How is that for a title? I have been doing a little sewing for gifts so can’t show them yet but even then I have not gotten to spend as much time at the machine as I would have like to. I usually type my blog posts up in the evening and most evenings I am just too tired so sit in my chair and watch TV instead. I know, lazy old me!
Today is the first day of Spring and this year it really feels like spring on March 20th. Normally we are still having cold weather and snow storms occasionally. Nebraska like other areas of the Midwest is experiencing a warmer than normal winter and now it really feels like spring. Flowering trees are blooming and everything is at least a month ahead of where it usually is so that means that I needed to get out in the yard and clean out last year’s growth of dead flowers, etc. I have worked a couple of days but we had rain yesterday so it is just too damp out right now. My jonquils/daffodils are blooming now as are the hyacinths.
I had help from one my daughters when she and the boys (our grandsons ages 6 and 9) came to help me clean out the storage room in the basement a little over a week ago when they had spring break from school. John built these wonderful shelves in that room before we moved in and they are great and hold lots of boxes….but….over the seven and a half years we have lived here this room had gotten to be a real mess. I thought about taking a before photo but was too embarrassed to show you my mess.
Things have been carried down to this room to keep over the years and besides I had not sorted through a lot of stuff before we moved it over either. Boxes had been taken off the shelves to retrieve an item and not gotten put back so needless to say it was a real mess. Why, why, why do I keep so much stuff?
Our daughter S is a good one to come help me as she is good at telling me to get rid of things when no
longer needed or wanted when I have tendency to put the stuff back in boxes on the shelves. She keeps her storage areas in her home so organized and gets rid of stuff she doesn’t need or want right away. Of course she wanted to get rid of some stuff I said no to also – she would cock her head and ask me why and sometimes I would keep it and sometimes not. We went through boxes and boxes and filled bags to take to Goodwill Industries. When we finished that room we started on cleaning a few of the closets upstairs. Lots of storage in your home is good but can also be bad when you tend to be a pack rat like me.
She was here 3 and a half days and we worked and worked and boy did we make a difference, even though I need to work on other areas of my house like the kitchen sometime soon too. We had so much
stuff to donate we loaded it all in the stock trailer and John and I took it to Hastings Goodwill right away. I sure didn’t want to change my mind and start bringing it all back into the house!
It was more than would comfortably fit in the back of the pickup and we didn’t want to make more than one trip so just took the trailer. When we pulled in to unload I am sure the people at Goodwill were thinking it was clear full and would be a big job to unload but since it was just part of the floor it wasn’t bad.
That was a job I have been wanting to do for a while and it was good to have someone else here to help, especially to help me get rid of things. The boys had fun playing outside and checked in once in a while to see how we were doing. The little one kept asking me if I was going to sell something or other that was in the Goodwill boxes and bags, then he would say, “I will take it Grandma”. His mother was not thrilled and talked him out of taking my junk home to their house. He had his eye on drinking glasses, old stuffed toys, extra electrical cables from who knows what old TV or computer, etc.
Our desktop computer crashed last week too – with the age of it we didn’t want to invest in having it fixed so I had to shop for a new one. Since we were getting a new desktop we decided to get a new lap top too so they could both be Windows 7 and I would not have to go back and forth between Vista and Windows 7. This laptop works just fine and John is going to take it to the shop. He needs something to use out there too. In recent years all the repair manuals have been coming as DVDs instead of the paper copies of the past.
Great to get a new computer but I hate to take the time to get them set up like I want, load all my programs and learn a new system. We did loose a few things but I have saved a lot of the things on this laptop too thank goodness.
Another thing taking some time from my day is that I am learning Tai Chi. The local office on aging is doing classes in town on Tai Chi for Better Balance so I decided to go since there was no requirement that you be retirement age to attend. It is for 12 weeks and we are nearing the end with only 2 or 3 weeks left. I do feel young in this class, think another gal my age and I are the youngest as most of the attendees are in their 70s and up. One very spry gal celebrated her 91 birthday recently and I would never have guessed she was that old. I do like doing Tai Chi and it feels so good to move, breath and stretch a little but have to practice and do it at home to remember the moves for each form we learn. I am hoping I will achieve better balance as the ankle I broke almost 2 years ago is still very stiff and causes me balance problems at times.
These are only a few things that have been taking my time lately and keeping me from stitching. Hopefully things will slow down a little soon but with the advent of spring and summer I will have a lot of yard work to do too. Our cows are just starting to have their calves so will get out with my camera soon and post some of the cute faces of the new calves soon.
Lynn
Probably one of the last roses this summer, and this one has such a lovely scent too.
The bumble bees, flies, wasps and other insects really like the sedum flowers. They leave you alone if you leave them alone and believe me I do not want to make a bumble bee mad. I used my zoom lens and cropped the photos to get the close views of them. Don’t their wings look like plastic? 
Lantana is one of my favorite flowers as it grows so easily and this variety is such fun with the multicolored flowers.
Even a dandelion seed head can be beautiful but I sure snapped it off and disposed of it after taking it’s photo! 
Grasshoppers are such voracious plant eaters but luckily I didn’t have too many munching on my garden this summer. 
The fall mums are just starting to bloom so will have bursts of color until we have our first freeze.
