Playing in the Dirt. . . You Never Really Grow out of it. . .

I think my mom gave me that love of gardening, even though when I was little I hated working in the garden.  I did love the fruits of her labor:  sweet peas, corn, and radishes.  Mom grew other things in her garden but those were my favorites.  Mom also had a fig tree and I have one now too, mine is just getting big enough to supply us with lots of figs.  We had our biggest crop of figs last year and the hubbs and I ate every one of them, they were so good.
I am thankful my sweet hubby also has a love for gardening, he got his passion from his dad, funny how that works.  I think my hubby  said it best when he explained why he likes to garden, he says it is pure and the work you do you can see in your fruits of your labor.  It is being able to see what you have accomplished, he does not believe he is a master gardener but he dose have a knack for growing things.
I enjoy working in the garden with my hubby and planting and watching what grows.  It is a feeling of accomplishment to be able to supply yourself and your family with fresh produce from the garden. I am looking forward to my herbs this year.  Like I said before, we already have a huge plant of oregano and I dry it regularly to keep my supply, we also have a bumper crop of Mountain Mint and Lime Mint.  The bees love our mint, in the Summer when the mint is in full bloom they bees are everywhere.  We do have some bee keepers not too far from our house, I hope we are feeding their bees.

This is a picture of our Mountain Mint with one of our little bee friends. 

Confession Time. . . .

Ok, so I am going to confess a few things today.  I have been excited about the possibility of going back to work but I have also been terrified.  This is a completely terrifying adventure, I have been out of the workforce raising my children for the past thirteen years.   Many things have changed since I worked and I am feeling a little overwhelmed.
I have always questioned if I have made the right decisions raising my children and I guess all parents have similar questions.  Should I stay home and raise my kids?  Can we afford for me to stay home with the kids?  These are all the questions my hubby and I asked before I decided to stay home. I do not regret my decision to stay home with my kids, I feel very blessed that I was able to stay home with the boys.  I went back to work too early after Sprat was born but he went to work with me.  He stayed with me for the first eight months of his life and then he went to an in home daycare.   There are little things I regret about sending Sprat to daycare, I regret that he had to go at only eight months old and that I missed out on some of his milestones.   Both the boys went to preschool and that I do not regret, it got them used to being around other kids and learning how to follow the rules.  I also believe my kids benefited from being around other adults and learning how to get along with different people.
With all of that out I will share my biggest fear.  What if I cannot cut it with this new job?  I am a little depressed because I am not at home as much with the boys.  I want to be a good example for the boys.  I want them to know that it is ok if when they get married their wife wants to stay home after they have kids or if she wants to go back to work after having kids.   It is a personal choice for each family and no two families are alike.  There is no one answer to fit everyone.
Stay tuned as we make this transition.

What to Eat and What to Wear????

I will be working twelve hour shifts and not able to leave our building for lunch or anything so, what should I take for lunch and snacks?   My first week I found I eat all the time, I was hungry all day.  My first twelve hour day I got to go to lunch with our CEO so I only had to pack snacks and maybe something to eat before I went home.  I have been trying to put together a list of easy to carry items to snack on but still semi healthy.  I can ill afford to gain weight at this job.  I am also having some difficulty in what I should wear and what will be comfortable.  Personally, I think pajamas would be a great idea but my manager frowned on that idea.  We are supposed to dress business casual so, I am trying to be professional but still comfortable.  So far, I have worn dress pants and a nice top and skirts and tops.  We do get to wear blue jeans on Fridays or something more casual.   I only own a couple pair of blue jeans so that will limit my casual days.  I saw something on Facebook yesterday; a girl said when she was out and about she was either really well put together or she looked like she was homeless.  That is me to a tee.  There is no in between and I kind of feel that way about casual Friday.   I am either going to look professional or I am going to look like I just got out of bed.
If you have any advice please, please comment below.   Also if you have any ideas about what to pack for lunches and snacks I would love that too.  I will be sharing more on both of these as I go through this schedule adjustment.
This is all new territory for me so stay tuned. . .

Used Cars. . .

We have been looking for an inexpensive used car for me to drive when I start work, since Sprat is driving mine to school.  I have looked on every internet auto list there is, or at least it feels that way.   I found something interesting along my journey to a car.  Did you know that the car rental companies sell their cars for a really good price when they can no longer rent them out?  These are the Enterprise and Hertz rentals places.  On a whim last week I drove by one of their used car lots and walked around.  They have some really great deals and the real plus is that you can be pretty sure that these vehicles have been properly maintained with oil changes and tire rotation and things like that.  This would be the ideal place to look for your kid a vehicle when they get ready to drive.  If we did not already have something for Sprat to drive I would most definitely go here over a dealership.
I am taking the car I am looking at to my mechanic today for a once over and if it passes my guys inspection I will have another car.   I am sticking to Dave Ramsey's plan, we are paying cash for this car, I refuse to go into debt with our job situation and we had to have another car so I have a reliable means to get to  work.
I start work on Monday and I am really excited and really nervous.  I am going to have six weeks or so of training so my schedule will be all over the place.  I do not think this position will ever get monotonous and since I will be part time I will be able to still be around for my kiddos.
A lot of things going on at our house this week.  Stay tuned still waiting for feedback on a couple phone interviews for my dear sweet hubby.  I told him to keep the faith that God's plan may be to keep him home till we have made this transition of me going back to work.   It is all happening in His time not ours.