A "Blogger" I'm not... but perhaps I can be a journaler?

Soo... yeah. Long time no post.

In the rush of everyday life (and absence of plants on which to brag about) I lost any sort of inspiration to write.

HOWEVER... I did get a fancy new journal. My sister gave me a pretty purple Leuchtturm book for Christmas so I could indulge myself in this little interest in Bullet Journaling I'd developed.

No, it has not turned my life around. I do not track my emotional states or list the things I find myself grateful for in it, and the spreads are NOT the handwriting- or analog-graphic-design-porn you see on other bullet journal blogs, though those layouts were inspiring I was researching the system.

With coffee. Like ya do...

It's a planner. It's job is to help you plan and remember stuff. I list what I have to do for the day and sometimes note what actually happened or was accomplished on a particular day. I bought a bunch of planner-specific stickers to use in it - indulging my inner 9-year-old, who had a sticker collection on notebook paper - and I use a different colored highlighter each week. There are also loads fewer scraps of paper with random lists floating around my bag/car/kitchen because of it.

Part of why I wanted to do this post was to throw out some not-gorgeous bullet journal layouts. I see a lot of people afraid to try it because their handwriting sucks or they can't draw. Every bullet journaling blogger on the internet will harp that "that's not what it's about" as they showcase pages that look like what I'd imagine an ecstasy-fueled layout and design Instagram feed would.

Pictured: NOT MY JOURNAL. It is beautiful, but what average planning person has the time or skill?

I want to show the other side. Look at this crap:

It's clumsy, messy and smeared. There's a lot of bare, unused space. It's badly thought-out in some places and crudely executed in others. My weekly spreads improved as I experimented and figured out what works for me, but the important part is that it functions, even when it looks blah.

Even if they aren't ga-ga worthy, I do enjoy making layouts. I research what other people track and come up with my own take. For example, some people make fancy spreads to remember upcoming birthdays. Facebook accomplishes most of that for me, so I made a movie premier tracker instead, with spaces to log when I saw the movie, where, with whom and what I thought of it.

Six months was about as much as I could fit on 2 pages. I'm kinda behind on the more recent movies.

Habit trackers are rampant on BuJo (see how with the trend I am?) posts. I tried it for March, only to realize I do most things so infrequently they're not really worth tracking. But I have kept an ongoing record of my attempts at the treadmill, which is kinda cool I guess.

You might notice the milestones list on my treadmill page. Not that I've met any of them yet, but I've always liked the idea of having written, quantifiable goals. Part of my down-ness the last few months has been a realization of the fact that I don't have any real, plannable goals in my life. There are things I want, but nothing that has been something you could make a step-by-step plan to achieve. Honestly, I didn't even really care whether I could run a mile or not when I started. I still don't, if we're being up front here, but if I bribe myself with new stuff for hitting certain benchmarks, I'm way more likely to keep trying, even through some damn shin splints (yeah, I learned what a shin splint was last month!).

No, this new dot-grid journal has not made me a better, more functional, more punctual or more enlightened person in any way. I had my "make-a-list-when-you-need-a-list" process down and it worked all right. Now my lists are simply bound together, along with my random thoughts, idea dumps, doodles and discussion notes for me to review as I desire.

Here are some other not-Pin-worthy pages I happen to like.

"The Eventually List," where I dump all the gotta-remember-to's and oh-I-really-should's that swim in my head.

The day I got the stickers :-D Plus doodles and the weekly spread I'm mostly sticking with lately.

My overview for the next 3 months and April. Note that I messed up the spacing 

for April at the top of the left page. THAT'S OKAY.

A "here-comes-fall" type of entry

When I last updated it was to explain how studying for a pharmacy technician certification test was eating all of my spare time, as it should have. I passed the test in April, got my license and registration taken care of in May and by June I was officially a Certified Pharmacy Tech. I even got a new badge (and photo!) with the updated title.

