Plant Babies

I am pretty proud to say that I have managed to keep a pineapple plant alive for ten whole months! Obviously I am the type of person that has to name her plants, so I have named her Penelope. I also have a snake plant named Genevieve. The snake plant came with a paper steak stuck in the pot that made it sound like she had already been named, so I just went with it. Penny and Gen have two very different set of needs, but they both live in my bedroom. I have had to create some contrast to try and give them both what they need to thrive.

Penny sits on top of a white cube cabinet near one of the windows. I have placed bamboo skewers around the main body of the plant, with cotton yarn to provide extra structure. Pineapples can be heavy fruit, so the skewers have helped the entire plant stand up straight. I also have a grow light shining on her. Since they are used to tropical environments, pineapples require quite a bit of sunshine. I live in Wisconsin, where it is currently cold and dreary looking outside. So the grow light helps me provide the much needed vitamin D that helps Penny stay strong.

Gen lives across the room, on top of a much shorter bookshelf. Snake plants prefer indirect sunlight. By being across the room from the two windows in my bedroom, Gen will not be scorched by any harsh rays that may manage to sneak in my windows. I personally think she likes the placement because the leaves are growing taller.

Due to a certain predator that lives in my room as well, AKA Erza the cat, I have chosen the spots for my plants to live very carefully. They are on top of furniture that Erza can’t access. She is very curious about the plants, obviously, but I have done my best to make sure that she knows that they are not chew toys, or something to be attacked. Thankfully, she has gotten the message and the plants don’t have to fear the micro panther. (Knock on wood!)

I have taken steps to try and track when I water the plants as well. A calendar on the wall features little water droplets that I have drawn on with blue marker, on the days that I have given them water. I don’t want to drown them, so I try and remember to check the soil beforehand, to see if they actually need it.

I get emotionally attached to these plants. I get excited when I see signs that they are healthy and growing. When one of them dies, I get sad for a little while. This attachment might be aided by the fact that I have taken to putting large googly eyes on the pot of the plant. That started mostly because it amuses me. It turned into something silly that made me smile for a moment when I saw it, and there needs to be more things like that in the world. Personally, I will always take pride in my plant babies and how well they are doing. I will enjoy them while they are around and do my best to take care of them.

Ultimately they bring me joy, and I find worth in the simple things that manage to accomplish making me smile. I hope you can find a small thing that makes you smile today.

Sleepless Nights

As someone who has chronic pain, I am pretty used to it waking me up in the middle of the night and poking at my nerves enough that there is no use in going back to sleep at that point. So I have had the “pleasure” of seeing what the world is like when the majority of the people around me are sleeping.

Obviously I have the mornings where I am annoyed by the fact that I am awake, we all do even if we wake up at a much more reasonable time. However, I do enjoy the quiet. There is no one around to bother me, other than the cats, while I write or draw. My ADHD feels quieter when there is no one else around to create the distractions that have become so easily available.

I try my best to not make too much noise myself. Since there are other people in my household and they are still trying to sleep, I don’t want my circumstances to affect them in any manner. So while almost silent activities are my only form of entertainment, the modern technology of my incredible headphones certainly come in handy. Most mornings though, I don’t use them.

Like I previously stated, I tend to work on my writing while the world around me sleeps. There is something about the stillness of the morning that makes the words come easier. I do have writer’s block occasionally, but while the outside noise is muted, I have less in the way of the ideas that end up creating things. Several passages in my book, Elementals: Spark, were at least inspired by, if not directly written during, the time when I am awake all by myself.

Later today, I will take a nap, and cross my fingers that I can get some of the missing energy back. For now though, I sit in the living room, waiting for the world to wake up and say good morning.

Yarn Crafting

This past week I learned how to crochet. My mom sat down with me and showed me the basic double stitch and I got started on a scarf. Several mistakes were made, and I have had to start over, and pull stitches out to fix the fact that I missed a loop earlier in the project. Overall though, I have found it to be an interesting challenge.

Growing up my grandma tried to teach me to crochet and it never stuck. I could create several very long chains but never got beyond that skill. Patience is not my strong suit and because of that, I would give up before really giving it a shot. At the time my ADHD was undiagnosed, so I was unaware of the reason why I didn’t have a very long attention span for things that frustrated me. Crocheting was just challenging enough at the time that I just gave up and tried other crafts.

When my mom sat down with me, she showed me one stitch, which happened to be the double stitch, and then let me move at my own pace. I know that I have other options for stiches, but at the time she only gave me the one. (Fun fact: When my mom taught my sister, she showed her the single stitch. When I asked why she showed me the double instead, she just said that it was the one that came to mind when she sat down with me.)

Almost every day I have sat down with my scarf project and completed a row or two. It has been nice to have something to do with my hands while I watch tv or listen to music. The yarn has become a fidget to keep my hands busy that isn’t electronic. Normally I would be scrolling through things on my phone while watching YouTube or streaming a tv show. Learning to at least do a simple stitch of crotchet has given me something else to keep that over active brain of mine busy, so I can simply enjoy being in the moment.

With all the benefits that I have found, I am still not positive that this new hobby will stick. Only time will tell…