Started my seeds!

OK, so we are now 5 weeks away from the estimated last frost in our region. I was supposed to start the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants at 6 weeks before, but this has been a crazy winter, so I waited a bit. I started the seeds today in those Jiffy greenhouse things, with the peat pods. I put enough seeds for 24 tomato plants (4 different varieties), 4 eggplant, 10 Keystone pepper plants, and 8 Jimmy Nardello pepper plants. I then rigged up this sweet little set-up by putting my heating pad under the containers and taping all the little lights from my Christmas Villages up to the empty bookcase. We shall see if it works! It better, is all I have to say ;)

Oh, I also went out on to the balcony and pulled out my parsley, sage, thyme and basil... it didn't look like the ones that could, WOULD be coming back. I left in the rosemary though...it still looks good. I planted some Spinach seeds in their places, after putting some Bat Guano in the soil and watering it profusely. We'll see how that goes... I REALLY want my stuff to grow!!

In other news... the house stuff is moving along nicely. We locked in our interest rate at 5.45%, so we're happy with that. I have tons of boxes packed up and stacked in the dining room, ready to go. I'll get more packed this week. We have FINALLY chosen paint colors. We're going with an earthy green in the living/dining room and "Ambitious Amber" in the kitchen. The trim will be in Summer White, which leans more towards a cream...but still white. My kitchen decor will be centered around coffee, because I LOOOOOOOOOOVE coffee. Kirkland's had some great stuff for a coffee motif and I'm hoping it will all still be there when I'm ready to decorate! I'm going to put a few clear jars full of coffee beans above the cabinets, as well as empty coffee cans, like from Cafe du Monde, etc.

Tristan started his second soccer season this week. It was nice. He actually has REAL coaches this year, and they are great with the kids. We really like this Soccer Association b/c they focus on love of the game rather than winning at all costs. They don't keep score or have "standings", all the parents are encouraged to cheer for ALL the kids, not just yours, and not just your team. It's good b/c some of those sports parents with county/rec. teams can get CRAZY.... fights breaking out and stuff... no thanks.

Also, my next "going green" step will be to make my own laundry detergent. I have read about this on several blogs. Right now I use the Seventh Generation stuff for soap, and vinegar for softener. But making my own would be even better for the environment AND my checking account....so I'm going to work on that in the next week or two. Whenever I find a recipe that I really like, I'll post it on here!

P.S. I finally put pics of our car up on the "It's been a few weeks" post, somewhere down there :)