How Many Days Until Spring?

The last couple of days have been all about the dirt.  With daylight savings time...I am now able to enjoy some sunlight for a few hours after work ~ loving it!  On Sunday my hubby and I went to the Home & Garden Show at the Everett Comcast Arena.  We were really disappointed with it as a whole.  Normally these shows give us some inspiration but there wasn't much to inspire us at this show.  However, I did not leave empty handed...I brought home 3 plants that they were selling for 1/2 price....unfortunately, I don't know the name of them.  They look pretty though.

On Monday, after work, I planted those 3 plants, did some weeding and tried a new trick to try to get cats to stop using my flower bed as a litter box.  IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!  Those dang cats poop in my flower bed right by the front door...and it just isn't right.  So...I recently read about how lemons may do the trick to break this mean cat behavior.  My favorite blog, 100 Dollars a Month posted about 10 Cool Uses for Lemons ~ and #10 was about sprinkling lemon peels in the area...because apparently cats don't like the smell of citrus! I bought 5# of lemons from Cash and Carry...grinded those suckers up and am praying that it works.

Today (Tuesday)...the wind was howling and the rain was falling but I still got to garden.  I moved my cauliflower, broccoli and onion starts out to the greenhouse.  I think I saved my cauliflower and broccoli...they got very leggy but I transplanted them deep in new containers and I see new leaves popping out. 

I also planted some new vegetable starts:

Stupice Tomtatoes (first round of tomatoes) (from Territorial Seed Co.)
Impatiens ~ Tempo butterly Mix (from Territorital Seed Co.)
Basil ~ Sweet Basil (Ferry-Morse)
Sweet Red Peppers ~ Crispy Hybrid (Burpee)
Early Jalapeno ~ Hot Pepper (Territorial Seed Co.)
Sweet Yellow Peppers ~ Fort Knox Hybrid (Burpee)

Now my bar is filled with the second round of starts...I wonder if other people use their bars for growing plants??!!

A Day in the Life

Today was the type of day that I cherish.  My family and I were supposed to be in Puyallup early this morning for a very long day of volleyball with my favorite youngest daughter’s team.  Unfortunately my youngest got VERY sick last weekend and missed school almost all week...she barely made it through the early release Friday.  She needs a few more days to recover...so volleyball was cancelled (by me).  I was sad...but excited at the same time.

Here’s what I did...

Woke up ~ enjoyed a couple cups of my “poor mans” mocha and read the paper

Washed Clothes

Couponed and organized the coupons     

Made a batch of bread

While the bread was rising...ran to Fred Meyers and saved major money on some groceries

Got home just in time to shape the bread dough...2/3 of the dough went to making 2 loaves of bread, the other third went into the freezer for pizza night next Friday.

Ran outside to plant 25 Walla Walla starts  

While outside...I cleaned out a flower bed.  My three peonies have broken through the dirt!

Baked the bread

Ate an amazing peanut butter and jelly sandwich...on homemade bread ~ YUM!

Decided to make a crockpot soup with the cheap cauliflower I got at Fred Meyers..."googled" to find a good recipe

Washed more clothes

Went to the Library...had an overdue book and was out of reading material

Went to Safeway...saved 50% on a cart full of groceries.  Feels good to be saving $$ again

Decided to sit on the couch, have a snack and read for a bit...I woke myself up snoring

Finished up the crockpot cauliflower soup...yum and made cheese zombies for dinner (look for recipes in an upcoming post)

Decided to make muffins for the month ~ first batch up, triple chocolate muffins (24 each), next...blueberries with cinnamon & sugar topping (22 each) and finally I made my favorite, pumpkin and cream cheese (22 each)

Worked on this blog while my hubby and favorite youngest daughter watched the high school basketball playoffs.  Our Lake Stevens girls finished 5^th in state...they were an amazing team to watch this year.

What I didn’t do today?  I didn’t get to start the quilt that I am making for little Maddi’s second birthday, didn’t go to the gym, didn’t take a shower (I went out in public with less than good looking hair and no makeup...I made sure to not make eye contact with anyone, in case I saw someone I knew).  And now that I am thinking about it, I do believe I forgot to brush my teeth.  Yuk.