Bread and Mulch

On Tuesday I took the kids into town to mail the taxes and get a couple bags of mulch and a loaf of bread. Pretty straightforward, right?

Well, in the grocery store I walked through the produce section and they had this amazing deal on the yummiest looking local (well, Pennsylvania) strawberries. I HAD to buy them. We already have a bunch frozen for smoothies, so I figured I'd better make strawberry jam. I've always wanted to make jam, but hadn't done it before. I stopped by the canning section and stood there for a while trying to figure out what I'd need. Daughter was buckled in to the "truck" cart.

I've gotten to be an expert at steering the truck carts. The best thing about them is the child sits down in the front instead of up in the basket, which means her mouth is far, far away from my ears. Sometimes if there's a break in the background noise I hear her down in there, whining for something or complaining, but like magic, suddenly I can't hear her again. So unless she is actually wailing, or if she's hanging her head out the side where an oncoming cart could smash it, I can enjoy some peaceful shopping.

Anyway, so I was in the canning section picking out jam jars. I have made a couple of forays into the world of food preservation, with varying degrees of success. Peaches and salsa mainly. I ended up with sugar, pectin and freezer containers. At the check-out I realized, oops - I forgot to get bread, the one thing I'd gone in there for. Finally I was finished at the grocery store and only ended up with about $40 more than I intended to buy.

Next I headed to a garden store for mulch and when I got there they had their herbs and flowers outside. In the spring it's just so easy to get carried away with garden plans. I have these images of an old fashioned herb garden where I can just step out for cooking ingredients or home remedies. They had a great selection, so I got one of everything. I ended up with stuff like Feverfew and Echinacea and St. John's Wort. I even got a Stevia plant. Once I got home I looked them up and I can't imagine we'll ever use them. Hopefully they'll be pretty anyway.

So I got the herbs, a couple of tomato and pepper plants and a bunch of pretty flowering perennials. I'm so over annuals. I got them all loaded up in the car and realized I'd forgotten the mulch. With all the groceries and plants there just wasn't even room for mulch. At least I managed the bread.

It wasn't until I got home that I realized I just bought supplies for a week's worth of work, and none of it can be put off, since the strawberries and potted plants have a definite shelf life. This explains why I haven't been on much this week. ;)