Keep in mind that you can make any color or flavor. I used a layer of lime jello, white jello (similar to the birthday cake variation below), and orange jello, and I used whipped vodka for all three.

Now what I do have to start with are three planting areas and my plans of action for them (or their current situations):

Upstairs

I have a small square patio off of my room. While there isn’t a place for a dirt patch (at least not one that Cameron wouldn’t be able to get into), there is a high ledge (about 4′ high) on which I’ve placed longer planters for starting plants.

The Plan

Because this is a particularly sunny area, the plants that need full sunlight are thriving. I have about half a dozen carrots growing nicely, a very tall stalk of broccoli that I need to figure out how to stabilize pretty soon (and 2 other stalks that may need replanting for the sake of space), and 3 cauliflower plants that seem pretty happy (surprising because their instructions said partial to indirect sunlight). In the second planter, I have 4 happy bunches of kale. Spinach didn’t do so well out there, and I didn’t transplant my beets in time, so they’re going into the downstairs plans.

Downstairs: Patio

I also have a long but narrow patio downstairs that is paved for all but about a 3′ by 1.5′ dirt patch, which was only last week overgrown with ivy and had also started to share space with poison ivy. This dirt patch extends under the fence into my neighbor’s patio, so while I uprooted as much of the ivy’s incredibly complex network of roots, I couldn’t get all of it. I mean, seriously, there were roots 1″ in diameter that reach under the cement. I wish I’d taken pictures. Anyway, since I have an odd fear that anything I’d attempt to plant here would be overgrown and strangled by a regrowth of ivy, I decided to board over it for the time being and place my grill over that planter. I’d rather any planting areas be off the ground and away from tiny fingers, at any rate.

The Plan

Photo Credit: http://lifeonthebalcony.com/

I’m playing the Pinterest card here and I’m thinking that a shipping palette planter would be a great solution for this area. I’d hang it or somehow elevate it by using the fence, and I think that as long as I place a tarp between the planter and the fence, it shouldn’t rot the fence, right?

**UPDATE**
After speaking with my next-door neighbor (with whom I share the fence behind the grill), I found out that most of my neighbors have used the gutter against the long fence as planters, so I’m reconsidering what I’d like to do with that area. While I was originally thinking to keep plants off the ground, I’m now thinking that I could transplant the tomato, bell pepper, and Brussels sprouts from the front walkway since they need more vertical space, then keep the pots that are currently in the front walkway where they are.

Downstairs: Front Walkway

While I also have a narrow planter along the front entry’s walkway, it borders an alcove between my and my neighbor’s doors. When the wind picks up, my planter becomes the catch place for swirling leaves and dust. Because of that, I decided to cover that dirt with rocks & seashells (because I do live close to the beach, after all).

The Plan

There are a few paving stones on which I’ve placed large pots suitable for tomatoes, bell peppers, and Brussels sprouts. I think these may actually need more sunlight, though, because while they’re still alive, they don’t seem to be as happy as say, the broccoli upstairs. These pots may make their way to the back patio and I’ll rig hangers for them to be hung from the fence between/flanking the above-mentioned palettes. I’d like to replace those with ginger and garlic, because I can never have enough of either of them and I’ve read that both can do well in low light.

A couple notes

The plants I’ve already started were grown from the Dole Garden Kit I received at Fitcation. Ideally, the rest of what I plant will be fresh veggies, herbs, and maybe easy-to-cultivate fruits. I’ll be honest, I’m surprised that any of my plants are still alive at all. I wouldn’t say I have a green thumb, but fortunately, it’s been pretty easy thus far. Then again, maybe these plants are just the resilient ones. We’ll find out, though, won’t we?

What plans (if any) do you have for your spring gardening? And if you do have a green thumb, what advice do you have for noob urban gardeners like me?

For this reason, I thought I’d try a simple juice recipe just for him (okay, a little for me, too), and by golly, it worked!

