Memorial Day Weekend

Saturday the 23rd

I decided I needed to reclaim my front porch after doing the deck the day before. I hauled everything off, swept up all the leaves so Noelle could dump them over the creek bank, then put everything back in place and made room for our bicycles so they were ready for use.

Kirk cleaned out the fire ring so we could have a fire later in the evening. Then he and Kyle raked, mowed, weed whacked, and cleaned up the chairs for on the front porch. While the guys were doing that, Noelle and I took a planter back to the dollar store to get a smaller one for the deck table.

Dinner was eaten on the deck and it felt so good to have our *outside* room all set up. After clean up, Kirk made a fire and we enjoyed cherry mountain pies with a dollop of vanilla frosting. Mmmm...

Sunday the 24th

We decided to stay home from church and really spend time with just the family. Kirk ran to the store so I could make us all a big breakfast. Waffles, sausage, and eggs eaten on the deck. Beautiful morning!

Tom and Jeannette (Kirk's parents) took us out to lunch for an early 50th birthday present for Kirk. Then we headed over to the cemetery to place flowers on graves and walk around. We saw Great Aunt Jane there and talked with her a while. The kids and I also noticed that the cemetery was loaded with wild strawberry blossoms and began being careful where we stepped ;)

On the way home we stopped at my mom's house for a visit. My mom showed me the bluebird babies in the nest box and then bluebird parents began dive bombing us. I grabbed my camera and attempted to get a picture of one of them in the willow tree.

We were told to come back at 7 pm for a fire/cookout. It was a really nice evening!


Noelle, Larissa, and another little girl ran all over looking for critters and just having a blast together.

As everyone was getting ready to head home,
my mom decided we should all come back together and do it all over again Monday evening.

Monday the 25th

I needed to do some paperwork for the kids' homeschool evaluations on Thursday so Kyle and I stayed home while Kirk and Noelle went for a drive to look at trucks. The two of them also ate a late breakfast at a restaurant. Ky and I are home bodies for the most part so this was fine with us.

The fire/cookout was earlier than the night before. The great thing about the whole weekend was the beautiful weather! It usually rains (it did a little at the cemetery on Sunday but that was it) most of the weekend.

My Busy Day

Its been a busy day here. Kyle, Noelle, and I rode our bikes to a couple yard sales. I found a basically brand new coffee thermos carafe for $2, a little vase for all the flowers Noelle is always picking for me (she's such a sweetie), and some trims for crazy quilting. We got home from doing that and I decided to clear off the deck and sweep it. Got interrupted before cleaning the deck furniture to walk Noelle to the Y for homeschool gym (got over there and found out it had been canceled), went to the dollar store for a few things, then to Save-A-Lot for some more things, then walked home. Found out I needed to make a real grocery shopping trip in the van, so I made a list and off I went. I also bought some Impatiens to plant in a planters on the deck. The kids put the groceries away while I went and finally got the deck furniture hosed down and scrubbed. Came back in and made dinner. Ate, went back outside to put the cushions on the furniture while the kids cleaned up from dinner, then Kyle came outside and helped me haul all the furniture back up onto the deck. Planted my flowers, talked to the neighbors for a few minutes, then came inside and got on the computer. You know what? I'm tired.

On another note -- Kirk's mom called this morning and was talking to the machine, waiting for me to pick up. She wanted to do something special for his 50th birthday. Well, Kirk came home very early from work (not feeling well) and sitting on the computer, heard her message. I started laughing as I picked up the phone and informed her he had heard the whole thing. He said something to the effect of, "Over my dead body." Lol. Kevin's (Kirk's brother) girlfriend surprised him with a 50th birthday party last year and I was told that I better not do something similar.

Cleaning and Rearranging

Taking care of a small house with four people and a dog can become interesting. I'm going through a period of wanting to de-clutter, clean, and rearrange. I also want to repaint a lot of our rooms. All the sudden I'm feeling ambitious :)

My first task is redoing our "library". So far, I have both the old computers set up side by side on a table we bought when we started homeschooling. Above the computers I installed two very large shelves for more storage. There are many other bookshelves that I have to redo in that room but I'll get to them later.

Noelle and I made a spot on the opposite side of the room for her desk that Cindy gave her. She loves to draw and write so this gives her a spot she can leave and come back to without having to clean up. She was forever covering every horizontal space with her papers, then needing to clear it for meals or for others to use that particular spot. She is quite happy with this new set-up and so am I.

I'm in the process of cleaning out and redoing the shelves in the one large closet in my craft/sewing/reading room. This will take a while ;) Why do I save things only to throw them away a year or two later without having used them? I think I'm finding it easier to let paper things go since I can probably find it, when I do need it, on the internet.

Back to work..........

Spring Cleaning

We live in a small two-story house with many small rooms and are coming to a time in life where the rooms' uses need to be re-purposed. Noelle's bedroom is actually the size of a nice walk-in closet (worked great as a nursery) and she ended up with it being the youngest. She turns 11 on the 31st and needs room to spread out, as apposed to spilling out into the hallway, lol. Kirk and I will reclaim the downstairs master bedroom (now our multi-purpose room) so she can have our bedroom upstairs (much more space) and her room will become the mutli-purpose room.

Well, I started the process of going through all of our "stuff" in the multi-purpose room yesterday (need to downsize it or redistribute it throughout the rest of the house). Wow! I filled an entire garbage bag (30 gallon) to bursting and I'm only half way through the room. I guess the cleaning was overdue, lol (amazing how much paperwork is accumulated from homeschooling).

All of this is a good thing because I developed allergies about 2 years ago and realize that I need to raise my standards in cleaning around here. Well, I've begun and it feels so good!