General Ramblings today.  I’m slightly unfocused and scrambled today.  So you get some Random Thoughts.

We have sprouts!  The Roma Tomatoes, Beefsteak Tomatoes, Basil and Shasta Daisies are sprouting.  Ever so slightly and probably not even picture worthy.  Once they’re poking up a little more, I’ll post photos.

Favorite part of Barney (and I.do.not like Barney - but alas, Francesca does) is at the end when he sings his “I love, you, you love me” song” where he says “with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you” - Francesca walks up to everyone in the family (including the dog and cat) and gives us each a big hug and a big kiss!  So very sweet - it makes Barney appealing.

Want to see a five year old boy smile ear to ear?  Get him a bicycle helmet and knee and elbow pads.  Long after he was done riding his bike today with his brand new safety gear, he still had the knee pads and elbow pads on.  He finally removed them shortly before bedtime.

Why oh why do cats like to eat houseplants?  I am a much better nurturer to my children and to my outdoor garden than I am to houseplants.  That is why I never have any.  Ross received a spider plant from his old daycare way back before Pre-Kindergarten started, so back in April or so.  I finally got around to removing the rooted plant from the container with water and putting it in a pot and placing it on the kitchen windowsill.  The cat promptly nibbled on it and ate most of the leaves.

Sisters can be so loving and yet so cruel to each other.  I met an old friend and her two daughters for lunch today and then we stopped in Target.  Her girls are 11 and almost 10.  The ten year old wanted to buy a purse.  When her mom told her it was a little too expensive and we pointed out that it was an “evening bag”, her sister said “Yeah, it’s for going out on a date and you’ll never do that!”  The 10 year old proceeded to sulk for the rest of the shopping trip.

If you stand close enough to Ross when he is in a toy aisle, you will hear him say every so often “Santa, Can you get that?, Santa, can you get this?”  Apparently, since Santa can see you all the time, there’s no need to actually make a list - he’ll just tell him what he wants through the year.

Planted the rest of the flower seeds today.  Hopefully those too will be sprouting soon.

Day three of constant watering.  I reseeded the back yard on Monday and have been watering like a fiend.  Trying to get the grass to grow before all the birds and animals eat all the seeds.  Sam said to me the other morning “You should have heard all the birds chirping this morning when I left for work!”.  Yeah.  I bet they were telling all their friends.

Francesca is finally talking more and more.  She does not say alot but then every once in a while she surprises me.  For the child who barely says one word here and there, today she said “No, it’s MINE” at the top of her lungs when Ross tried to take her ball.

I can no longer take a shower by myself.  Pretty much the last place I could go for privacy was the shower.  Francesca loves water so much that when I grab a towel she starts taking her clothes off and wants to take a shower with me.

And lastly, perhaps it’s time to start potty training Francesca.  At 27 months, she is now in the habit of removing her own diaper when she pees in it.  I always catch her in the act, but maybe it’s time to get proactive (haven’t used that word since I was working - My God, how overused of a word that was at work) and start sitting her on the potty.  Her pediatrician wanted me to start at 18 months.  Yeah. Right.

Okay, so those are my many ramblings today.  Will return with a more cohesive post soon.

Again we’ve had some warmer weather in our area so we took advantage of it and reseeded the back yard.  The kids were also able to get outside and ride their bikes for awhile.  It’s nice to know that even though we may still get some wintery weather, more of it will be nicer and nicer.

I also planted some pepper seeds and Jalapeno seeds in preparation for our vegetable garden this summer.  It’s so fulfilling to be thinking about the gardening season and at least be able to get started on some planting even if it’s seeds and it’s indoors!

Now keep your fingers crossed that we get the rain that we’re supposed to get - it will be good for the grass seed.  I’l post pictures when it starts to sprout - hopefully within the next 7 days or so.  I’m hoping for a decent yard come summer!

What a difference a few days make.  The other day it was 70 degrees outside and now it’s 20 degrees out again at night.  Here are the kids taking advantage of the 70 degree weather.

I also took advantage of the weather by bagging up all the leaves that were left in the backyard after we fenced it off and seeded.  You can see how patchy it is, the grass is missing from all the spots where the leaves fell.  I cleaned it all up and will re-seed again - maybe this weekend.

I also planted peas in the garden - first time planting them.  I  started our vegetable/herb seeds indoors too.  I planted Italian Parsley, Roma Tomatoes, Super Beefsteak Tomatoes, Genovese Basil, Cilantro and Oregano.  I’d also like to plant some lettuce and peppers.

We used egg cartons last year for the basil and it worked just fine.  I also have some flowers to start from seed.  I already started  Shasta Daisy, I still have seeds for Italian Aster, Sweet William, Oriental Poppy, Gailardia and Foxglove.  I’ll get those going by the weekend.

The only thing we started from seed last year was pumpkin, some basil and sunflowers.  I am anxious to see if I can be nurturing enough to get each of these varieties thriving and able to be planted outdoors come time.  Worst case scenario, we’ll have to but the plants at the garden center but I think we’ll do ok.  I’ll keep you posted!

I have been looking at my seed packages to determine when I can start to sow indoors and what needs to be sown directly outside.  On the Martha Stewart website http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/seed-starting-101?lnc=bddd289c2d2ee010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&rsc=lpg_home&lpgStart=1&currentslide=7&currentChapter=1

there is a nice little spreadsheet to list your plants and determine when to sow.

Based on working 6-8 weeks out from the last frost date (May 15th ish)  it looks like I will begin to sow them indoors next week.  I do have a packet of Sugar Snap Peas that should be sown outdoors in early spring.  I think I will get these out there and see what happens.

 I have never grown Sugar Sap Peas before, they grow in vines so I’ll have to put up support.  We have some fencing left over from when Sam blocked of the back yard from the dog when we seeded last fall.  That should do the trick.  It seems as if I just need to cover the soil with a blanket at night if it is expected to be very cold.  I can do that.

Sam picked up new blinds for the living room windows.  This is a good thing, since the kids have picked at the old ones and broke pieces off.  This looks especially lovely from the outside. 

He put them up today which meant an impromptu jump start on spring cleaning.  I took down the drapes and sheers and washed the windows (on the inside at least).  Not what I was planning on doing today but a nice task to cross off the spring to-do cleaning list. 

Do you think this early spring cleaning mught catapult us into an early spring?  Ummm, ok…me neither but it sure would be nice.  I look forward to getting out in my garden and planting more perrenials and the vegetable garden.   Soon it will be time to start sowing vegetable seeds indoors, most of the plants from last year were purchased already transplant size - this year we’re shooting for “from seed”.   At least I can start planning what will go into our vegetable garden.  That’s a fun process and will have to do until I can get my hands into some soil.

With the trees removed, we were able to plant a vegetable garden in the back yard.  We grew tomatoes, basil, carrots and pumpkins.  The photo above shows the pumpkin plant - ONE pumpkin plant, which took up much much more space than the photo shows.  What a lesson in growing for Ross.  We harvested 2 good pumpkins (medium sized) for carving and three smaller ones for the front porch. 

Here’s Ross (Vanna style!) showing off the first decent harvest of tomato and basil.  We made some pesto and used basil for tomato sauce.   We got a late start - everyhing was planted in the ground on Father’s Day, next year it will have to be earlier.

We will grow another vegetable garden next year, tomatoes and basils are a must, but I want to expand and grow more items.  Any suggestions?  No more pumpkins though - hopefully we will have a lawn next year!