Catching up on life

I have to laugh. I'm so far behind on so many things after babysitting for three weeks. I guess I've forgotten how I stayed organized and kept a clean house when I had two toddlers (mumblemumble) years ago. Two year old Brayden was here from 7am to 5:30 pm, five days a week, and absolutely nothing got done around here, with the exception of making the bed every morning and doing quick pick-ups at night. As I always say, there's a reason God invented menopause -- 'cause us ol' ladies don't have the energy needed to take care of toddlers! I spent all day Saturday pretty much in recovery-mode. Putting toys away, wiping up the nastiest of the spills and handprints, and generally just relaxing and unwinding. Jeff and I did go out to check a few yard sales, and I found a wonderful sale with vintage linens -- hand embroidered pillowcases and great colorful 1950's tablecloths -- the lady only wanted .25 cents apiece! I've got them washed, but still need to iron them and will then put up some pictures. Wonderful find. On Sunday, Jeff and I spent the morning in the vegetable garden, roto-tilling and pulling weeds and, yes, picking my first red tomatoes! The garden is loving this rainy summer, though I did lose about 3/4's of my green beans -- I imagine the seeds rotted in the ground. But tomato plants look great -- some higher than four feet! -- green peppers have baby peppers on them, eggplants have baby eggplants, green beans have flowers, and zucchini's should be here in another week or so. Monday was my first real day without anyone else in the house, and I used it to get caught up on some paperwork, do a little blog reading, downloaded some audio books (Jeff surprised me with an 8 gig MP3 player!), washed the linens bought on Saturday, did some laundry, deadheaded some flowers, and pretty much had an easy day of it. Today, daughter Mary stopped by for a quick visit in the A.M., then I headed to my friend Lynn's house to bring her a housewarming gift. Lynn's new house is a great house, but the piece de resistance is her finished basement -- about 1200 square feet of beautifully finished basement that is her new sewing studio, complete with full kitchen, bathroom, laundry room (in addition to the ones upstairs), fabric storage, and patio! It's full of all her wonderful antique sewing machines and quilting and sewing supplies -- and is one of the most comfortable places I've ever visited. Love it love it love it and happy for her. She's a wonderfully creative person and her "studio" is a place for that creativity to thrive. Go Lynn! After visiting with Lynn, I headed out grocery shopping ($54!!!), then home to visit with my neighbor, Michelle, for a bit. She's the wife of the neighbor who is/was so mad at me for not letting him cut down my trees. He did wave to me last week, so perhaps all will heal eventually. My trees didn't get cut, so I'm not holding a grudge. The rest of the day was spent doing more laundry, and making a list of things I need to get done before my son and his wife come to visit next week. Three weeks behind on house cleaning and company coming for the first time in a year -- it figures, doesn't it?? LOL But, I always work best with a deadline, so I'll get it done! Tomorrow I'm going to start washing curtains and windows. Really all the house needs is a good dusting, vac'ing, shampoo the family room carpet, and do some more fingerprint (and nose print) patrol on windows and doors. The inside of the fridge needs a good cleaning, and the entire house needs one more good "picking up" of toys and items that have been moved from their home. JJ and Lisa will be here for a few hours on Thursday, but won't be staying overnight with us until Sunday night (her family is in this area as well). I can't wait to see them! So if I'm not blogging as much, you know I'm either stretched out on the couch still recovering from the shock of having a 2 yr old in the house for 3 weeks, or I'm wiping down baseboards and scrubbing bathroom floors!