Mother's Day

...and my 450th post as well.

It's 10 PM on Sunday night and I haven't done the work for school that I need to do. I've done my planning for the week, but I have work to do on *gasp* anecdotals (anecdotal report cards). The first 4 are due on Tuesday.



In any case, I thought that having a baby would mean less time to have fun. But in a way, it just means being more efficient with my time (and having an even messier apartment). We went today to the New York Botanical Garden. We had a wonderful time although it took awhile to get a hang of the park. There's so much ground to cover. It felt like we spent the first two hours just trying to figure out where we were, and where we were headed. There are long paths between garden areas so you kind of have to plan your priorities, and we misread the map in a few places. Also, ND was hungry and tired so we had to stop a lot at first until she fell asleep, and it was a little tricky to navigate the stroller. I would have preferred just wearing her in my sling the whole way, but my back is kind of a mess right now. (Yay chiropractor tomorrow!)

In any case, it was really lovely. We had the most fun in the greenhouses. And then at the end, we hit the "rock garden" which actually cost an extra $1.00 each. But I loved that part a lot. It actually made me sad. It was so petite and delicate... lots of tiny plants like lady's slippers and clematis (my favorite flower). Several corners of it made me feel very homesick for other gardens I've loved in the past.



Big is not always better, and I found myself aching during our whole visit for Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver which is a fifth of a size of today's garden, but still is a lot of ground to cover. I also miss waterfalls and corners of forests in Oregon. Today as we walked past a creek I realized just how infrequently these days I get to walk past creeks. They feel to me like the very veins of the Northwest, but here you have to travel to find them.



In any case, it was a good day. I'm tuckered out, grateful to have my first mother's day from BOTH the receiving and the giving end, and have to finish up my work for school now.