A Flaw of Mine

I don't know if I've shared this bit about myself with you or not...but here it goes. I'm not a patient person. Patience and I have had this running battle for many years--all my life, in fact. I believe we were forced to live together as an evil experiment that is still being run. We don't get along very well at all. Sometimes I'll win a skirmish but mostly Patience wins. Think about it--how can constantly beat Patience at the patient game?!?!?! Every time I try to push forward or for progress or for anything--here comes Patience telling me "Just wait..." 

Here's an example of our dialogs:

Me: I need to go back to school. Now that I've made that decision, decided on my major course of study, I've decided I want to go for the Master's degree. In fact...let's skip all the crap courses and just head straight into the Master's program.

Patience: Be patient. You have to take those crap courses first...your Master's degree will come in time.

Me: I don't wanna wait! I'm 38 years old--I'll be--gee--I'll be like 40-something by that time...

Patience: That's why you need those crap courses--your inability to do some simple arithmetic proves you need the basic foundations first.

Me: I don't wanna wait--I'm a good student and I don't wanna be 45 years old before I get my Master's degree. So see? I can too do simple math if I have to!

Patience: Have patience. Start from the beginning and build your skills. Something tells me if you're really determined, you will get your Master's in record time...Have patience.

See what I mean? Ok--Patience was right--I was 43 when I graduated with my Master's degree. And Patience was right that I needed those crap courses to build the foundation of skills I needed. But still...

Anyway--now you know. I'm not a patient person. Remember the garden I wanted?  Dreamed about? Dreamed BIG about? I've been learning patience the hard way.  I planted the seeds and waited. The first signs of green were mostly weeds. I planted even more seeds, watered, weeded, and dangedit--WAITED. Impatience set in and I grabbed plants at the local box stores and planted them. And watched them get eaten by bugs and burned by  the drought because watering was restricted to once a week. 

I've been finally rewarded.  

 Zucchini plants mostly from seed. Yes--those are weeds I've got to pull. Again. 

Look what I spotted...a flowering zucchini. Woooooooooohoooooooo! There's still hope that these plants will produce actual fruits. Ok--vegetables. whatever...

 The pepper plants have buds on them! I'm so excited since they've been so difficult to keep alive. Yes--these are from plants I bought since the seeds never came up. I'm doing it differently next year. But still this is sooooooooooo exciting! I've visions of roasting peppers dancing in my head! 

My wax beans and my green beans are growing. I'm still waiting for the tomato plants to do something--anything!  The basils may have to be transplanted in the front yard where they have some shade. But I think I'm going to plant some pumpkin seeds and see how they do. Especially now that we've had lots of rain! 

Patience: I told you to just wait...Patience is rewarding! All you have to do is....

Me: Yeah, yeah, yeah--we've been through this already! And please don't say it!

Patience: ...have Patience.  

A Short One...

I  just finished teaching class. I helped D change out the last catboxes and watered the food garden while he watered the flowers in the front yard. I'm bushed. I want time to relax with my  husband and the cats. 

For you beaders, please check out Elizabeth's bead giveaway! It ends tonight! Last chance to comment and get your name in the drawing! She has some fabulous beads in her collection, which has me drooling. (One of these days, I'll tell you about my drool-trails, which aren't as toxic as chem-trails.) Beads have that effect on me.  Elizabeth put together an eclectic mix of beads that are both cool and funky and fun. So if you bead a little or a lot--go check out her giveaway and leave a comment! 

We found critters eating up some of our plants, so now we have to get them off and out of the garden. It's OUR garden--not bugs! I'm not raising that food for them. Most people would reach for the bug spray or some other pesticide. Since I'm trying to protect my kidneys by growing my own food, I have can't use commercial pesticides either. I'm going to be pressing several garlic cloves into a spray bottle and let it sit for a day or two--making garlic tea. It should discourage most garden pests, and I'm hoping it works for these bugs.  

Tomorrow is a full day and I don't finish teaching until 8 in the evening. I finished some administrative stuff today so I'm hoping I grade papers in my spare time. And yes--I know I "stay pretty busy" but one of these days, we'll break down the A-Personality type (that's combined with a bit of OCD and anal retentiveness.)

