Bi And Large

I wrote this elsewhere recently as a response to the question of whether or not backyard gardening was a good way to cut grocery costs:

Growing your own veggies is incredibly rewarding. I would recommend it to anyone! We have about 1/2 of an acre and we grow everything from tomatoes and cukes to raspberries and blueberries, melons, eggplant, apples, calendula and chamomile. It's one of my favorite things about summer!

HOWEVER...

Growing your own edibles in a garden is neither cheap nor easy. You will save a ton more money buying fresh organic locally grown stuff (that tastes just as good as homegrown) at the farmers market than you will ever save by growing it yourself. A couple containers on the balcony are relatively cheap, sure - but you're going to get maybe a half dozen tomatoes over the course of the summer from them. The investment of $20 - $30 you put into pots and soil and plants and trowel and fertilizer and a watering can (unless you need to spend more on pesticide or fungicide, if you run into a problem with those) is going to yield about $4 worth of tomatoes. If you dig out an actual plot in the soil, it's scaled up again. Topsoil, good tools, stakes, mulch, quality plants, watering systems, peat manure and compost, all these things cost a LOT of money. And it takes a lot of your time and effort, every day, all growing season. Let the weeds get the upper hand just once, and you're lost.

Is it worth it? A resounding yes! I love to garden, and again I would suggest anyone try it. It is so rewarding and really fun. It feeds your soul. But I wouldn't suggest it as a money-saving technique. Like any hobby, you'll find more ways to spend money on it than you ever dreamed.

We are back safely, a good time was had by all, I highly recommend it if we ever want to meet up out here. Remind me to tell you ALL about the viking runestone museum and 'Big Ole' sometime. That was a riot.

So today, Palm Sunday, a week before Easter, April 5th.... we woke up to several inches of snow.

Help me.

In a nutshell:

Amy lost her first tooth this weekend! Which means we got to be the tooth fairy for the first time and it was wonderful. My big kid! She lost one of the bottom ones, and I think she would definitely have lost one of the top front ones before this - they have been really loose for months - except that she broke the roots off during a fall when she was a toddler and we might end up having to get those extracted. Anyway she has lost one now, it's the tiniest thing I have ever seen, and the tooth fairy exchanged it for a dollar bill plus an Australian gold $2 coin, which will be the 'tooth rate' around here; plus a little ring and necklace for it being the first one. The tooth fairy also left a note for Iris too, since she thought Iris might be jealous, with a ring attached. Good times.

We leave tomorrow for our spring break trip to the water park, and will be gone through Saturday. We'll be only about 2 hours away but in a pleasant little family resort with a HUGE indoor water park and heaps of activities for the kids. And a spa with couple's massages. Yay for tax refunds - not to mention the whole 4 day trip will only cost about 1/3 of our refund, which is awesome. If any of you ever want to come to the North Star state and hang out with us, we should definitely go here and hang out. http://www.arrowwoodresort.com/ - cick on the photos and virtual tours and check out that water park!

Of course, being MN, we got socked with snow and sleet because "spring break" is in March, which is still winter here. It's sleeting at our place right now and supposedly Alexandria, where the resort is, should be geting up to 2 feet of snow. So yeah, glad it's all indoors! I just hope we have decent driving conditions.

And, also of course, we've all come down with mega-virus just in time to go away in the snow. Just colds I think, but really vicious colds with fevers and dizziness and bad sore throats. I am packing lots of sudafed and kid's benadryl. And tylenol. Last Thursday I had three patients come into the office sick and breathe on me during treatments, so I knew it would happen, but even so. Wish us luck!

Thanks for all the kind comments recently, you guys are the best!