Spring planting, birthdays and baking

Start planting seeds outdoors and you can almost guarantee cold weather will return. The good news is that if you time the planting right, a bit of cold won't hurt your potential plants. I took a chance about a week ago--maybe a bit more--and planted peas and nasturtiums. (I even learned how to spell nasturtiums correctly--thank goodness for Spellcheck.) Plus, I had two tiny pots with parsley and chives. Did what you're told not to do in that I didn't thin the parsley very much and broke apart the pot and separated the roots so that I ended up with three plants, not one. Another no-no is transplanting before they have at least two sets of permanent leaves (don't count the first set you see). Covered each transplant with a plastic 1/2-gal or 1-gal milk carton with the bottom cut out. In spite of heavy rain, cold, and bits of snow since the planting, they are growing well in their mini greenhouses. It must be that 'Read Luck' kicking in again.

I'm no longer feeling unproductive, at least for the time being. I know it's a feeling that will come and go. We all have down time and need to be good to ourselves while we "weather the storm". Editing and improving eight of my articles at Helium, which also improved my writing score, was very productive and got me back in the swing of things in all areas of my life. Good grief, why am I using all these tired phrases: thank goodness, weather the storm, swing of things?

The Mac Mini arrived, and is up and running. I'm learning how to use it and the programs -- iWorks, iPhoto, iMusic, etc. Don't know how I would have managed the choice, the purchase, the set up, the learning, without my son. He purchased a Mac several months before me. Not a Mini; he got one in which the computer is in the monitor. Anyways, he did the testing and learning and is passing everything he knows on to me. I love it! All those years invested in teaching a child and one day he returns the favor by teaching you.

I'm sure I've mentioned "Read Luck" before, but I'll clarify here. My maiden name is Read and in our family, the bad is always offset by the good. When that happens, and it does, I call it the Read Luck. For instance, when I decided to buy the Mac Mini, I worried a bit about having to spend the next year, probably more, paying off the debt. Within a week of its arrival, two sources of unexpected income popped up - $425 ($85 per month over the next five months) and $250 in May. Plus, I reached goal at Weight Watchers and will no longer be paying the monthly fee, so that will go toward the computer. Five months to pay it off, maybe even less depending on my writing at Helium.


Don't you love the twists and turns that life takes?


This entry is long enough, I know, but I can't resist mentioning my grandsons again. Grandson #1 is having his 6th birthday tomorrow. Yesterday Grandma took birthday snacks of his choice to his kindergarten class -- Jelly Bean Nests (see AllRecipes.com). After school he and I baked cakes for his parties tomorrow. Yes, partIES. The families are so big that two parties are being scheduled to accommodate everyone. Grandma learned that small ovens may hold two 9x13 pans, but the cakes will, for some unknown reason, cook lopsided. We're decorating them today and he doesn't care a bit about the valleys and hills in his cakes.

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