Have a great week!
 

That Easy Peaceful Feeling

I look forward to Sundays. After a specially hectic week--it was my first full week of teaching and there were problems...Yeah. Problems. Such as not being able to get connected into the online classroom to teach Wednesday night. I didn't have any problems last semester logging into the class. My husband, D and the Education Outreach boss, J were both working on my computer, trying to figure out why my computer was not able to connect.  With two computer techie/gurus working their magic on my machine, it made it hard for me to do much of anything else on it.  That issue was not resolved until late Friday morning. 

Since this was the first week for one of my graduate classes, I decided to hold a special Saturday morning review session from 8AM until noon so my students could get caught up on course material. It was actually successful, judging from the comments made by my students. It wore me out but it was worth it for my students. 

I also decided Friday that I'm pretty busy during the week--judging by this past week. If I want to eat during the week, the weekends are my only time to cook. So I grilled pork steaks on Friday; tequila-lime chicken and seared our pot roast (on the grill) on Saturday; and today, the pot roast is cooking in the crockpot. There's fresh salad and grilled veggies (D's corn, potatoes and our zucchini spears) for side dishes, along with fruit salad and grilled pineapple spears in the fridge. I won't have to cook again until Thursday afternoon. Yippee! 

Today is Sunday. The cats were gracious enough to let me sleep in until 6:45 this morning. Even Harley kept his purring down to a comfortable roar while kneading softly on me.  This was heaven. Nonetheless, it's been scorching hot here lately. I've been getting up early to water my garden out back to keep everything alive. So I dragged my sleepy butt out of bed, dressed, made coffee, fed cats, and then went out back to water. I saw these...

 Baby zucchini plants with leaves!  I'm so excited because these sprung from the seeds I planted!

 I also caught sight of this...the first green bean plant also from seed! This will go well with the wax beans I have growing as well! I'm going to have to transplant this bunch of wax beans.

 After watering the garden, I kept my promise to the girls in taking them outside in the front yard. This allows them to get outside time, allows me to work in the front beds, and allows D to sleep in without being woken up to cats crying to go outside.

 Ava, sniping in her grass nest.

 Topaz checking out hunting spots.

 Chile and Arby enjoying their morning.

Merlin and Chile greeting each other. 

Last Wednesday, I started weeding out one of the front flower beds. Then I had this brainstorm--I can plant my strawberry plants there! It meant enlarging the flower bed and changing its configuration. I started out with this on Wednesday....

 I ended up with this today...(and it's not done--just started)

While I pulled weeds (tough buggers too) and planned the front flower beds, I had an epiphany.  I realized that for the first time in years I felt better than I ever did before. This was the first time in two years since my first hospitalization I really believe I'm going to live for a while longer. I suddenly realized that I wasn't even doing the "I'm dying so I need to get this all done NOW before I go" thinking.  For the first time in a long, long time, I feel I can just stop, breathe a bit, and relax. 

I attribute this change in my attitude because I changed my eating habits. Since I learned I was allergic to food preservatives, I had to give up eating out. I also had to give eating nearly all foods that came pre-processed and in a box, can, or bag. I had to give up processed meats and vegetables.  In fact, what most people consider to be "normal eating," I've had to just quit doing--including coffee drinks, sodas, ice creams, canned soups, instant dinners, etc.

Because I changed my eating habits, my blood pressure is stabilizing and I'm able to use the lowest dose for my hypertension medication.  I'm off the cholesterol statin drugs. Other than a few sore muscles and joints, I'm feeling better--healthier--than I have in a long, long time and that goes back before I became sick enough to be hospitalized. All this because I changed my lifestyle from convenience to healthier choices. 

This year, I'm growing--or attempting to grow--some of my own foods. While the garden has become my obsession, I also realized it's been my center. Sunday mornings are a joy because I can spend time nurturing the very life force that will nurture me in return. The garden has given me what's been missing in my life--that peaceful, easy, healthy feeling. 

