Oh my, oh my, oh my....how I can't wait for actual spring. Today, after getting home from work, I was instructed to head outside, in my galoshes, to shovel water that was pooling in the driveway out onto the street. You know, cause there's 5 feet of snow here and it finally got a little warm and rained all day. So naturally, flooding. I should mention that this water was pooling innocently enough, not threatening the house. Every spring this happens and every spring the waters eventually recede. But my dad got a bug up his butt and so out I went to shovel water. Which is way tougher than snow cause gravity is a thing. And all that water you start to move just trickles its way back to where you started from. Tonight, I earn my glass of wine.
But onto bigger, better things. I applied for a grant through the Cook County Farm Bureau in late January to help the school garden purchase soaker hoses and attachments for an irrigation system, along with some compost to improve soil quality. Doing my best to describe our program, I turned in not only the 5 page application, but also a few written pages of supplemental material aimed at conveying the good work that the kids do. Honestly, I had completely forgotten about the application a week or two after I had sent it. Yesterday, though, I was happily reminded of it when the first email I opened at work at 7 in the morning started with Congratulations! Our application was deemed outstanding and our request for support was funded in full. It was a fun day, finding all the garden kids one by one to let them know that strangers thought our project was so cool that they were willing to give us money to improve. At our meeting this afternoon, I tasked the kids with learning about soaker hoses and installation. I can't wait to see what they come back with. I know that I tend to project my excitement onto others, but I truly feel like these kids are getting excited outside of me...they know they're doing something concrete to help others. Besides that, they get to grow really cool things and then eat them. Who doesn't love eating, honestly?!
It was a big day with projects at work. I was asked to work with one of our science teachers and her Environmental Science class to create a unit that somehow used the school garden. We came up with something super exciting, and the principal at the school seems pretty pleased (which makes me happy). The kids are starting with research papers on a variety of topics related to organic farming, including community impact. Then they'll be planning out a full bed in the garden. Seed selections will be made, plants will be put next to their friends, and they'll even get to start some seedlings in the science department greenhouse. Finally, once they've planted their plants, a discussion will be held about future impacts of what they planted and how this might positively impact both the planet and our community. I brought home work for the first time in a long time to start gathering resources and really planning through what they're supposed to get out of it both from my gardener's standpoint and with regards to their teacher and state standards. If it goes well, we might even get to present our plan at an educator conference sometime down the road. I haven't felt this intellectually challenged or trusted at work in a while, and the impact on my happiness meter has been noticeable.
March is so close...almost touchable. In the next couple of weeks, I'll begin planting my seeds in the basement, beginning the growing cycle yet again. I hope I remember in September how refreshed and excited I feel right now. Because then I predict I'll be feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. But through that exhaustion, there will be happiness and satisfaction. Best of all? There will be a feeling of purpose. Each day I take one more step toward the life I long to lead. But never will I be upset with where I'm at now. Without these trials, without these struggles, I would never get to the place I'm meant to be. Peaceful, sun-filled dreams to all....
Allison
But onto bigger, better things. I applied for a grant through the Cook County Farm Bureau in late January to help the school garden purchase soaker hoses and attachments for an irrigation system, along with some compost to improve soil quality. Doing my best to describe our program, I turned in not only the 5 page application, but also a few written pages of supplemental material aimed at conveying the good work that the kids do. Honestly, I had completely forgotten about the application a week or two after I had sent it. Yesterday, though, I was happily reminded of it when the first email I opened at work at 7 in the morning started with Congratulations! Our application was deemed outstanding and our request for support was funded in full. It was a fun day, finding all the garden kids one by one to let them know that strangers thought our project was so cool that they were willing to give us money to improve. At our meeting this afternoon, I tasked the kids with learning about soaker hoses and installation. I can't wait to see what they come back with. I know that I tend to project my excitement onto others, but I truly feel like these kids are getting excited outside of me...they know they're doing something concrete to help others. Besides that, they get to grow really cool things and then eat them. Who doesn't love eating, honestly?!
It was a big day with projects at work. I was asked to work with one of our science teachers and her Environmental Science class to create a unit that somehow used the school garden. We came up with something super exciting, and the principal at the school seems pretty pleased (which makes me happy). The kids are starting with research papers on a variety of topics related to organic farming, including community impact. Then they'll be planning out a full bed in the garden. Seed selections will be made, plants will be put next to their friends, and they'll even get to start some seedlings in the science department greenhouse. Finally, once they've planted their plants, a discussion will be held about future impacts of what they planted and how this might positively impact both the planet and our community. I brought home work for the first time in a long time to start gathering resources and really planning through what they're supposed to get out of it both from my gardener's standpoint and with regards to their teacher and state standards. If it goes well, we might even get to present our plan at an educator conference sometime down the road. I haven't felt this intellectually challenged or trusted at work in a while, and the impact on my happiness meter has been noticeable.
March is so close...almost touchable. In the next couple of weeks, I'll begin planting my seeds in the basement, beginning the growing cycle yet again. I hope I remember in September how refreshed and excited I feel right now. Because then I predict I'll be feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. But through that exhaustion, there will be happiness and satisfaction. Best of all? There will be a feeling of purpose. Each day I take one more step toward the life I long to lead. But never will I be upset with where I'm at now. Without these trials, without these struggles, I would never get to the place I'm meant to be. Peaceful, sun-filled dreams to all....
Allison