Simple Green Juice

• 5 Green Apples (I like granny smiths and I like them refrigerated ahead of time)
• 1 bag (4 cups) of baby spinach
• 1 lemon

Toss it in your juicer (my juicer recommends alternating high speed items, like apples, with low speed items, like lemons & spinach, so I did it apple, spinach, lemon, apple), pour it back & forth between your sippy cup/glass (with or without ice), and enjoy. Easy peasy, no?

Oh, Cameron.

Today you’re 2. 2 years old! And my how you’ve grown since we first met face to face.

You’ve gotten so tall, but you’re still my skinny-mini. It’s always a matter of your pants being long enough for your legs but too wide for your hips or perfect on the hips and too short in the leg. But you’re so strong – you still love to climb virtually anything, and I can’t wait to get you to a rock gym and see what you can do. You’re also learning the art of the somersault, but sometimes, we struggle with the subtlety of making sure the landing area is clear. It’s a work in progress, right?

In the meantime, you’re such a ham! You love to get a laugh out of people, and you love to make funny faces (especially for the camera – you’re a big fan of the front-facing camera on my phone, in fact). Your eyelashes are still a standout feature – everyone notices them, and all the ladies love them. And speaking of the ladies, you’re still quite the ladies man – just this morning, you were flirting with a group of girls at a coffee shop, smiling while playing peek-a-boo with them and waving.

You have almost all of your teeth – we’re just waiting on your 2-year molars – and you LOVE to brush them. You know bath time comes after dinner time (you even say “Bah! Bah!” when you’re finished with dinner and ready for a bath), and that it’s time to brush your teeth after we’ve put on our PJs (you point excitedly to your teeth while grinning oh-so-big, saying “Tee! Tee!”). Bath time is so much fun, too – you love when I turn on the shower head underneath the water to make you your very own water show! You’re getting much better at shampooing your own hair and scrub-a-dubbing your different body parts when we name them off. You even like to rinse yourself with the shower head AND you don’t spray out of the open side of the shower. It’s quite a feat, little mister.

You seem to have outgrown Yo Gabba Gabba, or perhaps you’re just more interested in other shows, but you’ve learned to sit through a whole entire movie! Lately, your favorite movies are Fantasia 2000, The Lorax (both the one from the 70′s and the new one), and Robots, and you love the shows Curious George and Sesame Street. You’re also growing into story time, becoming more patient about sitting for a story and pointing at your favorite pictures. You even point and say the objects you can say, like banana (“a-na-na”).

While you don’t have a lot of words under your belt, you’re learning them so quickly! Just yesterday, you learned to say “Uh oh!” and said “bruh” when you wanted your toothbrush. It seems like every day you’re learning to say something new. You’ve also learned so many other amazing things- you know your colors and you understand that certain things go together. You express your preferences clearly, too – now if only your food preferences weren’t expressed by you handing me food you’d chewed up.

Cameron, you are such a sweet, gentle little person. You’re kind and affectionate, patting people on the back when you hug them, and giving kisses much more freely (at least when you’re excited). You blow kisses as you wave bye-bye to people you love, and you hug new friends you meet at the park without knocking them over or hold hands with pretty little girls you encounter. You’re so friendly, and you love people as much as they love you.

You’re extraordinary, my sweet pea. I can’t believe 2 years have already come and gone, but I’m so proud of how far you’ve come. I love you so much. Happy birthday.

Love,
Mommy

A passage that really struck a chord with me was one in which he presents some unconventional wisdom (really, most of what he presents is unconventional):

Emphasize Strengths, Don’t Fix Weaknesses

Most people are good at a handful of things and utterly miserable at most. [...]
My body is designed to lift heavy objects and throw them, and that’s it. I ignored this for a long time. I tried swimming and looked like a drowning monkey. I tried basketball and looked like a caveman. Then I became a fighter and took off.
It is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor. [...] Focus on better use of your best weapons instead of constant repair.

