[Gemara D'Jessica]

At the beginning of the summer I want to buy enough rice, beans, lentils, quinoa and nuts to last the whole summer. That way all we’ll need to buy throughout the summer is fresh fruit, veg, herbs. And if my garden goes as well as I’m hoping it will, may not even need to buy much fresh produce. I want to get a basket or something for my bike, put the boys in the trailer and go to the store. That way I will rarely have to use the van during the summer. That would be awesome. 

I accomplished 4/5 things that I wanted to last week. My exercise is hardly where it needs to be. I ran once and walked a lot, but that was it. With it being so warm, I wanted to spend as much time outside with the boys as possible. I really need to hook up that bike trailer and buy a helmet for Kovi. Then it will be easy peasy to get my daily exercise in. Anyway, here’s this weeks list.

[1] Set up the bike trailer. I don’t know if I’ll be able to get Kovi a helmet this week since it’s not always so easy going places with the boys to try things on by myself. But at least it will be a start in the right direction.

[2] Exercise! More specifically, running three times a week again, push ups, core and hip strengthening exercises. 

[3] Clean the upstairs for Pesach. If the basement is any indication, the upstairs will go nice and smoothly. 

[4] Make tropical lemon cranberry coconut chia bars and healthy strawberry oat squares with homemade jam. Want to get rid of as much chametz as possible in the next couple of weeks. Figure these are some yummy, relatively healthy-ish snacks that the boys (and myself) might enjoy. 

[5] Start planting seeds indoors for the garden. With it being so warm lately, I was tempted to start the seeds outdoors, but this is Cleveland. It can be 72 in the morning and -10 by late afternoon. Not going to take the chance. I have a list of what to start when and I know there’s at least one of the seeds that needs to be planted indoors in March. I also bought Asher a little herb garden starter kit so I’ll have him start that with me. 

This will be my first year with a real - as in, not on a balcony - garden. I plan on going all out. I found this site that explains when to start planting, etc in your area and looked through that to get an idea of what I could plant without driving myself crazy. I didn’t want to be planting everything at the same time and this site really helped me to figure out a schedule. Hopefully it’s accurate! Anyway, here’s what I plan on putting in the garden this year: http://pinterest.com/photojessa/garden-this-year/