Being a Kept Woman

By this time next Tuesday, I will have formally transformed myself into a kept woman. The school year will be over and I get to morph into my life as a mother full time. I know why I work. In spite of the hours at work and the multiple hours on evenings and weekends that I have to put in to grading and planning, I am a better mother when I work. So the laundry may not get done and the used sippy cups may stay in the sink for a few hours, but I have more patience with my own children and am truly grateful for the time I get to spend with them. I think I tend to forget how important each minute is during the summers when all I want is a second to myself without someone saying, "Momma!"

Last summer, I seriously considered changing my name. I wondered if them screaming "Susan!" would grate on my nerves as much, but I digress.

All in all, nothing can beat the time with the children, but there still is one greater pleasure the summers afford me. I can go to the bathroom. It's not the ability to "go" and I'm most certainly never going to be using the facilities without one or both children in there with me offering helpful instructions, but I'll be able to enter the restroom when I want. That's right sports fans. Whenever I want to go to the restroom, I can just go. There's no more waiting for bells to ring and knowing you only have 6 minutes to make that mad dash down the never ending hallway all the while worrying if the kids have found that pop quiz yet which you forgot to stash before you shoved and elbowed the kids in the previous class out of the doorway to audition for your sprinting career.

It's the small things in life. Never the less, I know perfectly well when the summer comes to an end, I'll be just as willing to hurdle students in the hallways as long as it means using the facilities by myself with no one sitting on my lap trying to pick my nose.

On to gardening, those beans...all in the back...are looking pitiful. The leaves are shriveling and then falling limp. I honestly don't know what's going on. Someone suggested leaf hoppers, but I've never seen bug-one out there yet. I'm at a loss and trying to guess if I should rip them out and start over, or just ignore it and see if the new growth can withstand whatever is going on. I'm a bit bummed; beans were the one crop I was looking forward to.

The purple beans in the back are flowering! It's amazing the difference in two hours of sunlight. It makes me wonder if the corner back yard will be able to produce anything at all. We'll have to wait and see. The point is further made by the progress of the cucumber bushes in the front and then those in the back. The size difference is absurd.

I picked that first banana pepper yesterday. It was so cute, but I still say that plant smells bad. The Ichiban eggplant is about the length of my hand. Hopefully we'll be munching on that soon enough.

The morning comes early, my friends; but I get to wear jeans and a t-shirt to work and once I get my end of the year check list done, it's rolley chair races down the hallway for me.

Sweet gardening dreams.