Saturday/Creative Day:Last week we picked up my husband for a two week visit. This week we went to the Museum of Science and Technology, then we went to the hot springs which are interesting. I really enjoy the museum, and we added in a new speech class that was fun. The kids wanted to keep doing extra speeches it was fun to see that they actually enjoyed the activity instead of just completing it to complete it. The teacher was very good. It was nice to have a weekend activity go well because we are switching from midweek to weekend right now and I don’t know how many activities will be fun vs not fun. It was a busy day, I had fun going back to the hot springs, I had been avoiding it because I hadn’t been there since my friends from Israel left.
Sunday/Faith Day: Last week we went to Essence Island and let the kids swim and play. This week was a garden day, did some composting and checking in with plans of what was going to be done on the site. Going to install more mulch and weed cloth in the central area it’s still a bit untenable. My husband stayed home he was a bit gardened out after helping with a squash trellis the other week. I’m glad my projects are going better at home. I learn a lot at my friend’s gardens about plants and the climate difference and for some reason most my friends are better at large size plant care, I think it may be a steady rain at their climate zone that I don’t have. I lost a few trees to a micro drought that hit before the back to back wind storms and winter rains, my friends mostly don’t have to keep an eye on dry weather. I’m also at 4000 feet and most of my friends are lower down where the elevation won’t be a major factor.
Monday/Unity Day: Last week the kids were happy gardening. This week we covered some extra English and worked on a picnic table. The kids took a walk with me to look for lizards, we found one, but it was run over. We also found some forest seeds and I started trying to plant them on my seed tray. It was a nice walk around the neighborhood, it’s so rainy I seldom have walked around here. My husband gets frustrated easily, it’s more peaceful living by myself than with others, I wonder if when I’m old if I will be left alone and hate it or enjoy it? I guess I should really make more time to be alone before that happens, maybe if I took more time by myself to recharge I would enjoy the company of other people more than I do. Right now I love working with other people, to restore the forest, or do garden work, but not just to waste time, I haven’t learned to enjoy that seemingly basic human ability.
Tuesday/Self-Determination:Last week I was thinking about and getting ready for my son’s birthday. This week all that birthday nostalgia, and stress, and joy feels like it was years ago. I had to switch phones because my service provider wouldn’t provide for the old phone anymore. We dropped off my daughter’s friend who helped with the table. It was nice to finish the picnic table together, my dad helped a lot and was patient with the kids, my husband had trouble working with kids and with us, but at least we were able to finish the project. He doesn’t enjoy making things by hand, I do enjoy it, but when materials cost more I am willing to buy things premade to save that time for teaching or gardening instead of demanding I build everything. Though I do enjoy building, I enjoy other things as well.
Wednesday/Collective Work Day: Last week it was my son’s birthday party and the kids played with a car ramp. This week we went to the arboretum and looked at 110 types of trees. The kids got into map reading. The lychee and tamarind were particularly lovely to stand under and take in shade. I talked to them about ordering Sugi Pines. I loved the experience, it was another experience of visiting someone else’s work, the site was once an animal quarantine, but had been turned into an arboretum that spawned many other arboretum, a rare plant workshop ext. There was a party we didn’t go to, but my husband and I walked the waterfall and the town, I think it’s important to remember that we aren’t people who can go to all the parties, we are people who need to recharge, no matter what other people want or what we want we aren’t socialites by nature. I ordered a mosquito zapper and some fake plant screens to try to give my neighbor back some privacy. Gave out most the photo cups I made, but still going through customer service for cracked ones.
Thursday/Cooperative Economics Day: Last week I ordered some Sugi Pines from the Arboretum. This week went to a friend’s garden, it was cool to set up sunflowers. The sunflowers were the end of a seed pack I got for another friend, they were fun to grow, Mammoths, so they got really tall and it felt successful growing such a tall plant. I was too late to save my seeds on accident, so they got eaten by a mouse or rat after falling to the ground… I would have liked to save them, but life has been so busy that I am not surprised I didn’t have time to do that. My friend’s mom wants to grow cucumbers so that is going to be something new for me, I’ve done peas, but never cucumbers. I know they will need to get covered because of the pickleworm moths here. So I ended up ordering some self pollinating seeds so at least they won’t have to be uncovered and re-covered.
