Starting an Herb/Vegetable Garden with Kids!

Not mine... But Soon...

I started another Herb garden! I absolutely love fresh herbs and veggies. However, herbs in particular I have a really hard time keeping them on hand since I use them so much. I really don't have time to run to the grocery store every few days just for some cilantro & basil, which I use very often.

I loved my little garden that I had before and through a lot of trial and error I am starting back up again, with the help of the babies.

I am always a little too ambitious with my garden and things of the like. I want to grow EVERYTHING!!

I started some seedlings and right now I have, 2 types of Basil, Cilantro, Sage, Chives, Arugula, Spinach, Green Onions, Tomatoes, and Cucumbers.

I put them all, aside from the Cucumber and Tomatoes, in one huge rectangular pot along with some organic vegetable potting soil.

After most of the seeds germinated I have been letting it sit out on the front porch to get the sun it needs. However, since it has been raining, the big pot got soaked!! It reminded me how I have no drainage system going on in that particular pot!!

I got this pot from Home Depot since that and Walmart are where I get all of my gardening things. As you can see the planter is bowed out A LOT! And even though it has been a few days it is still over saturated with water.

Because of this, what I am going to do is remove everything once they start to get their true leaves. I am going to replant the entire box! Probably go and get a few more since I planted so much Basil and Arugula, I don't want them to die out due to overcrowding.
I am going to place large rocks in the bottom of each and then cover with some type of screening so that there can be a decent gap. Place some wick so that the liquid in the bottom does not go to waste and the box doesn't have to be watered as often.

Then finally I will add the soil back and replant what I want in each box.

For the tomatoes and cucumbers I may have to get bigger pots and I will also need a cage of some sort to keep them growing up instead or out.

The babies have been helping me along the way with the gardening and doing very well. I also planted a TON of flowers in my front yard and they are growing like crazy!!

I started with some gladiolas and blue iris, then added some marigolds and a mixed flower of various kinds. Finally I planted some cosmos, daffodils, and tulips, because I love them, although very late in the season.

Everything is growing very nicely! Especially the gladiolas and the marigolds, which took forever to start growing!! My blue iris grew nicely until it was time to bloom and them the flowers died!! Just the flowers... So I pinched them off but the stalks were not looking very nice, so I cut them down.

Now that I am reading up on them, I should have left them until they died themselves. I am hoping that the stalks and flowers will grow back before the season is completely over.

The daffodils and tulips have not popped up just yet. I do see foliage that looks like its coming from the daffodils however and I am excited to see if they will flower since they are an spring, early summer plant.

I will be collecting seed from each and every flower for next year and I cant wait to see how they will all look next year!!

Points System - Doing better!

So after the day or 2 of them doing what they felt like I sat down with them and had a little chat...

In said chat we went over all the rules and expectations of each other. We talked about being disrespectful and treating others the way you want to be treated. This rule in particular is something that my grandmother instilled in me and to this day is something that I live by.

I reiterated the Golden Rule to them several times and will probably do so again everyday until they actually get it.

I woke up this morning to the house looking much better than previous days, although there were some french fries hanging out on the floor still...

I quickly wrote down and assigned a few chores to each of them to give them something to do while I am at work today. So far so good.

Also since they lost so many points the other day I gave them a bonus. As long as they do all their chores and respect each other for the rest of the week they can have all the points that they lost back. That made them a little excited.

They are getting there.... Thing is they have not cashed in any of their points just yet so I am concerned that they do not and will not value this system without reaping the benefits of it yet.

Saturday is near!

Points System Crash & Burn!!

So as usual I left for work giving the children a few odd jobs to do for the day, since there wasn't much to do aside from the kitchen.

I came home from work to the house the same way that I left it!! They did not do a single thing!! I was so upset! I ended up just going upstairs and laying down reading up on clean eating and gardening, because that is my current thing.

My daughter wanted to make apple pie and since I promised her we would make it days ago and bought all the ingredients I said "OK, fine." I then went to sleep while she baked with the help of her brother and my sister.

When I woke up this morning I came downstairs to cereal all over the floor, the kitchen looking worse than the previous day and just crap everywhere!!

I decided I wasn't going to make them do anything while I was at work since they have decided that they don't have to listen to a text or video chat... When I get home tonight they will each be assigned a job one at a time until the whole house is spotless!!

While I am at work however, they are grounded and not allowed to come out of their rooms aside for eating. No TV, cell phone, nothing. Just books to read.

2 Weeks with the New Points System - Motivation!!

They are actually doing very well!! Including my young one!

The point system is giving them the motivation to get things done without me having to tell them to do it!

One thing that I noticed is that they are having a hard time completing something TOGETHER. They always end in some kind of fight or someone just stops working altogether.

This is something that I am going to have to work on with them, as I want them to be able to do things without always fighting.

I used word & publisher since I have it at work. If I were at home(& my macbook pro hadn't died for the umpteenth time) I would be using Pages.

This is just the basics of what I put together. I also created the lists with their Daily Tasks for each and put Avengers characters in the backgrounds to give them a little more excitement and sense of ownership.

I laminated each of their Daily Task sheets and had them tape it to their walls in their bedrooms.

I then had them place the rules and points list all over the house. In pretty much every room since I want to jam this system down their throats(figuratively, sometime literally.. LoL)

The first page on this is a list of chores that I write down as I come by them. Sometimes I assign them sometimes I don't.

The second page is theirs. I printed out multiple copies of this and on it they can mark down all the things that they did everyday.

So far, so good!!

Creating a Summer Schedule for Bored Kids

I work a full time job in addition to taking care of 3 children on my own. My babies are highly intelligent and highly active. My youngest is super Hyperactive. Such a sweety pie, but he is constantly getting into things he shouldn't be.

When they first got out of school, they lacked the structure that they are used to and need in order to keep themselves on task. They have been running rampant like a pack of wild dogs!!!

Kids in general need structure, so I have put together a daily task list and a point system for them while I am at work. This way I do not have to come home to a mess everyday and blow a blood vessel trying to get them to do the things that they are supposed to do.

I set up a schedule with a list of daily tasks and chores for them to do. There is space to add additional chores if need be depending on what is going on. There is also a space to keep track of the points that they accumulate throughout the week.

At the end of each week they can choose to use their points towards something that they want or want to do, or they can save their points to let them accrue towards whatever goal they may have.

The beginning stages of implementing this system are sure to be difficult to get through but with consistency I am sure that they will be able to and I will be left with clean, well behaved babies.... Hopefully.... LOL

This will be an absolutely interesting experiment and journey. I am very interested in seeing how far my kids will go to get the things that they want.

It has been a few days and the older 2 have taken to it pretty well. My youngest is still trying to figure things out. He hasnt been able to understand the concept of working towards something just yet.