Nice sign roselee. I don't know about stress free. There is so much to get done in my garden at this time of year. I am looking to start my years stint of chainsawing the woods. 1.5 acres and I am still working on planting everything that I got at the swap. I spent all day out in the garden which means that I did not get any work on the building of my interior walls and doors (guilt and stress). I do feel good at the end of the day but..... bugs give me stress too. Deer stress me out and if that is not enough, wild pigs send me into a tizzy. Mountain lions stress me out just a tad. It is a wild wild world out there. I guess I am in a different garden. I should have a sign that says " when you go out this door , you enter the food chain"

Peggy and Lisa, I just re-sent the information to you by e-mail and through GardenWeb. I have no idea why the first mailing didn't reach you. Please let me know when you receive it. If you can mail Tuesday or Wednesday it will be fine. I have surprised myself by working with so many of the arrivals up to this point that I'm hoping I am a little of ahead of where I supposed my schedule might be now. I'm sorry people are having trouble getting the message. Please check your spam folder in case it might be there. I have not gotten the e-mail or GardenWeb information from either of you that you hadn't received my address and the rest of the information so it's not being kind to us. Meanwhile, what great seeds everyone is sending! Many of you have made it very easy for me to distribute the seeds by sending a list or otherwise labeling themes. Thanks so much. All of you are the best! Jeanne

I see lots of "for sale" signs in cars. Swim Team was smaller this year at our neighborhood pool. I think more parents couldn't afford the fees. At the end of the school year, there were A TON of fights at my sons' middle school. This is a school were there hadn't been a fistfight for 5 or 6 years and suddenly there were fistfights every day. My middle son was disgusted by the other boys fighting, so I made an appt to talk with the principal. She told me her theory was...the economy. She said many of the boys getting into fights had one or even both parents unemployed, and she thought things were tense at home. The boys were acting it out at school. It made me so sad. I took DS #2 to Music Go Round today to get a bass guitar for his birthday. It's a buy, sell, trade place for musical instruments. It is BURSTING to the seams! We could hardly walk through the store! I think it's a good time to buy musical instruments beacuse so many people are selling them. We got a STEAL of a deal on a really sweet bass for him! Surprisingly, I have seen LESS garage sales this summer than normal. I would think there would be more garage sales. I don't know what's going on there! Another surprising thing is enrollment at the neighborhood private schools hasn't declined at all. There was an article in the newspaper last week showing all the schools & their enrollment. It hasn't dipped at all. (my kids go to public school but I thought this article was interesting). As for me personally, I am taking the bus to work, trying to prolong the life of my car and only use the car for family driving. We have always lived very frugally so we haven't really had to make too many changes. DH is getting a lot less hours at work - his income is down about $8-10K for the past 2 years. We have adjusted, no more eating out, etc. But we still have a few little extras, like swim team for the boys, music lessons & musical instruments for the boys, boy scouts camp and church camp for them this summer, etc. I adjust by spending less on food, buying all our clothing at thrift stores, not splurging on makeup or accessories, etc. Music and sports for the boys mean more to me than new clothes & stuff like that. I've also quit coloring my hair. It looks great just the natural brown (it had been so long since I'd seen it!) and it's saving a ton of $ to not get the coloring services, just haircuts!

I use the basic signs that I saw from a youtube video. If my twins start to show an interest in it (they're 1 year old and haven't so far) then I might take it further.