Spring Cleaning

We had a beautiful weekend here. The weather was in the low 70s/high 60s and sunny/partly cloudy. Together Chris and I tackled some Spring Cleaning. My projects were organizing all of our baby clothes tubs that are currently in the garage (to be moved to our newly painted basement this week). I have about 15 tubs of boy and girl baby clothes ranging from newborn-3T. I'm not ready to let go of them yet. I'm hanging onto the hope that someday we'll have another child and I'll need those clothes again. We'll see. I do borrow them out to family and friends with the hopes they will be returned to me.

It was fun looking at old outfits and remember when they were worn and how adorable they each looked on my kids. I found a few favorites:
Jake's big brother onsie he wore when was 15 months going to the hospital to see his new baby sister)
2 bucket hats that each kid wore during their first boating season
An adorable pair of ballet style, brown/pink plaid shoes that Casey no long fits into.

There were many more but how much can a person keep before it becomes excessive.

My second project was taking away all the sweaters, long sleeve shirts, pants and sweats from our closets (all 4 of us) and replacing them with summer items. Shorts, tanks, capris, skirts, etc.. I loved it! It means summer is coming soon (and also our upcoming vacation next weekend). As a bonus Jake and Casey are still fitting into some of their shirts and shorts from last year. But I have gone out already and purchased a few new summer items for them already. I can't help it.

I also pulled out all of Chris's short-sleeve work shirts (all 22 of them!!!) They need ironing after spending 5 months in a box in the basement. I'll do that tonight while watching playoff hockey. If the Red Wings win this game they move onto Round 2, but if not it will be Game 7 on Tuesday. Some of those work shirts are 9 years old from the days when Chris started at Ford. I may need to sweet talk him into letting some of them go.

Chris was a workhorse this weekend. On Friday night he finished painting our basement floor. On Tuesday it will be dry and we can move all of our stuff into their permanent spots. It also means we'll bring down stuff that is currently in the garage and soon my car will be able to fit into the garage again (just in time for summer, HA HA!). On Saturday he strapped on his tree safety belt and climbed up our large Sycamore tree. We needed to get rid of some dying and unsightly branches. The kids watched him in amazement as he moved from branch to branch sawing down large logs. Next he tackled 3-4 smaller trees/bushes in the backyard next to our fence. Then the ongoing weekend project has been raking our entire lawn. He's about 3/4 the way finished and has put in probably 6+ hours on it so far. It looks much better now that leaves, sticks, and dead grass has been removed. His poor hands are going to be very sore for the next few days. I'm thinking of running to the grocery store and treating him to a six pack of his favorite beer. He deserves it. Our newly sodded grass is still brown (everyone elses is bright green), but we know that it will perk up once it can get some good waterings (starting in May). Since it was installed only 7 months ago the roots are not developed yet and it's still dormant from the winter. Hopefully by the end of May I'll be posting telling you that it's the best lawn on the block. Of course it's a competition with all the fellow guys in the neighborhood. They all strive to have the best looking lawn. It's a guy thing!

It felt wonderful to have the windows open to feel the crisp spring air fill up our house. It's worth the long wait all winter long. No more turning on the heat. Every morning I get up and open the windows. Yeah it's springtime!