Succulent Rehab

Turns out, I’m a bad plant momma. Even the sturdy succulent isn’t resilient enough to survive my combination of neglect and smothering to grow unscathed.

While many of the mysteries of keeping things alive, besides my kids, still elude me, I have discovered one key succulent mistake I was making. If you’ve ever wondered why your succulents are stretching out instead of looking like the cute little rosettes you naively left the nursery with, the answer is likely not enough sunlight.

Our last apartment was literally a cave, so needless to say my succulent babies did not thrive there. Within a few short weeks they started to stretch out and grow up, slowly leaning towards the only (yes only 😢) window in the living room. Soon they were so weak and stretched out they started drooping all the way to the table. It was sad.

Now we are in our new home that is filled with blessed SUNSHINE and it’s time to do a little succulent rehab.

You can’t unstretch succulents, but you can propagate new baby succulents from your existing collection. You can take leaves from your already stretched out plants and lay them out to propagate on their own. Simply pull the leaf off at the base and lay it out for about a week. Little roots will start to grow and a week or two after that, a tiny baby succulent will make its appearance. I do this all the time because I’m obsessed with baby succulents.

As for your existing plants, you can do two things. First, trim the plant a few inches from the base, preferably leaving a leaf or two, and a new bud will sprout and grow from there. My poor guys didn’t have any leaves towards the base, so I just trimmed it. You can see a new little bud sprouted in its own, so exciting!

With the cutting, trim the end about an inch or two down and lay it out. Once the end scabs over, you can simply plant it in the dirt and water generously. It should sprout roots and continue growing. With the left over stem, you can pull off the remaining leaves to sprout. I noticed one of the stems grew roots on its own, so I’m interested to see if I get any growth from the remaining stems.

There you have it, succulent rehab. I felt bad trimming my little guys, but it’s for their own good! I’ll update on the growth in a few weeks.

Feel free to shoot me any questions you have about the process or if you run into trouble, I can help trouble shoot!

January 2018

We rang in the New Year in Texas, basically lounging around in our pjs and recovering from the frenzy of the holidays. I normally hit the ground running January 1st, but this year I just needed some r&r time with family.

I felt like in 2017 I created too many restrictions for myself, constantly uptight at my inability to live within all these arbitrarily created restrictions.  So this year I decided to let thing fly a little freer, and free they have flown.

While in Texas we snuck out for a quick date at Rudy’s BBQ and Dave & Buster’s.  It was so nice to get out for a little fun, just us.

 

While in San Antonio we hit up the Witte Museum, saw the Zoo lights, and just hung out with family.

Back home I couldn’t look away from What the Health and decided to eat a more plant-based diet.  (Sorry, no movie convince me to give up cheese.) We are now quasi-vegan–I’ll share my plant-based eating philosphy soon in a future post.

Gavin received the Citizenhip award at school.

Once the weather warmed up, we hit the beach. And then we hit it again.

What I didn’t do is set New Year’s Resolutions, for the first time in years, but I did start listening to The Life Coach School Podcast and it is rocking. my. world!

There you have it.

February, here we come!

 

Travel: Utah Day 1

Video: Hey Jimmy Kimmel, I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy 2017

We simply couldn’t resist this year…

Pitaya Bowl Love

It’s been four months since I have had an uninterrupted night’s sleep.  You expect these sort of inconveniences with the arrival of a new baby, but that doesn’t mean you are prepared for them.  Even the second time around.  By four months, the lack of sleep is really starting to take a toll on me, evidenced by the darkening circles under my eyes, moments of irrational irritability, and general sluggishness after 6 pm.

This morning, I woke up tired.  I really only sort of woke up, zombie dragged my feet over to the crib, fed the baby, and then plopped him next to my slumbering husband as I drifted off to the realm of the sandman.  That is my fuzzy recollection.

What I do remember vividly is waking up at 8:25 am and pole vaulting out of bed so I could rush Gavin to school LATE! Remember the last time I was late? I do! To my surprise the house was empty.  No Gavin, no husband, no baby.  What sort of fantasy land did I wake up to? Am I still dreaming? Did my husband actually get everyone ready and out the door, and take Gavin to school with the baby in tow, just so I could get a few more zzzzs?

My morning was going pretty good at that point, and then he walked in with breakfast! Heart. Melt. And not just any breakfast, my favorite pitaya bowl from my favorite spot.  It’s like he read my soul and knew what I needed.  I didn’t even know how much I wanted that bowl until it was in my hands.

So maybe it wasn’t all that big of a deal, but it showed me a great deal of thoughtfulness, insight, gratitude, and love. I didn’t want that kind of awesomeness to go unnoted.