I'm living it. 



 

First Full Week and I'm Tired Already...

Tomorrow noon ends my first full week of teaching college classes. I'm already tired. My kitchen looks like disaster struck it and I don't have the energy today to clean it before I go online to teach tonight. While I know it's going to take a couple of weeks to get acclimated to my new schedule, I'm wondering if I bit off more than I could chew with teaching three summer courses and the garden.

No--wait! Not the garden! I didn't bite off more there...I LOVE my garden. It's my center--my being. All right--it's my obsession. There I said it. The Garden is MY OBSESSION! This morning, I couldn't wait to get out there and put in some more plants, to check for seed growth, and to water it. I was awake at 5:30 and out of bed, dressed and feeding cats before 6:00. Did you know it's still a bit dark outside at that time? The cats are loving this early-rising human because they get to eat earlier than usual. Ava loves this time of day because if she asks "IWantOutsideNowPlease" it will happen. At 7AM, I was loaded up with vegetable plants and tools (along with a bucket, sweater, hat, gloves, coffee cup, and a cat) and was out the door by 7:01:30. 

We have some growth. I'm praying that this...

isn't another Siberian Elm tree trying to take root in my garden.  I'm hoping that's our Genovese Basil finally sprouting. 

 I nearly whooped and hollered when I saw this...nearly. I remembered my neighbors were asleep as was my darling husband....they wouldn't have appreciated any loud celebrating that stated YES! THE WAX BEANS ARE FINALLY GROWING! That thing on the bottom looks suspiciously like a new binder weed. I shall banish it shortly if it is binder weed.   

 I planted sunflower seeds and hollyhock seeds by my fence line. One or the other or both are growing. I might even be able to transplant some of those to other areas. And yes--that's my barbecue skewer sticking up around it. It served as a marker so I know where to water and to keep D from mowing it down. 

But this gave me pause and made me stop and thank the forces that direct life on our planet. 

 It's our first peony flower that bloomed. Our neighbor, Mrs. C's mother planted this bush over 20 years ago when they lived in our house. We still get blooms every year.

In less than two hours, I get online and teach statistics to graduate students for two hours. It will be intense and fast because we have only two hours this week of class time. Tomorrow morning, I teach the three hour stats class in person. I'm so looking forward to Friday--when the most I'll have to do is grade papers. Friday morning, Ava and I will be out in the front yard so I can clear out the front flowerbed and plant strawberries and rosemary. I'm looking forward to my day off since I'm teaching Saturday morning. 


I'll get used to this schedule. I always do. 
  
 

Coming Up!

Yesterday, I investigated my garden to see how much damage the hail storm did to it. The pepper plants survived. To me, that's worth the few bruises I received from being pelted by hail. I looked closely at the ground because we should have some seeds starting to sprout... 

 And among the storm debris is salad! Wooooohooooo! Those little butterfly winged things are seedlings from the mixed lettuce packet that I planted. I'm excited. This is proof that I can grow things!

Ok--I confess to having some doubts since it's been years since I've done anything like this. Patience is not one of my virtues--it's something I had to learn. And sometimes, I forget my learning. The garden is teaching me to breathe and to be patient a little longer. It's teaching me to listen to the life forces around me. No, I'm not about to start going off into the esoteric. However, I know we have different birds living in our area and the wild yellow roses have a delicate fragrance. The winds sound  different blowing through the trees when they come from different directions. And the ferals watch my every move to see what I'm doing. And now--the garden is giving us a different life force. 

I started teaching my undergraduate students Thursday. Next Tuesday, I add my graduate students to the mix. I have three days off and I'm going to enjoy them. I can tell summer sessions are going to be a bit trying this year. For example, I received this email:

"Hi Professor! 
I'm really excited to be taking your class! I have a question about the weekly check-in requirement. Is this going to be a weekly thing or will this one time work for the whole summer session?"
                                  
Right after that email, I received this one:

"Hi CM. I want to do well in your class. I'm looking for the answers to the Syllabus Exercise and don't know where to start. One of my questions about the exercise concerns the due date. I can't find that information anywhere. Please advise."

