Spring weather.

It got up to 65 degrees today.  It was so nice to be outside without a jacket.  Unfortunately it's not going to last.  By the end of the week it's back in the 20's and 30's.  Oh well, today was a preview of spring.

My seedlings are getting big and now I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to re-pot them before they can go outside.

zinnias

I ordered more seeds today.  Tim asked me what I wanted for Valentine's Day and I told him gardening stuff.  So, I ordered seeds for jalapenos, haberneros, and poblano peppers.  I was only going to order those but I wanted to justify the shipping price so I also ordered some seeds for some flowers.  I ordered marigold seeds (for pest control), flowering tobacco, and some bee balm seeds.  I am going to get two more seed started trays and I'm going to be good to go.  I can't wait until I can get out and dig some compost into the ground and get these babies planted.

In other news, Rhino busted out of her new cage the other day so she is now in her third cage.  She was trying to chew her way through her cage this morning so now she is in Chopstick's old cage.  I don't think she's very happy with us right now because she likes to climb and can't.  I'm going to have to find her some things to play with in her cage so she doesn't plan a massive revolt.

Looks can be deceiving.  She looks so cute and cuddly but in reality, she's pure evil.

That's pretty  much all I have for now.  Now I'm going to be waiting for my seeds to come.  Patience.  Ugh.

Look what I found!

I planted seeds on Saturday afternoon.  Today is Tuesday.  Three days later and I have seeds sprouting!  I love planting things and seeing them actually grow.  I have peas, zucchini, zinnias and asters sprouting up already.

Baby Peas

Little Zinnias.

I planted 12 little cups of each of these:  cucumbers, zucchinis, sugar snap peas, green beans, red heriloom tomatoes, orange heirloom tomatoes, foxgloves, shasta daisies, asters, zinnias, envy zinnias, and sweet peas. I also have planted some hot peppers:  cayenne, santiagos, and hot portugals.  Tim is going to order some haberneros and I'm sure a couple more mouth burners.  

Now, for some cute little nose pictures.  Last night while I was laying in bed watching TV, Patchy came up and snuggled.  I couldn't resist snapping some pics of his cute little nose.  I'm amazed that he continued to lie there and not move while I was taking these.  He was almost asleep.  He's such a good boy.

Such a kissable little nose.

It went above 40 degrees today!

We are having a warm spell.  When Aidan and I were out shopping it was up to 49 degrees.  Could Spring be around the corner?  Do I dare hope?  What did the warm weather get me in the mood for?  Well, besides shopping....I got some seeds started today.

Look at the score I picked up at Lowes:

2 seed starter kits and a bunch of seeds!  $71 worth of gardening goodies

I came home and immediatly got to planting seeds.  I will post later tonight or tomorrow what I planted.  I'm supposed to be making dinner right now but no one is screaming that they are hungry yet, so I'm getting a quick little blog in.

We also put together a new home for Rhino.  Aidan and Connor both made honor roll for the second nine weeks of school and they got to pick rewards.  When I was little and made the honor roll (didn't happen that often  =) ) my parents always got us a small treat as a reward.  I was thinking that they would want a new video game or a new movie.  Aidan wanted to get Rhino a new home that was roomier and had more fun things for her to do.  So, here is Rhino's new crib.  She loves it.  She usually sleeps all day and is up all night, but since we put her in her new place, she's been running all over the place playing on her wheel and sliding on her slide.  

Rhino's new home thanks to Aidan.

Back to the seeds.  They are all planted in their little cups.  Tim and I dragged our grow light set upstairs from the basement.  I decided that it was too cold on the basement floor to germinate anything and I didn't really like the idea of getting heating pads to put under the trays so we just brought it upstairs.  Our dining room is now devoted to our seeds growing for a couple of months.  There is enough room under the lights to start two more trays if I decide to.  I'm excited to see what comes up.  One tray if veggies and one tray is flowers and then the little one is hot peppers for Tim.  He has already told me that he's ordering his own seeds for his peppers.  I think he's turning into a pepper snob.

lights set up on the dining room table.

So, I'll come back in a little bit to post what I planted and how many days it says it will take to germinate.  

Anticipation.

It was funny.  Yesterday, mid-day, Tim emailed me a message with the subject line of "something useful".  I opened the message up only to find a link to a 23 qt pressure cooker/canner.  Huh?  I wanted one of these last year and he didn't want to spend the money for it.  I jumped on the opportunity and ordered it from amazon and even with free shipping I got it delivered today!  Color me one excited little bee.  

I think we shall name her Queen.  Because when I see it I hear "Under Pressure" by Queen.  Yes, I'm a dork and I name all things. It bugs the heck out of Tim.

here she is...I don't think I put her together properly.  Yikes!

I unpacked it and started flipping through the instruction book and now I'm a bit scared too.  It's a little intimidating.  I'm going to have to really read the book and not just thumb through it.  I think Tim changed his mind about the pressure cooker after we spent an entire day working with a ton of tomatoes only to lose them all.  That was a bummer.  Not this year.

