Spring Cleaning

At first I thought it was a misnomer to say I was doing spring cleaning as we are in our second week of our summer break, but it is still technically spring for about one more month. I kicked off the spring cleaning on Monday while the kids were at their grandparents' house. I put on my painting clothes thinking I would do some exterior painting, but then I decided to just work inside the house in light of the fact my energy level isn't back to normal yet. I did got for a walk outside in the afternoon although not as long of a walk as I originally planned to take. I've been thoroughly emptying cabinets, bookshelves, drawers, etc. and doing some purging and reorganizing along the way. On Monday I did three loads of laundry which included washing valences from three windows. Yesterday I was scrubbing the front porch to clean up the bird droppings. I didn't put a wreath on our door this spring like I usually do since the birds thought that was a good place for a nest. I also have been working on hanging up the curtains in the basement. I'm using the curtains all around the room to form a sort of "wall" which is hiding things like a hot water heater, furnace, shelving units, and the unpainted cinderblock walls. Last summer I painted the concrete floor. Now if I just attach something (sheets maybe?) to hide the duct work and such to create a "ceiling" of sorts, the basement will look less unfinished. I have done at least a little bit of cleaning in every room of the house, including the garage. I'm not done yet, but I've made a lot of progress! I'll be donating some more stuff tomorrow.



This week I've also been finishing up the plans for our vacation, and the kids and I are going to start packing! On Saturday afternoon we're going to drive to a hotel that is very close to the Baltimore airport as our flight is very early on Sunday morning. The hotel has an indoor pool so the kids can go swimming on Saturday night! None of the kids remember flying on an airplane. The last time Oliver flew he was 2 years old (2015), the last time Ian flew he was 4 years old (2014), and the last time Nadia flew she was 5 years old (2013). I also have made other hotel reservations for a few weekend one night getaways (through Airbnb, Priceline, etc.) - one night in Pittsburgh in August, one night in Niagara in August, and one night in the Rochester area in June. I also put in our time share request for Myrtle Beach for June 2019. If time passes and nothing comes up for Myrtle Beach, I'm going to expand the request some to include Hilton Head. Next month I want to obtain our reservation for Williamsburg in September. Over the last week I also bought 4 tickets for the kids and I to experience National Geographic's Ocean Odyssey in NYC en route to my aunt's house on July 1 as well as got 4 free tickets (plus paid for the fifth) through Fandango to see Incredibles 2 in the afternoon on June 17. We got the free movie tickets thanks to codes from the Juicy Juice boxes I got for Nadia's party. They can be used for any Disney movie.



I finally spent some time working on reading with Oliver yesterday. I want to do more of that this summer. Ian finished the 3rd grade spelling list today! Nadia has twelve more words to master from the 5th grade curriculum. Ian finished the Level 1B piano books and is now in the same piano books that Nadia is in right now (albeit she is near the end of the Level 2 books and he's at the beginning). Nadia received a $25 gift card for her birthday to Barnes and Nobles, and she used it to buy three books - Wonder, Auggie and Me, and the latest Amelia Bedelia chapter book. She recently read the two Wonder books from the library and wants to own copies of them. She hasn't read the latest Amelia Bedelia book and plans to start reading when it arrives in the mail today. Ian finished another Paddington Bear book yesterday. Yesterday Ian wrote a story that featured Mario characters but was patterned after the Three Little Pigs. Today, Nadia wrote a story about a girl named Julia, and it was patterned after Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Nadia and Ian have also practiced the piano and their recorders. I have been working on the paperwork I need to submit to the school district by the end of June. We went on a field trip on Tuesday that was less than 10 minutes from our house. We had an hour long tour of a recycling center and landfill. It was very informative! We could have gone to a two hour about turtles for homeschoolers yesterday morning at a state park, but we opted to just stay home. I didn't drive anywhere on Monday or Wednesday, and I don't plan on going anywhere today either. Below are pictures from Nadia's surprise party.