When we returned from our vacations, I found that our vegetable garden had become the world’s largest ant mound and weed factory. Aside from all of that, the garden continues to do well. We have picked lots of peppers of various varieties, quite a few tomatoes, and our pumpkin continues to mature. Here are a few pictures.
Peppers
Tomatoes
Pumpkin
Bell Peppers
Freshly picked peppers
Here are some updated photos from my vegetable garden! I have tomatoes, peppers, and a really fast growing pumpkin (that looks like a watermelon).
This has been quite the busy weekend.
Saturday, we awoke at 5:00 AM and drove to Milledgeville for another 5K. I set a new personal record and was 2nd in my age group. Former UGA quarterback David Greene (second photo in black) presented the awards.
Later that evening (after a nap interrupted by a census worker), we met up with some friends at Buckner’s Family Restaurant. It’s located at exit 201 off of I-75 behind the Pilot truck stop. They seat your group around a lazy susan and serve the amazing food family style. I highly recommend it!
This morning, we got up and headed up to Athens. My sister had her first child, Elinor Grace (don’t ask about the name), on Wednesday and we went to meet her. Afterwards, we ate at Raisin’ Canes — the best chicken finger shack ever. We discovered this place on our trip to New Orleans last year and were happy to find one in Athens.
Aside from all of that travel and fun, we have also played in the pool, went grocery shopping, and watched Avatar (which is totally not my kind of movie). The rain has now ruined our afternoon plans, so it’s a good time to catch up on a blog post.
I hope your weekend was enjoyable as well!
It’s been almost 2 months since we’ve visited Farmer Jonathan. The vegetable garden is doing well. We added tomatoes, strawberries, eggplant, and something that I can’t remember right now to the peppers and pumpkins. Again, we don’t eat any of that stuff (except the strawberries) so I don’t know what I’m going to do with it.
From the looks of things, we are going to have a LOT of peppers. As you can see, I’m also a master at growing weeds!
Yesterday, the garden produced it’s first edible item: a strawberry. I was excited. I think it is the first thing that I’ve ever grown that is consumable.
Guess who took it from me and ate it?
March is over and we didn’t eat out, except for the two exceptions noted in the original goal post: one trip to Chick-fil-A (because of the monthly calendar coupon), and free food at work. Although I can’t quantify any health benefits of the hiatus, I can certainly quantify the financial aspects.
The difference in food expenses from 2009 to 2010: $549.78
Below is a screenshot from my (now obsolete) Microsoft Money report, comparing this March with last March. You can clearly see, that in the Fast Food category, my expenditures dropped from $206.86 last year to only $19.30, which was the aforementioned Chick-fil-A transaction. My Dining Out category, which is generally any restaurant food other than fast food went from $375.15 to Zero!
I didn’t have School Lunch expenses last year, because Tristan wasn’t yet in Kindergarten. His food was built into day-care expenses for 2009. As for the Misc for the month, that $7.00 went to a snack for Mackenzie at the ballpark and purchasing a bag of boiled peanuts to support a non-profit.
It is worth noting that for three days last March, we were at Walt Disney World, so the Dining Out expenses for 2009 may be a little higher than the typical month. Even if I scratched out $50.00 due to the high cost of food at Disney, I still saved right at $500.00. Imagine if we did that every month. That would be an extra $6,000.00 in our pockets!
One thing that amazed me looking at the report was the negligible increase in Grocery expenses: only a $10.00 increase. I guess I have been the coupon king lately, but I didn’t realize that it was paying off that much! We haven’t been eating any differently. On Sunday I grilled some steaks. We’ve had fish several times this month and red meat about twice a week. I’m not sure how the Grocery costs remained the same even though we ate many more meals at home.
In a previous post, I talked about our restaurant addiction and how we are giving it up for March.
I’m happy to report that today is day #27 and we are sticking with it. We did use our Chic-fil-A mulligan on March 6 and I have been extremely creative at finding free food at work.
I failed at the no-Coke goal. I have had three so far this month: one with the Chic-fil-A meal and one after each 12K that I ran. I am happy to report that the last two didn’t even taste good.
