Good news is, I am constantly getting a work out carrying Scarlett, my purse, the diaper bag, five bags of groceries, a toy stroller and a trash bag full of crumbs, wrappers and juice boxes left on the floor of my car to our condo far, far away. Bad news is, I get a work out carrying all of those things to our upstairs unit, and by the time that I reach the stairs, I have yelled at Scarlett 10 times to "stop pulling my hair" or "don't go in the pool", my fingers are usually numb from all of the junk I am carrying and my back is aching from supporting my arms.
And what is even harder than walking far, far away from the car to the house, is the lack of play space for Scarlett. The older she gets the harder it is to keep her cooped up in the house all day. She wants to run and play. And I want her to run and play without worrying that she is going to fall into the pool, step on dog poop, or find hidden treasure (aka dirty gross trash) in the bushes (yes people let their dogs poop and just leave it there and throw their trash in the bushes...I have had recent day dreams of walking up to every door in the complex and yelling at them to pick up after themselves).
As much as this post is about our lack of yard and me having a tiny pity party, I really started it with the intention to discuss our recent gardening venture. I have found ways to combat being cooped up in our tiny place, by making being cooped up fun. Any time I know I will be home with Scarlett for a significant amount of time I try to keep her active, building forts, painting, playing hide and seek, and my most recent endeavor, planting flowers. I have killed EVERY plant that entered our house since the day we were married, so I had very little hope for the sunflowers Scarlett brought home from church two Sundays ago. Much to my surprise, not only are the flowers still alive, they are growing taller and taller every day. I have made such a big deal about the flowers growth with Scarlett that when she ran up to me last night yelling "look this mommy, look this", dixie cup in hand and four little sprouts obviously outgrowing their tiny home, I knew it was time to re-pot our little survivors.
I told Scarlett that the flowers have grown so tall from all of our love, water and sunshine that they need a new home. Luckily I had cut a milk jug up last week and wasn't sure how I wanted to use it yet and realized it would make a perfect flower pot. So off Scarlett and I went to the far, far away garage to get the soil we needed to replant our flowers. I had so much fun starting our first little garden on our tiny patio. Watching seeds grow to be tall stocks. Replanting them and teaching Scarlett how to care for these little miracles. She was sad that the pot couldn't come inside but this is just one more reason to step outdoors on a cooped up day. Regardless of our lack of space, these will be memories that we will carry with us forever, our first makeshift garden on the patio or our yard less condo.
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