What a busy time lately, but so much accomplished!

I came home today at mid-day from work. My youngest was sick and stayed home from school, and she's old enough to be home alone. She has some health concerns that make her particularly susceptible to dehydration and fainting, and she knows to keep the fluids going, but I got worried at a call from her mid-morning, and arranged for a sub at work. Now I can see that she's getting fluids and electrolytes, and she's doing better (and I feel better about it all too.)

Our old house has tiny closet space, so my clothes rotate in and out of the closet per season. I recently washed up my winter sweaters to store (in underbed boxes) and pulled out my lighter weight clothes. In doing so, I culled, from both sets of clothing, the tired and the worn and the just plain not-for-me-anymore items. There is still plenty of clothes to choose from :-) The girls went through their closets and drawers also, and pulled and passed down items. What wasn't snatched up, was bagged up for donation. Later today, I'll go through the house and seek out some household items ready to be donated. Spring cleaning!

Last weekend, I managed to get a haircut in, as I was getting very shaggy. Meanwhile, at home, my husband was setting up to take down a dying tree. The youngest two girls were around to help too. We hooked up my dad's old trailer to our old station wagon, ready to haul the branches, as they were cut, to the city compost. (Much easier cleanup, keeping up as we went. We did some trimming about three years back, and what a huge job to clean up after the branches were all down.) My third girl is newly licensed as of last week, so she was excited to get to drive the Olds and trailer, back and forth, with me along for the ride. My husband still has about a 5-6 ft section to cut log-size, but he ran out of steam by the end. The section is between ours and the neighbor's driveways, so it's fine to work on as he can after work this week. Still need to split and stack to dry what we hauled to the back yard. I'm sad to see the tree go, as it offered a bit of shade in the late afternoon, but it was coming down limb by dead limb. A few backyard campfires in that wood!

My new clothesline is up and ready to try out today. It's not the warmest day, but there's a breeze, so I'm game to try.

Speaking of weather, snow is supposed to come again - will it ever, ever end??

Yesterday, my husband and I shopped for groceries and made a return to a store. Later I went to the library with my third girl. So we're busy, but it's a good busy!!

...and more forms! We had to provide documentation for financial aid for both the oldest girls. When we had some questions on how to fill out one of the forms for my second girl, I was able to ask some questions about the process, and why we were chosen to do it. The documentation isn't related to any particular aid offered, or to be offered, to the girls. The schools are required to do a certain number of audits so as to show that the fafsa matches the tax forms and w-2s etc. And it was only by chance that we had to do it for both girls. Oh well, I'm not worried as it all matches up number-wise, and I hadn't yet filed away the tax documents so it was all handy.

Later in the morning, my husband and I headed to Home Depot to order four more storm windows. We ordered two last fall to replace two that were broken. The long story short is that our house has ancient,cheap and difficult-functioning storms. Last summer, two of the windows crashed close leaving the glass broken. We compared the cost of fixing to replacing the whole storm with ones that work, and we ended up buying two storms that are wonderful to use. Yesterday we ordered four more for the windows we most often open and close per rain over the summer. Only ten more to go! We had cashed out some rewards on our visa over the winter and used the giftcards toward the purchase. We also got a new mailbox, as the current one is in a precarious state, disintegrating bit by bit.

We also called for some estimates on gravel for the driveway, and what a range of prices! We settled on one place, and have to do a re-measure (my husband and second girl did a measure, resulting in two very different cubic yardages - 25 & 33, but as I like to point out, math uses exact figures that should result in one cubic yardage...this is absolutely why I do anything number-wise at my house

While my husband cleaned out the gutters and changed the oil, filters and serpentine belt on my minivan, my third daughter and I cleared off the perennial borders. It's always a gamble on when to do it, but the weather was so gorgeous, and it had been dry for several days, with winds to dry the ground nicely. The lilies and peonies and iris all have tips up. The weeds were already growing well in the bed along the driveway. The beds all look wonderful now after an afternoon of putzing in them.

Today's highlights include grocery shopping and getting a new clothesline. Branches came down over the winter, snapping my old clothesline. Can't live without my clothesline in the warm months! Not sure why I enjoy hanging out the clothes, but I do.

Can you tell spring has sprung here finally? Today, we're supposed to warm up into the 70s! I'll take it!! Enjoy your weekend...take care!