Sunday, September 14, 2008

Discipline & My Son

I hate to admit defeat, and I'm not quite there yet, but I just don't know what else I can do with my son to make him listen. Here it is, approx. 9:30 on a Sunday morning, and I've already had to spank him. There is just nothing that he respects...spanking, talking, time out, losing privileges, nothing! He will purposely defy me and laugh until I get the belt and start walking towards him, and then he screams to the top of his lungs...bloody murder. Who knows what the neighbors think here in this apartment???

Those of you who know me have heard the stories, and they aren't exaggerated, I'll assure you of that. I've never really thought I couldn't handle it, but the last few weeks of being in this apartment and his getting into trouble at school and seeming irreverant about it have made me wonder. He is difficult and strong willed, and I really don't think he's ADD or ADHD. I'm just at a loss for what to do.

I guess my only hope is that once school becomes more routine and we get moved for the last time into our house, he should settle down. If not, I'm calling Super Nanny.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Biltmore's Flower Carpet



We went to Biltmore Estate over the Labor Day weekend to see the flower carpet display, and it was truly incredible. It's amazing what you can do with 144,000 plants. It was very beautiful.

I think my favorite part about Biltmore, even more so than the winery, is the walled garden. The house is just too awful big and excessive, but the garden just doesn't seem that out of reach to me. My grandmother used to have a flower garden with a rock wall and brick-lined paths through the beds. She used to have lots of rose bushes and a cement fish pond in the center. I remember sometimes people would stop at her house and ask if they could see the flower garden, which she was always more than happy to show off. Basically what she had was a (very much so) scaled-down version of the Biltmore formal gardens. I really loved that.

My landscaping tendencies in the past have been to buy the plant and then figure out where to dig the hole. However, I think I would like to do something more formal with my new blank slate of a yard, something more like my grandmother had with her rose garden. I hope my husband doesn't read this anytime soon; I'll have to break this news to him very gently as he's my hole digger! LOL.

My problem is that I have absolutely no eye for design. I really don't know how to get started laying out a formal garden. I have looked at some landscape design software, but the good stuff is fairly expensive, and most of it gets marginal reviews at best. I'll have to ponder this for a while and maybe get out my pencils and paper and see what I can draw up. If you have any suggestions for me, let me know. I'm really anxious to plant something, but I also really want to plan this out carefully. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit much of my grandmother's artistic talent, so I'll need all the help I can get. Wish me luck!