(On a separately related goal, I have not posted a Facebook status update since February 28! That one was easy!)
I have tried to talk Kimberlie into calling this silly goal quits. It’s not like we’re doing it for lent or anything worthwhile. This morning we were at the Cherry Blossom Festival surrounded by fair-food. It was horribly tempting. Same story two weeks ago at the Forsythia Festival. But, I think the hardest times though have been the nights where Tristan has games right after work and we don’t get home until 9pm. Stopping at Zaxby’s would be so much more convenient.
This goal really was pretty silly. We are not eating healthier. We are still pressed for time when it comes to preparing meals, so unhealthy frozen foods have become a staple. Maybe that’s better than restaurant food, but probably not.
On a positive note, we have saved tons of money this month. I was more than thrilled at my credit card statement. We only have four more days. I can’t possibly screw it up this late in the game. The hardest decision . . . is where to go eat on April 1.
I decided to plant a vegetable garden this year. I’m not quite sure why. I don’t really need something else to do and I don’t eat anything that I’m planting. I guess I was just up for the challenge.
I’m attempting to grow peppers and pumpkins from seeds and tomatoes from store-bought plants.
I built this raised bed last fall to accomodate the vegetable garden. Here’s a PROTIP for you from Farmer Jonathan: When you build a food garden out of landscaping timbers, you should always let it sit for at least six months before adding your soil. This keeps the chemicals used to treat the wood from compromising your soil.
Even Farmer Kimberlie decided to get in on the action with sunflowers. We’ve planted sunflowers several times in the past and they always rock.
And we scored a nifty little rain gauge freebie this weekend at the Forsythia Festival . . . right before it rained on us!
Hopefully we will have a bounty of fresh veggies — even though we don’t eat them!
Our lives have been incredibly busy lately: work, school, t-ball, races, and lots more. With all of those obligations competing for our time, it is so easy to just zip through the drive-thru instead of preparing a meal at home. In the last week or so, we have been eating out several times a day. On Saturday: chicken biscuits after the 5K. On Sunday: McDonalds after church, O’Charleys for dinner. We have been eating out literally every day. That puts a strain on our wallet — and our health. So for the month of March, we have decided to abstain from eating out.
I have also tried to limit my soda consumption in the past. Unfortunately, in our combo-centric world, it hasn’t been possible to do so while continuing to dine out. Who is really going to buy the chicken sandwich combo and fill the cup up with water? So to take the health thing one step further, I have personally chosen to not drink coke during March.
Here are the terms of the restrictions:
Today is day four and it has been tough. Really tough. I can’t remember the last time I went four days without a french fry and I never noticed just how many fast food commercials there are on the radio. Also, social activities in the south are centered around food, so pledging not to eat at restaurants are starting to affect social aspects of my life as well. The lack of coke has affected my motivation and energy. It makes running a lot tougher when you take away a primary energy source. I am glad, however, that the symptoms of caffiene withdrawal have passed.
Can I successfully make it through the next 27 days? Tune in and see.
Today was Christmas Cookie Day at Tristan’s kindergarten. Kimberlie and I, along with other parents helped about 120 kindergarteners make cookies. Just imagine the biggest possible mess and multiply it by 100. Kimberlie was covered in flour and had to return home and change before going to work. I was a little more careful, since I had the fancy camera and all.
Enjoy the pictures.
5 - AM wake up
9.1 – miles of running
15.5 – times around the block to make 9.1 miles
80 – minutes it took
4 – minute shower because running made me late
3 – times Tristan was told to not get a warning at school today
13 – mile drive to work
350 – suite number
5 – servers rebooted after 8AM because running made me late
1 – poptart
2 – bottles of water
2 – missed calls
1 – voicemail
4 – napkins to clean up Fred’s spilled coffee
5 – day weekend coming up
79 – messages stuck in the exchange queue because Microsoft sucks
25 – dollars to Amazon for completing a vendor survey
51 – videos encoded and uploaded
7 – sent emails trying to clear up email issues
1000 – things I would rather be doing
My Latest Run