Around the same time I read this, the owner of a digital creative agency for which I do WordPress development decided to change the business model to a strictly creative agency – all design, no development because that’s what this person loves and is great at. Why struggle to manage all the other aspects that usually just lead to frustration? It’s smart.

So then I thought, how do I apply this to my life?

Going back to that passage, my immediate first thought was running. I really hate it. I’m not a fast runner, it’s not an activity my body is well suited for, and while the results I get are great, I don’t enjoy having to force runs out of myself. Really, I tend to enjoy things much more when they’re not forced. Running? Forced. Dancing, though. Dancing I can get behind. I love dancing. I like to think I’m pretty good at dancing. And if I’m going to spend hours upon hours each week honing a physical skill that will keep me active and in shape, I’d rather that it was dancing.

That said, I’ve decided to hang up my running shoes. I’ll probably still run a mile or two when the mood strikes (weekly), but I’m not going to force races out of myself just so I can say I’ve run a 10K.

So I want to pose the question to you – feel free to answer in the comments, but I know this subject matter is very personal, so maybe instead of writing them down here, write them down somewhere for yourself, but do write them down: what weaknesses are you fighting to fix and are those efforts keeping you from emphasizing and focusing on your strengths?

Thus far, his clearest words are “mo mo mo” for more, “mama” for me, “dada” for his dad, “anana” for banana, “ee” for eat, “tee” for teeth (which often sounds a bit like “dee” or “gee”), and “da” or “dahn” also share the meanings of “down” and “done” (which are generally synonymous as far as he’s concerned).

The reason I bring this up is because I’ve been worrying that there was some fault to be had for the delay in his speech development, whether it was the bouncing back and forth between my and his dad’s homes, or that I’m not doing enough for him. For the month of December, I picked up a part-time WordPress gig that required me to work on-site. I left after 2 weeks because, between the commute and the hours, I didn’t get enough time with Cameron and in just those 2 weeks, I could see the effect it had on him.

So then I ramped up my efforts, changed up our day-to-day flow and started to enforce more clear and regular routines. When we wake up, we do ABC. Lunch time means LMN. When bedtime is coming, we do XYZ. While his dad hasn’t carried these over to his own house, they’re making a remarkable difference here with his behavior. I’ve incorporated flash cards and visual tools, physical objects, foam letters for the bathtub and bathtub paints to pair the visual elements (letters) with corresponding sounds, since he seems to respond to visual stimuli better than he does aural, and he learns even better when he physically does things (while it’s early to tell, I’d say he’s probably a kinesthetic learner – he picks up sign language quickly and easily, whereas he struggles to replicate sounds).

I know my kid. I know him very well. He works with his aunt & her boyfriend, both speech pathologists, on the weekends when he’s at his dad’s. He has an appointment with a speech therapy center just before his birthday. I can’t have him every single day, I can’t manage what happens at his dad’s, but I do all I can when he’s with me. But there’s still that nagging guilt that it’s never enough.

So how do I reconcile my own mom-guilt with the understanding that some things are simply out of my control? That Cameron will talk when he’s ready, that kids develop at their own pace, that for 2 days of the week I’m left sitting on my hands in the hopes that his progress continues, or at least that when I get him back he won’t have regressed?

It’s a hard pill to swallow as a mom, this understanding. But it goes with the territory. While I can’t sit back and just let it all go, while I still will and must act decisively, I must also learn to accept.

I’ve taken the time to really consider what I want to achieve this year, but instead of just setting goals, I’ve realized the importance of making them into habits by integrating them into my every day life. I was pointed to this blog post on why most people’s new years resolutions fail and how to make, change, or remove habits more easily. My biggest takeaway is that a goal can be achieved by making it very clear and incorporating the means by which it will be achieved into existing habits. To that end, I’ve set these goals for this year:

Stay unplugged while spending time with people, especially Cameron, and limit Facebook time to once per day.

