Plenty of Inspiration, Little Space or Time

Train_set_crawl_space
Originally uploaded by Geeky Mama.

Thanks to my dear friend, Ang, I have already done some seed shopping. The packets of burpee hybrid cuke seeds and the cutting garden flowers I plan to try this spring/summer are sitting on my kitchen counter winking at me. I also want to plant strawberries, and our usual sunflowers.

The question I am pondering is WHERE will I start these seeds at? Our tiny house is packed to the gills. Probably I'll have to set up grow-lamps in the crawl space and my seeds will serve as scenery for Mr. Man's subterrenean train track.

See that center of the train track? It's just asking for a bunch of sun lamps and seedlings - all the better for the passengers in the caboose to admire, no?

The next question is WHEN will I start these seeds? Luckily, because it takes 6-8 weeks before we can plant the seedlings outside, I won't need to start them before early-April.. because we can't safely plant anything in the tundra outdoors until mid-to-late May.

I figure by April maybe some of my craziness with Girl Scout cookies, the Girl Scout Daisy troop, my sister's baby shower (I'm doing the games), and the African Mission volunteer group I'm involved with should have slowed down a bit, or come to an end. (Cookies and the shower should be done by then.)

So - I stare wistfully at the seed packets. They're a promise of warmer weather, and a dream of a time when when my to-do list might be a bit shorter. Of course, that's sort of like how last September I dreamed this winter would be about sitting in the rocking chair by the fire quilting while it snowed outside.

Here's Friday's poem:

"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans." - John Lennon:

Quilting by the fire, gardening in the sun, reading in a sunny nook of the kitchen are plans I make and break with myself, over and over.
Perhaps when I am old and gray I will plan to hold my grandchildren close and chase them across the park. And instead find myself sitting in a sunny nook cursing the book on gardening in my hand with the quilt on my lap.

So for now, I'll try hard to cherish the interuptions of: "Mommy! Play!" and the cookies to bake, the clothes to fold the school papers to sign. The never ending heap of laundry to wash, fold and put away.

Man makes plans and God laughs. Mann traoch, Gott läuch.
Maybe I'll start a garden only to sell the house.
Make a quilt only to have it lost in shipping.
Find a sunny nook only to have it grow dark and rain outside.

Life keeps trying to teach me -
Better to enjoy the day for what it is, than plan for what it could be.