Good morning, ladies!
Outside of the windows? We only do that when we list the house for sale!
I've been planning on sorting clothes and putting coats away, but we keep getting more cold weather.
Gardening is going well. We planted a Wisteria, more roses, and some other things. This week we've been painting clay flower pots, and we're going to put plants in them to give to our Scout leaders, Sunday School teachers, etc.
I do not do windows!!!!!!!!
Last year I said enough is enough and handed the paperwork over to an accountant to deal with the taxes - after nearly 20 years of doing them myself, I got tired of it. Especially now that we have to file both VA and DE taxes, besides the Feds.
We did our taxes in February, have the money but have earmarked most of it for a new septic system. The old one is 30 years old and is definitely dying!
Spring cleaning....let me tell ya'll! It never gets finished around here. My boys are the messiest kids on the face of the earth and my house definitely shows it!
I started out by painting my home office last month. I figure if I have to sit there 8 to 10 hours a day and pound a keyboard, I should at least have something nice to look at. I painted it a pretty yellow with white trim and bought myself a new white antique-looking computer desk with a hutch from Target. I've purged a lot of the junk from the office, too, and have bought some beautiful floral material to make a topper for the window and a cover for my ancient file cabinet.
I've been busy in the rest of the house, too. We had a horrible couch and chair in the family room that no one could stand to sit in because they were so uncomfortable and worn out. I hauled them off to the dump and the room feels so much lighter and useful without them. I'm making half of it into a dining room so I'll have a place to put my antique dining table and buffet. The rest is taken up by the boys' game table and TV and a child-sized table for my 2 little boys.
I've also managed to dejunk the living room, too, but that won't last long. My best cleaning tip is to buy a LARGE shovel and find new homes for your children! :)
Outside, I'm putting up an umbrella-type clothes line today when I finish work this afternoon. I have to go buy some concrete to set it into the ground. I'm going to build a dog pen this weekend, too. My 13-year-old (Luke) is really handy with tools and likes to build things, so I'm enlisting his help. I think my husband may get to be home at least for Sunday so I can count on his help with the project, too. He works up in Des Moines so we only get to see him about once a month or so.
After we get the dog pen done, I want to build a chicken pen and get some baby chicks. Gotta get busy because most of the hatcheries quit hatching them out the end of May!
Oh, yeah! Gotta get something done about a garden, too. I'm thinking of building a raised bed. Even though we have 25 acres of land, it's sort of hilly so it's hard to find a nice level spot for a garden, so I think I'll have to improvise something by using raised beds.
Also, today's the day to sign the boys up for the summer baseball league here. I love to watch them play, but it takes up so much time - 4 evenings a week!
Can't forget the basement....that has to go on my "to do" list! It's so bad I can barely get in it to do laundry!
I'd better get back to work! I'll read up on this thread later this evening to see what good ideas you ladies have for spring cleaning! :)
I'm late to the koffee-klatch, as usual. We started our Spring Cleaning and gardening prep a while back. Mr. Okie made my vegetable garden a third again as big, and tilled a dump-truckful of mushroom soil into it (it's a raised bed.)
I started seedlings of both veggies and flowers on Valentine's Day weekend and planted last weekend in the garden and will do the flowers and herbs tomorrow. My peas are struggling to come up, but the salad garden is up.
Mr. Okie put two loads of topsoil in the yard and graded and seeded it last weekend. It is finally flat as a pancake. I see croquet in the evenings after the grass gets established. Our crosus' are done and so are the daffodils. The tulips are blooming, my glads and iris are up and so are the hostas. And, a bonus this spring; the lilac that hasn't bloomed for the past three years is blooming! All the fruit trees blossomed and are leafing out, too.
I'm going to scrub off the porch tomorrow and haul the plant stands out after I get elder son to move what's left of the woodpile off the porch and back out to the big woodpile in the side-yard.
A neighbor had some oak trees removed and gave us the wood, so we'll need to split and stack that as well.
I've already cut the grass twice and put the boys to work pulling weeds. It's so great to be outside again!
I sorted through the kids dressers and moved the heavy coats out of the downstairs closet to the upstairs this morning and am going to wash windows this weekend---in and out!.