I had so much free time and it would seem what I missed more than anything was reading, because I started doing it again with a gusto. Between May and now, early September, I finished The Magician King (second in the Magicians trilogy), My Side of The Mountain (a recommendation from Brian), Angelfall and When She Woke (a couple books sitting on my Kindle for a while), The Incredible Journey and even two comics: X-Men Season One and Wonder Woman: The Contest. I also started but did not finish Storm Front, the second novel of the Dresden Files. In mid- to late-July I started A Game of Thrones after meaning to for months, if not years. I'm about a hundred pages from finishing it finally and I'm enjoying it so much I've already ordered the next two books of the series from www.thriftbooks.com, where they were only about $4 each and shipping was free with an order over $10.

Aside of the Dresden Files book, I'm actually enjoying what I'm reading again. When She Woke is probably one of the most feminist things I've ever read and while I don't read to be preached at (I get more than enough of that on Facebook), it did give me several thoughts to chew on mentally, which I liked a lot. Angelfall was somewhat different than a lot of the young adult lit I read in its premise; yes, it was another dystopian novel, but the apocalypse was brought on by angels, so it's not a "man destroys himself" storyline again. The story lost me on the romance aspect though. I hate reading romance and shoehorning it into storylines for what should be a very good adventure series. It makes everything predictable and is one of my biggest pet peeves in YA (or any other) literature.

The Magicians trilogy has stayed kind of flat for me, so I haven't made any plans to read the final installment, though the TV series was very good from what I saw. The side-story of The Magician King, in which we find out what the main character's best friend had been up to after he left her to go to Brakebills in the first book, completely overshadowed the primary story line to me. Julia's journey was so much more intriguing than whatever Quintin was complaining about this time, so I feel the book failed its readers in this regard. The last novel seems to be following whiny Quintin yet again, so I'm not interested in seeing what happens anymore.

Now that I'm all caught up with the Game of Thrones television series, I'm even more happy to have started the Song of Ice and Fire book series. They are hefty stories and I don't think I'd have as easy a time comprehending them if I hadn't seen the show and already had some idea of the relationships between characters. So far, A Game of Thrones has been very much like the first season of the show, with a few differences here and there, so I'm looking forward to how the written story progresses from what I've seen in the TV series. Tyrion is as sarcastic as ever, so at least there's that.

Brian and I also had the idea to take steps to start the process of revamping our master bathroom. We bought a vanity on sale about a month ago (it has drawers!) and decided a paint color and bought a couple gallons last week, along with some hole repair supplies. Really all we have left to do is decide what type of flooring we want and acquire it. Neither of us have ever done a full remodel like this and we are anticipating the entire project, once we actually get started on taking things apart, to take a couple of months of time. But we are trying to buy the materials we need as we can afford them with the idea of not rushing into it and not going into debt doing so. It's a very small room though, so probably a good idea to start with to see how the process will actually go when we decide to re-do something else, like the bedroom or living room.

I will miss this one particular paint blob though. It kind of looks like a thoughtful cow...

I never got into actually gardening this year, aside of buying a $2 clearance mint plant on a whim at HEB. We started the process of building a flower bed out front sometime in May or June, but it was just too freaking hot to finish. Though we went and spent $200 on a tiller that has yet to leave the garage, we are going to try to hit it again once things cool off. Hopefully around the same time we will be able to spread some weed and seed on the lawn for fall too. I'll be damned if I let these stupid weeds - parthenium hysterophorus - take over EVERYTHING again. Geez they were relentless...

Also looking forward, we had a break in the heat last week! It's only getting into the 80s for highs lately and in Texas, that's good enough to start acting like it's finally fall. No sweaters yet, but I'm planning to set aside a day, probably in late October or early November, to focus on baking some of the pretty fall treats I pin to my Pinterest boards every year but never make. It worked well last Christmastime when I said "this day I am going to bake cookies," and it was fun, so I want to do it again in the fall. Pumpkin is obviously the favorite for fall flavors now, but I really like cinnamon and gingerbread, to an extent, so I want to play with those on my grand day of baking.

