Happy May Day, Neighbors!

I am perfectly good with seeing April back itself out of here for the year in favor of diving further into Spring time.  We've had a huge army of caterpillars around here lately, which makes me particularly happy because that means in a few weeks, we're going to be overrun with some of my favorite creatures on earth:  butterflies. 

Spring is definitely in the air, which is what Andrea said yesterday when we were out walking.  We were about halfway down Pine Ridge when we came upon two squirrels who were very lucky to have found one another and I am quite sure were deeply in love and recently married.  They did not even disengage when they saw us coming.  They froze, right there in mid-stroke, right there in the middle of the road and just watched us walk by, as if we couldn't see them if they weren't moving.  I pictured one of them saying to the other one, "Think like a rock!  Think like a rock!  They'll never see us!" 

Somehow, carnal squirrel knowledge was information I never expected to acquire in my life.  Yet there it be.

Like my locker combination from middle school, I can't seem to erase it from my mental etch-a-sketch (upon which is written a plethora of useless information) no matter how hard I shake it.

Since Eric (DH - Darling Husband) was kind enough to take over both mail routes for a while (excepting situations such as today, when he had an appointment at the VA hospital - he's a disabled veteran based on a couple of injuries he sustained while in the Air Force - and Saturday, when he has the Fire Safe Council meeting), I have been making use of the extra time in my day by giving my house a good spring cleaning.  The downstairs is pretty much done.  I cleaned out our laundry room, which is actually a storage room that happens to have a washer and dryer in it and redid the family room a bit.  I still have to clean the kitchen cupboards and doors/door frames (ugh). 

Today, I got the outside of the house cleaned off.  I broke out this stuff,  Windex Outdoor, which you hook up to your garden hose and then toggle back and forth between "clean," which squirts your target with soap and water, and "rinse" which squirts clean water.  I use it to knock the dirt and dust off of the house and window screens about twice a year. 

My next victim is the carpet.  I priced out Stanley Steamer and found out they can do my hallway, three bedrooms and stairs for $178, but yesterday afternoon, I was the single attendee at the "We have to save every penny and must relinquish all attachment to extraneous spending" camp meeting featuring the guest speaker, Reverend Eric "Darling Husband" Rasbold, so I axed that idea and decided to try and haul out my old Bissel Pro-heat and see if I can coax it back into service.  The last time I engaged it several months ago, it was kicking out the soapy water just fine, but declined to suck it back up again.

I hate carpet passionately.  The entire downstairs of my house is hardwood laminate and even though it's a pain to keep clean (you have to sweep it at least once a day and mop it 2-3 times a week to keep it looking decent), it doesn't harbor the smells or stains that are the absolute pox of carpet. 

My sweet, precious grandbabies have not yet mastered the "we don't take food or drinks upstairs at Gramma Rasbold's house" rule, so there are stains all over the carpet that I need to best in some way.  That will be my afternoon.

Wow.  It's 1pm.  Afternoon's here and I'm at the computer instead of scrubbing a carpet.  Meh.  I'll give it a half hour.

After the carpet is done and the doors/cupboards are clean, I'll be happy with the house's clean rating.  There are very few humans alive who hate to clean and housekeep more than I do, but I have found that the older I get, the less capable I am of functioning efficiently in clutter and mess, so I've had to take action to preserve my own sanity, despite my own innate resistance to anything remotely resembling cleaning.

The final frontier will be Delena's room, also known as the Gateway to Hell and Its Various Suburbs.  I always hate to even say anything to her about it because I have absolutely the world's most perfect teenager.  She's almost 15, she's funny, she reads voraciously, she's smart, she cooks, she babysits with less than 30 seconds' notice, she is a very talented writer, she does any task I ask her to do without complaining, she is sweet and affectionate and respectful even when she is hormonal and moody, she goes out of her way to spend time with me, she's frugal even, she talks to me candidly and openly, she dresses conservatively...  I have no complaints about her whatsoever...except that damned room.  It has been her bevexment since she was a tiny girl.  Even though there is a fully stocked kitchen about 2 feet from her bedroom door, she hides food in there.  She drops her clothes where they land.  She has so much stuff on her bed that there's barely room for her on there.  I have gone in there repeatedly and helped her get it back under control again and within a day or so, it's a pigpen again. 

I don't even mind helping her keep it clean.  If she'll meet me halfway, I'll go in while she's at school and straighten up for her.  It just gets so bad it takes me an hour or so just to do that much.  She's such a great kid that she doesn't even MIND me going in to clean her room.  She says she doesn't have anything to hide. 

With her being kid #4, I know that there are much, much worse problems teenagers can create beyond having  a messy room.  I am so very grateful that she works so hard to be a great kid, so I don't make a big deal of it.  If that's the worst aggravation I get from her, I'll be the luckiest mom alive.   

I just hope she take better care of her own place when she gets it or the health department will be booting her out.  She says she'll cook and her roommate can clean.  She'd better be cooking a LOT.

So I'm off to clean again.  Talking to you folks was a nice break in the day, but now it's time to start scrubbing those carpets.  Who knows?  Maybe Delena and I can make some headway on the Doom Room when she gets home from school. 

Be particular,

Update:  My phone has been ringing off the hook with people asking for updates on my cleaning campaign.  Well, not really, but I've got a minute, so might as well complete the thought.  Hurray!  The Bissel worked!  It made a consumptive gagging sound almost the entire time, but hey, it spit out the soapy water and sucked it back up again, so I wasn't about to take it apart to remedy the noise when it was actually working.  I got the carpets clean and was surprised at how many of the stains came up!  Woot! 

When the kids got home, I got them busy picking up the black hairballs that the carpet shampooer coughed up around and about on the floor, cleaning the doors and door jams and finalizing their room clean.  Delena has been tasked to clean the Room of Hell and do her homework and all I'm going to be doing for the rest of the night is washing a couple of loads of clothes, finishing a column for the soap opera website, arranging dinner and holing up in my room for an episode of "House, MD."  I am one with the clean. I am one with the joy.  I am one with the "done cleaning" except for sweeping the stairs tomorrow.

Joe comes for a visit from Canada on Thursday for a week and that will be wonderful.  I *might* actually manage to have all of my kids in one place on Sunday if I get my way.  That's really an excellent Mother's Day gift (early).