Week In Review - April 21 - 27

Another interesting week watching a new Food Lion store come together. I didn't realize all the things, and timing, which goes into getting a store up and running. I watched them do a photo shoot for the new store.

And this was after a relaxing Easter Sunday at home before I went to pick up Lady K. I fixed my farmer's market goodies into a nice dinner. 

Unfortunately, my 'Junkyard Meatloaf' experiment was not successful. But Amani enjoyed in over the past week. 

Sunday also had Savvy and CJ coming over for CJ's birthday present...

Kittens!

Out of the four orphan kittens, there is only one left. The one I had already decided to keep.

Texter took one, Savvy and CJ the two boys, and Lady K and I are keeping Marshmallow. Cookie growls and hisses at her, which she totally ignores, but Cookie is hissing less and playing with her a bit.

While I was sitting at the table at the front of the store this week, letting people in and keeping people out, I decided to do a bit of planning.

Unfortunately, some days it seemed more items were added than removed. But I really liked this and it is using one of the extra planners I have. I am going to give it a try for another week.

On my quick trip to pick up some milk, I scored another Smithfield Scratch Meal Kit on sale - with the $5 coupon too!

So I have two meals for $1.59! I love Chicken Marsala. And I don't mind pasta. The broccoli? That might be a problem. I will have to see how they have me fix it. But still! I can probably get Lady K to try some of this too.

And speaking of Lady K...

She was back with me for another week of school. And on Saturday she finally got to meet and play with the three little girls who are staying at the house behind us.

They played in our yard for most of the afternoon while I was finishing up my yard 'chores'.  After dinner, she got to go over to their house for a bit. She was over the moon.

In the meantime, I spent the day outside getting the last of the seedlings in the ground or pots.

And discovering my Asiatic Lilies are starting to come up.

Of course, since I had to run to Lowe's for more container soil, three clearance plants, a 'spicy' bell pepper and three strawberry plants also leaped into the car. But everything is in pots or the ground except for some Kale. Plus, Miss Jamie gave me some little elephant ear bulbs which I popped into an empty area and hope they do well.

Stakes are in the ground or beside pots for tying up plants (in the case of tomatoes) or letting vines trail up (cucumbers). I have a huge 'pepper pot' going. Probably way too many peppers in it, but it should be interesting to see what happens. 

I did learn something new yesterday about zucchini. 

My zucchini is blooming, but the blooms are all 'male'. I was concerned there were no female blooms. It turns out, much like birds where the males migrate first, zucchini blooms with all male flowers to attract pollinators so everything is all set for when the female blooms start a couple of weeks later. That's so cool!

So after all the planting and arranging, I pulled out the new seeds I received and sat on the patio, watching the girls play. Miss Jamie came over to select some seeds from my stash. And some spray bottles I was given from work. 

So I finished the evening with half my yard mowed (that's all the charge 'Joe' holds which is fine with me) and a new flat of seeds starting.

Some of these, like anise and hyssop, I am really excited about and was looking for seed for. Now I just need borage seed. Of course, I need to add some more cilantro and dill. But several of the 'new' seeds I received as a gift from someone off FaceBook is really interesting, like Jewels of Opar. 

Otherwise this week...

• 3 books finished
• 4 posts written
• 6 days over 5000 steps, 1 day of which was over 10,000
• lots of tiny 'things' one

This coming week...

• Open house for employees and their families at the new store
• Grand Opening for the new store
• Lady K out of school one day since teachers are going to Raleigh for a rally (Go Teachers!)
• More 'little' things done around the house and yard
• Planning goals for the rest of the second quarter (May/June) and pre-planning for Q3

But in the meantime more coffee and a stroll around the yard to check on the garden.