But who needs a zombie escape plan when you have this zombie proof house?

The World's First Zombie Proof House

Perfect to raise your family, entertain your friends and protect them from the inevitable zombie invasion of 2012.

Zombie Proof House -- Fortifications

I mean, just look at those defenses! Secure yet movable concrete walls. Only one, easily defendable entrance on the second floor.

* For the record, yes, we’ve discussed both our earthquake and zombie invasion plan at length with relatively equal seriousness. Sort of. Honestly, they’re just about the same except one involves escaping hordes of brain-eating undead and the other involves escaping hordes of lawless, gun-toting hillbillies or gang members, depending on what part of town we’re in. Both The Hubs and I agree we’d rather take on zombies any day.

On a whim, I decided to grab a Sunday paper and clipped some coupons as well as loaded up more on my store club card. I made a list, I checked it twice and am hoping that I can stretch this week’s grocery budget. Honestly, I’m not too confident but we’ll see once I get back from the store.

Since sowing the seeds on Friday, we’ve been taking them down daily from the refrigerator to check on their progress and make sure the soil is nice and moist.

The packets all said that germination within 7 to 10 days so I was very surprised to see soil displacement as quickly as Saturday afternoon. By Sunday, 3 out of 5 of the seeds were all starting to germinate. By Monday morning, 4 out of 5 of the seeds are sprouting! The lone hold out seems to the basil which is taking its sweet time compared to the others.

We’re setting the tray out on the kitchen table where it will get plenty of sunlight. TLE is very excited that her plants are growing! (So am I!) She can’t stop crowing, “My plants! My plants!” I’m just hoping that she won’t disturb the seedlings on the kitchen table. We’ll see

UPDATE: The basil seeds were poking their little green heads out of the soil on Tuesday morning. By Tuesday afternoon, they were almost fully sprouted. YAY!

I haven’t had much luck with gardens. Twice I’ve attempted to plant something in the ground and twice I’ve been thwarted by poor planning or the dog deciding that the raised bed was a great dog bed.

This time, I’ve decided that we’ll go smaller and opt to plant a container garden rather than revisit the failed raised bed attempt. I’ve got some planters but we’re not quite ready to plant yet so I decided to start some seeds indoors. I still have no idea what I’m doing but it seemed like a good opportunity for a science lesson.

We bought this Burpee seed starter kit at Target. It came with 25 pellets that you add water to. It was fun watching the pellets expand!   TLE loved pouring the water and then watching them grow. If you listened carefully, the pellets made some interesting sounds as they expanded too!

We sowed 5 different types of seeds: pumpkin, cucumber, lettuce, basil and shingiku (an Asian green used in Japanese and Chinese cooking.) I took the seeds out and TLE helped stick the larger ones in the hole in the pellets and covered them with dirt. We discovered that pumpkin seeds are bigger than cucumber seeds and that lettuce, basil and shingiku all have very tiny seeds.

TLE liked the project but was rather, um, disappointed that “her plants” aren’t ready to plant yet. I explained to her that seeds take time to grow and that we need to be patient. She’s looking forward to checking the tray regularly for the plants’ progress.

After several days of unseasonably high temperatures, we’re back in the middle of a cold snap. (Brr!!) I placed the seed container on top of the refrigerator in the kitchen where it is slightly warmer.  (And it keeps it OUT of her reach!) Hopefully the temps will improve and coax the seeds to sprout in the next two weeks.

Pray for Japan

While I have no real connection to Japan, save for a few friends that live there (and thank God, they’re safe!) and a deep love and appreciation for the Japanese culture, I have been glued to the Internet this past weekend to find out what is going on in Japan.

The tsunami’s force as it plowed through the coastal areas was as breath taking as it was heartbreaking. As we live our daily lives, it may be easy to forget how powerful nature can truly be.

California is also part of the Pacific Rim of Fire and the activity in New Zealand and now Japan has made us very uneasy. Luckily, we do not live on a major fault line ourselves (living at the edge of the Bay Area does have some advantages) but we do live close enough that damage is always a possibility.

I still remember the Loma Prieta quake in 1989. While we were fairly well away from its epicenter, the house still swayed and rocked for about ten seconds and was a magnitude 6.9 on the Richter scale. I can’t even imagine how horrific the several minutes of the Japanese quake must have been.

The Hubs ™ and I have talked some about our emergency plans. This has been made more urgent by the Japanese quake. Where would we go? What would we do? Our earthquake kit is not prepared — a huge oversight on my part. That will have to be rectified as soon as possible.

Are you prepared for a disaster?

I am so stupidly excited. You have to understand, I thought I had a black thumb! Maybe my dreams of a freshly picked summer salad aren’t so far off. I’m debating sowing some lettuce seeds in the space I still have in the planter.

In my 4′ x 4′ garden bed, I’ve planted a cantaloupe plant and a cucumber plant. I’ve also sewn the seeds for Thai basil, cilantro, daikon radish and snow peas. I also have a tomato plant and cucumber plant in separate pots. (No real reason for this other other than plain laziness.)

Garden - Day 0 (5/18/2010)

About a week and a half after planting, my daikon sprouts are thriving (YAY!) while my cantaloupe and cucumber aren’t looking so hot.

Daikon sprouts

]]> http://www.mommymisadventures.com/2010/05/29/garden-summer-2010/feed/ 0 http://www.mommymisadventures.com/2010/04/17/the-kindness-of-strangers/ http://www.mommymisadventures.com/2010/04/17/the-kindness-of-strangers/#comments Sun, 18 Apr 2010 03:05:45 +0000 Michelle http://www.mommymisadventures.com/?p=1071

TLE's outdoor dining room

TLE's new summer palace

An alternate title for this post could be: Freecycle ROCKS.

