#BestSummerEver*

THREE AND A HALF MORE DAYS!!!! Just one partial week and then school is over and summer is here! I am so stinking excited. Last summer I tried to do this thing where I highlighted all the things that made my summer great. I did some amazing things: I took a road trip to Orlando for LeakyCon with BFF2, I spent a lot of time with my family (especially The Fantastic Four) and my besties, and just generally enjoyed my summer. I spent some time reading. I marathoned some TV shows. I also got bogged down by work. Luckily this summer I'm not working and I truly plan to make this the Best Summer Ever.

Of course I have a HUGE list of things I'd like to get completed over the summer. I have the room redecorating project to prep, several major projects to complete for my Maw-Maw, and the weight loss/exercise goals. I also have a reading list** that I'd like to work through and I'll probably spend several evenings watching TV shows and have movie marathons with The Fantastic Four. Doda is already planning on us watching the all of the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings movies. Because they aren't long enough, we need extended footage of the Fellowship!

But more than anything I just want to enjoy myself. I don't have a problem working, but recently I've really needed a break. So, unlike LAST summer I plan to make regular updates and share all the excitement with all of you!***



*Stayed tuned on Twitter and on the blog for this fancy tag, which will highlight all the adventures I have in the next two and a half months.
**Which I'll post in a separate page as soon as I finalize it, until then you can always follow along with my GoodReads account.
***Really, guys. Regular updates! You'll see. Promise.

All Roads Lead to Ice Cream

Occasionally my Maw-Maw and I have conversations that go like this:

Me- What are we having for dinner?
Her- I'm not sure, I'm not even really hungry.
Me- Let's have ICE CREAM!!!

This is proof positive that I'm a mature adult and also a major reason that I am not super slim. Or slim at all. I've talked about summer plans before, and one major goal is to lose 20 pounds. That seems like a reasonable number considering I'm going to be swimming daily, I'm doing the Couch to 5k program, and with fresh produce I'll be eating loads of fruit and veggie based dishes throughout the summer. I'm excited for this, and I hope that I actually stick with these activities. I've been pretty concerned about health issues recently and I really do want to be a healthy weight. Although...I'm not willing to give up ice cream and delicious baked goods completely. Everything in moderation is going to be my new motto!

BEDA 10: Updates

If I decide to do this in August, I'd like someone to punch me.

Moving on! As usual there is not much going on in Small Town, USA. I've been on this work, read, sleep, repeat routine for weeks now. Work is the same as always. We just finished up all of the Mock Standardized Testing last week, and we will start actual testing on May 1. I'm so glad I'm not a kid. I mean, I'm completely burned out and I haven't even had to take any tests! Massive testing means boring work days filled with too quiet hallways and large amounts of paperwork catch-up. The bright side is that as of tomorrow there are only five weeks of school left! FIVE WEEKS! I'm so excited I can't stand it! I've been reviewing my finances and my Summer To Do List in preparation of my free summer. I worked in my herb bed yesterday and checked the mini-composting I've been doing. The rate of decay seems spot on, and I added some extra coffee grounds and egg shells to the mix and then turned the top layer of soil over, burying the compost. I'll turn everything again next weekend to continue to mix the compost into my soil and it won't be long before I'm planting herbs and trying fancy pants recipes with tasty fresh herbs! Unfortunately I discovered that a colony of ants have moved into one corner of the bed. I'm a bit worried about what to do with them, because I'm so anti-pesticides but I need to find a way to get rid of them. An article I read online suggested sprinkling cinnamon around the hill because the ants hate it and will leave. This seemed to be working yesterday, but it rained for most of the afternoon and I'm not sure that it actually worked. It's supposed to snow tonight though, so that will probably take care of the ant issue.

While we're on the subject, SNOW?!?!? Really? It's almost MAY and for the first time in recent memory school will actually be over before mid June. I'd prefer it to stay warm and slightly rainy. We don't really need winter weather at this point! I'm ready for lazy days in the hammock, swim session with The Cousins, soaking up warm rays of sun,* and mornings in the garden. So I'm hoping that the weather doesn't get too wintery and that spring reemerges SOON!

