Plant Life

The plants are alive! Now I am not talking Little Shop of Horrors alive, we all know how that didn't turn out so well. But even though I can see with my own eyes that a plant is growing I forget that means it is a living thing and it can move and change to it's needs. I bring this up because as anyone who has read my blog lately knows I am growing tomatoes in my little garden. Two of my plants are actually growing upside down in a tomato planter. What I like most about this is that some how the plants know they are upside down and correct themselves. Yes they actually twist their stems to make it so the leaves are facing skyward. You may not believe me but I have taken some pictures of course as proof. A regular Tin Tin is what I am.

 

So there you have it, how amazing it is that plants can do this. Not just grow upward and outward but that they know something is unusual and they correct it themselves. I am sure there is a life lesson in there somewhere.

Garden Update - Week 2

It has been a week since I planted my little garden, I have been watching it grow before my eyes but I want everyone to see it and see how easy it can be for someone living alone, in an apartment, with no yard space, to grow something delicious and healthy. You may recall that my garden currently consists of tomatoes and zucchini, hopefully adding some more veggies soon, but for now I am only adding slowly.

Day 1

This is my little garden today, one week later. There may not be much visible difference but I see the changes. The zucchini is almost double it's original size and the Early Girl tomatoes are starting to show blossoms. This week I will be looking at getting some more containers and soil. Also starting some okra seeds and maybe adding a new vegetable. Trying to decide between radishes and cucumbers.

Zucchini and Earl Girl tomatoes

Super Tasty tomatoes

Phoenix tomatoes

Gardener for Life

I have always loved gardening! Even before I could really walk I was doing it, and best of all it was something that I got to do with my Grandfather when he was still alive. I remember the fruits and vegetables that we used to grow and eat were so delicious and though it was hard work, there was more than enough food for our grandparents, my family, my aunt and uncle's family and then some. We shared with whomever would want to eat, literally, the fruits of our labor.

Me, Grandpa and Grandma

These days things are a little different, Grandpa has been gone almost two years and I live farther away from my immediate family in an apartment with no lawn or really any ground to plow and sow my fields. But with the help of the internet, Pinterest, my friends and my knowledge from my Grandfather, I am working yet again on a little garden of my own. I have become very obsessed with the idea of being able to at least provide myself and my friends with a minimum of fresh fruits and vegetables this year.

Growing everything out of containers and raised planters, if I get that ambitious. But for know I am starting with some aloe vera, tomato and zucchini that I picked up at the store this last weekend. If all goes well I am hoping soon to add some strawberries and blackberries which I will be growing out of a wooden pallet of all things. It will be amazing if I manage to get it all together and working. But even if I don't quite get it right this time I can try again next year and learn from my mistakes this time. And if I do get it right, then more berry scones to go around.

My little garden beginnings - Day 1

Underestimating The Opponent

I am not sure how many of you are familiar with organized sports and I don't know how many people do this professionally, but when I was playing sports in high school and we had a game, I can remember always sizing up the other team. At first you do it mentally, I would talk to my team and my coach about their knowledge of the other team and of the players. We would look at stats of their games and prepare for plays and moves that they might try to use against us. Then it would become visual, seeing the other players and looking for their physical disadvantages, are they shorter, thinner, heavier, or perhaps clumsy as they warm up for the game.

What I have learned, and hopefully have taught many others by the way that I carry myself, is that all the mental and physical preparation can be very helpful but you can never really tell what you are up against until you are actually experiencing it. Furthermore, more often than not, I personally have underestimated my opponent, but more so they have almost always underestimated me.

 I have never been a small person, always a little huskier than the other girls, not very tall and just decent at every sport I played. I knew the moves and I had the heart but I was never the star player. What I did have was deception, by which I mean my opponent would see me and think hey that girl is bigger and probably slower, I bet I won't have to worry about her. WRONG! I am not the fastest but I can move quickly, probably not the strongest but I can hold my own and definitely more graceful when I move or when I fall than some girls I have seen only half my size.

I don't say these things to boast myself or to try and hurt other people's feelings, so I hope that it doesn't come across like that, my only point with this post is to bring to your attention that people are more than they seem on the outside. It is true that sometimes people are what they show to the world, but so many times you will find that this is not so. But no matter what situation you are in, whether it be sports or just everyday life, try your hardest to not underestimate your opponent. You may never know how low they may drag you or how hard they may hit you or even how sly they may be. Prepare yourself to the best of your abilities, work hard and try your best, but never think for one minute that your opponent hasn't trained and prepared just as hard as you have.

Puzzle Pieces

Puzzles can be metaphors for many things, but they work really well for the analogy of small pieces making up a bigger picture. With each small piece you can't necessarily tell what the overall image is going to be, it takes a couple of pieces together to start to form the begins of the picture. Sometimes a section to the right of the puzzle forms and then a section in the bottom corner. Slowly things come together.

It can take a long time to get the whole puzzle of our lives together, in fact it pretty much takes an entire lifetime and maybe then some to get it all completed. But what I am fast learning is that each of us can take away some happiness even from the partial sections of the puzzle that are beginning to come together.

I think most recently I can apply this concept into my life through a health stand point. I am no doubt far from perfect in the eat healthy, work out everyday mind set, but today was one of those days that I notice a small section of my puzzle coming together. At work our offices get cleaned once every other week and I can usually monitor what week it is by how much my trash is full. For a while I was eating out a lot at lunch but for the last while I have been working on improving dislike of preparing meals to bring to work.

I have eaten out very little in the recent past and it definitely reflected the hard work that I have been putting into making that change in my life. When the janitor came in to clean my office this morning my trash was less than 3/4 full. Usually when I eat out more often it it compacted at least twice by my foot and still overflowing but not this time. A sound purchase in some snapware, doing more dishes at home and staying in some nights to cook food to last a couple of days has lead me to better health and a positive step towards saving the environment from my trash.

It may not be a big section of my puzzle it may not even be all that important but it is the small pieces that make up the larger puzzle, and rejoicing the small and simple things is what is going to help get us all through until we are able to see the bigger picture and how beautiful that is.

Sweating It Out

I once had a friend that asked me why I enjoyed going home and showering right after the gym. I have always known part of the reason is because dang I stink after all that working out but I always knew there was something else involved. A different feeling that was more than just cleaning myself or letting my muscles relax in the warm water. Though those are both reasons that I do it as well.

I am currently re-reading my favorite book and it occurred to me that what I love most about showering right after a work out is this, there is a small victory that comes with washing away the sweat. In the book the water is recycled in the space station so the main character talks about everyone else getting a part of his sweat, the sweat of victory, of accomplishing something that no one thought he could do. That is how I feel every time I work out and then take a shower. It is part of victory for me, and everyone else will know I am victorious as the sweat is washed away and I am left clean and healthier.