Inspiration

My children inspire me. I don't mean that in a generic "I'm a better person." way. They inspire me to stretch a little and step outside of my comfort zone. Arts and crafts is a great example. Historically, I considered myself to be a decidedly non-artistic person. It doesn't come to me naturally. I don't have a good eye for color, design, or form. The only kinds of coloring I enjoyed as a child were color-by-number. As for crafts, I liked cross-titch. There was a pattern and I all I had to do was follow the pattern on a cloth grid.

Then I found myself staying at home with two young children. Partly from a desire to expand their horizons, and partly from pure self-defense (we all needed something to do) I began to do some simple arts and crafts with them. After coloring with crayons and cutting snowflakes with scissors I ran out of ideas. Through the brilliance and generosity of some talented bloggers (That Artist Woman and Art Projects for Kids for example) I have been inspired to do a wide variety of beautiful crafts with the children. I have learned a lot myself along the way and we all have fun together.

Again, historically, I am not great at keeping plants alive. I pretty much accidentally kill any houseplant that isn't a cactus or succulent in short order. The few plants I do manage to keep alive I tend to tire of caring for and give away. As for gardening, I'm not really outdoorsy. I also don't much like getting dirty. So, I have very little gardening experience.

However, I think I'd like to try some simple gardening with the children. I think they'd enjoy growing some vegetables and perhaps the experience would encourage them to consume a few. I have fond memories of eating cucumbers, tomatoes, and carrots from my dad's garden when I was little. The children would have the opportunity to participate in a long term project with delayed gratification. It would force us all to get outside regularly. I am interested in perhaps trying cucumbers, carrots, and bell peppers with the children. Preferably in pots. Can you grow vegetables in pots? Specifically, can you grow those vegetables in pots?

That's the problem. I'm an starting with zero experience and knowledge. Online research should get me started, but there's a long stretch from reading an article on the internet to eating home-grown vegetables. It's kind of fun to take a leap and try something new though. And the project will be a learning experience for all of us no matter how it turns out. Online research here I come.