Fall also means Ren Fest is coming up. According to a video shared on Facebook, the fairgrounds were not horribly damaged by Harvey, so there's no good reason to expect the festival to be delayed. I have grand plans for a costume this year. Like, real plans: I've pinned and priced a few pieces from a costume site that is relatively affordable with great reviews, so here's hoping not to be rocking just the hat this year, but a full on outfit - and maybe persona?

And so there's a small "hello" and look into what's been going on lately. It doesn't include everything (I'm sure you were all here to hear about our trip to Oklahoma last month, my dabbles in Pilates or how much Supernatural we've been watching), but I missed the blogging experience and just wanted to get back to it again.

Here's a picture of Inky and I to send you off with:

And from the shadows of the interwebs...

Oh hot damn, I'm back.

Where the heck has Audrey been in the last six months? Well, busy.

The biggest task was a move. Yes, we packed up the house in Temple and moved to Killeen. By the time we got the Temple house fixed up and (finally) on the market, it was available a whole two days and saw two prospective buyers before someone decided they wanted it. A few more repairs and a month-ish later (late December) it was sold.

Obviously that takes a bit of time. Then we were sans internet for about two months while we got settled in. The water and electricity still has to be transferred to our names, but, you know, priorities.

I've also been reading a lot more thanks to getting into this Goodreads website. There are so many books on my "to-read" shelf now I don't think I'll really ever make a dent, but the yearly reading challenges give me a reason to try.

Something about a goal other people can see makes a great driving factor. I even surpassed my 2016 goal of 10 books!

I've also been studying for my pharmacy tech certification in both the downtime at work and on free evenings at home. We've been given access to an online course through our employer, and now that we have internet at home I should be able to run through it pretty quickly to hit my spring goal of taking the test.

Now that we're in January (aka pre-spring in Texas with the sun and allergies I've been seeing), I've been thinking about this year's gardening endeavors. With a new yard that gets quite a bit more sun than the last one, I'm thinking real seriously about having a strictly herbal focus this year. My basil from last year is still alive, but not enjoying the alternating winter-summer thing we've had lately, but the hardware stores already have their herbs for sale now, including some fennel I saw yesterday that I've never seen before.

So that's kind of where I've been and where I am now. I need to go shower before class, but hopefully this won't be the last update for another six months.

Audrey Update III: Garden Watch 2016, the summer of surprises

You really didn't think I stopped gardening, did you?

Sure, things have been hectic, but just because there's a lot less gratuitous plant photo-sharing on this blog doesn't mean I'm not getting my hands dirty this year.

I did decide to narrow my focus this time around. Aside of the two pepper plants that survived the winter, I figured since my talent seemed to lie in making things get really leafy I should focus on herbs this year. You know, stuff you want to make leaves.

It started with the Grow Your Own Cocktails kit I mentioned in a previous post. The blue borage started off strong, with lemon balm and a few others trailing slowly behind. Only a couple, lavender and mint, refused to sprout.

I shared this photo in a past update.

There were also cilantro, dill and basil from some seed pods among the great Porch Pot Upgrade.

Well, something ate the beautiful blue borage (the big-leafed one in the above photo). Slowly, too. I thought they were just dying at first, but the plant marker mysteriously falling over more than once lead me to believe it was rabbits again. Over the course of about a week, the borage was no more.

R.I.P. Blue Borage. :-(

The seed pod sprouts died off too, so I caved and purchased mint, basil and parsley at the store.

So happy togetherrrrr!

The cilantro seemed to be ok when I transplanted it, but quickly died afterward. But some odd sprouts came out of the pot that I just let grow to see what they'd become. I planted the lemon balm in the same pot as the thyme (which decided it wasn't worth growing anyway), and some more mystery sprouts also appeared here, as well as in the basil pot pictured above.

Pictured above: Lemon balm and definitely-not-lemon-balm. Below: not cilantro. 

All I can figure is the dirt I took from last year's tomato tree must have had more life in it than I thought, because I have tomato sprouts every-freaking-where now.

There's another sprout in with the not-cilantro that I still can't identify. It doesn't give off any smell I can detect, and the closest I can come to comparing it in my limited experience is to a potato vine.

