Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Exit Drama; Enter the Real Challenge

I thought our weekend plant project was going to be a sprint to the finish. It all sounded so simple: Grow some seeds, plant a garden. However, life is never as simple as it seems.

But I thrive on challenges. So we plowed through for two or three weekends (I lost track, actually). Rented a tiller to prep the ground. Put edging around the trees to make a bed along the back fence. Built two boxes, one with a trellis. Ordered a truckload of dirt to fill the boxes and the flower bed. Planted lettuces, artichokes, sugar snap peas, and watermelons. Adopted out some of my extra tomatoes and peppers. Potted a couple mango seeds. And even installed a couple of birdhouses thanks to my Louisiana neighbor.

Since I know you have been wondering, I do have to call them by their full name, Sugar Snap Peas, every time I refer to them. I hate peas. But I adore chilled fresh sugar snap peas, crunchy jackets and all. So lest anyone think I am referring to the bag of little green balls you get from the freezer section (plegh!) I use their full name. It evokes a much better mental picture for me. And now you know.





Finally: Mission Accomplished! And even though I missed my 8 week deadline, not a single one of my plants turned into a pumpkin.

Okay, there is one little bit not finished yet. Finishing is never a strong suit of mine. That pile of dirt in my driveway just will not die. But I'll get it all back along the fence by Friday, I will!

The dirt pile reminds me of my real challenge area. The startup is finished, but believe it or not, now we enter the part where I really, well, suck at success.

I thrive on new beginnings. I love happy endings. But middles, I'm not so good with those. This applies to many areas of my life: moving, kids, projects, even housework. Oh, that housework. I love spring cleaning, and hate to sweep the floor after every meal. But that's another story.

Back to the garden. In our years of home ownership, we have dabbled with gardening. But gardening is difficult when you move every other year. Now here we are, almost concluding two full years in this house with this yard. And we are NOT planning to move. So we built a garden.

Now I have come to think of that garden as a metaphor for growth in my personal life. Because I will either grow better at being consistent through the middle, tending the small everyday needs of that garden, or my garden will fail miserably.

As I discussed this with the Captain's mom (who needs a bloggy name: any ideas?), she was awesome enough to point out that actually I'm in for growth either way. Because we learn the most from our failures. I am actually really encouraged by that, but I also don't want to let those tender plants down! Secretly I'm hoping for the first kind of growth, not the other kind.

So here we go, into the middle. In which I learn to be consistent. It is a necessary lesson, because I'm dying without some consistency in my life. The kids need it from me, my husband needs it from me, and now my garden needs it from me.

After all that work on the garden, now my house needs a little attention from me. See you later, it's time to be practicing my consistency in the kitchen.

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