I’m really embarrassed that I even have to set this as a goal, but it’s really distracting and it’s become this thing I pop over to when my mind wanders, then before I know it, I just blew 15 minutes on I don’t even know what. It needs to stop. So I’m limiting myself to once per day, excluding messenger conversations (I do talk with clients and colleagues via Facebook measures because convenience).

Run a 10K.

I’ve already signed up for Race on the Base again and it’s in less than 8 weeks. Can you imagine that the Log Your Run Pro app has an 8 week beginner to 10K training program ready and available? YAY! I set up reminders, and I’m incorporating it into Cameron’s post-breakfast routine (clean him up, get dressed, go for a run). This way, he’s happy and fed but has time to let his breakfast settle before digging into active play time, I’m caffeinated, and once I finish with my run, we can spend some time at the park.

I’ve decided that running a half marathon isn’t a goal I feel is important for any other purpose than to say I’ve done it or just for the sake of pure ambition. I want to live more purposefully, and while it’s incredibly admirable to be able to run a half marathon, a 2 hour run and a minimum of 8 hours a week training for said run is time I think I’d like to utilize differently, especially considering that those weekly training hours would include Cameron. 2 hours of being strapped down in a stroller? Why would I do that to my kid when I could be playing with him instead?

Spend at least 45 minutes a day outdoors.

Like I just mentioned, spending some time at the park with Cameron after a run, or even using rest days to take a walk through the wetlands near where I live is a simple habit to incorporate into my fitness/the post-breakfast routine. I live in a beautiful area – I haven’t really taken much time to appreciate that until recently, and I want to take in more of my environment.

Make housework a routine.

POYEL has been going really well, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. However, I read a great post on Apartment Therapy listing 10 simple things to make you happier at home. The ones that stood out most for me were to “Bring every room back to ‘ready’” and “If you can’t get out of it, get into it.”

The bringing every room back to ready is a simple way to keep each room clean and not have to worry about doing big cleans at the end of a day. However, they even note that three minutes should be sufficient unless you have a toddler. And I have a toddler. That’s been the difficult part of keeping up with this, because once he’s finished eating and has food smeared in his ears and eyebrows, I want to get him to the bath. Dishes in the sink? I’ll get to them when I get to them. It’s a vicious cycle. Mindfulness of this has helped, but even more helpful has been teaching Cameron to clean up as he goes. If he’s finished playing with a particular toy, then it gets put away. Even though I do most of the putting away, he’s at least starting to get the idea.

And the idea of getting into things I’m not into (I’ll use dishes and putting away laundry as an example because eff that) is helpful. I’ve trained myself to appreciate the scent of fresh laundry and how soft and warm each piece feels as it comes out of the dryer, and the satisfaction of smoothing it out, folding a shirt, aligning seams with the hangers, etc. Basically, I’m indulging my obsessive compulsive tendencies. I’m typically more enthused about the end result of having an empty sink than I am about the process of doing dishes, but I’m working on it.

I think the final part of this is making simple tasks a part of the routine. Do any residual cleaning, including vacuuming, while Cameron is winding down with quiet play after bath time. Don’t leave a room if it’s not clean. Designate a laundry day and hold myself to it.

Designate one hour a day to creating content for either this blog or my business site.

This is going to have to be something I create time for, and by create, I mean I’m going to have to wake up before Cameron to make this happen. I typically do anyway, so then by the time he’s ready to wake up, I’ve already accomplished something and we can enjoy our morning play time together.

I was asked why I make items for my graphics shop, whether it is a purely recreational pursuit or if it is for some other end. It was a difficult question to answer, because really, the downloadable freebies I’ve developed are among the highest traffic pages on my business’ site, but they’re also creative exercises for me. I get to experiment with design ideas that I really like without compromising my own creative vision. It’s really a lot of fun, I get to give back to the users, and I get to showcase my design skills. For all intensive purposes, I’d rather treat it as a recreational pursuit and as a way to keep the love affair I have with my work hot (not that it’s all that difficult). However, as far as recreational pursuits are concerned, it’s a pretty good use of time if I do say so myself.

