What I've been up to lately

I've been neglecting this blog for a while, but now that I have some time I thought I'd write a few more posts about some of the things I've got going on and then schedule them for later. But first, what's been going on in my life?

Sadly, my cat Basil passed away last year. He was the grey tabby cat you may have seen in pictures in some of my previous posts, because one of his favorite things to do was help me out in the garden. Our other cat, Lily, the black and white one, is still around but she's an indoor-only cat (by her own choice; she thinks outside is very scary). Even though it's been a little over a year since he died, I still miss him a lot. He was a very friendly cat and quite a character. It was fun having him go outside with me and follow me around.

The happier news is that I've got a baby due in September! To prepare, I decided to not sign up to teach any summer classes and instead took the summer off. That will cost me a few thousand dollars, but there are so many things to do to get ready for the baby. I've been making and freezing casseroles, soups, chili, and the like to eat once she arrives. At least by then things should be cooling down and I might actually feel like eating foods like that. And that's more fun than doing some of the other things I have to do, like filling out FMLA paperwork and finding a pediatrician and researching daycare centers. Cooking is way more fun than those things, but I need to quit procrastinating and get those things done too.

I'm spending my third trimester during the hottest time of year, July and August, which isn't really the best timing. I can't do much in the garden when it's this hot and I'm lugging around all this extra weight, but this is kind of the off season for gardens in Texas anyway.

In anticipation of this big life change, I did as much strenuous garden work as I could during the second trimester when I was feeling better (and it was cooler outside), and I didn't plant as much in spring as I normally do so I'd have less to take care of. Now that I'm being forced to slow down, I'm just trying to keep what I did plant alive without adding anything else for a while.

This will be a good test to see which varieties of plants can handle some neglect.

So I've got some drafts saved of posts to finish off and schedule to publish in the next few weeks/months, and then I might have to leave the blog alone again for a while since I'll be very busy this fall and winter. I hope at least some of them will be interesting for people.