Any input or insight would be appreciated.

The next surprise was a little sprout that appeared in the pot of dead rosemary from last year. It appeared in the beginning of the spring and didn't look like a weed. Turned out to be a flower that I've never bought before, but see every year in plant nurseries.

The specific name escapes me, and the current bloom has wilted, unfortunately.

THEN came a surprise from a houseplant I bought nearly four years ago on clearance at Walmart in Killeen or Copperas Cove.

Thanks to technology I know this was on September 26, 2012. I can't remember it ever being so small.

I thought it was neat looking and a little research told me it was a natural air filter, so I made it mine. Then I left it outside one cold night and a lot of the leaves died. I was left with a funny pineapple top-looking plant.

Not a lot of filtration happening here...

Then a few weeks ago I noticed something. A small something.

Look at it!

It's re-starting itself! I'm going to wait for the mini-me to get a bit bigger, then it be a sad, choppy farewell to the pineapple top to make way for the new generation.

The pepper plants are doing well. We've gotten two banana peppers so far and there are two small bell peppers taking their time to grow.

 Banana pepper number three and the freshman bell peppers.

 Pests still abound, but I'm trying to be smarter than my competition if possible. You can see some eggshell in my herbs to deter snails, and I shared a photo of one on Facebook that somehow nabbed a mint leaf despite my efforts.

They're a real problem.

So there you go. There have been a lot of surprise plants and resurgence this season, as well as a fair amount of disappointment. Here's to the successes, though, and hope for continued victories.

Audrey Update Part II: Medical tech

I posted a short intro about starting an insulin pump/continuous glucose monitor (CGM) trial last month. On April 6 I went to meet the Medtronic rep and get hooked up to the pump. As I was leaving the appointment we learned Acer had cancer, so my focus had to be split for those following two weeks.

You may remember this photo.

It took me a while to warm up to the pump. That's not to say it was hard to use, it was actually pretty simple. It was harder to adapt to being attached to something all the time. Finding sites that didn't get in the way of waistbands or risk being unstuck by motion has taken some practice. I haven't really moved from my stomach much (I did try my right thigh for a while, but that proved a problem when I went to the bathroom).

All in all, the pump has been okay. I know those two or three weeks of having it actually made an impact on my A1C, which was a 6.9, the lowest it had been in my last five blood draws.

This is an A1C to blood sugar comparison chart from www.diabetesdaily.com, for reference sake. 

I've always struggled with being on the high side of my BG levels, so getting down to 6.9 after just three weeks was amazing (most of the more recent results were between around 7.3 and 7.8). 

Then I got hooked up to the CGM about two weeks ago.

First, the country song of my life continued on my way to that appointment. See, the previous week I realized I couldn't make it to the original CGM setup appointment due to work, so I went online to cancel. I'm on my way to what was going to be a combination appointment  to see my endocrinologist, then meet with the educator and Medtronic rep, which - keep in mind - is about an hour away from where I live and I've taken an extended lunch break, but haven't eaten, to make it that day. I'd spent most of the drive talking to my insurance about the wreck the last week and am driving a zippy rental car I'm still not entirely comfortable with. When I get a call from the clinic. "Did you cancel your appointment today?" the lady asks. 

"What? No, I cancelled the one last week and they rescheduled me for today after my appointment with the doctor."

"Well we have your Medtronic lady here, but the computer said you cancelled." She went on to read my notes, stating my availability Wednesday for a reschedule, the Wednesday I'd had off the previous week.

"No, oh my gosh, I must have cancelled the wrong one. But I'm almost there right now."

"It's okay, just come on in, we'll figure it out."

Immediately following I get a text from the Medtronic rep, who was apparently at the check in desk, as confused as the rest of us. 

So I arrive, learned I'd inadvertently cancelled my endo appointment, but could get in for the CGM setup in about 30 minutes. They would reschedule my doctor appointment for two weeks from then (today) and apologize for the confusion. 

