No equipment? Not much space? Try no till beds

If you live in an apartment or are physically limited create a raised bed table. These items can be purchased or created from scrap wood.
These raised beds save your backs, knees, and space. Made with care or store bought tables can look attractive and enhance your deck or patio. If they look nice, they should be ok for an apartment. Wheels on the legs make them easily movable.


You may think that you can't grow much in these raised beds but a 2'x 6' table gives you 12 square feet of garden. Follow the square foot garden philosophy and you will be able to feed your family some great veggies!

If this is too much work for you, check out my September 3, 2009 post for some cheap, easy (very easy) gardening solutions. Still too much work, I also have a link to Local Harvest to find CSA farms and local farmer's markets for good fresh veggies, close to home.

Instructions for Life (or recipe for cooking up a good life, as my husband says)

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
   
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
   
3. Follow the 3 Rs: Respect for self, Respect for others, and Responsibility for all your actions.
   
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
   
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
   
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
   
8. Spend some time alone every day.
   
9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
   
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
    
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then, when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
    
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation of life.
    
13. In disagreements with loved ones deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
    
14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
    
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
    
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
    
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

This is not mine but passed to us by an unknown source and held for years.

Life without the Arts

I can not imagine life without the Arts. Not experiencing the visual and performing arts either as a participant or observer is like not having use of your 5 senses. I am thankful for parents who not only encouraged exploration in the arts but took time, money, and involvement to make sure we experienced the arts. My dad will soon be 85 years old and loves singing. He not only loves singing, he sings. He not only sings but he encouraged and sang with all his children.

It's not about talent. I have children who are not strong in certain arts but they love them anyway. I think it is wrong to tell them they are not good enough in that art to express themselves in it. If it brings them joy. If it brings ME joy, I do it. You may not be a concert performer or have your artwork displayed in a museum but if it brings value to your life, do it.

Arts do more than simply develop persons' ability to perform, it develops and stretches their brain in different ways. It works eye hand coordination, timing and balance. In music, you learn a different language - the language of musical notation.

Even if you didn't have the opportunities as a child or if you were forced and it wasn't pleasant for you, give your child a gift of the arts. Be an advocate in your home, your schools and cities. The arts are a vital part of learning. Make sure money stays in the schools for the arts.

Stop and ask yourself, what have I done with and for the arts, lately?