I'm going to try to finish strong with BEDA, since I got more than a little lost in the middle of the month. I have no real excuses, except for massive allergy attacks and large bouts of sleeping off the associated pain. Hopefully silver lining of the imminent snowfall is that it will reduce the pollen counts and I won't be quiet so miserable.



*After lathering myself full of sunscreen. I'm also anti-tanning. Skin cancer is a MAJOR fear and I am as safe as possible while in the sun.

BEDA 9: Ice Cream

Allow me to share with you a riveting story. Today after working my required 8 hours and then trudging home, I discovered that our mail lady had delivered the second and third discs of Downton Abbey. Huzzah! I've been looking forward to seeing how season two ends for quite some time. After watching the first two episodes of Disc Two (and crying and sniffling my way through the episodes) I decided I needed junk food. "I'm getting ice cream!" I announced to my grandmother. She was EXTREMELY impressed by my ability to say words and asked me to bring her some ice cream as well. Only one large scoop though. While scooping out her ice cream I managed to rip the box. "Quelle horror!" I exclaimed. After tearing the box open I realized that there was NO WAY I could salvage the remaining ice cream and would therefore need to eat ALL THE ICE CREAM. So I did. Now that I've devoured a gigantic bowl of ice cream I've been sucked back into the world of Downton Abbey. Seriously, if you love British people, period dramas, an beautiful sets you should be watching this show. It is WONDERFUL!

BEDA 8: The Problem with Loving Books

Clearly this is no longer BEDA...however, I do hereby swear that there WILL be thirty blog posts by the end of April.* I don't really have any excuse for not posting yesterday, and really what is the point of dwelling on our past failures? ONTO THE ACTUAL BLOG POST!!!

It's no secret that I love books. Just flat out adore them. I love them in any format - hardback, paperback, ebook, with the dust jacket, without the dust jacket, new, used, borrowed, etc. It doesn't really matter to my how I get my hands on a book as long as I have books. The problem is...space. And also time. There will never be enough time in my life for me to read all the books that I will desire to read. And that makes me a little sad, but it also makes the discovery of books that I love and cherish even more special in the long run. Currently I have a LOT of books. I have stacks of books and shelves filled with books and my friends have stacks of books that I've loaned them and I have an ereader that is ALSO filled with books. It's no surprise that one of my Major Summer Goals is to reorganize my bookshelves and catalog all of my books. This is vital for numerous reasons. 1) I'll know what books I own, 2) I'll know where my books are, and which books are off in the Wild Blue Yonder, and 3) I'll be able to weed through my shelves and donate books that I don't need for whatever reason.

Another major issue with having ALL THE BOOKS is actually deciding what to read. I ran into this issue this weekend when I had several hysterical crying outbursts because of Family Drama (centering around my mother) and I just wanted something fluffy and funny to read. You know what I don't own a lot of? Fluffy, funny books. So I was torn, should I read something I love (HP) and find comfort in that? Should I pick up something random from my shelves and risk it being filled with angst? Should I just ignore all the books and watch super hot brothers kill demons on Netflix? I had too many options, which usually happens when it comes to deciding What to Read.** Truthfully, I'd rather have too many options when it comes to What to Read than no options at all. And sometimes I look around at all of the books I'm hoarding and I remember that there are children and adults all over the world who don't own books. And then I dislike myself just a little bit. I'm good about giving books away and donating money to book related charities and the like, but I still feel kind of greedy when I see how much I have. I'm sure that by the end of summer I will have donated a large number of books to my local library or I will have them boxed up and ready to mail out to some sort of book drive. And then I'll start the process of purchasing and hoarding books all over again.






*No really, guys...I am GOING to do this. Really!
**For the record I just read a book I had already started.

