We have babies!

Okay, not those kind of babies.  We have sprouts!  Just look!


We have collard green babies and basil babies and a holly hock baby and a sungold baby. 

I know that I've raved about it, but I truly do think that the seedling heat mat makes all the difference.  What I have is basically this, but my heat mat and seed tray sit in a styrofoam base, which keeps everything a little toastier.  There's a little notch in the styro base for the plug to come out.  Hubs found mine for $4.97 at a discount store.  For the first 48 hours or so, I kept the entire greenhouse closed up.  I've kept the mat on since I planted the seeds and started propping the lid up overnight starting Tuesday evening.  That way, air can circulate and keep (or cut down) on any mold growth.  We're zone 5, so we can't plant until at least May 15, but we're better to wait about a week from that.

My sister and I will be swapping my last year seed leftovers for some seed potatoes.  She's grown them before and was really rather pleased with her results.  I'm excited to get rolling with them! 

I've decided to loop a little garden swoop area around next to the shed.  We talked about it when the shed was set down on my beloved garden plot.  That will give me a place to put the collards and carrots.  I'll probably do green beans on an upside down tomato cage again.  That worked very well.  and didn't take a ton of space. 

Though I woke up this morning with my car licked with a dusting of snow, my green thumb is itching to get something into the ground. 

Smiles in my day:
-  K- had a great day and lunch wasn't an issue.  She talked to Mrs. S- about it and let her know what happened. 
-  Mrs. S- grabbed me up to slip K-'s book order books to me.  I ordered some Magic Tree House books, a Magic School House book and the Junior Novelization of Tangled for K- for her Easter basket.  (I'm horrible.  I don't do candy in her basket.  My MIL and my mom take care of that.  Don't worry.  She doesn't feel slighted.  She has never even mentioned it.) 
-  My SIL closed on her house today.  We're so excited for them!

Have a wonderful weekend!

The lunch time wall.

I heard a humming behind me while I was standing at the counter at work.  I looked and it was my cell.  I had turned the phone to vibrate while attending a meeting last night.

It was K-. 

I hadn't scooped it up in enough time to get her call.  I tried to call and there was no answer.  She was leaving me a message.

"Hi, Mommy.  It's me.  Um, at lunchtime today, I had to stand on the wall.  B- was talking and I got in trouble, but honest Mom, I didn't do it.  I love you.  Bye."

I tried my MIL's cell again and K- answered. 

"Mom, I didn't do it.  I didn't talk.  Honest, mom."

"K-, you're not in trouble.  I believe you. Tell me what went on."

She told me that B- was squashing a piece of bread into the floor and told K- to look at it.  It was a silent lunch, which is something they do if the noise level gets out of control.  Knowing that B- was talking, the monitor assumed K- was talking too and they were both sent to stand on the wall. 

K- did not get to finish her lunch.  She had a beautiful container of blueberries and grapes that she was unable to eat, which means that she had to be famished when she got out of school.  I don't send out of control portions, but I do send ample amount of good nutritional items to have her eat.  Her reflux is a fine balance that I work with.  Must not overfill.  Today, that was obviously not the problem.

K- also had to pick up trash left behind.  A true germaphobe's daughter shines through when she said, "And mom, they had me crawl under the table to get two forks that people had in their mouths!" 

Of course, I asked if she had washed her hands.

I was also irate. 

My child had been wronged.  The offending child realized the error of her ways and apologized to K-.  "Mommy, B- apologized and I forgave her."  I told her that I think that is great that she did that.  I told her that no, it wasn't right that she was punished for someone else's bad choices, but sadly that happens sometimes.

I've asked K- to talk to her teacher about what went on.  "Mom, can't you?"  I told her that I wasn't going to be able to always take care of these things for her and I needed her to handle this.  "Mom, can't you just write a note?"  I told her that I needed her to talk to her teacher and tell her that we talked about her not sitting next to B- at lunch for a while.  B- admitted the error of her ways.  K- forgave.  Still, the punishment stung enough to not want to repeat. 

I told my coworker that I was so glad that I wasn't the one to pick K- up at school today.  I had to rant about this for a while to a reasonable mom to process it. 

I'm sad for K-.  Did the punishment kill her?  No.  She is a law abiding citizen at school.  If she is at school and the rule would be to walk on her tip toes with a book on her head, she would do it with no questions asked.  She is a people pleaser.  She hates to make mistakes.  The punishment definitely confirmed that she wants to continue to be a good kid.

"K-, did you cry?" 

"I tried not to." 

I hugged her tight when she got home. 

Smiles in my day:
-  That K- talked to us about what happened.  She also fessed up that she had been sent to the detention table once last year for talking at lunch.  I stressed how important it is for her to tell us.  "But mom, I didn't want to get in trouble."  (Trouble at school = trouble at home.)  Still, she came to us this time and did talk to us.  I'm trying to keep an open line of communication.  Obviously, it isn't a perfect line, but we're working on it bit by bit.
-  The head lice issue of yesterday isn't an issue.  All has been attended to.  The teacher thanked me for asking K- not to discuss it.  The child that had told K- had apparently told many children and the teacher had to talk with her about it.

Have a great day!

