The Impatient Gardener

The impatient gardener - that's me. I want to plant things NOW and see them grow and harvest them...right now. 

Plants take time, so I tend to rush things, but I don't care. I'm enthusiastic about my garden, and that's what matters. 

Having a ton of polymer clay leftover from my miniature food obsession, I decided I could finally make some weather resistant garden markers, so for the past couple days I've been fiendishly rolling out strips of clay and embossing them with plant names using a clay embossing set I got for a song with a coupon at JoAnn's. 

Here's the finished product - they're sharp on the ends, slightly flexible and color coordinated to the crop they represent [as close as possible]. 

I won't be able to use them all this year, but I have a wide variety that should cover just about anything I want to grow. 

Now to start coaxing my little seedlings out of the ground!!

Bullet journaling, life planning and organization

I love things that are organized and color coded and neat. I don’t have that much patience for organizing, but I recently applied the Konmari method to my clothes closet and dresser drawers, and I’ve been happier for it.

Last year I got on the life planner kick – not in a big way, but it was a good excuse to buy washi tape and colored pens. Rather than spend a lot on a premade calendar or planner, I made my own, so that I could have five years of planning in one place for the whopping cost of $3.00 instead of what would have ended up costing $50 or more [much more]. I also got to use purple paper, and all the stickers I’ve been foolishly hoarding for years.

I spent a little more money on a Filofax type system that would hold all the information that doesn’t change. I created my own Filofax for under $25.00 to keep vital info – the kind of stuff people run around like headless chickens looking for when there’s an emergency. This way my husband and my kids know to look in one convenient place for all the information they might need to handle doctors, plumbers, banks, credit cards, etc.

I update the “life planner” whenever necessary. This allows me to plan things for future years and keep track of stuff from December to January without having to dig up a new calendar.

I think I’ll probably spend a little time once a year updating the Filofax.

Now I just heard about the ‘bullet journal’ which seems like another word for ‘life planner’ and/or Filofax. It’s all about analog planning and list keeping, something I’ve been doing without a fancy name for… well ever.

I make lists all the time, cross things off, migrate them to other lists, allow things that become unimportant to drop off those lists, make check marks and tables and analyses. Sometimes it’s helpful, but not always.

I love the idea of the bullet journal as much as I love the idea of the life planner and the Filofax, because it’s a reason to go to the store and buy pens and notebooks and pretty things in multiple colors. I like the idea of having a document that represents your life…

…but…I’m also reaching a point in my life where living it is more important than documenting it. Ending up with a drawer or a shelf or a box full of old journals/calendars is not attractive to me anymore. They look pretty in all the photos that the bullet journal enthusiasts post online, but I just see clutter that one day I will look at and say “Why am I keeping this? So I can know when my dentist appointment was in 2011?”

I’m also not a fan of the obsessive data recording that seems to go with the life planning lifestyle. I don’t want to keep track of pints of water consumed or loads of laundry washed any more than I want to keep track of calories consumed or trips to the bathroom. Some people do, however, and that’s fine, it’s just not for me.

My quest to become organized is currently more reliant on my quest to become a minimalist. And while I like my 5-year calendar because it eliminates FOUR calendars out of my life, and I like my Filofax because it consolidates dozens of file folders into one book of vital info, I just can’t see myself becoming a dedicated bullet journalist.

Unfortunately, I can see myself trekking to Staples to buy the various and sundry supplies to bullet journal. #zennotsozen

Bonsai again!

Finally!

I've mentioned before that I'm obsessed with bonsai and I've tried a million ways to get one that have been unsuccessful because bonsai take time and I'm impatient, the ones they sell for indoor use are outdoor trees that are destined to die for $40, and growing a tiny tree from seed produces a sapling, not a bonsai.

The other week I was looking at some dead shrubbery that needs to be removed from the front yard and I came across two small boxwood shrubs that were half dead hiding in the shadow of a taller bush. I noticed the nebari [root system] on them and I was impressed. I decided pulling them out and repotting them wouldn't be a loss - they weren't going to make it anyway, so I had nothing to lose. 

This is the second tree which turned out just exactly like the mature bonsai tree I've always wanted. I bought a shallow pot at Lowes and replanted it. Hopefully it will survive the shock and become a flourishing outdoor bonsai with a little hit of fairyland thrown in. It needs time and some work, but I think I've finally got the tree I've always wanted. 

What the Internet doesn't have

It seems like anything you want to know, you can find on the Internet these days. You can Google anything and get tons of hits, and so, of course, I spend a lot of time Googling 'menopause' and 'perimenopause', trying to find more information about the hormonal roller coaster I'm on these days.

Sadly, while there are just as many hits for these topics as for any other, there's a really not a lot of what I'm looking for. Here's what I DON'T NEED from the Internet:

A definition of menopause/perimenopause - I got all this during my first search. Why does everyone who writes about it have to include all the clinical whys and wherefores? We get it people. Dictionary and medical text explanations are passé and boring.

The ubiquitous suggestions - ugh already with the 'discuss this with your doctor', or try XYZ or PDQ. Half that stuff doesn't work anyway and the other half you need prescriptions for. Unless I'm literally out of my mind, I don't need pills. I need reassurances.

The Big 5 or 6 major symptoms - again, we get it. We know the major stuff. I want to know the unusual stuff. There are 30 or 40 common symptoms of menopause/perimenopause. If you're stopping at 5 - you're probably a man.

The weight loss talk - Stop. Just stop. We know weight gain is one of the big 5 symptoms and we're SICK TO DEATH of hearing how we have to be more vigilant now to avoid something that is patently UNAVOIDABLE. So just freakin' STOP already.

Treatments - Once again, we know that the medical industry revels in being able to declare something an illness that requires lots of pills and tests, but this not an illness, it's a normal progression. So if I search 'treatments' give me treatments, but if I search 'stories' don't give me treatments.

What do I want?

I want to hear from other women my age who are going through these things: the anxiety, racing heart, feeling that something is wrong but you don't know what, trouble sleeping, mood swings, itchiness, bad hair, bad skin, exhaustion, forgetfulness, clumsiness, irritability and stomach issues. Tell me how you feel and even better, tell me it all gets better eventually. How will I know when it's winding down, and I can look forward to normal again? What will normal be like? I want the real dope on this nonsense, not the clinical nonsense and namby-pamby 'eat less exercise more avoid caffeine and see your doctor' crap that everyone thinks I want to hear.