Spring Has Sprung!!!

If it were not so misty and drizzly outside today, I would take some pictures of my garden coming to life. I'm so excited I can barely stand it! So instead, today I did my first "planting" and also set up my seed starting nursery in the basement. Bring on Spring....I'm soooooooo ready!

Here is my brand new blueberry plant! Derrek loves blueberries so much, so why not grow them? We also have strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and gooseberries in the yard.

It may not look like much....but there is life and there will be berries! And all for a $5.00 plant.

The work bench was already here when we moved in. I'm sure the prior owners used it for seed starting since they so kindly left me tons of flats. During the week of March 20th, I'll start my first seeds here. I have a heating mat to make the environment ideal for growing temperature and have a plant UV lamp to provide the light.

Now all that is left to do is decide what exactly I am going to grow!

Week 2 Pantry Challenge

I'm not going to lie, this challenge is harder than I thought it was going to be. Especially the $40/month budget. This week our purchases were:

1 lb Turkey lunch meat $2.15
4 fresh apples 1.91
5 bananas .88
blueberries 2.50
mushrooms 1.09
pineapple 1.99
5 naval oranges 1.08
1 gallon skim milk 3.49
1 gallon whole milk 3.49

Total week 2 purchases........$18.58

If I add last weeks purchases, we end with a total for 2 weeks of......$22.37 That means I'm $2.37 over my budget so far. I think I can make it up this week. I still have fruit left over from last week and I still have plenty of everything else I should need.

My meals this week included:

Curry Baked Chicken
Grilled Salmon
Pasta salad
Broiled Steaks with a teryiaki marinade
Sandwiches for lunch
cereal or eggs with fruit for breakfast

I do have to admit, my normal freezer (not the deep freeze) is becoming more and more empty. Like I said before, this is going to become more and more interesting as time goes on.

Couch to 5K...Again

When Ray was home from leave, I expressed an interest in starting a jogging or running routine. It is something he has to do for the National Guard, and I thought it could be something fun and healthy for us to do together as a family. So, while he is back in Iraq and finishing his deployment, I have begun a couch to 5K program.

Many thoughts came to my mind today as Derrek and I started out. The first, even though we have a Baby Jogger brand stroller, it is NOT a jogging stroller. Gonna have to keep my eye out for a real one. Second, I'm REALLY much more out of shape than I thought. The particular program I'm using starts off with intervals of 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking. On a treadmill, it would have been fine. Considering that every time I started the running interval, I was going up hill, well.... Let's just say I may be doing this first week of the program for two or three weeks before I move on to week two. Hills will help make me fitter, faster. Right?

I was pretty discouraged about how much I have let myself go in terms of fitness over the winter. But, there are good things too. I feel GREAT now after the exercise. We got outside for a while and Derrek is taking a nice long nap. So, while I feel like I'm starting from way behind in this, I know my body will adjust quickly and it will be better and better as I move forward.

Assuming nothing crazy happens, Ray and I have agreed to run the 5K race during Germanfest in our town on July 11. With the ipod charged, program downloaded, good weather on the doorstep and a race as my goal, I am on my way!