My Rubber Rainbow

The last few weeks, I've been fighting some melancholy feelings. Its been up and down, but in between episodes on the couch, I've been pushing myself to get outside and garden while it's still nice.
At least while I was glued to the couch trapped in a state of "bleh", I did a little web surfing and discovered a few things that led to this project, code named: The Recycled Rubber Rainbow.
1. I found free tires with delivery on craigslist.

2. I found loads of cute gardens made from tires through Google: from blogs to youtube, to articles, here's what inspired me:

this pic was from the peace corp website. The country was Guatemala. A volunteer worked with a group of girls on this garden for their community.

This one is from a garden in Cali.

These ideas were right up my ally, so I got to work and recruited some novice painters to help.

Another shout out to our local ReStore: the colors (including the white base coat) are all brought to you by a shopping cart full of paint that I paid $5 for!

 While the tires new look dried, I dug up a section of our backyard that had a ton of rocks and weeds and started accumulating bucket apon bucket of rocks and soil (separated).

 Understand that this was a process that took 3-4 weeks, While my moods went up and down so did my progress. (also the temperature one week on average was 98 degrees)

Once I had all my materials, I began to haul the tires, rocks and soil up the slope from our backyard to the sidewalk.

I laid down newspaper under each tire to keep the nasty weeds at bay and filled them with a mix of our sandy top soil, a bag of soil amendment and a handful of compost.

Since mums are hardy, in season, colorful and cheep: we chose them to move into our landscaping project.

We painted a few rocks, then pored them all out to cover the bare ground around the planters.

Here's the result:

 My rubber rainbow garden is finished for the season, but in the spring, I'm hoping to add more. It was a good way to add some brightness to the neighborhood as well as to my outlook. When I force myself to get outside, breath the fresh air, get dirty and be creative, my worries are at least temporarily lost.

School

My oldest daughter started her first day of kindergarten today. 

Do you remember the day YOU started? I find myself reliving happy moments from my childhood through my children. Today however I am realizing that my 5 yr old daughter most certainly is her own person. I was elated on my first day from school and was fast friends with fellow classmate Rachel Hamburg by the end of the day. Karis however was quiet, followed instructions but really didn't seem to be thrilled. The neighbor boy she's played with a bit was also in her class and I found them walking together to the pickup point, chatting like two mature adults. When I asked her if she'd had fun her quick and serious reply was "no." Her neighbor buddy retorted "well she had fun when she was with me!" Few!

Maybe I've played up kindergarten too much. I remember now that last winter she had asked "Does kindergarten have a roller coaster?!" "No dear, but they have super cool slides on the playground!" She must have thought that getting into kindergarten was like achieving nirvana. And now that life goes on as usual, well, yes, I'd be disappointed too. One way this mother-daughter pair are alike: always forecasting dreams of the fantastic only to be reminded that our feet still touch planet earth. No matter, this earth is filled with glimpses of the fantastical and I will forever encourage the enjoyment of such fleeting moments for such are the hopes of a world beyond and of a power greater then ourselves.

Woh, all that from a child's first day of school? I think I got off track, but it's so whimsical I don't want to erase it. I think my point was: we project our expectations on others, and when they don't respond in "right way" we wonder what's wrong with them. .....maybe that's what I mean. I've been up since 6 and I'm a night owl, so I'm really not sure anymore. Morning kindergarten will be a change in our daily routine at least. I am very proud though to say that we made it ON TIME! I believe the daily routine will be good for us.

 Hannah, my 3 year old is longing for school as well. She remembers being involved in Karis's preschool while I volunteered there often last year. We no longer qualify for head start however (yay) but want to save money at every turn still. Therefore, we have decided to keep Hannah at home. Luckily for her, I enjoy playing school still (nope never grew out of that.) so we set up our own little school area at the house and I'm stealing tactics I learned from my volunteering. Hannah is thrilled. She keeps asking me "so yo my cheacher? and the how i our s-chool?" YUP! However we all pretended to be jealous when Karis told us about getting to learn a song from a puppet today. That seemed to help her feel like she was in on something special too. So it's all working. So far. It'll be interesting to see where this part of the parenting journey takes us.

Lonely

Not sure why, maybe it's the heat, or that I've been working hard on projects, but now that the projects are finished up, I have a strong desire to crawl into bed and never come out. I want to be creative and do more projects, but here in between them, I feel depressed. My butt wants to just become one with the couch. I am board and moody. It must just be the loneliness. Dale can't help that he has adults to hang out with at work and now with Justin who lives out in the garage. I don't want to hold him prisoner here with me. I am so happy for him... I just can't help but feel jealous of him. When sitting down to think and type on this, I realize maybe this is one of those times when I am to grow closer to God. When others are stripped away, I am left with Him. The question is: is God enough? He must be for me. No other way, because He is the only constant, sure thing. In the end, He must be my comfort, the lent ear, the calming wisdom needed for my day.  He is not a pill to cure my lethargy, but a companion who can pull the burden with me. Just thinking on this lifts my attitude about today.

Lord, you are with me. You are my constant companion. Help me own this relationship. That I would not take you for granted, or ever complain about being "all by myself!" For you said: "behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matt 28:20 and "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Heb. 13: 5

 

This picture leaves me with the old hymn ringing in my head: 

"Turn you eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glorious grace."

Wednesday evening

Wednesday evenings from 4-7 they have a farmer's market at City Park here in The Dalles. That's located between us and the river. I like the idea of going of a jog/walk there and then to the river front park and back every week It makes a nice 4 mile jaunt. Here's a look:

This barge was a ghost barge that was salvaged  

 Hannah had a blast running around on the windy beach.

 they found a hiding spot in the brush

 toes and only toes in the water

 find of the day: blackberries in a corner of the park.

I was to busy gabbing with several of the farmers market venders that I forgot to take pictures there. Maybe I'll do another post focusing on that. This is just a simple one to give you a glimpse into our Wednesday evenings.