Putting aside my tissue box for a while, I decided to bring my kids to an event called a “Propagation Party.”  Doesn’t that just have a lovely ring to it?  What does it MEAN, though, you ask?

It so happens that this was my first time at a Propagation Party, so I didn’t know what to expect either. It had been advertised as a family friendly event, so I brought my girls with me. It was going to be held at a nearby urban farm, but the rainy and cool weather pushed the group into the greenhouse.

Inside the greenhouse, a handful of people were busy carefully spooning little seedlings of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants (many varieties of all these), plus basil and lettuce, into planters so that the seedlings could continue to grow indoors, waiting for our outdoor planting season to begin in earnest.

The purpose of a Propagation Party is to get people to help with this manual labor process, carefully transplanting each seedling into its own little space.  This takes time and careful effort. If the farmer and his help had to do it all on their own, it would be time consuming in the extreme. In exchange for our help at the party, we were able to buy — VERY cheaply — whatever seedlings we chose to buy.

I picked out some hardy looking tomato starts, some exotic sounding eggplant varieties (Fairytale, Snowy White, Orient Express), and C picked out some bib lettuce.  She explained that she wanted to grow it for our guinea pigs!

The little tiny baby lettuce is currently so small that I am sure one of our piggies could easily eat it in one bite. And not even notice!

The party was something of a let down for the kids, though.  They heard the word “party” and were expecting something more than a few hippie types in a greenhouse, listening to jazz and getting their hands dirty.

There was, in fact, ONE activity for my kids (the only ones there, aside from one babe in arms) to do.  There were cute little terracotta pots that they could paint (only two colors of paint, for some reason: green and gold… which makes me think of “nature’s first green is gold”…. coincidence??) and then after the paint dried, they each got to pot their own little seedlings.

One of the farmers was really wonderful with the kids, though, and especially was able to engage Annie in planting.  She personally transplanted at least two dozen little baby tomatoes plants in addition to the one she put in her own little pot. This was a very sweet scene. I was told they got some pictures, so I will be watching to see if she makes it into the farm’s newsletter!

I liked the event very much. Inside the greenhouse it was warm and humid. It felt so cozy and snug. I got a big kick out of trying to guess what each variety of vegetable would look like when it was all grown up, and producing fruits.  It still amazes me, and probably always will, that a handful of tiny seeds can really grow into such wonderful and diverse plants.

Tomorrow — if all goes well tonight and in the morning — I will finally get both kids back to school. Thank goodness this fever business seems to be over.  I still have an impressive snot factory residing in my sinuses, but other than that I feel pretty good.

When the kids are sick, there’s an inherent laziness that takes over. They don’t need to be taken anywhere, and they hardly eat. So my main duties are snuggling them, comforting them, and sometimes cleaning up the messes.  In some ways, this is a lot easier than getting them up and out the door in the morning, then working like a madwoman to complete a bunch of stuff. But thank goodness I can’t just stay in bed everyday, my life would be a mess! I need their routine to guide mine, or things get really disorganized. More than anything, I need a little time away from them, as I cannot seem to adequately plan or do anything while I’m hanging out with them.

So while snuggling up in bed was fun for a while (ah, urrmm, except for all that whining), it’s time for real life to start up again. Thank Dog!!!