Daisy, Daisy

The very first thing this morning, Bella came into our room and said, "I had a dream that I went on my mission and it was to Gotham City...." Awesome.

So I've been dying to start a garden for a long time, at least a decade, and I've started seeds indoors before but was never organized enough to help them live.  They'd sprout, I'd be all excited, then life would pile up around me and I'd ignore them and not water them and they'd die.  But this year, while noodling around on Facebook, I saw that my friend Sherri J. from Logan plants seeds in recycled water bottles that have a self-watering system.  HOW COOL IS THAT.

Basically it's a water bottle cut in half, the top half turned upside down with a hole punched in the lid and a knotted string strung through the lid, which acts as a wick, and the top half filled with dirt and seeds and placed inside the bottom half of the bottle, which is filled with water.

I saved some water bottles, which wasn't hard because my children always drink about half of a store-bought water bottle and then leave it in the car for eons until it's a science experiment and no one will touch it, let alone drink out of it, ever again.  My dear friend Heffalump sent Livingstone and Shasta daisy seeds to me for my birthday in January (we have a thing about daisies), and I had some potting soil.  Brennan helped me by hammering holes in the plastic lids.  The planters are so easy to make.  I made a dozen and it only took about fifteen minutes.

"Now seeds.....start growing!"

I put them in my very sunny bedroom window, and there they be.  A couple hours into their sunbathing, I read that Livingstone daisies must have darkness to germinate, so then I had to do a little digging to discover which seeds were Livingstone and which were Shasta (they're easier to spot), and hopefully the right planters are in the lounge closet on a shelf, germinating away. 

After this adventure, I walked to Bella's school for her honor assembly.  She received a certificate for keeping her GPA between 3.3 and 3.59... we are very proud of our smart hardworking girl. 

Smarty Smarterson

Later, I visited Heff at her mom's house here in town and gave her one of the planters I made.  She gave me a sweet but mystified look as I handed her this thing.  "Here's a water bottle cut in half with string coming out of the lid."  I'm nothing if not generous.  We had a fun quick visit and then I drove quickly home so Hubby could take some kids to soccer practice.

Orchestra was awesome.  We really worked hard and intensively on a few pieces.  I love it when we do that.