Free Inquiry: Greenhouse gardening with a 4 yr old.

This blog is supposed to be something I am passionate about learning more about. Originally I chose greenhouse gardening for that very reason. However, it being January when I started the post, there is only so much a person can do to prepare the greenhouse in the winter months. So, after talking to a friend with whom I will be travelling to Tanzania in a couple of months, we decided to focus our inquiry blogs on learning Swahili. I thought this was a great idea until I started to put time into actually learning the language. It doesn’t appear as difficult as one might think, partially because the way the letters and words sound is pretty much like we would pronounce words and letters in English. My problem was realizing that I had just taken on another activity that was going to take up another portion of my time. This is time that I really don’t have, that I could be spending with my family, in particular, my 4 year old. Trying to manage school, work and family life hasn’t been easy this semester, which is odd because I had more courses and less free time last semester. All I know is that despite doing well in my assignments, I am NOT enjoying myself and am feeling like my priorities are just not in order. I have a super supportive husband and family, and a fabulous cohort at school. However, I am noticing just how much my little guy is relying on his siblings and how he turns to them because he has been asked to leave me alone because I am always busy with homework or because I’m not home because I’m at school all day, then have to try to fit in homework and work and the older children’s activities and their homework. (Not that my husband and older kids aren’t helpful because they are, and they are all so good to each other and to our youngest, but…) Maybe because I registered him for Kindergarten last week I am feeling pressure to try to be there more for him, to spend more time with him before I lose that chance. If it’s ok with my professor, I am going to switch back to gardening, but this time with my 4 yr old. It’s something we have worked together doing before. He loves pulling weeds and digging in the garden. We even picked up a bag of starter soil and have saved some egg cartons in which, this week, we will plant the seeds that I wrote about in my first blog and we’ll document their progress together. He is so excited, and for the first time in awhile, so am I.