The current setup, as I'm writing, for visual. The CGM (middle thingy all taped to skin) takes BG readings every five minutes and sends them to the pump (purple thing hooked to pocket). The pump can suspend delivery of insulin (through infusion at top) if BGs get too low for too long.

After all that mess, I had to get used to a little pod stuck to my body that beeped seemingly constantly all night and all the next morning telling me I was low or high. I hated the thing. All the attempts to remedy what was wrong just led to opposite problems later. I ignored the low alerts at night (shame shame, I know) because I knew I always wake up high. Sure enough, I woke up at 160-something without ever having remedied the lows at 3, 4 and 6 a.m. 

Then I went and had breakfast, some kind of bun and coffee, and dealt with it constantly ringing that I was over 250 all morning, even though I'd given the bolus and the pump kept saying there was still "active insulin" in my system. Of course I crashed before I hit my lunch break because I kept trying to fix the highs and it ended up overcorrecting. 

Just two days on the stupid CGM and my beautiful track record of glucose readings staying mostly in the low 100s was wrecked. 

In the time since, it has started to even out a bit. I still spike a little after breakfast, but I try to figure the bolus to better match what I'm eating to avoid the stupid beeping alerts. 

Now, I have about 30 minutes until it's time to leave for my rescheduled doctor appointment, and the CGM has told me it's time to let it recharge and put it somewhere else on my body. I've done this one other time and it took me about 20 minutes to figure out. I'm not sure if I can make it happen, but I guess I need to try. 

Overall review? Pump: would probably opt for later, when I have more funds available to make the payments, but shots were much easier to juggle with aikido.

CGM: only if I have to. I hate don't really like it. 

Audrey Update Part I : The car

I finally figured out a way to post updates about what's been making my life a country song the last month or so: I'm going to do it in parts. They're probably going to come in order of what I feel is biggest news, so firstly: I totaled my car last month.

Yes, the 2012 Yaris I'd only had (and been paying on) for a year now sits in a salvage yard somewhere. On my way to work last month I found myself sandwiched between an Altima (to the front) and some kind of SUV (to the back) right in the middle of Friday morning traffic. At some point the Altima had also been pushed into a pickup in front of it. No one was seriously hurt, thank goodness, but it's kind of a nightmare to lose your vehicle.

This was after they lifted the hood to cut some power. All the shiny emblems on the ground.

Though I don't remember what led to the initial impact, I do remember thinking "Oh shit," then feeling the second impact and just closing my eyes. It felt like we were hit about eight times, but from the number of vehicles involved I know I could have only felt a maximum of three.

 Shattered.

I know the photos don't look like much, but I was hit enough that I couldn't open either door to get out of the car. The windows rolled down, so I had to climb out. That was a clue the frame had been bent, Brian said.

I walked away with a sore back and neck for about two days and bruises on my knees from impact with my dash, but that was about it. My insurance has been great though. I was set up with a rental by that afternoon (I didn't go into work that day, but made it in Saturday) and really didn't have to do anything outside of provide statements for what happened a couple of times. Even when one of the drivers involved started to claim injury, I was informed that it was basically whiplash and a bruise, so my initial freak-out was calmed.

I've been playing phone tag with one of the other drivers' insurance for about two weeks. I actually dreamed about making it a priority to get in touch with them last night. But other than that and a citation I need to look into, things seem mostly wrapped up. My insurance and the gap insurance we got with the Yaris covered pretty much everything, so the only out of pocket expenses I paid were for the tow from the scene and for additional insurance on the rental for a couple of days while I was still shaken up.

We purchased a Tacoma from the same dealership we got the Yaris. Brian made the case that it was his turn to have a new car, and while half of me wanted to be selfish, the other half saw reason. I'm now driving the slow boat Impala. It's still full of Brian's stuff, but it's paid for and gets me to work.

Before this wreck I had only been rearended a couple of times, so spent a lot of my time more concerned about drivers behind me than in front of me. Now I'm a bit more observant of both ends. I'm still a little paranoid though. Brake lights send a shot of adrenaline through my system, but I'm watching my following distance much more closely now.

