We have a Shaker lemon tree in our sun room. It was outside this summer and the squirrels repeatedly ran off with lemons. Since it’s been inside, it’s rallied though, and we were able to pick our first lemon last week. It is nice, amid all this snow and ice, to have something blooming in our midst. It makes me think of Spring which is right around the corner. Right? Right?!
There are several more lemons on the way. What the heck am I going to do with all these lemons?
I know, I know: lemonade.
Just after Christmas we decided to put in a fence. This is a totally uncompensated plug for Orme Fence Company and Wayne Orme who did an amazing job installing a beautiful fence at a great price and with excellent quality. Wayne’s a hell of a nice guy, too and his team was quick – I left one morning on a business trip and returned around midnight the following night and lo and behold, had a fence. I couldn’t be happier. It’s been great for the dogs and was the final key step in getting our puppy housebroken.
Clover was plenty annoyed, never having been fenced in before. In fact, on the first night of the fence, Mark caught him wearing a hat with a light on it and investigating the perimeter for escape routes.
I’m also happy to report, not only are our dogs penned in for good, making them safer and less of a hassle to chase down or stand outside with, refusing to pee on the end of a leash, they now seem to be genuinely getting along better.
I attribute this to the Couples’ Retreat we sent them on over the holidays while we undertook the Great Midwestern Road Trip. They returned on better terms and are often seen spooning.
Not that Clover isn’t completely mortified any time we see him appearing to enjoy Starbuck’s presence.
You may have heard that we had some snow fall here in the Mid-Atlantic region. At the rate this season is going, we fully expect the girl, when and if school ever resumes, will be attending until the Fourth of July.
The girl has settled into a routine of leisure. Like some kind of quarantined patient she bathes and changes into a fresh pair of pajamas each night. I don’t believe I’ve seen her fully dressed in daytime attire in two months.
In fact she just said to me that she needs to do some laundry; she’s running low on pajamas.
We’ve been snowbound, stuck at home together again for yet another long weekend with periodic power outages, which are more of an interruption than a long-term nuisance. In fact, it just causes me to frantically cook, bake and do laundry, trying to complete a task before the next outage occurs. The entire region has significantly freaked out over this storm, depleting stores of their inventory on Friday, gassing up the cars, stocking up on firewood and foods that can still be prepared without electricity. (Hotdogs were scarce; hotdog buns were gone – thanks to a suggestion from a friend, I bought s’mores makings, so we could have a bit of fireplace fun, in case it came to that.)
It’s Superbowl Sunday so of course, our hope is that the power holds out for the game – that being, of course, the most important use of electricity this weekend.
Today the boy turns 20. And before you leave a comment saying anything at all, I request that you read this post and realize that I can be a little touchy about the fact that I was a teenage mom. I was 19, OK? And married. And you know what else? I just might be the most successful teen mom you’ll ever know.
Yeah. I’m touchy.
What’s important today is not my touchiness. It’s this boy. This man. This kid that I have loved for 20 years. This guy that has made me laugh and cry and holler his First Middle and Last name in the tradition of mothers all over the world. This boy who is now a wonderful grownup. He’s responsible! He’s a good driver! He’s the best employee at his job! He gets good grades! He’s a good, albeit snarky big brother! He is, in general, a guy I’d like if we weren’t related by blood; if we just met on the street.
So happy birthday son. I’m so dang proud of you.
Love,
Mom
I read this tip on a parenting blog via Twitter earlier this week – a mom said that she and her family race to get all the weekend chores done on Friday night so the rest of the weekend is free to play. “Brilliant!” I thought.
So as Friday afternoon arrived, I decided to give it a whirl; placed my online grocery order for pickup at 6:30pm, and got the dirty laundry transported, sorted and started the first load.
I was off to a great start and in fact did get most of the laundry done Friday night. I didn’t have to grocery shop on Saturday or Sunday, so that was a time saver, but it takes longer than just a Friday night to complete the week’s worth of laundry (especially when your husband tempts you into watching a movie with him after the groceries are picked up and put away). Ultimately, the inverted weekend move (I’m typically cramming laundry into Sunday afternoon and evening) freed up Saturday for more cleaning (I steam-cleaned carpet and got around to de-cluttering part of the basement – two things I hadn’t had time for previously) and for taking the girl for a haircut. I also didn’t cook on Friday OR Saturday (or, for that matter, today, as my husband made breakfast, lunch will be self-serve and dinner will be out for the boy’s birthday).
Today I actually am taking some time to relax. That’s what Sunday is for, right? I’m updating this blog (this sadly neglected blog), I’m reading, I’m drinking my third cup of coffee, I will finish up some housework and maybe I’ll get out this afternoon for a little shopping, or a manicure.
I think the inverted weekend plan has been mostly successful. I will try it again next week and maybe with some practice will find myself with more time to rest on the weekend, rather than viewing it as a marathon sprint to complete all the work around the house before the workweek starts again on Monday.
How do you manage the laundry and weekend work when your workweek is filled? And if you’ve hired someone to do your laundry, don’t even tell me; I just don’t want to know.
@Marijean on Twitter
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