Wild hair

It's funny how quickly the old hobbies and fascinations creep back up on me.

Just a week back to homeschooling, and I'm already trying to eat a whole foods, vegetarian diet. And I'm reading all of these back-to-the-earth resources and getting inspired in everything from happily turning off the water while brushing my teeth, to buying local produce, to collecting eggs from the back yard.

Now I'm seriously thinking about getting the materials to make our own square foot garden boxes, getting back to composting, and giving every kid their own 4'x4' garden square next year. I tried to get the ball rolling on this last fall and it didn't work out. Maybe this year I will manage to make it happen. What do you think my chances are?

I found an extremely inspirational photo here that offers a little show-and-tell of a hydroponic garden growing inside a high rise apartment in Los Angeles. It looks so beautiful, artistic....living art! My husband and I were trying to figure out where we could build some shelves to incorporate a hydroponic garden into our own life. Of course, with eight of us to feed, indoor hydroponics is probably destined to be more of a novelty than making an actual dent in our food consumption. (unless I made it an herb garden or something that could be small-but-very-useful) We should probably consider a greenhouse instead. Still...I want that room filled with books and food plants! Don't you??

I'm about to go pull out my Encyclopedia of Country Living to remind myself how to build a proper composting box, and of course for the info I need on chicken coops. I don't want my chickens freezing to death in the winter, if we do end up keeping them. (also, mental note has been made to resubscribe to Mother Earth News, which I love.....I guess I stopped subbing when everything they talked about was frustratingly beyond me.....)*

I was telling a friend earlier today that pretty much everything I do gets done because I get on some wild hair about it. Passion is the main fuel in my life. Which explains why I'm regularly hyper about greatly varying things. (My kids laugh when I tell them I have a great new idea. It's probably both fun, funny, amusing, and weird all rolled into one for them. The up side for them is that if they don't like my latest kick, they just ride it out because they know soon it's likely to fizzle out...) I know that life would probably be more even-keeled if I could just do each thing I'm interested in or need to do in 15 minute increments throughout each day. But I'm just not wired that way. And it seems like life would be too boring and predictable, although some elevate that to the status of Disciplined, which may be true. I don't know. I'm (predictably) all up and down with the whole scheduling thing too.

I don't fold one load of laundry at a time as it comes out of the dryer. Instead I let 10 loads of clean laundry pile up, and plan a night when all the kids are in bed early to watch a good movie while folding, folding, folding. I like that! (I'll be doing that tonite. I have about 4 netflix selections sitting here waiting for my attention, plus I just discovered today that netflix now offers instant viewing on their site, so you don't even have to wait to watch the movie you're in the mood for, which is great for fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants girls like me!)

I don't work on writing my book one hour a day like another disciplined future author might. I go hog wild on it for hours or days, and then take notes on my percolating thoughts for a few more days, and then let it all sit and wait for weeks or months until the next time when I can afford to go crazy with a big burst of time to spend on it. I like to get swept away with my ideas and excitement for a project! (but I'd also like to get the darn book finished sometime this year!!!)

The stuff on the perimeter of my businesses gets done the same way. One hour spent posting a month's worth of business blog posts or putting together future newsletters. A couple of hours spent adding new products every month or so. An hour or two spent researching something I need to do and working on it. And then the whole thing rides for awhile until the next time around.

Raw foods diet? I can do it! And I love it. But I can only manage to do it to the exclusion of almost every other project I've got going. Which only works for short bursts of time. (and I'll still keeping having my bursts...I'm always glad when they come around. I just know it'll probably be short-lived.)

Fortunately, I can manage to homeschool and do all the basic household chores plus mothering items on a regular basis. :) And I have no trouble filling orders super duper quick, which I enjoy and it manages to keep my customers happy. But for bigger projects, it's mostly all or nothing with me.

So, will a garden plan work out? Can the passion for it be sustained through an entire growing season? What's the worst that can happen if it fails? Can I manage to make it an ordinary enough part of life that it becomes habit that requires none of my passion? (those items are the ones that we stick with the longest and most successfully!)

What part does passion play in your life?


*I went to the Mother Earth website and signed up for their newsletters. I got a free ebook about composting, which is just what I needed. They have 3 or 4 freebies that you get when you sign up. If you're also getting back-to-the-earth, you might want to check it out. :)