Spring Cleaning

Last week I finished up spring cleaning our house for this year. I always start the first week of March and clean one room per week till I'm finished, a 3 month job.
I was taught to do spring and fall cleaning, but when I was busy with preschoolers I ditched fall cleaning to preserve my sanity. But I would torture myself to clean like crazy so I could feel like my whole house was clean at the same time. After we remodeled -with double the square footage- there was no way I could do that anymore. I knew I had to pace myself. So I came up with the 1-room-a-week schedule. When my room is finished for the week, I can do other things without feeling guilty. Some rooms take a day, some rooms take several days, so I adjust according to what's on our calendar that week. It may not be your style, but it works for me.

Last week's room was the office. There is a reason that one usually gets left till last. I'm not sure if I should admit it, but we actually hauled 3 wheelbarrow loads of trash to the burn pile from that room this year!! The first load was an old set of encyclopedias. It makes me feel a little sad that virtually no one uses real books these days; Google is so much faster & easier. But alas, these books were hopelessly outdated and taking up space that could be better used for something else. Wheelbarrow load #2 was my scrapbooking magazines. When 2 shelves collapsed under the weight recently, the man of the house said they had to go. So I leafed through them, clipping ideas I still wanted to reference, but throwing the majority of each issue away. Some were 20 years old. Let's face it- the style is out of date, and if I didn't touch them for 5 years, why am I still hanging on to them? My grandmother's auction this spring clarified in my mind that other people won't want a lot of my sentimental items, and old magazines have no value. Wheelbarrow load #3 was all manner of paper trash- receipts, invoices, etc. that I purge from desk drawers annually. Somehow that stuff seems to multiply overnight like rabbits. Does anyone else have that problem or is it just me?

I didn't really like to hear it, but the man of the house says we are both pack rats. Maybe I'm deluding myself but I don't think I would go that far. Define 'pack rat'. When I get in the mood to organize, I have no trouble throwing things away. We are in no danger of a Hoarders Anonymous award, in my opinion. What I will admit is I tend to pile stuff in the office (or basement) because I don't have time to deal with it now and I think I'll get to it later. Sometimes it lays around till I forget why I wanted it. So it ends up in the trash after all. I will also admit that if we ever had to move, there is probably a massive pile of stuff in my basement that would not go with us. So far, my children vow they will never, ever want their old school papers I've saved & organized in totes. And I do have a box full of old Reader's Digests I need to pitch (as kids growing up my brothers & I would go in the attic and read old copies of the Reader's Digest stashed away up there, but my kids have never once rooted through my box of old RD).  

The great irony of last week was that while I was wading through all my "stuff", the de-cluttering guru, Kathi Lipp, hosted a podcast "Tips for DeCluttering Sentimental Stuff". I don't think I'll ever be so super organized -and non-sentimental- that I fall into the minimalist category. But I can see the wisdom in her tips "when everything is precious, nothing is!" and "Don't value the past or future and ignore the present. The clutter of the past and saving things for the future can just crowd out your present life." Truth that. I lost a whole week of my life sorting through the clutter I was saving for the future. If I can just stay organized in my sparkling clean office, I might have more time to scrapbook our life.

What organizational tips have you found that work for you?        
   

Mother's Day Weekend 2017

Our children have graduated from High School in 3 year intervals. The first in 2011, the next in 2014, and now the last in 2017.

When JS graduated, I got a spur-of-the-moment inspiration "wouldn't it be cool if the whole family came out for grad and we rented a cabin for the weekend?" I wasn't sure if my idea would be received with any enthusiasm because it was shaking things up from our usual routine. But, miracle of miracles, my family agreed to my hair-brained idea. At the end of the weekend, the comment was made that we should do it again for the next graduation. A's grad was 3 years away and it sounded a long way off. But time has a way of slipping by, and 2017 came around pretty quick. 

The weekend went by so fast for us. Friday evening was consumed by grad and we didn't arrive at the cabin till midnight, when everyone else was settled for the night. 

Saturday was busy with photography lessons for A with her new Canon Rebel T6 (grad gift)...  

 a craft project for the ladies...

launching some rockets...

 boat rides...

 fishing...

 good eating...

target practice...

(and playing with a deer call!)

 & an evening fire.

It just so happened that grad weekend was also Mother's Day weekend this year. We gathered around the fire pit Saturday evening to sing -our gift to Mom. We are not the Von Trapps by an stretch of the imagination, but it makes Mom happy when we sing together.  

Then for Sunday lunch we had an ice cream cake in her honor. 

Of course we had to take a picture because I don't think it has ever happened since we started marrying off that we were all together on Mother's Day. 

