Bountiful Blessings...

Today was a day of great deals!

Don't you love all the colors of fresh fruits and veggies? Last week we heard about a food co-op that comes to our town, and thought we would give it a try. You purchase a "basket" of fruits and veggies without knowing what you're going to get. It costs $15/basket, but when our pastor told us everything he received in his, we thought it sounded like a great deal. I figured with the daycare, we could get through two baskets. They only deliver every other Saturday, so two baskets over two weeks seemed doable.

I was in shock when I saw all that I got. Here it is all laid out - two baskets worth, plus we added a bag of bread - which amounts to 5 loaves of honey whole wheat bread - which is 100% whole wheat for an extra $10 ($2/loaf). It looks and smells amazing. I was hard-pressed to carry all the food we got, and direct my 2 year old "helper" to follow me out the door.

Here's what we got: 2 pounds of strawberries, 2 seedless watermelons (these are way bigger than normal), 4 bunches of asparagus, 2 heads of romaine lettuce, 13 large bananas, 4 mangoes, 4 zucchini, 8 apples, 6 beautifully ripened tomatoes on the vine, 6 green peppers, and 12 oranges. I need to take a helper (who is older than 2) next time to help me carry it all. And I need to take a box. I ended up crushing one pepper and one orange ... so I ate the orange ;) YUM and will use the pepper for dinner. I'm impressed. All the fruits and veggies are in such good condition - well ripened, but not over-ripe, and good and firm, so they should last. I've been craving fruit lately, and every time I want something sweet, I just eat a piece of fruit... um, except for the cinnamon roll I'll tell you about in a minute ;) And I've been craving zucchini - of all things. Can you believe that?

The two year old and I also went to the thrift store today. (The seven year old and Dad were spending their last day of the season at the ski hill on what they are now calling "snowcone snow" - little beads of icy slush. They said it was fun in the morning, but it just slowed them down in the afternoon, so they were home by 4.)

Staci, I'm sending you a box of all kinds of girlie goodness :) I got all this at the thrift store today.

To the best of my math skills, I think there are 2 dresses, 3 hats, 16 onesies, 2 romper outfits, 1 sleeper, 2 shirts that are not like onesies, 9 pairs of pants, and 1 Christmas outfit. They are all different sizes, so I'll let you figure it all out when you get it. I'm also going to send you those crib sheets I found earlier, and maybe a couple other things. I'll try to get them out this week.

This is just a little tank top, not very fancy, but I had to get it as much as you used to be into CareBears :) Anything you don't want, you can sell or give away.

I got a few things for us too - including some clothes, a book for the 7 year old, a pair of mittens for the 2 year old for next year, an infant carseat, and a duffle bag. All that for $17!

Of course I had to buy a little fabric :) I was trying to buy time before picking up the produce, which had to be done between 2:30 and 2:50, so we were trying to burn an hour. Good a place as any, right? I picked up a few more fat quarters and a couple fat eights for the turquoise and red quilt. I'm not sure that top one (or two) will work very well in it, but I've had my eye on those on the internet for awhile, and a fat quarter is a good way to indulge :)

I also found this pretty brown dotted material that will go with my brown bunny fabric for the carseat cover, so now I can get started on that project too. Hmm. Maybe I should work on "finishing" some of these projects...

The 18 year old is out at a craft fair today trying to drum up customers for the jewelry she now sells (Premier Designs - they do home shows similar to Pampered Chef), so the 2 year old and I headed out to see what all they had. They were at a tiny community center in a tiny town. I did manage to buy a wonderful homemade cinnamon roll, (so much for feeding my sweet tooth with fruit), a mix to make praline dip (yummy), and a rock with a fish fossil in it. I've wanted one of those for the mantle for a long time. Um, yeah, the mantle that hasn't arrived yet.

Hope you're having as much fun with your day!