Good-bye to March

Good morning, my friends. Beware. Pranksters will be out tomorrow. It's never to soon to make plans for defending yourself. We have a trip to the grocery store planned. Do you think we can April Fools Day our way into some free groceries? I'm thinking you do your debit card, then reverse the charges, and yell, "April Fools!" Yeah...probably not, but it has me thinking.

So yesterday I made good on my threat to get outside and clean up the culinary herb garden. There was an alarming amount of grass growing in some places. Grass can't simply be pulled up. It has to be dug out, and so it was more strenuous than I'd expected. Also, my getter-upper-and-downer isn't as efficient as it once was. When I was back inside, I iced my knees, and they're feeling fine this morning. Of course, weeding is an every day affair around here, but the biggest parts of the spring clean-up are finished for me. Mike still needs to put in some work, but he's waiting for some warmer and drier weather.

While I was out, I noticed some of the newer daffodils are blooming. This yellow one with an orange center is a classic.

This is the Riot daffodil. It was planted a few years ago.

I'm not sure about this one, but I think it's called "Banana Split."

This guy was keeping me company while I was wandering around.

Stay away from my daffodils, Buster.

Back inside, I sewed together the purple Stair Steps block.

The next one was pink, and I needed the scrappy squares to complete it. Smitty helped me cut the scrappy squares.

And then he guarded them, keeping them rounded up, while I sewed the rest of the block together.

And there's the pink one.

Now I've laid out and partially sewn together the next blue block.

There's one more yellow block, and then I can sew the five blocks into a row. If there's time, I can sew the row to the upper part of the quilt.

For dinner last night, I tried this recipe for stir-fried Chicken Lo Mein. (Mike loves these noodle dishes.)

 It was easy enough to do. It requires two pans...one for the stir fry and one for boiling the noodles. The recipe suggests using angel hair pasta, but I had some soba noodles on hand, and so I used those. Pretty darned tasty.

As we ate, I was admiring the star magnolia from my seat at the table. It motivated me to get outside for a picture. Wowzers.

Here's a close up of the flowers. They're so delicate and pretty.

So today I must make up a grocery shopping list for tomorrow. There's one housekeeping chore on the day's agenda, and I'm determined to get back to the treadmill. So far, I've had one treadmill day in a row...last week sometime. I've had the hardest time getting back to my workout routine since we've been home. I tell myself it's partly because I'm still catching up on things, and this week we'll be having the family over for dinner. By next week, I believe I will have run out of excuses.

Okay, then. It's time to get on with my day. I'm so glad to spend this time chatting with y'all. It's a good way to start the day.