(That's my 2 older brothers in the back & 2 younger brothers in the middle)

It's so rare we are not the ones making the 5 hour trek back home that we relish it when it happens!

Thanks for coming, y'all!

And I'm relieved this was the last graduation-cabin weekend combo for us. It's just too much packed into one weekend. 

And as for my Mother's Day...   someone gave me my favorite cream sticks (I even shared them!)

and a lighthouse bird feeder I love...

(I won't mention any names but having a wife improves the quality & frequency of gifts)

 They all gave me what I really wanted most- their time. Mulching my flowerbeds. 

 I'm so happy with how nice the landscaping looks that I want to just stand outside looking at my flowerbeds. I didn't have to bust my back to get them looking this good either. 

 Then they gave me this gorgeous arrangement of roses and posed for a picture with me. 

That's gotta be worth at least an extra dozen brownie points, don't you think?

 I am a blessed mom! 

Graduation 2017

On May 12 our "baby" graduated from high school. Congratulations, A! 

April & May are notoriously busy months for our household, and this year was no exception. I have a history of frantically working on the senior's scrapbook to get it caught up by grad and spring cleaning our house simultaneously. There are also gifts to shop for, food to make, invitations to mail, senior pictures to order, grad-planning drama to endure, flowerbeds to mulch, and a thousand other details to attend to. I did not achieve the goal of getting the scrapbook caught up this time, but considering I only had her scrapbook completed up to 1st grade when she started her senior year and now have it completed to 9th grade, I think I deserve an E for Effort. 

Setting up...

 I learned something new this time around. When you have a daughter graduating instead of a son, you are a spectator only, not a participant. Until it's time to pay the bill. 
And when the senior class is all female, you hear "that is so CUTE!" a lot. The napkins, the succulents, the banners, the cupcakes... everything is soooo cute! Never in a million years will one of my sons say that. (Unless they are schputing). 

 Corsage time...

 These 3 girls have gone to school together for 13 years,

from shy little Kindergarteners to seniors! 

Their original class was 9 students, but one by one the others moved away, dropped out or pushed to graduate a year early. Only these 3 stuck together. And they finished up on the same day. 

Keynote speaker was A's boss and uncle. 

He did a great job despite his professed nervousness.

(I think he was making a wise crack about A here because he "had the floor" and she couldn't do anything about it.) 

 The High School singing one of their songs from Choir Fest. 

The dreaded senior speech she labored over all week...

 And all the hard work pays off!

We are incredibly lucky to have an excellent long-term principal/High School teacher. He has been there all of her school years (and longer). He was a favorite of our children. We always told him he has to teach as long as we have children in school, after that we don't care. lol  

 Only one set of grandparents were able to attend. 

(The paternal grandparents had the dilemma of 2 granddaughters graduating the same evening.) 

We were so very blessed to have almost the entire Stauffer family in attendance, from out of state. (We are intimately acquainted with that long drive -the effort & expense required- so we are aware it's no small feat to have all 5 uncles show up.)  

The gift table 

The girls chose a super simple snack of popcorn & cupcakes...

 ...and strawberry lemonade.

She got a lot less cash than her brothers, but a lot more "stuff".

Proving the theory that girls are easier to shop for than guys??

As a preschooler, she could hardly wait to go to school like her older brothers. She was the youngest in her class, with a September birthday, but there was no holding her back. When she started Kindergarten, she loved school so much she would go to school all day, come home and play school all evening. She wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. She went through some tough social stuff later and lost the enthusiasm for school. But she persevered and was hard on herself when she got less than straight As. We are proud of the beautiful young lady she is becoming. 

When I was her age, I had my life mapped out. Not that it turned out at all according to my map! So perhaps she's farther ahead to not have a plan for her future.   

We have had so many people asking "Well, how does it feel to have your last one graduating?" I get the impression we're supposed to be sad about this. We are not. I've never been the kind of mother that moaned because her children were growing up too fast. Frankly, I'm thrilled to be finished paying tuition, having to do things like school cleaning and hot lunch. We did our time [as school patrons]. We are happy to move on to the next stage. I'm looking forward to seeing what next spring is like when our schedule does not revolve around school events- Track & Field, Field Trip, studying/quoting 5 chapters of Bible Memory. For the first time in 17 years we won't have to schedule our vacations around the school calendar. Somehow I fail to see why I should be blinking back sentimental tears. 

In the event I am suddenly attacked by a bad case of nostalgia come fall, I'm sure I can always volunteer to make hot lunch or put up a bulletin board. Of course, we will still have some involvement in the school since I wear the hat of school secretary. At least they haven't asked me to resign or retire yet. 

Photo Credits: Amy Stauffer/LifeStory Photography