What I'm up to, and what's next

 If I tell you this, you have to trust that I'm not crowing about it or trying to make anybody look bad, and you must understand I'm not putting myself above others who choose not to do this:

I am scrubbing the outsides of my kitchen cabinets today.

In my defense:

1.) It's my spring break. My Mommeeee is visiting and since she gets wiped out from travel, it's a good day to stay home and chat with her.

2.) I wasn't here last spring to do it as I was in the big city being radiated and didn't want to use my already-short weekends at home to do them then. Then time for fall cleaning rolled around but I started working at school  instead. Yes, it is an "or" situation, not an "and", hahaha. Anybody who has ever been to my house is now nodding in understanding.

3.) It is a really good set of stretches for this afflicted right arm and side. More on that later.*

I may never, ever get to my baseboards (looking at you, my bestie) but I can do these kitchen cabinets. I'm about halfway done. I'll be the only one who even notices that they've been cleaned, but I can tell you that I burned 100 calories in under half an hour, so if you're sick of the treadmill because it is STILL too cold out, well, grab your bucket and a rag, turn up some music, and off you go!

*************

Whoops. That key really stuck. Oh well. 

The scoop on my arm and all that jazz is this: in two weeks I'll have a procedure called a venogram in which contrast will be run through an IV and then watched with an ultrasound to see how compressed my vein is in that right upper arm/ shoulder/ armpit/ axilla quadrant. If it is open at all, the surgeon intends to inflate a balloon in there to "snowplow" it open the rest of the way and then will withdraw the balloon, similar to some heart procedures. I will be awake but under some sedation as they may want me to move that arm in various positions so they can see where bloodflow is being compressed, etc. I will be on blood thinners for 3 months following all that, which I confess to being less than thrilled about, but I understand that is to give the vein practice with easier bloodflow as it recovers. (My main concern is that one of my meds dries out my eyes and nose already and I don't want constant nosebleeds.)

If the vein is completely closed, then the surgeon will have a discussion with my plastics guy to develop a plan to take more drastic measures. Even if the procedure works this time, there's no guarantee the vein will stay open because it's been radiated twice, so we may end up with the second plan anyway. We only got the bare bones of that plan floated, but phrases like, "yes, something from a cadaver could work", "I'm thinking your veins in your legs would be too small", and "we sometimes use the jugular vein but that would be from your left side" were bandied about. 

In the meantime, I'll be starting PT for my shoulder range of motion and having more dry needling done, which I've done twice now and am amazed that it works. I am flummoxed that someone can stick half a dozen needles into me no problem and I feel better but every opportunity for a blood draw is fraught with stress. So weird. 😁

Anyhoo, back to the second half of my cabinets!

Um.. RIP?

Mother, you can just skip this one and keep scrolling because otherwise I will HEAR you facepalm.

We cleaned out the pantry. I have no idea what it was in its past life, but I hope it had a good one. Thing One asked the internet what it thought the contents used to be and the consensus was sourdough starter, which I know isn't right as we named ours Maurice and kept him in the fridge. 

"I don't know what it USED to be, but suddenly my cinnamon bagel looks a lot less appetizing..." - Thing One

Lest any of you are procrastinating on spring cleaning, let this be your reminder to get started, haha!

 

Spring fever

I keep hearing Michael Franks singing in my head about, "April is not the cruelest month..." but my brain keeps changing it to "Feb-ru-ary's the cruelest month..."

How can it not be spring yet? I have been drinking kegs of coffee and tons of tea and yes, the light is changing, but we still have a month of winter to go! Grrrrr! Mommee, I know you believe March is the longest, but I adamantly maintain that this ridiculous month is never-ending! It just c.r.a.w.l.s. past......... and then backs up to run you over again. 

Since returning to school from Christmas break on January 9th, the kids have had two delays which stayed delays and seven snow days. Damon has had eight, because last Wednesday the big kids went but the younger kids had to stay home due to worsening conditions. I think there's been a total of two weeks in which the kids have had school all day, every day, and one of those weeks Carrie stayed home sick for a day. Am I complaining? I think I'm complaining.

Last Monday, they had scheduled no school for Presidents' Day, the fireplace guys were here working every day of the week, and we all had karate. Tuesday, they went to school and Carrie had karate and staff training that evening. Wednesday was the day only the big kids had school, but everyone had karate that night. Thursday I was getting my IV meds during the late morning and early afternoon and Liam had a band concert that evening. Friday, blessedly everyone had school (including me, as I'm back to having first graders read to me in the hallway of the elementary school for my third year running) but Carrie didn't go because she and Dada headed off to winter camp for the weekend. I had a meeting in the afternoon, and had the boys by myself all weekend. We watched "Father Goose" on Saturday and went to church yesterday. We hardly saw Dada at all last week because he was helping lead some training at work. Saturday, I washed the walls, wiped down the furniture, then vacuumed and mopped the "library" to get rid of the stone dust which was covering everything. Damon especially loves having that room mostly open and empty because he can slide across the hardwood floor, not in his socks as his sister does, but whole body slides. Mopping was a matter of survival if he wasn't to repollinate the entire house with stone dust.

The fact that I wrote, "thank you that Feb is almost over" twice in my journaling today is telling. Zita left for two weeks in India, Janet is spending all month long in Arizona, some people went to winter camp, another friend left last week for Arizona also... clearly it is time to either go stir crazy or get out of Dodge.