We've been discussing our garden this year.  We know that we want tomatoes, potatoes, zucchinis, cucumbers and beets.  Oh, and I'm sure we'll have boxes of chili peppers all over the place too.    I am thinking that next month we'll be bringing up the grow lights and starting our seeds.  

Oh, there is nothing like thinking about gardening in the middle of the winter.  This has been a long, cold, icy winter.  I look out into the back yard and long to be out there with the sun beating down on me and working in the dirt.  I can't wait.  I think the starting of seeds and taking care of them as they grow will help the winter hurry on out of here.  I'm kicking myself though for not planting any bulbs in the fall.  I was so busy that I completely forgot about it and now I'm going to be sad when everyone else has amazing spring flowers coming up and I'll have nothing. I will plant bulbs next fall.  

Not too much else going on over here.  We are half way through the school year. The boys are doing fabulous.  Connor has discovered that he LOVES geometry.  We've had a lot of fun learning that and playing around with it.  Aidan is writing almost as neatly as I do and is reading small books to himself now.  We got everything done in January that we wanted to do.  We got both of our credit cards PAID OFF.  We are sitting pretty right now planning for summer festivities and gardening. 

I hope everyone is staying warm and happy.

Friday Fun!

I did the dreaded deed today.  I did something that I don't like doing, but did anyway.  I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. The germ factory.  Why?  Because they've been doing really good in school lately and Connor rocked his endocrinologist appointment and well, they've been whining about it for a while.

It wasn't as bad as I remember it.  Of course it was partly because it was at lunch time and most kids were in school.  They basically had the whole place to themselves with just a couple of pre school wee ones running around.  

Connor on a Star Wars game.

Aidan showing great determination and patience.

A happy duo.

Aidan in his fave place.  He spent most of his time up in the tubes.

This was actually a really neat thing.  It was a roller coaster simulator that they rode three times.  Connor got scared on the last one and I jumped in to finish off the ride and got off the stupid thing with motion sickness.  I must be getting old.  Nah.

The kids were great.  They didn't throw a fit when I said it was time to leave.  They didn't fight or argue.  They actually thanked me when we were done.  I will almost admit that I had fun.  I'm just not sure I'll tell the kids that. ☺

So, it's crazy cold here and we are going to spend the night in front of the fire and watch some movies I think.  Nothing major planned this weekend.  It was supposed to be our clean up the outside weekend but not when the high is 12.  Too cold for me.  

I hope everyone has a faboo weekend!

Blogging bug hit.

I guess the time and energy that I put into this blog is paying off.  Connor has decided that he wants to start and run a blog.  I say go for it.  He actually wants to write?  Who am I to stand in his way?  I think it will be good for him and he's so excited about having one.  Aidan wants one too and I told him that if he is reading by the end of kindergarten, he can start one too.  Until then, he can guest write on Connor's.

What else is new?  Hmmm...Not too much.  We got the closets 90 percent done last weekend but then both Tim and I came down with the kids' colds and couldn't finish. It will be added to the weekend list for the upcoming weekend.  This weekend we are supposed to work outside and pick up a bit.  I suppose how much we get accomplished will depend on what the temps are.  They are supposed to be brutal.  

I'm also happy to report that one of our credit cards is officially paid off!  This is big news.  We are very happy.  We are very close to paying off the other credit card as well and then the only debt we will have will be the student loans.  Wahoo.  This is pretty exciting.  We've worked hard at this goal and it was so nice to pay the one off.  

Not too much else going on.  The kids are trucking along in school.  Connor just did a reading benchmark with his teacher and he did awesome.  I knew he would.  He had to do three timed readings to see how many words a minute he can read.  The first one he did was 130 words, the second one he did was 156 words and the third reading was 133. Why the difference?  Because on the first and last reading he was reading with such emphasis and drama that it was taking away from his numbers.  The second one he just read straight through after his teacher mentioned to just concentrate on reading.  After it was done I had to explain to him that while it was awesome for him to put such feeling into the reading and how it made it fun to listen to, he needed to just read on tests like this.  His teacher did say he was reading at an advanced level and that made me feel good.  

That being said, it's time to get back to school with the wee ones.  Hope everyone is having a great week.  Hopefully I'll be able to get some pics up again...it's just that there isn't much going on right now.

Dear Winter,

While I enjoy the snow and we have fun playing in it, I'm over you.  I'm tired of being cold all the time.  I'm tired of the grey skies.  I'm ready to start playing in the dirt again.  I'm ready to see green grass and bright flowers again.  I mean really, must you be only 13 degrees on Friday?  I have to go out first thing in the morning when it will be likely 0 degrees out to take Connor to his endocrynologist.  I would much more prefer it to be warmer.   Let's get the rest of your snowing done and bring on in Spring.   Are you listening Mr. Groundhog?

Yours, 

Busy Bee