Friday/Creativity Day: Last week we to lunch for my son’s birthday. This week we went to visit my husband’s coworkers, it was a long drive. We found throwing our shoes at koa tree seed pods was enough to knock the mature seeds loose so we picked up a few to bring home to germinate to help the sandalwood trees (which are hemiparasites) grow. When we came back the stars were out, Jupiter, Venus and Mars were aligned more or less and especially Venus was shining super brightly. We put the lights up on the gazebo area, it was really pretty at night, the remote lets us turn them off from inside the house, which is really cool. There is a lot of good in my life right now, but also stress and overspending as well. Overspending in money, but also in energy, in the amount of time I give to others without resting or relaxing. I need to make more time to relax, if it’s 30 minutes or an hour or whatever it is or I’m going to get sick or burnt out.
GARDEN CLUB GOALS: Front: Stone Road, Milkweed (germination process). Back: Safe Paths. Front-Front: Mamake (seeds ordered). Site 2: Central Garden further mulch and garden bed weeding. Practice Ladder Knott. Test Ladder. Site 3: Cherry Tree Support, Organize Plant Starts. Site 4: Central Clearing, Moon Arch, Veggie Beds, Solar pump.
FARM TOGETHER GOALS: Growing 6 kale, 2 rosemary, 1 pear tomatoes, 1 butter lettuce, a bunch of basil. Also starting mamake, ‘Ohia (0/100) and hopefully sandalwood and koa to reforest. Hoping for a watermelon field this year.
PROJECTS: Waterproof mortar for pond repair. Passport.
CLUTTER FIGHT CLUB: Demold living room.
Last Year to This Year
Last Year: I was reflecting on my values more, this year I am taking actions towards goals, which is nice, but I am not really reflecting as much. Next week I will revisit my old value reflections so I remember to do that again, I liked it.
VALUES REFLECTION REMINDERS:
SAT Creativity thinking of new ways to do better. SUN Faith in myself.ย ย MON Unity, feeling comfortable in a family. TUE Proactivity, know what I want. WED Teamwork smarter group work. THR Connection, sharing my passion with the world/accepting others gifts. FRI Purpose know what I can do. SAT Creativity thinking of new ways to do better.
Last year we grew daffodils are a garden club, this year lilies instead. Last year I had a stomach ache too, I wonder at the similarities from year to year that occur on the same days. I was sad/happy my good friends were leaving/staying a bit longer. The group was growing and I was enjoying it, enjoying my kids spending more time with other kids.
This Year: I think my kids are over involved with other kids and I am overextended with group activities (slightly), so I want to dial that back to find a few hours of rest and fun without our friends on an average week. I’m kind of happy with the way the grass lawn came in, but it’s also very over grown so I’m exploring how to chop that back nicely.
Live – Lift – Love
Live – I feel really alive when I step back and watch the kids have outdoor fun without agendas, even though I want to teach them some things, I think them exploring physics and nature is worthy of time and effort I think to be exploring is to be truly human. It was nice watching the kids explore the boat/ocean interaction, the buoyancy of it of course but also to connect to their ancient sailing roots.
Lift – I am helping create a healing garden (I hope), so I am happy with that because it was something I wanted to do for myself and also for others and now I am able to do it in a few spaces, I like the way a change of environment affects the spirit as well as the physical space.
Love – Things are still shifting, my husband is leaving back to work out of state again, my father for more surgeries, my sister for work and vacation, our group is changing activities ext. But right now it seems like things are shifting to where they should be? The world was shut down, now that it is open there are more places to be so we don’t have to do as much on our own, we can start to rely on a larger community to give us what we need and enjoy a larger community to give back to as well (I love giving plants out).
Born to Be Alive 