Right underneath that was my email to the class that had this bit of information: 
"Hi Class,
You will find the syllabus and the course calendar in the folder on the homepage marked "Syllabus and Course Calendar." You will find writing resources, such as structure and APA style under the "Resources" folder. You can find your weekly notes and exercises under each weekly folder, starting with the folder labeled as Week One." 

                         
 Picture that look on my face after reading those. Hopefully, this will be a one time look and not one that lasts the whole summer.  

It's Blooming

                                                           Apache Plume's first blooms

                                                                           A close up.... 
                                     
                                                The Europa Daisy...Happy yellow!

  Look at these African Daisies--I didn't realize they closed up at night and opened when the sun shines on them!

 The Blanket Flower...clouds showed up overhead just as I shot this so it's not as bright as it is... Looks like we're in for some rain. I hope it's gentle. I planted sunflower and hollyhock seeds yesterday against the fence line in the back yard. 

 I didn't realize when I picked this pot of flowers out it would give a lovely shade of deep lavender. It's called the Soprano Purples ( Osteospermum). It's going to look stunning next to the raspberry colored salvia I planted years ago. 

Tomorrow starts my first official day of teaching the summer sessions. (*deep sighs*) I think  I'm ready for the busy season. I've cut assignments down to the bare minimum without cutting the education. I've reduced my office hours, chat sessions, and review sessions so my students can still get the benefit of me without compromising the quality. I've been brushing up my PowerPoint presentations, creating new ones, and looking over my notes. I've consolidated my graduate student classes into one website so they all can benefit at the same times for review sessions, to drop off assignments, and to gather their notes. Today, I put the finishing touches on my classes. 

I'm ready.  I have the garden to escape to in the mornings before I teach and in the afternoons before evening classes. And I have pretty flowers to soothe my senses.  

 

There and Back Again

Yesterday morning, D gave the final verdict of our old lawn mower. It was kaput, dead, finito, ready to go to that great Lawn Mower Heaven.  In short, we needed a new one. Since the weeds were already up to my knees, I agreed. After a bit of a discussion, we decided to run over to Santa Fe and visit Home Depot. The idea of going to a DIY store that boasted a garden center thrilled me to no end.  

Just this side of Rowe-Pecos area...Home of Greer Garson's ranch and Pecos National Historical Park. 

On our way there, we had to stop so I could grab this picture. We still have snow on our mountains. Nothing like they have in Colorado and other places, but it's still covering our mountain tops in May and that is a very good thing for us water-wise.

D says that my eyes lit up and got huge when we entered the store. He said he's never seen that look on me--not even when presented coffee. I deny that, naturally, but it could be true.  Not necessarily accurate. 

Anyway, we picked up the new mower and several new plants. I also picked up more seeds. Today, I informed my darling husband that we needed to make our garden bigger. There wasn't enough room for the fennel, the corriander, the carrots, the pumpkin or the pea seeds. And naturally, I needed more room for the bell pepper plants and the basil plants. Here's a picture of our garden now.

 

  

 Yes, those are straws and barbecue skewers sticking out of the ground. They discourage the ferals from using the garden beds as litter boxes and scattering the seeds I'm trying to grow.  I also use tongue depressor sticks for marking what's been planted where.   

This wonderful surprise greeted me this afternoon. When we first moved into this house, wild roses were growing rampant every where. I've pretty much left most of them alone--I like them. This was just a pretty sight for my eyes.  

 Some of the plants I bought were flowers. I realize that flowers have no other value than aesthetics, but I like them. I put those in the ground this morning while Ava, Topaz, Chile, Merlin, Buddy, and Arby took turns being outside. I looked for flowers that were heat tolerant, drought resistant, and perennial. I have two different yucca plants and an Apache Plume. To the far right is the plumbago I planted nearly years ago--it's been spreading beautifully. This morning I added the blanket flower, African daisy, european daisy and the fire witch. I love the way fire witches smell--and I have not been successful in getting one to grow yet. Hopefully, this one will like this spot in the full sun.   

