New Springs

We moved into our home in mid July, 2014. Ryan's previous job, like many accounting jobs, required a huge number of hours. However, this one didn't only require them during tax season. He worked 60-70 hours a week during what is widely considered "tax season" (though not doing taxes), most of July, October, and a couple of other times during the year. It also wasn't unheard of for him to get phone calls at 3am. During the weekends he wasn't working, and during "vacations," he was tied to the email system via his smart phone. We were slaves to his job.

This is going somewhere, I promise.

In July of 2014, we moved. We had tried to time it so that our move fell between "busy seasons," but that didn't work out. Therefore, Ryan not only had no time off, but was essentially not home at all. A couple of older teenage girls helped me empty boxes, but we're three years in, and we still have curtain rods that aren't up and pictures that need to be hanged. There was no time to settle in.

Within two weeks of that move, I was hit on the interstate, thankfully in the commuter car, with no children, which is an exceptional rarity. The car was totaled and I had some whiplash, but otherwise, was okay.

Pip is 6 months old here, and obviously not a master of head control, despite hours and hours of tummy time. None of my babies were "container babies." You can also see the beginnings of the ridges and lumps that ended up eventually getting us referred to a specialist in a craniosynostosis scare.

While all of this had been happening, Pip had begun to fail to thrive. He was six months old, and had been steadily dropping on the growth charts. He had also had the worst stomach flu I'd ever seen in anyone the week before we moved, let alone had ever seen in an infant. He was our fourth child, and I'd seen the stomach flu, but this was bad. I even called the after hours nurse line. He did it twice more after we moved, which is when it hit me that it always happened two hours after eating sweet potatoes. That third time, he went limp, pale, and grey. We should have gone to the ER. We later learned he had likely gone into shock, and we were very, very fortunate.

The day after that accident on the interstate, he was seen by the pediatric GI, diagnosed with FPIES, and placed on elemental formula. He was at the -3% for weight, and 10% for length. A month later, he had an NG tube. A month after that, he had surgery for G-Tube placement. Two months later, at 11 months, his development was at roughly a 4 month level, and it was determined that we had far more than a GI issue, and thus our referrals to multiple specialists and multiple therapy appointments began.

Pip sitting (slumping?) with support right before getting his NG tube. His head looks huge because his body was now so small.

Within six months we had moved, had a car accident, had a child placed on a G-Tube, and then learned that he likely had a neurological disease. Moving all the way in, let alone anything else, was put on the back burner. Oh, we had also been told that our other two boys had developmental delays. So much for all of the developmentally appropriate activities and lack of screen time over the past several years.

Our initial gardening area. Small, but yielded a surprising amount of produce, since all of our beans and peas went verticle over the arches between the beds.

Mercy wanted a garden for her 7th birthday, so this particular bed has always been hers.

Despite all of that, I was determined to garden. We might live in a subdivision, but our lot is large for a subdivision--nearly .25 acre, with a two level house, so it doesn't take up a ton of the property. I have dreams of a half acre to a full acre someday, but that's going to have to wait. I've told Ryan I want to be a nerdy, urban farmer. I can finish up my graduate degree and have chickens and a garden and an orchard and keep up with everything else, right? Regardless, for now, we have plenty of room for gardening, play, and more. However, I've barely managed to get a small one in every year thus far. We have a few strawberries by the house, but because Ryan was so rarely home, I didn't manage to get the edging in. Now there's more grass than strawberries. We also have grass encroaching on our rhodedendrons in the front. Same reason.

The current garden arrangement. Next year the plan is to add another 4x8 to each end of the smaller bed lines by the fence.

The makeshift green fence is the keep the giant, digging puppy out of the gardens. We're not really "handy" people. As he was finishing up, my husband said "this is the man you married." I have no regrets. I'll take a kind nerd and a good man over handy any day. Though I do wish I was handier, and hope to find time to develop more of those skills in the future.

I also wanted to expand the garden this year. This is the first year I've managed to get cool weather plants in on time. I grew up on the Oregon Coast, which is a vastly different climate from the desert of Southeastern Idaho. In case you wondered, I prefer the coast. However, this is where I live, and I'm making the most of it. You can't plant my favorite things, like broccoli and cauliflower, in May here. They positively wilt. It gets far too hot. Therefore, you have start them inside when there's basically still snow on the ground.

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Onions, Lettuce, and Asparagus seedlings.

I did it this year. For a brief time, I wondered why I hadn't been this on top of things before. Then I realized that this is the first year we've had in which Ryan has actually had weekends, or evenings. In the past, I was so busy just surviving four young children that there was no way "extra" projects were going to happen.

So, we're happily discovering what life is like with weekends. I have three years worth of backlogged projects. I'm sure it will take at least that long to get through them, but at least we can start working our way through them, and I'm really thankful for that. It feels good to make some progress, and to get my hands in the dirt. I also love that my children love to garden, and they'll try things they never would otherwise if they had a hand in growing it. This year we're going to try Brussels Sprouts!
So, here's to a fresh, new season. One with weekends, and cool weather veggies, and time as a family. Hopefully a reprieve from the tyranny of the urgent. We haven't been able to eliminate the appointments, but gaining weekends as a family is a huge start.