The sun is back and so comes motivation for life. It has been ever changing recently and adapting to new things. The wider world seems to be focusing on certain “dramas” at particular times to distract our minds from real world problems and yet I still find myself lost in my own bubble. Its great, I have enough things to remember and contend with without adding semi believable information to the mix. Life has become so busy but in a more appeasing way. Our time is our own and being able to relax and enjoy as is, seems to be the way to self created joy. Life is working for us for a change and long may it last.
I have started a new project, well not just one, but this one in particular is looking to be great fun. I saw a video on tiktok of how to propagate seeds fast and thought I would give it a try. We have plated over 100 sunflower seeds and in the space of a few days have watched them sprout. I always used to find that sunflowers would either work no bother or would be complete fails no matter how well you looked after them.
Some of the seeds I bought from amazon, some are from last years sunflowers and others are from school and nursery. The method is simple.
- fill a tray with compost and add the seeds onto of the soil.
- spray them with water and place another tray on top with a weight.
- spray them twice a day and watch for them to sprout.
- once most have split and showing a root flip the top tray the other way and contain them still in the dark.
- (This is where we are at now) take the lid off the tray and let them see sunlight. still watering often.
Now after this part is where it gets experimental. They can either be split into separate pots and allowed to grow further in sunlight.
And what we will try and do, (as we have rather a few sunflowers) is split them into 3 trays as opposed to just the one and acclimatize them to the outdoors. We do this by taking them out on warmer days in the daytime and bringing them indoors at night for about a week. Then hopefully we can plant them directly into the ground.
I have no idea if this will work and what we are going to do with over 100 sunflowers, but its amazing to watch how quickly they grow. We may even sell some when they are up a bit, for more garden projects. So feel free to let me know if you want a sunflower or 50.
If you happen to live nearby and see a garden with a ton of sunflowers in the next few weeks, feel free to say hi!
Anyway apart from the sunflower project, we started wallpapering for the first time and have been pleasantly surprised. Its definitely not perfect, but I did it and at the rate my kids destroy stuff I can see it needing re-done in soon enough anyway. I adore my boys and love the how messy they can get. Really! I know it would be most peoples nightmares, but when the kids enjoy running around and getting muddy, it means we have some amazing times. In fact one of my most favorite lockdown memories was when it was a beautiful day outside, we spent most of our time in the garden before the rain arrived. Now the rain of course came thundering down, it was like a heard of elephants. We watched from the window as the streets started flooding and loved it. Of course we couldn’t just watch so we put on our crocs and ran out into the streets. We found some amazing puddles and played for about 45 minutes getting soaked to the skin, but really we didn’t care. We came back inside as the rain began to subside and as it did the puddles disappeared.
A bath and a hot chocolate heat us up again and the raw joy that came from that was incredible. Fills your heart kind of joy.
I cant wait for this years thundering rain and can only hope the boys still want to join me on another ridiculous adventure.
The little people in my life make the world seem a lot less crappy most of the time. In fact I sometimes I do the dishes once they are in bed at night because I don’t want to miss a moment. However sometimes I do the dishes once they are in bed because im so brain dead and exhausted I cant fathom anything else. Sometimes I don’t even bother doing them at all. Its definitely not all sunshine and roses, in fact most of the time I sound like something that has climbed straight out of the depths of Mordor, but sometimes we get it right and its totally worth it.
Its hard being a parent,(its hard being an adult in general) sometimes impossible and spending most of the time being totally clueless, holding on for dear life trying to get everyone out alive. Trying to be the best and perfect parent is impossible, but trying your best I think is probably enough.
Always trying. 
One of the best things I had read after losing my sh** for the millionth time in an hour was this:
“When little people are overwhelmed by big emotions, its our job to share our calm not to join their chaos. “
I couldn’t tell you where I read it, or who wrote it, but its worth sharing as its so easy to get lost in the grown up chaos of the world. You just need to remember to at least give yourself the self love and time to create some of your own calm to share.
I hope your bank holiday weekend is fabulous and full of big thinking.