Finally, before I go take a well deserved nap, here's a composition. 

 

 

Puttering About...

I'm on a vacation of sorts--a vacation from teaching. It became official on Monday, May 10th. The day before I had warned everyone that I was going to stay in my 'jammies all day long. I wasn't going anywhere. I wasn't doing anything. I wasn't going to cook dinner. The only thing I would do is medicate the cats and feed them. That was it. And I did. I took a couple of naps, played with my beads, watched three movies, and snacked all day on leftovers. It was heavenly.

This past week, I've been puttering. Puttering in my vegetable garden, putting in seeds and pulling weeds. I've been contemplating adding to my flower beds. I've puttered in the kitchen and with my beads--almost forgot to mail out my beading partner's beads for the Bead Swap. To tell you the truth, I had a hard time coming up with a focal, a few coordinating beads, find an interesting clasp, and deciding WHICH SET! I also lost track of the days. Until last Friday when I got this frantic call from my boss.

Now I like my boss. She gives me a lot of leeway in how I teach my graduate students. She's been fully supportive of all the changes I wanted and have made to my teaching methods. She's also great to talk to about issues I've had in the past and she's been like a mentor at times as well. So when she called me last Friday, and explained she NEEDED me--well--how could I say "No"???

Apparently there was a problem on a branch campus with another professor who was going to teach the same class as I do and a room foul-up. The room foul-up was simply this: There were no computers available to students in the room assigned to teach the onsite students. Considering that the course teaches statistics using SPSS and Excel, well--that's a major problem. Both are computer programs--and simply put--a computer is required to run them.  

So my boss asked me to please make room in my online class for these students. Before I knew it, I was also teaching a couple of extra ITV (interactive television) classes for the same course. Before I knew it, I had 35 graduate students this summer. Before I knew it, panic set in. The absolute fight-or-flight mode. And instead of fighting as would be my usual method of dealing with panic--I flew. Right out the door to my garden.  Once there, I puttered about pulling weeds, sitting among them, and contemplating life as a total recluse. But that meant I couldn't have hook up to the Internet and I'd be lost without a way to contact friends and family, including my blogging friends! That also meant no more beads. LOL That was the final kicker--no more beads. Besides, D wouldn't like living without Internet either so that ended the decision to forsake all and become a recluse.

I decided I had to be pro-active instead of reactive. So I called up my rosters at both universities since I'm teaching classes at both again. I have--at this time--25 students at the undergraduate level and 35 at the graduate level. My next decision was how much to cut out of each class to make my workload more manageable and then decide what to cut.  Hard and difficult decisions but I have to cut some of the course work. Sixty students are difficult to manage during a full semester, but during summer sessions?!?!?! Hmmmm....One of the areas I decided to cut back was my chat sessions/office hours/review sessions. That's almost painful for me because I realize how much they help students--but I had to realize that I'm seriously short on time for my students. 

This morning I realized that I've been enjoying my puttering about. I have only six days left before school starts up again.  My teaching friends are bragging how they will get out of school in six days and I envy them. When they have to go back, I'll be getting my other mini vacation. Hopefully, I can putter some more then. Of course, I'll be putting by some of the harvest (hopefully) and that isn't exactly puttering. 

I also realized that puttering about has given me my center back. The garden is my focus that gets me away from the computer and gets me up and moving about. I'll confess to being stiff and sore from all the bending over, squatting down, and hopping over planting beds. Nonetheless, I've been sleeping well and waking refreshed. The garden is where I go with my first cup of coffee in the mornings. It's peaceful. It's my little piece of heaven.

So What Now?

So now that the spring semester has ended and I still have ten days before the summer sessions start, now what?

We are planting a garden.  I decided earlier this year that I wanted to grow some of my own food for once. It's been ages since I've had that opportunity and I wanted to do this. I figured I had already gotten the hang of preserving food from last summer's green chile. My friend grows a small garden every year and that really helps feed her family throughout the summer. Because she lives in the southern part of our desert state, she can grow certain plants all year round, providing she remembers to cover the plants on those nights when the temperatures are dropping below freeze level. 

