You've Got Mail Monday

It was a busy weekend followed by a busy start to my week. We celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday on Saturday. I worked in the garden on Sunday planting second season vegetables, taking in some of the earlier harvest, and restaking the tomato plants that have grown like gangbusters this year.

This week, the Lil' Princess has soccer camp and the Lil' Diva is making up two days of golf camp she missed because of last week's rain. I have a couple of hours to myself while I wait for the inspector to come check out the new roof. Yep, the house needed a new roof. We had hail damage from the 2011 tornado.

This is a picture close to completion. We changed from a drab black and brown colored shingle to a reddish brown called Burnt Sienna. Love the new look.

There's so much that needs doing around the homestead right now, I'm not sure how we'll pay for it all. We're not handy people, so we have to hire out to accomplish almost everything.

Okay, now on to the mail. I was able to plant the second season vegetables because Burpee® shipped the beets and salad greens I ordered. They arrived on Wednesday. As I mentioned, the tomatoes are growing like crazy. I've never had such tall tomato plants. The pumpkins are doing well and so are the watermelons. It looks like the leaves are picking up that Powdery Mildew disease. I have to see if I can get rid of it. I cut off the infected leaves--not sure if I should have, I'm learning as I go--but just learned I should not water them at night because the humidity makes the condition worse. I'll see if I can save them. Next year, I'll plant them in a different location and water at a separate time. We've had several green beans and potatoes so far, and my crop of onions came out great. I replanted lettuce and carrots, so hopefully they will come up with the beets and the salad greens.

My latest issue of All You arrived this week. The August issue talks about spending less on everything: groceries, beauty items, and Back-to-school. They have chicken recipes in this one, which is good because we eat a lot of chicken. I'm also drawn to the "easy organizing ideas."

We received a catalog from dElia's and it has a 20% off entire purchase coupon on the cover. The prices look good and the styles seem to be what the Lil' Diva would like. Maybe I'll get her some school clothes from there. The other item in the mailbox this week was the Olympia Sports catalog. We get the Lil' Princess' sports equipment there. Sometimes we visit Dick's Sporting Goods, but Olympia is closer and the staff is great. Olympia is also offering 20% off entire purchase (including sale and clearance items). It might be time for a new pair of cleats before fall soccer kicks off.

That's it for today. Hope you have a great week.