Read 30 minutes a night.

Easy enough to incorporate into my own bedtime routine. Brush my teeth, wash my face, put on my pjs, read.

These are just the simple lifestyle changes I want to incorporate

They’re not the only ones, but I thought I’d start with these, at least for the time being.

What goals are you setting for the new year and what are you doing to achieve them?

10. Salespeople

And I don’t mean the door-to-door kinds of sales people. I mean the people who are constantly trying to sell you on themselves/their product/their services, who also tend to be the people who continue to pitch when I’m already a buyer. Stop it before I change my mind. Or just stop it in general. If I’m going to buy/buy into something, I’ll do it, but the incessant pitching is NOT making me want to use/purchase your products. Special shout-out to the name droppers whose primary mode of persuasion is ethos, but don’t substantiate the arguments with equal amounts of pathos (emotional appeal) and logos (logical appeal). I mean, I get it. You’re trying to demonstrate your value, but you’re not showing me why you’re valuable in the first place if you’ve only talked about who you’ve worked with instead of what you’ve done for them.

9. Unsubscribable email lists

I’m looking at you, Mr. President. I donated to the campaign and did something I was proud to do. Then the emails started. And they didn’t stop. Even after I unsubscribed from all of them, they kept coming. However, this isn’t the only list, so to all of you who make unsubscribing a complete pain in the arse, I say BAH HUMBUG.

8. Parents who ruin it for the rest of us

Those impossibly perfect parents whose kids don’t make messes when they eat, who make little goodie bags and notes for everyone on their flight to pardon the potentially fussy babies that sleep through the whole thing anyway. I’m so happy for you, that you actually have time (or maybe just sleep) to sacrifice for such a cause, but do remember that your children have as much right to be there as anyone else. The guy that doesn’t believe in regular bathing or hygienic products like deodorant isn’t going to apologize for smelling like dumpster, so why in the name of whatever you find holy should you have to apologize for the existence/presence of your precious little baby? Right.

7. End of the world conspiracists

It’s so nice to see you all here still today. I really don’t have to say TOO too much on this because I’m sure they’re hiding somewhere in shame, but I will say that yes, we should all be more conscious of our own emergency preparedness, and no, it shouldn’t take the threat of an apocalypse to live the life you want to live. That said…

6. YOLO

Really, this should be higher on the list, but the segue was just so natural. Anyway, NO SHIT, you only live once. That is not an excuse to do stupid things for the sake of trying them out. Remember, you may only live once, but it’s better to forgo the crazy impulses than tell stories of them from jail.

5. People who blame the ills of our nation on Godlessness

There’s a grossly misguided/irrational assumption that a person without religion is amoral and that a person who is religious has a higher moral standard. People do good and bad things regardless of their affiliations. It doesn’t take a religious text to tell a person how to not suck at being a human being/sharing the earth with other people. It takes empathy and logic. Don’t want people to steal your things? Okay. That probably means they wouldn’t like it if you stole their things, too, SO DON’T DO IT. Yes, moral gray areas exist, but often times, those areas surround deeply personal choices that have nothing to do with anyone else, so get yer nose out of other people’s business and handle your own.

4. The NRA

Seriously, no one is trying to legitimately take away everyone’s guns, the government isn’t trying to disarm the people so it can oppress them, and if you’re not a good enough shot to hunt down a rodent without using a semi-automatic, then maybe you should consider target practice with clay pigeons until you are. Remember, there’s a big difference between wanting some assurance of competent gun ownership (permits, licensing, practical tests, frequent inspections, much like what we have to undergo to drive a car) & limits on/prohibition of the use of assault weapons (which are wholly unnecessary for civilian use) and stripping a nation of its right to bear arms.

