Blitz Week - Day 3

Alrighty, here we go again.  But can I first just say one thing?

My back is killing me.

In shocking news, I'm not young anymore.  (Nor am I Forever 21, or even 39... again!)  Turns out weeding, moving furniture, and scrubbing things down on my hands and knees is kind of a pain. Literally.  Good thing I have these hard-working boys!  (Of course, if it weren't for all those boys I wouldn't have quite such a mess either.)  Kind of reminds me of a verse from Proverbs that goes something like, 

Where no oxen are, the manger is clean,

but much increase comes by the strength of the ox.

Yah.

So this is what my young oxen and I accomplished today...

1.  Does this look just like yesterday's photo?

Wyatt sanded and primed his spackle-work, ready for painting tomorrow.

Meanwhile...

2.  Gunnar cleaned out everything under the sink in the back bathroom.

Why do we still have a hamster ball?  We haven't had a hamster for years.

And a fish bowl.

3.  Tate cleaned out under the sink in the "kitchen-bathroom".

I try to keep that extra clean because we store food in there.

(Subsequently, no one who reads my blog ever accepted a meal invitation again...)

Relax.  It's all stuff that's well sealed, like extra canned goods.

No pictures.

4.  We disassembled and cleaned the dining room light fixture.

Here's a little tip if you're buying lighting...

think dust.

I really like my dining room light.

But see all the little "cups"?

(Gunnar says they look like little white cups on blue saucers.)

All twelve of them point up,

all the better to efficiently collect dust.

Sometimes I cheat and just stand on a chair

and spray a can of compressed air into them.

But we really cleaned the whole thing today.

5.  Here's another dust collector.

I can't reach up there, and many of the jars are filled with treasures and are heavy.

Something needed to change.

Tate and Gunnar helped me get all the bottles down,

empty them all,

wash them all,

and sort the treasures to do something different.

All the agates and special shells are in this old battery jar, way up high.

(Since we're due for a Naomi visit soon.)

I had to have Wyatt put it up there - not me!

We put most of the jars back where they came from,

along with some twinkly lights.

It's so nice now that the jars are all sparkly clean!

(And you don't see much of the cord from below -

I was holding the camera above my head.)

Yes, they are real OLD mason jars.

We found most of them when we excavated under our first house.

Along with a dried out, naturally mummified cat.

Go figure.

6.  Tate had forgotten that one of the jars was

His Personal Treasures

from one of our Oregon beach trips.

He told me I could get rid of them.

A small, irrational part of me wanted to say,

But these were your treasures!

But most of me is glad that my boys hold their "treasures" lightly.

7.  Wyatt and Tate spent a lot of time removing some ground cover

from one of the flower beds that has fallen out of favor.

And by that I mean, I've never liked it,

but I haven't been able to kill it.

Still, hope springs eternal.

Maybe this year...

7.  They also spent a great deal of time moving rocks,

in an attempt to reclaim our fire pit.

(Which Kerry decided would be the perfect staging area

for the rockery he's dreamed of but never built.)

Meanwhile...

8.  Gunnar and I loaded up bags of old magazines for the recycle truck.

Hurray for Wednesdays ;D

9.  Gunnar and I also bagged up all the snow gear the boys have outgrown,

and several pairs of jeans,

to go to consignment.

The catch is, they only accept things that are in season,

or about to be,

so I have to decide...

hang onto the bags until fall and get a few bucks,

or take them all to Value Village immediately.

Decisions, decisions...

Nine jobs seems kind of underwhelming.

I don't think I can live up to Monday!

But... bigger jobs, y'know?

And I let the boys quit earlier today,

since they worked SO hard.

I also wanted to put out some spring-y, Easter-y things.

We took a lunch break, and then Gunnar and I had a great visit with our friends.

Gunnar babysits little Sammy once a week,

and Sammy's older brother Ben is a little bit jealous.

Today, being spring break, both of the boys were home.

They played with Lego,

had sword fights,

talked super-heroes,

went on a little hike,

rode bikes and scooters,

played pickle ball,

and wrestled around in the grass.

And I got to visit with my friend Ginnie :D

So much fun!

Meanwhile...

Wyatt had dinner duty today.

He chose to make breakfast for dinner.

Inspired, perhaps, by the donkey in Shrek,

he wanted to make waffles.

He'd like you to think he cuts strawberries like this...

... because the first picture was too boring.

I helped him a bit, because it's hard to do three things at once,

but we had a great dinner of waffles (with strawberries),

scrambled eggs, and sausage.

Whew.

I'm going to bed early.

Promise.