So in April when I was neck deep in papers, my darling husband heard the same refrain from me: "We need to dig up the garden plot. I want to plant a garden." He usually heard that as I was returning to my computer to grade more papers. When we had a warm week, D dug up our garden plot.

                                  This was the first garden plot being dug. D expanded it later.  

              He found a ton of rock, old sewer pipe, a variety of broken glass, and more rocks.

  D had this idea of setting up a plot that used the maximum amount of space for gardening and leave
  enough space to work the garden. He staked it out and the added a layer of garden compost/

 

There is the garden plot, laid out nicely with spaces for me to walk and work while keeping the planting beds pristine.

                        

Yesterday I put in the first seeds. I planted onions, Roma tomatoes, purple basil, eggplant, green bush beans, tarragon, oregano, sweet basil, bell peppers, and Genovese basil. I used muscles I haven't used in a long time. I sat in the dirt, listening the the birds chase off an intruder. I felt the sun on my face and later my back. I smelled the last of the lilacs blooming in the breezes. It was heaven.  

The other bit I've been doing is prepping for the summer sessions.  One of the problems I discovered last semester is that many students do not know how to write at the college level. Even though my instructions clearly state to use third person, too many do not know what third person is. I decided since I had a bit of down time between teaching, I should develop some aids to help my students understand what college level writing is and how it's used. Along with those aids, I'm developing exercises for the students to complete for grades. I'm hoping this will save me time later but also stick with the students throughout their academic careers.

I also discovered that students aren't reading their textbooks. It's hard to reach some students that they need to read their textbooks and notes. I've decided to also develop content quizzes to guarantee that my students read the textbook.  And I'm revising my notes because as of now, I have too many for most of my classes. Some of my notes are old and need serious updating. Some of my PowerPoints are also reaching antiquation, along with some of my lectures. This is spring and it's a great time for cleaning out the unnecessary or unneeded. 

I also decided to revamp my syllabi since I'm doing this major overhaul. Most professors hand out a couple of pages for their class syllabus and that's that. Have I warned you that I'm an OCD/Anal Retentive/Overachieving Nut?  Consider yourself warned now. My syllabi are easily 13 pages long. I include the required materials, ADA statements, student expectations, and my policies on academic dishonesty, assignments, grading, attendance, and the course calendar. Several of my students confessed that they didn't even read the class syllabi last semester. I suspected that's pretty much the case for all my classes and most of my students. So I decided to get them to read the darn thing by making it part of the course grades. :D I'm hoping this will alleviate the need for me to repeat the same questions about why I won't take in late work or why they can't have a second chance on their exams or why I won't bend with a little plagiarism here and there. *shakes my head* That's another story. 

The other thing that's been constant is the care of our cats. We now have one dozen house cats. Yes--I did say TWELVE cats. We didn't plan on it nor did we intend after the kittens to add any more cats to our finally integrated, well balanced household. 

Remember Buddy? He's been in the local newspaper and I've blogged about him? We desperately searched for a permanent home for him. We had two prospects. The first one turned out to be an impulsive whim that flared off like a bright spot and died quickly. The second one had a personal tragedy that forced Buddy's new family into the decision of not adopting him.  We had Buddy inside the house to get him prepared for his new owners and also because he was chasing off our ferals--mainly Swirly, MC, Blanco, and Fiesty. Yep---he was chasing the boys off the property. 

When the second home for Buddy fell through, we soon realized he had another bad mouth problem. His entire mouth was red, swollen, and had to be painful as all get out. Since we are treating Arby for acid reflux,  we are trying Buddy on a variety of medications and treatments. He's actually adjusted to being inside and gets along fairly well with most of the house cats.  We believe that he was chasing off the feral cats because he was in a lot of pain. This also brought up another issue since he has a chronic problem. Most people will not adopt an older cat, let alone one with chronic issues that requires daily treatment. *sighs* So our good intentions backfired and we now have one dozen cats in the house. 


So that's what's happening in our household. 

For Elizabeth--who requested these next photos.

  Quinn's Tulip

 Another one...

 With Daffodils