll have lots to share soon!!  gotta have something to do while i wait for these little ones to sprout!!

lovies, =o) kel

(okay, so the blog’s not exactly fixed.  but i couldn’t stay away from y’all too long!!)

Albert came home last week and told me “mommy, we need to SAVE the WORLD!”  i thought it was his way of telling me to play Superhero Squad with him, but it turns out that they were learning about the earth and conservation and the “good” stuff at school.  so i told him that one way we could do that is to start an edible garden, but that he would need to help me maintain it.  i know i’m late and all but this is really the first time i’m following through with this “edible garden” idea… last time we tried to container garden we ended up planting the entire packet of sweet basil seeds that ended up with us having 40-odd beautiful sweet basil plants.  safe to say, we killed about 20 of those beautiful sweet basil plants that year because we just didn’t know what to do with them and ran out of people to give them away to.

anywhoo, in honor of Mama Earth, we will be starting a few seeds (note i said a FEW… not making the same mistake as last time!) when Albert gets home from school.  on our list:

green onion (source)

bell peppers (source)

hawaiian chili pepper (source)

and after i get Albert from school we’ll head out to pick up a few more seeds at Koolau Farmers  (down the street).  hopefully i’ll be able to ask a few questions too!!  and then when jared gets home from work we’ll all be out in the yard starting our new seeds and pruning these:

strawberries (source)

cilantro (source)

what are you doing for earth day?

lovies, =o) kel

at the beginning of every year, Ali Edwards prompts us to choose one little word that defines our goals for the new year.  i have mentally played along in the past but having never written anything down, and having never been able to keep up with new year’s resolutions, i can’t tell you what words i chose!!  haha.

with everything that’s gone on this past year, from the family troubles to losing my mind in the 6-month-move-that-was-only-supposed-to-take-a-month, i realized what happened is that i lost control. and then i realized that i am a person who enjoys, and sometimes, needs to be in control of my life and the lives of those around me.  and sometimes i become a control-freak.  but in my mind, that’s not always bad!  haha.

so if you haven’t already figured it out, my word for 2010 is CONTROL. i know it’s a really powerful word with more negative connotations, but from now on, i want to be someone with power and in some ways, this excites me to challenge myself to walk that fine line between being a positive person in control and becoming a dictator.  i will be:

• in control of my home… control the clutter, keeping my home clean and presentable but also lived in and loved.
• in control of my finances… control the spending, keep up with bills, save a little, pay off our debt.
• in control of my family’s schedules… make sure we keep our appointments and leave lots of time for us to just be together.
• in control of my business… be productive and successful but have fun and remember that success is in doing what i love.
• in control of my depression… i will seek help when i need it and not let it cycle to become so big and debilitating like it always does.
• able to relinquish control and remember that i don’t need to be in control of everything at every time.

and with that said, here are some of my goals for 2010. like i said earlier, i don’t do so well with new year’s resolutions.  i do okay with goals and to-do lists though, so maybe thinking about it differently will allow me to do better with it!!

1. lose weight! my cousin gets married may 7th and i’d like to drop at least 25 lbs by then.  5 lbs a month.  i can do it!!!
2. pay off debt! it’s totally do-able to pay our way back to ZERO before the end of the year. just need to continue to stick to our budget.
3. send out birthday cards every month to the people we love but don’t see regularly.  i’m already behind for january but will be getting those cards out this week!
4. organize not only our house but our lives and stay on top of it.
5. clean more often… not only the house but ourselves… meaning eat healthier and exercise regularly.
6. craft more often… personally and professionally.
7. blog more than once a week.  and keep up with my freebies fridays thing.  everyone loves free!!
8. re-join or find a new blogging group! i’d love to rejoin the critters and be a hyper-active member!!  and maybe join a couple more groups, depends on what i can keep up with!
9. keep up with craft show/etsy orders & items! i’m putting up my “wall” today  (will share pics later) and knowing that i will bombard us with craft shows at the end of the year (because we did not do a single fair in 2009), would like to have an inventory built up by october so i don’t have to bust ass!!
10. participate in challenges and submit for publication! i think that’s explanation enough!!
11. sew a quilt and some other things i have been bookmarking on blogs and in books/magazines, including…
12. make plushies and felt food for the boys (and if it comes out great, for craft shows too!).  Albert has picked out his plush for me to sew.  just need to make time to re-introduce myself to my machine!
13. knit some new things! i’ve done a few scarves… would like to make more of them + some toys for the kiddos and other things i’ve bookmarked on blogs and in books.
14. take a trip! eventually i’d like to get away just me and jared, but i don’t think Amare is ready for us to leave him behind.  but family trips are nice too, we don’t have to leave the state, just get off-island.  both boys are DYING to get on an airplane.
15. renew my spirit by re-devoting myself to my religion and getting back in touch with my spirituality.
16. go back to school and learn a new language! which i will be doing fall 2010.  i need to meet with a counselor to confirm my course of action but i plan on taking 1-2 core classes, a language class (japanese), and maybe a beginner’s photography.  this is only supposed to be part-time and i don’t want to overwhelm myself from the start, but i am EXCITED about going back to school and the japanese/photography classes are supposed to by my “for fun” classes.

and my “just-for-fun/i-can-dream-can’t-i?” goal?

get pregnant! but as i’ve shared before, pregnancy for me comes with hyperemesis gravidarum, extreme nausea and vomiting, which means (and it did with both kids) me progressively getting sicker starting at 6 weeks, bed rest and IV home therapy, and losing 30 lbs over the course of  3 weeks at the worst of it, all to end at about 5 or 6 months.  so this is a just-for-fun/i-can-dream-can’t-i? goal because 1) we’re not ready for me to be dead-to-the-world for 5 months, and 2) Amare is not ready to NOT be a baby, and unless it’s twins, i only want one baby at a time in the house!

off to get my wall put up so i can share pictures and then get albert ready for practice!  it’s his last practice before the first game on saturday, so he has to be there!!!

lovies, =o) kel