Since my VW, I liked getting photos of my odometer at interesting numbers. This was the last one I'd taken for the Yaris, on April 15. 

When you're torn between two big developments

Yesterday I went to training for my insulin pump trial. On my way home, I learned my dog has cancer on his liver and is looking at a maximum of two months left to live.

How else do you introduce two stories that inspire such opposing emotions?

On the one hand, I'm still not sure how to feel about the pump. It's a small weight attached to me at all times, and has already gotten on my nerves by preventing me from rolling after aikido.
On the other hand, I feel sad and distracted about Acer and trying to decide if and at what point to put him down. It's a constant psychological weight in the back of my mind.

I want to go into a discussion about both of these, but in focusing on one I feel like I'm not doing the emotions and gravity of the other situation justice. With the lack of photos to share, I'll just leave it with this:

• I have two weeks until I learn to use the CGM. In the meantime I'm going to try my darndest to really acclimate to this little purple pump. 
• I don't know how long I have with Acer, but we are planning to spoil him with car rides and treats this weekend, culminating in a small barbecue for him on Sunday, where he will get his own helping of steak and watermelon (I've never seen a dog like watermelon so much). 

Sorry for the lack of meat in this post. I wanted to say something about it while it was on my mind, but I'm having a hard time focusing.

I haven't died!

Holy cow. Spring officially started but Audrey has been silent? No needlessly detailed posts about my scatterbrained gardening ventures? No reflections on my current life status?

I didn't drop off the side of Texas. It's just been a busy couple of months. Since the visit to NOLA, Brian and I have both been busy with our jobs, including working several weekends for me. We helped some friends of ours pack up to move to Washington in February.

We miss these people...

Then I had my birthday a couple weeks ago (which was a really great couple of workdays and weekend off). I got myself a hair cut for the occasion, as is my yearly around-birthday tradition.

 Coworkers made me and the manager (we have the same birthday) wear sashes all Thursday. Friday I left early and chopped about seven inches off my hair. 

Brian and I took Acer to the vet the day after my birthday. We'd intended to go to the range in Pflugerville afterward, but getting the dog in to be seen took a lot longer than we anticipated, so we stopped in Georgetown and visited the first Second Saturday street fair of the year instead. We showed up late, so got some great deals on pastries from one stall.

This guy was promoting his school. But the claims seemed to be a bit puffed up. *badum tish*

This weekend we stayed at a seedy hotel in East Houston to visit a new satellite dojo of our club in Killeen. They have a pretty nice location and are just trying to gain some more members to study with. If anyone is reading this near the Highlands/Crosby areas and interested in tomiki aikido, here are the links to their Meetup and Facebook pages. It's a good group of guys studying the art but not neglecting the martial.

After a good three hours of playing with the katas, we got to meet up with some of my old friends in the Houston area, which I'd been needing for some time now.

I was thrilled to see Carlos, Steph and Matt (not pictured, as he had to go to work) This was taken in a parking lot around midnight, right before a security guard in a golf cart stopped to stare at us until we dispersed.

Before heading back yesterday we swung through Lufkin and Nacogdoches to get my pine tree fix. We got food at Pepper Jacks and, after some mis-routing from the GPS, ate at the lake. Brian found some twin pinecones he was very enamored with.

Aren't they cute?

Soo, now we are back home. I ended up with a surprise four day weekend because I'm scheduled to work this coming weekend, so I'm trying to get caught up on things. Once I'm through here I need to get cracking on the taxes and an oil change I'm overdue for. BUT, I want to ensure all that my gardening ventures will continue into 2016. These are some dated photos, but I'm still working! I'm actually narrowing my focus to herbs this year, and the Grow Your Own Cocktails kit I got for Christmas has been interesting for that.

This was taken Feb. 28. The big ones are blue borage, which are now in a big pot. Everything but the mint and lavender has also been moved to larger temporary or permanent homes.

