Tuesday, February 12, 2013

It's been cold, so I've been cleaning.

Everyone was sick with a nasty cold. My seven year old had croup. So I decided it was time for some old fashioned Spring Cleaning.

Taking apart every single room. Cleaning top to bottom. Exhausting. I went through almost a gallon and a half of vinegar last week, although, to be honest, some of it went to pickle cucumbers and onions. That's one of Mr. S.'s favorite treats, and I always pickle some right away when the cucumbers first go on sale in late winter.

I'm still not done with the cleaning. The boys' room is proving problematic. The carpet in there is nasty, but with cold and snow it's hard to shampoo. I got part of it done, but it needs to be redone, and it's simply been too cold to get it done. Then I tried to move the bed so I could at least clean and vacuum under it, and the leg bent, so I ordered a new bed. We've needed to replace it anyway, but still. Because I can't move it until the new one gets here, I'm kind of stuck. Today I'll be treating the one part with baking soda, and then vinegar. We will be replacing it this spring, but it stinks and I want that fixed, even temporarily.

Photo Credit: emilydicksonridesabmx

We have gotten a LOT of trash out of the house. It's amazing how much trash builds up over the cold winter! You get lazy in front of a warm fire, I think! Of course, cleaning out all the nooks and crannies and under the beds and behind the couches is also a contributing factor!

Two of our chickens are laying now. There are six eggs in the fridge, waiting for us to get enough to have a celebratory breakfast for dinner with our fresh eggs.

We bought fence posts this weekend to build a small yard for the dogs. There's a dog run at the back of the property but the gate is broken and I don't see the point of having the dog run way back there. We were planning to enclose a portion around the front and north side of the house, that is already partially enclosed. Then, yesterday, my 14 year old had the dogs in the dog run so they could play off the leash, while he held the gate closed, and they jumped the fence to chase dogs that had gotten on to our property. So there goes the yard idea.

Today I'm tired and crabby and sick. But the cleaning needs to be finished. The kids are on the mend, but with the schizophrenic weather we've been having, the cleaner the house is, the less sinus and allergy issues we'll have in the coming days.

I also have some onion bottoms to plant. Hopefully I will get that done today too.

Last night, we had tacos for dinner. I made refried beans to go with them using this recipe, and they turned out great. My neighbor, who is from Mexico, swears by adding lard to her beans to make them creamy, so I did add some lard, but it didn't make them creamier. So I'll be skipping that step next time. I doubled the recipe thinking that I would have some left over to freeze, but I ended up just having enough for some leftovers. Maybe we'll have burritos for lunch later this week.