I have to say that aside from The Little Empress doing so well in her new school, the month of April has sucked mightily thus far. How mightily? We had to take one car in for major repairsand then, the very next day, for The Hubs to get into an accident on his way home from work. Thank God he wasn’t hurt and we do have insurance but the two incidents cost us pretty much every penny we had. As could be imagined, getting new toys for The Little Empress or much needed vacuum parts wasn’t exactly high on our priority list  as keeping the roof over our head, food on the table and gas in the vehicles took precedence.

Enter Freecycle. I have a love-hate relationship with Freecycle; I love the concept of it but sometimes, people can be really annoying when they are picky about what they’re asking for. I mean, I can understand asking for a dresser for your child’s room because they have nowhere to put their clothes but specifying how many drawers, how large and what color it has to be is a bit much, you know?

The Little Empress is a messy little thing. How messy? Well, she has, um, taken to watering the furniture with her drinks. Despite having paid extra for fabric protectors on our couch and chair, everything is sticky and disgusting. Unfortunately our family room and kitchen are adjoining and if TLE gets even an inkling that her drink may be taken away from her, she’ll upend it and splash around in it. This is about as gross as it sounds. Imagine my relief when someone posted their steam vac for grabs on Freecycle. Thirty minutes later, I was the proud new owner of both a steam vac and three bottles of cleaner. My furniture is saved without having to resort to an expensive cleaner!!

Two things that I’ve been wanting for TLE but just couldn’t find the money to get were a child’s stepstool and a little plastic picnic table for her to use outside. There are definite “wants” vs. needs but would be truly appreciated by our family. I’ve asked for them on Freecycle before with no luck. I decided to try again and was very happy to wake up to a message from someone saying she could give us her children’s picnic table that her kids outgrew. Even better, she would throw in their old play house!! I was ecstatic but said that I couldn’t pick up the playhouse (since our truck done got crunched) but would be over for the picnic table.

She shot me an email back offering to deliver it. ***SCORE!!***

After such a crappy few weeks, it was so nice to have such a nice gesture out of nowhere. She had very kindly cleaned the playhouse as well. Sure it isn’t brand new but it is new to The Little Empress and she is absolutely ecstatic to have a little house her size.

I was so excited that I made a mental note to take a picture of my horticultural triumph.

And then I forgot.

And then a strong gust of wind blew the little seedlings away later that afternoon.

Bummer.

All is not lost. There’s still plenty of Jiffy pots to plant with more seeds to start. Tomorrow is a new day and next week, we shall start anew! And maybe this time I’ll follow the directions. Maybe.

As soon as we walked up to the center, TLE jumped around  excitedly to see the playground. There are two playgrounds at the center, each with different apparatus to help the kids with their motor function. Luckily, we were asked to come around playtime so TLE was able to join abunch of the kids on the playground. Then we moved inside and I worked on filling out paperwork while TLE had the very important task of trying out all the toys they have to offer.

The director filled me more on the program and gave me the breakdown of the class schedule as I filled out paperwork. There is a lot of free play as well as structured play to help the kids develop whatever skills they may be behind on. She also informed me of the open door policy — basically, I can sit in on the class whenever I want. This may just ease my Mommy-guilt.

We stayed for about an hour. TLE was allowed to roam the classroom, playing with whatever struck her fancy. And just about everything struck her fancy. She zipped from activity to activity, playing with blocks, the play kitchen, toy cars, balls, etc. I liked  seeing how the teachers played with her, how they really got down to her level and explained things to her. The class is very small, maybe 8 kids to 2 teachers as well as additional volunteer aides and specialized therapists.

Later in the day, we attended an open house at the co-op preschool that I want to send her to when she turns three. Cooperative preschools are almost entirely parent run, with one paid teacher. I love this model since it is a perfect bridge between homeschooling and traditional schooling. There’s only one co-op preschool in the area so I want to be sure to get her name down as soon as possible. She loved the classroom and while she’s still too young to sign up for the upcoming school year, I’ll definitely have her name down for 2011.

I had a few concerns about preschool, especially since there’s no telling if she’ll still be delayed by the time she turns three. One of the parents that I talked to eased my fears. Apparently, this co-op is where the school district recommends for children who have aged out of the county early intervention program. Lucky! So either way, TLE would likely end up going to this co-op which makes me happy.

What doesn’t make me happy is the fact that I don’t know what we’ll be doing for elementary school. There’s an elementary school just a half mile walk from our home but I refuse to send TLE there. Unless TLE settles down a lot in the next few years (doubtful), I think that putting her in an overcrowded classroom will kill any chance she has academically. I remember being in a crowded classroom in elementary school and being frustrated that I wasn’t being called upon. (Yes, I was the annoying kid that always had her hand up.) Teachers said that I was disruptive or uninterested. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was frustrated and bored out of my skull because I wasn’t getting the attention I needed. If possible, I don’t want to put TLE in a similar situation.

There are two very popular charter academies in our school district but there’s a waiting list a mile long. It is all lottery and the idea that there’s nothing I can do to ensure that my daughter gets a good education makes me sick. All I can do is put her name down and pray really hard that she gets in. Otherwise, homeschooling becomes our other option. Luckily, there’s homeschooling through the district, which provides curriculum as well as teacher guidance once a month, which ensures that TLE would be following the same curriculum as her public schooled peers. Still, I’d rather that she was in the charter but I guess we’ll deal with that when it is time.