I'm also trying some more kitchen scrap experiments. These carrot tops are sharing a pot with a single radish from last year that decided it loves the cool weather we've been having lately.

I also got a pink bush-like plant from Jacque for my birthday. It's currently shedding it's pink leaves, as it's wont to do, but should re-grow them over the next month. She also surprised me by anonymously dropping off a strawberry plant one morning last week. I didn't know where it had come from for two days. I'm kind of excited about strawberry plants. I've wanted them for a while, but just never got them for myself. I'll enjoy them for sure.

My attempt at a compost bin has been nice. As it's mostly old potting soil with the addition of kitchen scraps, I feel it kind of had a head start, and I've already been using it for repotting sprouts.

Two pepper plants from last year, one bell, one banana, have survived the winter and are growing new leaves. I'm hoping they'll to better now that they're a little older and, possibly, more established.

So here's to a slightly more narrowed focus in plants this year. Maybe it will help to be less scattered. I also got a pretty windchime for my birthday from Korri, I'll bet its rainbowy magic will do well for my little green experiments.

I really do love this. I just have to get up really early to get the sun hitting it favorably and haven't 

managed to do that since getting it.

Attempting something new

It's finally happened. The result of dissatisfaction in customer service and not using my degree and professional experience to work for me has led to creating a profile on a ghostwriting job site.

I did a little reading before setting up the profile. Ghostwriting is obviously not the place to go for public recognition of ability and isn't steady work for a newcomer. But I miss writing. Lack of blog posts aside, there's a creative buildup in me that Pinterest, reading and cooking haven't been able to alleviate. I want to create something again. My first attempt at NaNoWriMo was a gigantic flop, I admit, but it did make me realize how much I miss creating stories or informing people through the written word.

There is also a secondary reason for pursuing the ghostwriting opportunity. The amount of money that goes from my earnings into paying off debt has begun to bother me. Several websites suggest securing a second income and devoting all earnings toward paying off debt. If I can start getting gigs writing things for other people, it would be a nice way to start really chipping away at student loan or other debts.

So while I wait for my profile to be reviewed, I'm browsing the job posts, seeing what might be easy to break into, while visions of creative bliss and freed-up income dance in my head. Goodnight!

Looking toward the 2016 gardening season

Well hello there, and good evening. It's about 10 p.m. two days after Christmas 2015. I'm getting groggy after traveling back from Fort Worth today, then jiving on over to Moody for a second Christmas meal. The new sets of purple cookware I received from my mom are sitting around the piano, along with the rest of the stuff I haven't bothered to unpack and Brian is watching Lethal Weapon 2.

I wasn't interested in watching a movie this cold, rainy evening, so I've been Pinteresting. Upon reflection on my Christmas gifts and hobby interests of late, I've had to admit to myself that I'm just one of "those" Pinterest people; the ones interested in cooking, decorating, sewing and gardening who are really only good at showcasing their best-looking results on the internet for others to aspire to repeat.

Don't pictures like this just make you sick? None of these appear to be 

returning in 2016, if it makes you feel any better.

 

My gardening ventures this year were mostly failures. Yeah, I posted a lot (and with plenty of enthusiasm) as I was getting started, but all I got were two bell peppers about the size of walnuts to show for everything. I didn't even bother taking photos of them, I was so disappointed. My tomato tree was kaput by September. About three rounds of radishes were eaten by rabbits before I finally got some to grow, then I never went back to check on the pot, so who knows what ever happened to them? The garlic bulbs died, the fancy purple flower plant died and the pea vine made two pods then also died. I managed to kill the first basil plant I'd had any luck with in two years about three weeks ago as well. Soo... yeah, I still have a lot to learn. 

 

 

I actually did shed some over some plants. What can I say, you get attached.

All of this said, I still found myself looking through the pins of others for wintertime gardening tips and ideas. I'm still dead-set on composting, but I need to find a way to convince Brian it won't be as stinky as he's convinced it will be. There are also grand-brainstorming-stage-plans of taking the raised bed from last year and converting it to a table-height bed to both move it into a sunnier location and avoid having my precious sprouts consumed by local vermin. 

