A fun, frugal day.

Tomorrow the kids come home from Iowa - it will be so good to have them home! Today was a productive, fun, frugal day. No spending - zero, zip, zilch - other than $3.58 for my bagel spot - where I spent two hours working, so it was worth it and food of course is still okay on this spending hiatus.

I had a momentary twinge as I pulled into the donation center of my favorite thrift store to unload about five bags I'd gotten together while cleaning out Kirk's room (best done in his absence as he has his dad's packrat tendencies). But I made it out of the parking lot without stepping foot inside.

Then I stopped by and met the gardener of this cute, colorful garden that I've driven by before. He was pruning trees today so I stopped and asked if I could take some pictures. It was a fun experience.

Early in the day, I took Brandi with me to Panera Bread to work on my book. We found a shady place under a tree and I got a lot done.

Then I came home and cleaned out an overgrown garden, potting up lots of extra plants for next year's plant sale. I usually spend about $100 a year on annuals, which always seemed pretty reasonable. But as I was sweating and batting mosquitoes, I counted how many of my plants I would have to sell to make $100 and at 50 containers ($2 a container), it seemed like a lot of money. Always good to work in concrete numbers with your sweat equity right there before you;-). Good wishes. Still waiting to hear back from the editor. Eileen