Life will not slow down!!

And that's a good thing, I suppose. I've had so many things to do lately. Life is incredibly full. Yesterday, I had 2 hours of down time out of the entire day and was able to go to the library with my husband and sweet boy.
We stocked up on a week's worth of bedtime stories (2 books a night, and nothing too babyish) and I also brought home 4 gardening books. I was so excited to get home at the end of the day and just veg with some tea and my books.
Twas not to be though. With the freezing temps and snow, my 20 minute drive to office last night ended up taking 1 hour 30 minutes. I was so enraged. Really, it's not like me to get so pissy about traffic unless I'm truly rushing to a birth...but anything else, I really try to be zen about it.
I just couldn't shake it though. I could hear my library gardening books calling my name through miles and miles of gridlocked traffic. "Come home, sweetheart. We've got your slippers and a mug of Earl Gray. Come home."

I ended up not getting home until 8:30pm. That meant put the kids to bed and get my pajamas on. I paced back and forth between my bed and the dining room, wondering if I should make myself stay and read or if I should just go to bed with my husband. I chose the latter.

Currently I have this small window of time before my daughter gets home and Little E is actually napping! So I've decided to moan on my blog. :) How exciting.

All bitching complete, now about the garden...

I've learned that I need 3600sqft of soil to plant enough wheat for a family of four. I think I can make it work, but it might mean creating a couple of raised beds for the front yard to accommodate all the vegetables we need to grow. My husband is skeptical about neighborhood thugs messing with front yard produce, but if they need it to eat, I say let them take it.
If we can make the wheat thing work, I will definitely be converting more grass to garden. We've not got much left that isn't in complete shade. I will be tearing out 3 huge and unruly forsythia bushes so that I can plant clusters of blueberries and raspberries.
Our shadiest part of the yard contains trees I'm unwilling to cut down, as much as I'd love more growing space. The trees create shade and shelter on the south side of our house. They're lovely in the summer and really help cool the house, especially upstairs.
And we will be bringing chickens home in the spring! I'm tired of having to drive to the farm to get eggs, especially in winter. I wish we could have gotten around to building the inside of the coop before it got cold, it just didn't happen in time.

So those are my wee plans for now. Am accumulating my seed order and will post soon.
I really, really want to grow currants too. I seems to be all about fruit now that I've conquered my fears about doing more than casual vegetable growing.

So yeah for berries, down with the forsythias, ponder front yard vegetables and bring home the chickens! That's what's in my mind for the garden this week.

Tomorrow I have completely and totally O.F.F.

I'm going to sit on the couch in my pajamas and bed head for as long as I please, armed with Earl Grey, my garden notebook, a very sharp pencil and a stack of seed catalogs and library books.

Bliss.