This and That-catch up time.

When I said this was a busy time of the year, I wasn’t kidding. It seems like the days have gotten shorter not longer.  Some things suffer from the time issue, like my blog. I have been writing a post for days and I have finally decided to just sit down and do it.

We did get the raking done. Took us three days, about an hour a day, to do it but it is done. The kids that I have hired the last few years are in high school now. The girl has a job at the local DQ and works a lot. The guy is out for track and with meets, practice and homework, his time is limited, too. We didn’t want to wait till they had time because the weather was so nice and everything was coming up. But we had lots of time. This week winter decided it just wasn’t ready to go. We have had rain, light snow and some places rather close by, hail. The high temperatures the last few days have been only in the thirties, rainy and windy. Brrr, doesn’t feel like spring any more. And the forecast for the next week doesn’t sound a whole lot better.

My little 7 month has been getting around for a couple of weeks now. But this weekend he has found out there is a world outside of our living room. He pretty much goes where he wants. Not crawling right but he sure gets where he wants to go. And he has a fascination with cords. Keeps us on our toes.

Much to my surprise and delight, sales on my TPT store have been great. Thank you to daughters 2 and 4. They are the ones that pushed me to create items to list, using what I have learned about what kids like from years of daycare. Keeps me busy in my spare time, what little I have, creating new items to list. I love it and I am enjoying creating. My daycare girl loves all the fun things to do, too.

And then there is the usual everyday stuff that comes from daycare in my home and our everyday “maintenance”. You know, meals, laundry, meals, cleaning etc.  Life is full.

I spent this afternoon catching up on cleaning, bill paying and other “fun stuff”.  I feel more organized and less stressed. Hope I can stay on track now.

Rose

Busy time of the year.

Our snow is finally gone. Now the busy time of the year starts for me. I love my flower gardens especially once the spring cleanup is done. After that, my flower beds are pretty much self-maintaining. This year, like last year, I hope to hire a lot of it done. I just need to remember to email the girl that did it for me last year. There are always a few that I do myself. A couple of years ago, hubby was being nice and surprised me by doing some of them for me. While that was nice of him, he rakes a bit hard for some of the areas where I had plants that are, or should I say, were shallow rooted. Yep, he raked them totally out. I have since re-planted and I want to rake that area myself.  Tulips and Daffodils are up about 3 inches, so I need to get out there. Maybe this afternoon.  That is if it warms up. It is only 35 now and it is 11:30. And it has clouded up. Maybe I can put in on hold for another day.

One flower garden from last year.



Rose

Beautiful end to a wonderful day.

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day. Warm, sunny and just a hint of a breeze. A day like this makes the spirit soar. The forecast calls for the weekend days to be in the 60’s with a chance of must needed rain Saturday morning. This sunset was a way to end a perfect spring day. We are spending Saturday and Sunday with family.

Wishing all of you and your families a blessed and Happy Easter. Enjoy.

Rose

Spring has sprung

I think spring has finally arrived in Iowa. Or at least it is trying harder. This is the view out my sunroom this morning. So beautiful. 

When I stepped out to try and capture that beauty, I was greeted by singing birds. They were enjoying the sunrise, too. I don’t get to see many sunrises from my sunroom. During the winter it is cloudy most days and in late spring till fall, the leaves on the trees block my view. But I am thankful for those leaves. They keep our house cool and most summers, we don’t have to us the A.C. a lot.

Take time to enjoy the beauty around you.

Rose

Fire at the Easter Vigil Mass

Hubby and I decided to go to the city this morning for a few groceries. We went early in time to be home to watch our favorite team play basketball. We, also, went early to beat the Sunday after church crowds. That got us talking about our Easter plans this year. I thought I was having Easter this year, but daughter no.1 decided to have it on Easter Sunday. She is more centrally located. That in itself is going to be different. We always have Easter on Holy Saturday so that everyone can go to their own church for Easter Sunday. So that left us two options. Go to the Easter Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday at 7 p.m. or the Easter  Sunday Mass at 8 a.m. Neither option sounded that appealing for us. Easter Vigil Mass is usually an hour and half, making it near 9 p.m. before we get home. But getting up and being to church by 7:30 a.m. didn’t sound so fun either. We decided since we are to be in Des Moines, a couple of hours away Easter around 11, we better go the Easter Vigil Mass.  Boy, I better get to where I was going with this post. Talking about what to do, got hubby and I talking about the Easter Vigil Mass in the past. As you know, we have four daughters all born within 5 years. All had long hair as little girls. And our church always passes out candles to all attending that are lit during the early part of the Mass. Our girls were fascinated with fire like most kids. I would spend that part of Mass watching and worrying about one of them going up in flames. The good Lord was with us and a million other little kids over the years, because I have never heard of a case of injury. I am sure I will have flash backs to those Masses of long ago this year when we attend the Easter Vigil on Saturday.

Enjoy the day,

Rose

Time in kitchen-not so bad.

The carpet cleaning yesterday took a little over three hours. The fellow was done around 1:00. Two things, actually three good things about the morning, the carpet looks great, I got some work done on items for my TPT store and we went out for lunch. We had the room back together by 6, in time to watch the Iowa Hawkeyes play in the NIT tournament. And they won. So, all and all a very good day. And the carpet looks so good. I think we can put off new carpet for a while longer. But for some reason, the day made me tired. I think part of it was sitting around so much and part of it was the work of putting the house back together. I always seem to work harder on days when the daycare kids aren’t here. NCAA tournament starts this morning at 11, and in case you haven’t noticed, I am big college basketball fan. I think I will spend the afternoon watching basketball.

Rose

Trapped in the kitchen

I will be spending my day off in the kitchen. No, I won’t be cooking. I will be stuck there because the carpets are being cleaned today. Hubby thought we should get new carpet but I didn't  want the hassle of cleaning out two rooms full of furniture. I figured it would be a bit easier to have them cleaned and then decide if we can get by or replace them come fall. Well, a bit easier is the key phrase. Emptying the living room of all but the heavy pieces was a bit more time consuming then I realized. I have a lot of stuff. Four side tables and one coffee table, none of them light as feathers. Plus a couple of big plants, three lamps and a stereo. Oh my. I am thinking some of that might not make it back in. Thank goodness we have a sunroom to put things in. We had planned on spending the day there, too. But Mother Nature didn’t get the memo. This morning we going to empty the toy room. We figured while we had the carpet guy here, we just as well have the toy room cleaned. That should be fun. Wonder what “missing” toys I will find when I start moving things. I have a couple of hours before he gets here. I should get busy but I decided to enjoy at least a part of this day in peace and quiet. We all know that having carpets cleaned isn’t quiet.

Rose