Spring Cleaning?

 

I’d like to call what I’ve been doing Spring cleaning, but since it has snowed about 5 inches in the last couple of days and this morning it is –18* I'd have to say we are in anything but Spring. I am cleaning, though.

I always, always, always have stuff upstairs for downstairs and vice versa. I toss it in a basket to carry up and down. At least we don’t have to carry it outside anymore! :)

I have been giving away, tossing, storing or organizing our things. Over a year ago the Wee People had their toys strung from one side of the house to the other. Fed up, I boxed them up. Now I’m going to try giving them back. (We are finding they’ve outgrown some :(

I sort through the tote to either toss or…

put into drawers (that were once labeled correctly, but are no longer).

Starting another one! I emptied 3 of 4 totes yesterday (had done several in previous days). If you are saying to yourself that my kids have too much or they are spoiled, let me just say this…. I have 5 children. They have had 59 birthdays, 56 Christmases and 54 Easter baskets….. that’s 169 opportunities to receive gifts (plus all the great stuff they acquire at the dump or from friends!). Take that total and add to it the fact that I never get rid of anything and you have a lot of stuff.

For instance… in this tote the “Tweety” was from when Olivia was 1. The foam hockey puck was from the boys about 7 years ago. The race track was Nick and Elijah’s and is about 14 years old. The big blue Lego block is 16 years old as is the yellow Action Man surf board right below it. No point in getting rid of a still new toy. :)

This is Lucas’ new Puffer fish.

You can see the greenish-yellow coloring a little better in this photo. See his catfish hiding under the rock. That’s all it ever does. Very boring fish.

Lately his shark has been hiding in the back corner, too.

You can see the catfishes spots through the hole on the left.

Snail number two. Note the empty snail shell on his left.

Here is his tank. A back would make it look a lot nicer. He can’t really get other fish as it is a small tank and they would have to be aggressive fish to go with what he has. Really a bummer that two of the three are now in hiding.

To be honest I was beat yesterday. While I did empty three totes I didn’t work near as hard as the two days before. Just couldn’t get moving. (I have a feeling today is going to be similar….a certain child who slept all day yesterday because he was home sick was still fighting me at midnight to go back to bed. *sigh* Sometimes he is 6 in a 16-year old body.)

Lucas had the late game at 7:30 last night. He was awesome. I so wish we would have video taped this game. He was non-stop moving, passing, dribbling and shooting. I can’t believe how much he has learned about the game this season and he’s only five!

That smile says it all.

He scored three baskets which was kind of hard against the obviously much taller opponents.

I laugh when I see this photo. It captures him dribbling like he’s a pro when in reality that’s not quite how Little Dribblers basketball is.

As always he was tenacious on defense. I think this kid was getting frustrated.

I alternated planting with emptying boxes. (I get bored easily and have to bounce from task to task to keep myself moving). I need to get my act together with gardening. I have seeds that need planted, potting soil to mix and seeds that I need to order. I’d really like to have my gardens bigger and better than ever (we’ve had two crappy summers in a row…this one has to be nice, right?). This is will be my 5th summer having gardens and in July it will be our 5th wedding anniversary. I’d like to have a big BBQ party and show off my improvements. Cross your fingers I can pull it together because if you know anything about me…if my flowers aren’t outstanding I just won’t have the party!

Okay…time to get a move on. Need to build a fire as the furnace is running non-stop with the cold. I heard yesterday that heating oil is up to $4.69 a gallon. Crazy if that is true! This morning the radio said fuel jumped to $4.09 last night (I think it was $3.79 yesterday?).  At this rate this will be my last summer splurging on gardening. The medical bills are stacked up, my house needs a lot of work and it seems we just get further and further behind every day. Wish we had a lottery in Alaska…I’d play it every week. Heck with all the bad luck I’ve had, I might actually win! LOL