Spring Cleaning

Well, the whole family stayed busy today. Spring cleaning had been delayed due to the birth of our little girl, but it's in full force now!

My wife has been diligently cleaning screens and windows, revealing the crystal clear world beyond. It's amazing the difference a little Windex makes, and just a little shocking how grubby the windows were without us really taking note of it.

The children spent the day playing with toys, watching some videos and filling diapers. Boyo for the first few, Sweet Pea for the last. Though she is recognizing us as Important People now, and will flash the most delightful smiles when she locks eyes with us. Absolutely heart-melting.

I, after surviving yet another night shift a couple of nights ago, woke at 5am, so by 11am I was ready for a nap. I went to lie down, but kept thinking of all the things I wanted to get done. 11:09 marked the end of nap time, and I went out to till up some garden, mow some lawn, and engage in other manly yard work type jobs.

Now, I usually till the garden around early to mid May, but around that time was otherwise disposed with learning about babies... again. Besides, my Great Seed Starting Venture had fizzled quite dramatically. Only half of the seeds I started actually sprouted... which I blame on the seed starting medium. I bought fancy, expensive stuff, and it was crap. Every other year I've mixed my own blend of soils, composts and such. Back to that plan. Then the remaining plants were attacked by a dig crazy chipmunk that had wandered into my shop and got trapped. I was down to about twenty plants after that, so I just put the survivors outside until I could plant them. Then came the floods of 2008. While my area was not 'flooded', we still got plenty of rain. Much of which, due to improper placement by yours truly, ended up washing out even more of my plants. So today I was able to plant 8 tomato's, six peppers, and four rows of potatoes.

Yes, yes. I know the potatoes should have gone in about two months ago. But such is life. I think this year will be marked up as an exercise in gardening, as I doubt I will get much actual produce from these plants. Ah, well...

Between the tilling and the planting I wanted to get the lawn mowed before it got to jungle proportions. For some reason, since moving in to our house, whenever my wife or I actually say the words 'mow the lawn' it brings rain sure as flies on a rump roast. So now we use the not-so-secret code MTL.

Falling into the category of deciding between the frying pan or the fire... The lawn needs to be mowed. But I am allergic to grass, and mowing usually leaves me with a head feeling like it has been plugged, filled and used as a badminton birdie, and eyes that have had sandbags worth of detritus dumped in and swished around. So after accomplishing the front yard, I was in desperate need of a break. A fresh pitcher of homemade lemonade was waiting for me, and I shared a glass with my son before we went out to plant the garden. He is quite the hole digger!

By the end of the day we were all tired and happy to have accomplished what we did. I'm getting ready for a couple of night shifts, so I'm up in the early am so I can sleep all day and rise and go to work. I still need to get the garbage to the curb by seven or so. Guess I'll go do that next.

Ah, Life in Suburbia