“Passion rules reason, for better or for worse.“ – Terry Goodkind 🕊️

GOALS THIS WEEK: Trying to clean the house after being sick.

Last Week: It’s hard to remember now, only a week later.

This Week: Little garden projects, hoping they go well.

HEALTH OVERVIEW:

Mental Health: Doing between alright and not alright, I guess it’s called stressed.

Physical Health: Had a stomach flu really bad Monday, but feeling better today.

Social Health: Two birthday parties in addition to my daughter’s, in addition to Halloween, in addition to camping, in addition to day two of the math decathlon, so I kind of wish people spread out their kids more geez.

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LIFE JOURNAL:

“Without forgiveness life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.”

– Roberto Assagioli

“There is no small act of kindness. Every compassionate act makes large the world.”

–Mary Anne Radmacher

Saturday: Last week we placed a watermelon bed. This week it felt like everything was delayed, pests took over the plants, from pickleworm, squash borer tunnelers, banana aphids, white flies, this is the first year slugs weren’t a main issue at least. A squash borer tunneler catapillar jumped out at me while I was holding a vine trying to figure out what was in there… that was kind of helpful and also starting. I can’t remember if it was Friday or Saturday that we went out to the garden, I feel like it was Friday actually, but then what did I do Saturday? I guess I bought soil to replant my son’s apple tree and then also some linoleum.

Sunday: Last week laid soil into a watermelon bed. This week covered a lot of English Language, some Earth Science, and some Astronomy. At night my daughter got in trouble for breaking the rules of what she is allowed to do on tablets, so that was unfortunate for me that she felt like breaking the rules, because I don’t really enjoy punishing her, but I really feel compelled to push her away from the edge.

Monday: Last week, I overspent on camping stuff. This week I threw up at least four times and was pretty ill, it was so nice my sister helped my with my kids who also had friends over, I really appreciate that she had the day off that was lucky for me. The kids were good, they did a lot of math actually and other school work like English without much help and without much candy, instead saving for game time. They also spent a lot of time singing Pumpkin Jack, by the Singing Walrus, together, which was really cute.

Tuesday: Last week went to the olympic pool. This week catching up on my journal and cleaning, this is becoming nostalgic already, I guess after 10 months things feel nostalgic. We cleaned the kids’ bedroom, my daughter decided to move back into my son’s room again, so they are sharing a room now, which is cool, going to get them a bunkbed someday. For a long time I felt like I didn’t know where home was, now I feel like it’s here in Hawaii, no matter where my husband moves later, I feel at home here now.

Wednesday: Last week we had a wonderful block day and made poi. This week I’m happy with the changes to the kids room, happy overall with school, feeling sick though. It was different not going to the beach, the day goes by and it’s not bad, but I do think it is usually worth the extra effort to see the kids friends on a normal week. Spent a lot of time over analysing the possible fire ant war cost and trying to decide on if I should poison them or leave them alone. It was kind of paranoid and isolated like Branch from Trolls…

Thursday: Last week we identified some bugs. This week I realize I didn’t have banana aphids, but rather flea beatles. So, resting up from the stomach flu and not much else except school. Hitting reading hard, math going well, this year my daughter got really good at telling time, decimals and started fractions, she got better at hand writing and a bit at typing, the only thing lagging is kind of essay composition. My son is doing great, but to advance in math he needs to write the problems out so he is learning manual writing and is good 0-3, so 4-6 is next. School is going well, music lessons are going well, I should be more happy about it, but I’ve been kind of demotivated temporarily since having the stomach flu.

Friday: Last week went to the pool, picked up mulch, and dropped it off, pretty productive day. This week productivity fell off due to the stomach flu, but both kids made it to 80% in English so that we will probably do a double year in English actually and still do some extra music and drawing stuff. I’m happy the kids are doing well, I had fun watching Sustainable Me tomato video today and it inspired me to go clean up my tomato plants a little, but then didn’t have time before my dad wanted to go to get my daughter a birthday gift. She ended up with a new bike, wish there were more places to ride around us, but at least she is interested again.

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How’s it Growing?

Cherry Blossom – Waiting for cold germination. ⌛

Lavender – Cold stratified, germinated via heat mat single-side paper towel and light. The seedlings look fine. 👍🏼

Sunflower – Germinated in 3 days after 24 hour soak. Grown. Distributed. Growing well. 👍🏼

Morning Glory – Germinated in 1 day via cup of water to paper towels > grow bags > Distributed. Growing well. 🌱 They look good some are vining now. Some pest damage on the leaves, center holes medium size.

Roma Tomato – Germinated in 2 days via paper towel. Grown. Distributed. Some early blight! 👍🏼

Clover, Alfalfa – For the Hilo Garden A. 🔮

Blueberry – Germinating…

Raspberry – Germinating… seem all gross, not sure if it’s just the way the seed capsule is.

Koa – Germinating via paper towel.

Something new this week: My daughter started riding bikes again after a small fall on a hill she had stopped for a few years.

Something good this week: When I watched Sustainable Me Tomato episode it brought me back in time to when I started gardening and I wanted to grow to eat, before I found out about all the slugs.

Something unexpected: I was surprised how much my attitude changed when I thought I had banana aphids caused by fire ants vs when I thought I had flea beetles, I stopped being mad at ants and was just more calm in general.

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