I'm pretty sure the purpose of the whole "Tackle It Tuesday" meme is to encourage you in the day-to-day stuff of life and the big accomplishments. I'm tired and crabby right now, so consider this your warning.
On Sunday night, during a heavenly trip to the grocery store without kids, I rescued two 99 cent 3 inch pots with mums in them. Bear had been begging for more flowers, and she was so excited when I brought them home. It did not matter to her that the yellow and pink (er, brown) flowers were shriveling up. They were beautiful to her. It didn't matter to me either. You see, in a past season of life I had flower beds. Not pots on the third floor balcony of an apartment building. There is a difference, and the amount of enjoyment cultivated, especially with a toddler undertow and an almost five year old who are both eager to "help," yeah... you get the picture.
I didn't take before pictures. I just didn't, but I am probably the only person who would have spent 99 cents on dead-looking flowers. (In my defense, the plants were still very green). However, they had new buds coming, and in my aforementioned former season of life, I learned that pinching off the dead buds will encourage new growth if the plants still have life in them. And I am cheap... I am not spending $10 on flowers that are sure to die in this Hades-like heat in September. (It's in the 90's here just south of Hotlanta.)
Anyhow, this day of tackles started out well.... freshly brewed Starbucks coffee at home, Pumpkin spice creamer and sugar to taste, and I even threw a chicken in the crock pot after smothering it in delectable seasonings. See? I'm ready for Fall.
Fast forward a couple of hours. Some Mommy decided it would be fun to take her kiddos out of the balcony to do a little "gardening" in the sun before it's too hot. News flash: at 11:30 a.m. it is too hot to enjoy being outside. So, I lifted one pot of dead summer flowers out of their decorative urn. Discovered the urn was full of stagnating water. I tried to dump water into one of the other pots, dumped too fast, and created a mini mud cascade down to the neighbors railing below. Crap. How neighborly of me. So I threw on some jeans to go apologize, writing a note of apology for the mess I shared first, figuring they were not home. I think I wrote the wrong apartment # on the note, but they know who I and my elephants are. I mean, if someone had dumped muddy water on my balcony, I would not have been happy. Not that the idiots who smoke their cigars and cigarrettes two floors down care that they are poisoning my air.
We we returned upstairs, and I vowed not to be defeated. Buddy fell of sissy's bike and got back on at least 5 times. At least he was mostly occupied. Bear did a good job fetching water from the well, I mean bathroom faucet. (I hope she turned it off all the way). I asked her to pinch off the old buds, she did about 5 of the 40 and decided to go back inside. Helping a crabby mommy is no fun. By this time I was not enjoying being around myself, either.
Ok, so I cut off old dead flower stems from the remains of our summer flowers, and pulled others out of the pots I planned to re-use immediately. I transplanted the mums and pinched off the dead blooms that Bear left and the plants don't look half bad. But then I still had to sweep up the mess, because when you live on the third floor it's not good manners to sweep your dirt onto your neighbors' railings/balcony below.... Did I mention it is hot here?