BEDA 7: Updates

At 11:33 PM I finished Paper Towns (HUZZAH) and completed my Book Nerds for Lent challenge. I'll probably post more about that tomorrow or Monday. I don't have much to talk about as today has consisted of lazing about and reading a book. I watched Hugo though, and it was AMAZING more on THAT later too. Ultimately this seems like one big teaser post. Apologies for that. The reason things are disjointed and half-formed is mainly because Old lady Bedtime rolled around about 45 minutes ago and I can't cope. I'm rarely awake past 11, but forced myself to stay up to finish PT and also to update ye olde blog as promised this morning in my scintillating post about compost. Now I'm going to bed because my allergies are off the wall and I'm tired! Expect a REAL post tomorrow! And have a happy Easter/day/Passover/whatever you may be celebrating

BEDA 6: Herb Bed Planning

It only took me SIX DAYS to fail BEDA!!! Go me!! I honestly had the bones of this typed and ready to finish up last night before I went to bed, but then I received a message from my mother, which made me EXTREMELY upset and ended up crying for over an hour and falling asleep completely wrung out without even thinking about finishing this post. That means TWO posts today, folks!*

Day two of spring break included baking two batches of cookies and prepping my herb bed. I really wanted to build and plant an herb bed last year, but due to the sheer overwhelmingness of summer I didn't manage. I wanted to try this quick fix composting trick this year, but I've been lazy and I'm not sure it's going to have enough time to really work. Now, without further ado, HERE is a pictorial blog about my herb bed prepping.

This is the wild mess that is growing beside our front porch , which must be groomed into submission before I can even think about doing my garden!

After clearing all of the weeds, I turned all the dirt over, and cleared rocks and twigs from the area. 

After I finished the major prep work I started building my quick and easy compost set up. I'm really nervous about this part, and I want to run outside every 15 minutes or so and peek under the tarp** to see if things are working, but I can't or it really won't work!!!

Step One: I used ashes from our wood stove as the base of my compost. Ashes add various nutrients to the soil for healthier plants!

Step Two: Luckily Doda mowed our yard today so I had fresh grass clippings to add for the first "green" layer. Green layers are what add nitrogen to your compost/soil and are also essential for decomposition.

Step Three: The "brown" layer consisted of dried pine needles. Brown layers add carbon to your soil, which helps with decomposition. These break down really easily and have made my regular compost heap work really well!***

I added dried bread to my mini pile to help everything start to break down. This is just an added  step so that things stew and the bugs are attracted to my compost dump.

Last I covered everything in a layer of grass to add more "green" material to break down and also to discourage animals from sniffing out the bread and disturbing everything.****

After I added all the layers to my herb bed, I used an old black plastic trash bag to cover everything. This ensure that heat and water are contained and it also discourages animals.

In a week or so I will go out and check on this bed to see if all of the elements are meshing well. I'll also mix the compost for the first time and I'll add water if the materials are too dry.***** After I turn the heap I'll be adding coffee grounds and maybe some shredded newspaper, depending on how quickly these materials are breaking down. I'm planning on planting my herbs mid-May, so I don't have time for heavy duty composting, and truly that is reserved for the heap I have in the back year.

If you are interested in starting a compost heap, this is a great website I've found that details different styles of composting,****** has resources, and even talks about how much of each type of material you should add to your own compost heap! I'm a huge fan of being green whenever possible, and composting is a really easy, and beneficial way to be green. And if you garden (vegetable, flower, or container) the composted material really improves the quality of your produce without adding harmful chemical agents to your plants!






*Get excited!
**And by "tarp" I mean "black plastic trash bag"
***I have no idea why this picture imported upside down, lets just roll with it!
****Another photo that refuses to orient correctly. No idea why
*****I was lucky that we had massive storms all week so my soil and the pine needles were both pretty moist. If you're trying this and everything is dry make sure you lightly water your heap before covering it.
******My dream is to start a worm compost, but it just isn't possible at this point in my life. Maybe when I have kids I'll do one in a glass aquarium so they can watch the worms break down the organic materials.