:Scratch, scratch:

K- came home last night and told me, "You know, J- told me that A- has lice."

:scratch, scratch:

"K-, I need to check your hair."

"But mom, I wasn't even around A-."

I asked her if A- had said anything.  She said no, that it had only come from J-.  I told her that it is important that she not say anything to anyone and that if A- did have lice, it wasn't her fault and sometimes that just happens.

Then I checked her head.  It checked out a-okay.  I also have her use tea tree conditioner, which is supposed to act as a repellent.  We started using that last year during the VBS lice incident. 

Let's face it.  Head lice happens.  I had it several times as a kid and survived it just fine.  It's not to say that I want to deal with it.  Yuck.  I did e-mail Mrs. S- with a heads up.  (No pun intended.) 

In the meantime, K- went to school with her hair wound up into Gabriela knots.

Smiles in my day:
-  I'm stunned at how many kids got the word 'leprechaun' right on the spelling tests last week.  The wall was full of excellent spelling tests.  Hooray!
-  Getting some school work pulled around last night.  I'm busy pitching an idea for a membership drive to the Principal. 

Have a great day!

Tales from the Trenches: I knew it was coming.

Mark it on the calendar.  Today is the day I officially had to start K- on allergy medication.  I have to do that during the spring, often mid-late March and all the way through to mid June.  Apparently, she was good all day, but then started falling to pieces this evening when I got home.  She was just not acting herself and was just whining and falling apart all over the place.  We pressed on, had her finish her homework, take a bath and I had her go to bed a little early.  She's had the medicine in her for about an hour now and she is so much better.  Thank goodness for Claritin!  (In our case, store brand Claritin.) 

Spring is here!  The allergy medicines are out, the robins are so loud that it sounds as if they are screaming, thunderstorms were last night and more things seem to be greening up. 

About time!

Smiles in my day:
-  My grandfather isn't doing particularly well, but he is holding his own.  That's something!
-  The neighbor calling to let Hubs know that he had a brake light out.  Better to have someone tell you than to get a ticket.

Have a great day!

My green thumb is happy!

Today, Hubs and K- went to go check out migratory water fowl (yes, that is a Sunday afternoon activity when your dad is a park naturalist) and I decided to opt out.  I'm not much a ducker.  I'm more for the May migration of warblers and whatnot.  Anyhow, this afforded me some much needed alone time so that I could be one with my dirt and seeds. 

A few years ago, Hubs bought me this most wonderful little greenhouse with a seedling heat mat.  I guess that he wasn't all that thrilled that I was using our heating pad to try to get my little seedlings moving along. 

So, what's in here?  I have Sungolds, collard greens (for our iguana), hollyhocks, marigolds, Chinese lanterns, red peppers, ground cherries and basil.  In the little silver side pot (a growing kit Mom gave me for Christmas), I have lavender, oregano and thyme. 

I've successfully wintered over a few plants.  I half-heartedly plunked a chunk of pineapple sage into water and left it in the window all winter.  She was looking a little displeased, but then she greened up.  I've planted that and cross my fingers that she'll make it just fine.  Off to the left is the geranium that Julia gave me.  I wintered it over, brought it up about a month and a half ago and nearly gave it a horticultural heart attack.  I lost a little bit of it from not easing it into full sun, but she pulled around.  The little green square is the solar battery for K-'s reading light.  I found her sleeping with it on in her bed last night.  I knew that there was a reason we bought her a cool-burning LED solar light!  :S

I admit that I planted my lovely organic seeds in Miracle Grow seed starting soil.  Now, I realize that the Miracle Grow part negates the organic part, but I've used organic soil and got everything else growing in there (including mushrooms), but not what I originally planted.  We do organically garden by about 95% or so.  That's a lot better than my neighbors who provide the lawn services their payroll every month so that they can spread lovely poisons in their yard.  Yarg. 

I'm excited to get growing!  My sister and I are trading seeds.  I'm giving her my leftovers of last year's seeds (what I used this year) and in trade, she'll get me the starter potatoes that I need to get rolling.  Potatoes are my new addition this year.  I'll be growing them in a large plastic laundry bucket.  I need to read up on what potatoes require.  I know nothing about sun, food or whatnot.  I do have organic veggie food, so I figure that to toss that in won't be a bad thing, but we'll see what the instructions tell me.  Anyone with previous potato growing experience, feel free to give me some guidance. 

Smiles in my weekend:
-  Decent weather.
-  Hubs and I were able to tackle the puppet show project and came up with a pretty good show between the two of us.  He had a skeleton of a program that needed to be tweaked and re-worked in some spots. 
-  I've had a crocus in a vase in the middle of the table for the last few days.  Silly, I know, but you have to use what you've got.  K- brings them to me and though it is only the bloom, I can't bring myself to pitch it.
-  My seed soil was on rebate at Ace Hardware and I had a $5.00 coupon that I earned.  Between the two, for $13.00 worth of merchandise, my cost is 35 cents.
-  Blueberries on sale at the store for BOG2.  K- was very pleased.  They also had giant grapes on sale. 

Have a great day!

To note:  I'm really not that precious about my photos.  If they end up being picked up on internet searches (which they have), at least it gives someone a reference point of where to go for the original post.