So what am I doing? Perusing seeds. That's right. I realized I'm already behind schedule and am picking out garden and flower seeds. I'm also picking up sticks and limbs that are down after our ridiculous winds the last two days. Bosley keeps eyeing them as I set them by the fireplace, and I keep reminding him to not even think about it. Thankfully our power stayed on throughout and our spiffy new fireplace is working well. I don't think I can even call it spiffy as it is way fancier than that; I like it even more than I expected to! I can't wait to get the holes drilled for the curtain rods to go back up, move furniture where it belongs, and call it good. 

Usually when I'm busy I feel like time passes faster. Last week I felt like a single parent and the time just did not get the memo that it was supposed to speed up. Where is that groundhog? Someone get a message to him that spring, not summer, had better hurry it up before some of us end up on the news!

Signs of Spring

 

I'm pretty sure this is locking the barn after the horse has been stolen, but we've had small, hungry visitors in the garage. Someone nibbled holes in both bags of wild birdseed and made a huge mess all over creation. Now we have glueboards.

 

 

Granted, the buckeyes you see are not part of the birdseed mix. Those were all in a bin from the kids collecting them in the Fall. Carrie was supposed to be spreading them out to dry daily, and maybe they did dry, but all winter they've been chilling out in their bin until someone discovered what must have seemed like Heaven...

 

And Cheeky Beaky has emerged from the snowbank! Poor, poor frozen Cheeky Beaky. He looks like he's plotting his escape to Miami.

 

This is what's left of our biggest snowbank. It was higher than my waist a few weeks ago. I'll not be sorry to see it completely disappear.

 

And we're in desperate need of a cleanup on aisle 5... our poor "pond" is full of leaves and ice remnants. I can't imagine the stink that is going to come out of it when we rake those leaves out. Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicky.

 

 

Virgil Eugene is smiling with relief that he made it to the first day of Spring! If his arms could move, he'd be tossing that winter hat high into the air.

 

I suppose I best start my favorite job... spring cleaning! Happy first day of spring, everyone!

 

Miz Grinch

Hello all. It's Miz Grinch again. I mentioned on Facebook that I never got around to my spring cleaning. The comments ranged from, "I never do it" to "I've been doing it forever and it never amounts to anything" to everything in between.

I just finished, JUST finished, spring cleaning my car. I broke out the Armor-all wipes, the leather wipes, had the car seats and booster seats out, scrubbed and wiped and Windexed and everything. Pepe the Pilot had just been to the Honda dealer to have a tow package installed (so we can cart bikes around as soon as we get a bike rack) and they washed his outside. Now he's squeaky clean on the inside as well. I had probably three grocery bags worth of garbage and the equivalent of a junior Frosty decorating Pepe's insides. I am a mess. I am hot, sticky, sandy, and my hair is sticking out like a magic dandelion. I'm sure I even am coated in donut crumbs as well, thanks to my wonderful husband and our many treks to Duck Donuts at the Outer Banks, which I know I haven't blogged about yet. Yoi!

All that to say this: since I just finished spring cleaning my CAR, which is much much smaller than our house, and since I haven't gotten to our HOUSE and we've been here and there and everywhere, and it's not showing any signs of slowing down, Christmas is cancelled. (Sorry, Mommee, for that incredible run-on sentence. I have no idea how you'd diagram that one...) Yes, we've decided.

Christmas IN JULY has been cancelled this year because 1) the house, as I've mentioned, is nowhere near ready and 2) we are running out of July. We'll be out of town next weekend and then the very last weekend of July we still won't be here, probably because we'll be coming back. ;) So, so sorry to anyone who was holding out hope of Lori's cheesecake and icicle lights in tents and sangria and Triskal fawning all over everyone and camping out in the yard... we just don't have the energy to do it this year. Sorry all!

I know. I can't believe I just cancelled Christmas.

But my car is clean now. Yippppppppiiiiiiiiiiiie!

Sure signs of spring

The kids have been asking, "when is Spring cleaning day?" I have promised them that I'll let them know. Today Liam was helping wipe down windows. He lets me spray the Windex and then he tries his hardest to make the squeaky sound that makes him laugh. =)

Our sheets are all changed (we do that on Fridays around here) and I'm contemplating washing curtains. However, I have already committed to cookie baking today and we need to vacuum, so I don't want TOO many irons in the fire. I do need my naps too!

AND we saw our very first robin this morning. He was pretty sneaky. Liam was sure he was a dove and he kept standing on the fence right between us and the sun. Finally he hopped into the front yard for a few seconds and we did spot his bright red breast! YAY! It really IS almost Spring! Hang in there, Sally! ;)

Yesterday I trimmed up the kids' hair. Carrie's was mostly just bangs and around her ears, but I got the clippers out for Liam. Amazingly, the #4 clippers are shorter than I remember them being. *whistling innocently* I truly didn't mean to buzz him, and there was a TON of hair on the floor, but he is all fuzzy and ready for Spring. Mama Rita has already admonished me. But his face just POPS with no hair on his forehead! He is SO cute. I'll get pictures up soon! We even pulled a Sarah, Plain and Tall and tossed the hair outside for the birds to line their nests with.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Grandmama comes out on Sunday, so we're going to fit as much fun with her in as we can. I've already promised Care Bear a Just Girls' Milkshake Date, so at least we know we have that to look forward to. May you all have wonderful weekends!