The other side of the garage still isn't done.  But I am.  Yesterday we had kiddo's practice for her first communion.  Then we made a shopping trip and by the time we got home we were readying to head back out for her school's auction/fundraiser.  I left mostly empty handed (I did snag a peanut butter pie from the bake sale).  Her class project was beautiful, a framed picture with a verse in the middle and each of their little hands set to pray in the slots around the perimeter.  I was not paying $500 for it however.  It was a bit rainy and cold yesterday, so it was good we had indoor activities to attend.

The rain is all the more reason I was surprised to find my rain barrel empty today.  It seems to be leaking at the hose - and this is after it was reseated with tape last week.

Today the weather is decent again.  After church I started cooking.  I had several peppers here from a flashfood box that needed used and I had bought two bags of onions on sale during the shopping trip. So first there was a large batch of onions and peppers which resulted in several bags set to freeze; they will make for expedited breakfasts and dinner options.  Some of the peppers were hollowed and stuffed, that was cooked up for tomorrow's dinner.  I also made a ham, cabbage, and bean soup that we ate for a late lunch and a batch of choc chip muffins for breakfast.  I made blueberry muffins of the same brand on Friday night at and they were so good, I couldn't resist but try the other mix..  The house still smells yummy 6 hours later.

I should have mowed on Friday night but made up for my procrastination today.  I also took a pass with the weed eater.  Then I planted a bit more, in part giving a second pass where things didn't seem to take.  This includes cukes, lettuce, half of the carrot bin, one of the bean bins.  I did have a single pepper plant that wintered over, but didn't make it through one of the frosts (despite being covered), so I put some pepper seeds in - a few green, a few sweet banana, and a few red.  Some of the tomato seeds I had planted were a couple of inches tall and that is about all the more they wanted to grow - so I put them into bigger pots.  They're prb too small to be on their own, but we'll see.  The potato plants look nice as do the onions and one bin of beans.  I also want to note that it looks like my two lavender plants survived the winter!

I learned that the local hardware store where I tend to buy my tomato plants and pepper plants isn't getting plants this year, they actually plan on closing at the end of the year.  This is pretty disappointing.

I bought myself a meyer lemon tree from Lowes during the aforementioned shopping trip.  I saw these last year and hinted to kiddo that I'd love one of those or a key lime for Mother's day. Well it didn't happen and by then it was too late, they were sold out.  She also bought a small plant from the clearance rack, a succulent, and she named him Mr. Fluffy.

Next weekend will be chaos w/ first communion and people coming in to help us celebrate.  I'll need to find some cleaning time this week.

Standards.  Mine are too high - for most everything, really, and this causes me a lot of frustration.  I want to let some of it go, not sweat the small stuff as they say, but it is a struggle.  I think part of it is because I feel like I am being held to a higher standard than others -- so why should I let things go that I would normally get dinged on?  The fact is there is simply too much right now and I can't juggle all the things.  What to do?

On other fronts where I am way behind:  I can report that I managed to get one Alaska excursion booked, so that's progress.  Of course, the laundry list of things I need to do for summer planning this is but a drop in the bucket.

Since the weather got a bit cold and rainy again Avery had a neighbor friend come in to play.  That was the motivation I needed to clean the floors and clear the table and counters.  I also found a spray that worked on the mildew I have been fighting at the bottom of my shower on the grout right where the tile meets the plastic shower floor.  That's huge!

I had wanted to tackle the left side of my garage this past weekend but didn't get moving fast enough.  I was lucky to get all of the mowing done before the rain began.  I also had to get all of the plants out back covered; I hope they get through the couple of cold nights (yes, the heat is back on and I'm not too happy about it).

It's been a good weekend.  I dropped off after must attend meetings on Friday and made my grocery run before the kid got home.  There is something about wrapping up early on Friday that makes the weekend seem so much longer - which results in it being more productive.  I even got my second mow achieved.

After getting my breather in on Friday I was ready to rock on Saturday.  The girl slept in until neighbors knocked to play.  We headed outside and I took to the garage, well - one half of it.  Everything came out.  She was agreeable to get a couple of things gone, I crunched some heavy duty boxes that I concede I will never need, I put the cursed snow blower towards the back again, and I put up the two shelving units I bought for out there.  Even with some of the Christmas stuff put back in there (instead of back in the basement) there is still lots more room.

I need another productive weekend to hit the left hand side in the same manner and a third to get the back to tidy all of those shelves.  From there I need to carry my efforts into the basement.  I ordered more of the same shelves for the Christmas and Halloween stuff.  I'd like to get rid of some of the decorations I never use, but that will definitely make the basement efforts all the slower.

Today was rest.  We went to church and came home with another hyacinth plant that they were giving away.  Made a light breakfast and then we headed outside to the outlets for a quick walk around.  My goal was to measure Avery's finger.  When we came home we headed outside to enjoy the nice weather.  First the hyacinth went in the ground.  The plant was quite sturdy and plump, so we split them into three spots.  Then Avery headed across the street and I settled in under the deck to relax with a drink.  Eventually more neighbors came out and the kids were having a blast.  One neighbor also brought me a Sarris chocolate based beer, a third style that I hadn't tried yet - and from another brewery. Like I said, it was a good day.

Girl has testing all week, so it'll be a fight to get her into bed earlier each night.  I also learned an aunt that has been ailing passed, so I will be trying to plan to get there for her services later this week.

The plumber was right.  The drips stopped by late morning.  He did still come through and I got to spend some cash to get the hot water expansion tank replaced along with the seal for the valve on the hot water tank.  I managed to get rid of a lot of stuff that was gathered and put out for whoever wanted it, but of course I had to deal with people saying they were coming that never showed repeatedly.

School transport has been a crap show for the past few weeks.  I think we'll see some of that normalizing now that we have an official van driver (as of yesterday).  Kid isn't happy because "she's mean" (translation:  she doesn't want them eating in the van and told Avery to not sit by the door).

My first mow took place last weekend whilst I had taken time off for Easter, but it's ready to be mowed again -- the main drawback to spring if you ask me.  I took my chances a few weeks ago and put some potatoes and onion sets into dirt - same with carrot, beet, cucumber, bean, and basil seeds.  The potatoes, onions, and one pot of beans are already doing their thing well enough that I had to cover things up a few nights ago when it dropped into the 20s over night.  Here we are back up to 70 today.

Work has been a bit crazy.  I ended up working 20 hours when I had 16 planned out of office at the beginning of this week.  Now... I sleep.