Monday Morning Chit Chat - Getting Garden Ready Edition

Good Monday morning! So, who else is ready for spring and gardening? A week or so ago, Shane and I made a list of produce we'd like to grow this year. Late last Friday evening, I pulled out my stash of Hometown Seeds from last year (carefully stored in plastic bags in the foil zipper bag in the Priority Mail box they came in) and took inventory. Most of the basic veggie seeds were there, so we made a list of the other seeds/plants we needed to buy.

Saturday morning, after dropping Kat off with her mom, we went shopping at Planter's Seed and Spice Company in Kansas City's River Market area.

We bought eight kinds of seeds on our list there.  I also needed several herbs and spices to replenish my stock, so I got those there, too.

Here's what I bought:  1 ounce each of thyme, rosemary, basil and dill weed, and 1/4 pound each of paprika, onion powder, Greek seasoning, and lemon pepper.  I also bought a pound of mayocoba beans.  I had never seen or heard of these before, but I've never tasted a bean I didn't like, so I had to get some!  I haven't cooked them yet, but after reading about them online, they are supposed to taste very much like pinto beans.

Our next stop was at Sam's Club.  We went there for a few necessities, like compact fluorescent bulbs and gallons of vinegar, but we also ended up with a four-pack of raspberry and blackberry starts for the garden and these:

I had made a pact with myself that I'm not going to buy any brand new clothing this year (except underwear if I need it), opting instead for clothing from the thrift store or garage sales.  I had to make an exception for these, though.  I looked all over last year for rain/garden boots in adult sizes and couldn't find any, new or used, for less than $30.  These fun boots were just $9.81 at Sam's Club!

Our final stop on Saturday was Home Depot.  We bought yet more seed packets, a replacement closet door for Kat's bedroom (her door has had a hole in it since before we bought the house) and started our window shopping for carpeting for the house, which we may or may not be able to buy this year.

The good news about all of this shopping is that Shane had some funds left on a job safety incentive gift card he received from work, so everything we bought except for the Sam's Club stuff was free!

Saturday night I made a really good shrimp dinner for the two of us.  I'll post more about that later, but here are some pics (lots of pics today).

Sunday was a fairly quiet day.  I put in my two hours of volunteer work at the recycle bins, then stayed home for the rest of the day.  I did a few household chores while Shane worked on Kat's room.  The new door was installed, and the walls have been painted, along with some of the furniture.  There is more furniture to be sanded and painted, then everything put into place.  I can't wait to show the pictures, but I want to wait until it's completely finished.

We don't "do" football here, so there were no Superbowl festivities for us.  Instead we ate some burgers grilled inside on the George Foreman and then helped Kat with a project for their 100th Day of School celebration today.  Here's her project.  There are 100 items glued to this piece of paper.

In case you can't tell, the toothpick person is skiing down the slope, right into the pine tree and the tiny snowman.  The ground snow is white M&Ms and the sky snow is punched out of some of the paint chips from Kat's room.  The tree, cloud and snow outlines and skier's scarf are yarn.  The skier has a Cheerio for a head.

So, that was our busy, but fun weekend.  How was yours?  What do you have planned for the week ahead.  Unfortunately, it looks like we may have more snow on Tuesday into Wednesday.  If we get what's predicted, we'll probably have at least one more snow day.