Hi, there Susan. Welcome to Garden Web ! My best suggestion in regards to your question about it possibly being too late to winter sow would be to read the Winter Sowing FAQ. There is a link at the top of the page that says FAQ. The answer to that question is in there, under 'When should I stop?' Your second question about knowing the viability of older seed packs would be to check their germination. You can find some very basic info from the link at the bottom and also by looking around here a little bit more.... Good luck, Susan. I hope you enjoy your time here. Happy Gardening, Kristie Here is a link that might be useful: viability link

You better buckle your seat belts cause it's gonna be a bumpy ride. I'm glad overall that I took my MIL in but it certainly has taken a lot of adjusting. The best advice I can give you is set some boundries now, and be prepared to change them as time goes on. Give her ( if possible) her own living space separate for yours. We are lucky enough to have two bedrooms and a bath on one end of our home that we have converted into an "apartment" (she calls it that) for her. She has a bedroom and a sitting TV type room and it has her furniture from her home in it arranged the way she likes it.(usually messy) She can get up and watch tv at all hours of the night if she wants, talk on the phone or do whatever in her space. She has her own bathroom full her of her stuff.( older people seem to have a lot of lotions and ointments and such for some reason) I no longer allow her to cook because she set fire to the kitchen 3 times but she is allowed to use the micro ( with supervision--she has been known to punch in 15 minutes to warm a roll). At night I unplug this stuff because she does get up a lot. She isn't doing this stuff to be spitefull or naughty--she just has lost the ability to think and reason. You cannot be angry or upset because she truly cannot help what she has become. When she first moved in it was stressful because she loved her things and would often remove my pictures and pillows to replace with her stuff. It really bugged me. Now she has a place that she can have her things and I can still have mine. As far as food choices, she's been with us for two years now and seems to enjoy what I cook. If she has a craving for something special I'm always willing to fix it for her and let her help me do the prep if she can. The dementia, physical weakness and mobility have really limited her on what she can do. She likes to sometimes sit in the kitchen while I cook just to have some girl talk. (thats another story--Ive been having the same "girl talk" for two years now--she forgets what she tells me) There are gonna be days that you will be so frustrated that you cant breath and you want to go screaming in the woods. This will consume your life. Eventually everything you do will have to be planned around her. Think long and hard about taking this on. For us it started out that "MOM was a little ditsy and had to stay with us after Dad died. She certainly had more ability to care for herself then. Be fully prepared to deal with the situation if they start to loose those abilitys--chances are they will. I wish you a lot of luck with this. Let us know how it's going for you and remember this site is a great place to ask or vent or rant. BELIEVE ME--it has been my saving grace to have a place to go where people understand what it's like.

Kaismom--I've had plenty of meltdowns in the past 18 months of this, but I've been fine lately. We almost did this when I was pregnant with our second, but I convinced DH to wait until after she was born to start. Briana--I feel for you living with someone else. We've been so fortunate enough to have a decently sized house to live in for the past 8 months so we didn't have to squeeze down too much. Yes, I think we're realistically about a month behind. I'd like to say less, but I'm tired of under estimating! I would have said 3 weeks until today when I found out that drywall would take about 8-10 working days. For some reason I thought it would only take a week. Beagles--I hadn't thought about the stress of living with the kids in a kitchenless house with construction still ongoing. Maybe we'd better plan for a 3-month apartment lease and stay there until the house is further along. Celine--Yeah, some stuff is a bummer. The progress feels good though. I can't wait to see your kitchen done! Hurry! Patriot--I'm sure I'll be happy with it too. I appreciate your help in my path to buying it.

it sent you to YOUR profile? Hmmmm. I told you guys I didnt like this Houzz...LOl... try this to see my trade list please..... http://www.houzz.com/user/realbusy LMK if that works... if it doesn't I'll cut and paste the list here.....you might have to cut and paste the above line..thanks