With all the failures of this year, I am taking away some lessons. 

ONE: Fertilizer isn't necessarily just an indulgence.

With only one of four pepper plants making fruit, there had to be some reason and inadequate nutrients is my first guess. The plants were not as leafy as plants I'd grown in the past, though they stayed green well into November (one even made blossoms). I would like to try them again, but utilize epsom salt, as recommended in a variety of articles, and perhaps some liquid vegetable fertilizer on a schedule. 

TWO: When starting from seed, start way earlier.

Again with the peppers, I started my seeds in late February. It took until almost October to see fruit, as measley as it was. So this year I will locate and start my seeds in January. Plants are easy to keep indoors at that point, so I don't anticipate a problem waiting until March to move them outside. 

THREE: Buying established plants isn't something to be ashamed of.

While I enjoy the process of germinating seeds and nursing sprouts to become fully-fledged plants, I can appreciate the convenience of buying plants that have already been through the slow startup stage. It's really a crapshoot, in my experience, on which has a better success rate, so I might as well use up the seeds I have and buy plants for other items I'm interested in growing. 

So I have some starting pods a friend sent me last summer, as well as a few seeds that never made it to the dirt last year that I will try to plant next month (yes, I'm familiar with the "packed for" dates on seeds, but you never really know unless you try). I'll also try to plan for an update from raised bed to REALLY raised bed and attempt some indoor gardening with an herb set I received from the same friend mentioned above for Christmas this year. 

It's strange to me that failure -- even repeated failure -- in gardening has not caused me to shy away from the task. I go into it with the goal of produce in mind, but enjoy the process of planting and growing so much that the lack of results doesn't really ever bother me. I guess if I just keep getting a few victories each year, eventually I'll have that bountiful harvest everyone on Pinterest is apparently so adept at getting.

Here's the goal: actual amounts of food I can do something with.

Sometimes things get too quiet

Looks like it had been too long since something shook up life for Audrey and Brian, so fate decided we needed two extra dogs, a parrot and eventually another person in the house.

Sunday we heard that Brian's friend/ex-stepmother had fallen from a tree and broken her back. While checking on her in the hospital, she was concerned about her animals (four dogs hers, three foster dogs and a parrot). Collaborating with her rescue friends, we got everyone into temporary homes. Brian and I took the parrot, one boxer and one jack russell terrier, the dogs that our dog would not have a problem with.

I was able to adjust okay the first couple days to keeping three mouths and a beak fed -- though that last one did require a battle of wills -- but after three days I realized I needed to make sure I took care of myself too. I took a night to not drive to Moody or Killeen and just relax and I felt a lot better this morning.

Oddly, relaxing is all they've done this morning too.

My eventual-mother-in-law (by-default) had surgery a couple days ago and is doing well and will be coming to live with us when she is discharged. Our house is closer to the hospital and will not leave her living alone while trying to recover, so it makes sense to have her here. I'm not antsy about it; she's awesome and I'd love to help her out, even if she would rather do it on her own. I just don't know what all I will be expected to do. Transport to therapy? Cook every night? Tie her to the couch to make sure she doesn't hurt herself trying to do too much? All are possibilities.

But other than that excitement, things are still okay here. The bell peppers are growing a total of two peppers, and I made a last-ditch effort at radishes in a pot, which look to be doing well. Most everything else has died though. Sometimes I wonder why I put in so much effort in the spring and early summer when I get almost no results, then I remember how much I enjoy the process and keep on daydreaming about next year.

I've also been thinking a bit about future career paths and am wondering how to start teaching myself graphic design. What I've researched makes me think I can do it if I can get past the technology challenge. The best idea seems to be trying it out as a hobby first, then attempting some freelance if I like it enough. If I don't, well, at least I've learned something new.

But I need to really get off and try to get some tasks accomplished today. I want to visit the hospital, get the transition lenses for Brian and go to the grocery store. Though staying here surrounded by sleeping dogs, Pandora and Pinterest also sounds like a good plan...