4. The NRA. Again.

They get 2 spots because they’ve earned it. Seriously, the higher-ups of this organization (and I should note that I know NRA members who don’t stand behind the NRA’s statements made in response to the Sandy Hook shooting, so when I say NRA I mean the people who speak for the NRA as an organization but not its individual members) think it’s a good idea to spend money the nation doesn’t have on putting armed guards in schools (which many schools already have anyway, even though that didn’t stop the Columbine shooters) when most schools don’t have a full-time nurse or librarian and teachers are getting laid off in droves. Such a great idea.

Also, these are the same people who are worried that the government is planning some kind of hostile takeover. And you want to arm the institutions they run? I swear, my nose is going flat from all the headdesking I’ve been doing lately.

3. Chris Brown supporters, aka “Team Breezy”

It is never okay to abuse someone, and to beat a person within inches of her life only to have fans say that “she deserved it”? WHAT THE HELL?! That is SO far beyond wrong. And when people criticized the Grammys for honoring him, his fans were RABID. I personally am not a big fan of misogynistic, partying-is-life style music, so Chris Brown’s music itself doesn’t speak to me, except to say that he’s an arrogant tool who doesn’t respect women. However, his actual music in this situation, as far as I’m concerned, is irrelevant, because there is no talent that excuses abusing another human being. The fact that he has fans who support him, not blindly, but without regard for his actions is disgusting and despicable.

2. The fact that we are still arguing about women’s issues

And we’re not including women in these arguments. SNL nailed this one:

1. People who threatened to move to Australia/Canada/etc. if Obama won the election, then filed petitions to secede after he won.

I know. You’re disappointed that your candidate (who I recall the rest of the Republican party lambasting early on in the election cycle) lost the election that was wholly his to lose. You’re not satisfied with the candidate who won by a landslide in a fair election in a country where citizens actually get the right to vote and aren’t forced to vote for anyone in particular, much less at gunpoint, because you think he’s a godless, socialist heathen. Well, sorry to break it to you, but the rest of the developed nations in the world utilize some form of socialized health care, many tax higher than the US does (the US has some of the lowest effective tax rates in the developed world), not to mention vast differences in gun ownership rights. And as for secession, I seem to remember learning about a certain Civil War that didn’t end very well for the secessionists. See? There IS a reason we’re required to study these things in school.

So that’s how I’ve been disappointed this year. Let’s try using our thinking brains a little more in 2013, please? For more grievancy goodness, check out my Airings of Grievances 2010 and Airings of Grievances 2011 or see what other people have to say by following the hashtag on Twitter (#airingofgrievances). Don’t forget to leave a comment and tell me how you’ve been disappointed this year.

So then I thought chocolate and spices? What about Mexican Spiced Cocoa? Now I’ve heard this variety of hot chocolate called by many different names, including Aztec Hot Chocolate and Mexican Spiced Hot Chocolate, but if you’re unfamiliar with what it is, it’s pretty much what it sounds like. Hot chocolate with spices. And it’s delicious.

So I tinkered and played with it and I’ll be honest (but not in the least bit humble): I blew my own mind. The only problem I ran into was oven space, and let me tell you: if you use more than one cookie sheet and they don’t fit side-by-side, DON’T PUT ONE BELOW THE OTHER. You will end up with a sheet of molten cookie rock. Delicious though it may sound, your teeth will hate you. DO NOT DO IT.

But do follow the recipe, because it is tres delish.

Ingredients

1 box of Devil’s Food cake mix
1 cup of Butter (melted)
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Chile Powder (less if you’re using Cayenne. Also made that mistake once.)
A pinch of Ground Clove (if you’re feeling ambitious)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Mix dry ingredients.
3. Stir in the butter until you have a cookie dough consistency
4. Make teaspoon sized balls and spread them out on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
5. Place in center rack of the oven and bake for 12 minutes.
6. Remove from baking sheet to cool (usually, I just lift the parchment paper straight off of the sheet and slide it onto a cooling rack. Lifehack WHAT)

So that’s it! Easy peasy and wonderful for holiday potlucks, hostess gifts, or just a sweet treat.