Sprrrring

We inherited a ton of planters and pots and such from the former owners of the house. There were actually built in planter boxes on the upper deck. So even though I'm not what you would call a green thumb, I've been itching to plant some flowers. At least to fill the planter boxes with something other than last years dead flowers.

 But Spring is pretty hard fought here in the mountains. There is a lot of back. And forth. And back and forth. And just when you think it's gonna happen, it goes back again. 

I am terrible at waiting though. I kept looking at flowers all through May, tempted by their bright springiness. I restrained myself. Which was a good call because it looked like this on Mother's Day: 

April Showers bring May... Snow?

But finally, finally! There is a weekly forecast where no temps below 40 are predicted. And it is supposed to be pretty nice and sunny. It was crazy gorgeous earlier today. I had asked Joe if he would get me some flowers for our anniversary next week, and boy, did he deliver. So I spent this afternoon making the outside of our house nice and Springish. 

Joe had gone on a hike with the three biggers so I got these cuties to help me. And actually, they were relatively helpful! Now I just need to keep the plants alive :)

I don't even....

Well, my last post was about a month ago, so it's kind of hard to know where to start. Should I journal? Just ramble? Oh, the indecisiveness.

So, it's gorgeous here right this current moment. I think it might actually stay Spring pretty much now? Oh, mountain living. I don't know why I bother to even look at the forecast cause it isn't right more than half the time. And the changes! Wake up to snow, have it melt, comfortable sunshine for a couple of hours, clouds then rain, sometimes small hail-like pellets. I had kind of forgotten. And it's been exceptionally unpredictable this month. Life lesson: seize the moment. Truly. I was vacuuming one morning, intending to sit in the sunshine when I got done. I have three floors of carpets, so it took 45 minutes. And as I was putting the vacuum away, this huge, sun-blocking cloud came over the house. I shall sit in the sun when I can. Vacuuming can wait. The sun won't always be out.

Bathroom reno is done. Okay, 99% done. We need to put in a threshold between the bathroom and the hallway. But there are no ants, you can use the bathroom and wash your hands in there, and it doesn't smell like cat pee. Win!

The kids are kids. We are doing some math lessons. And probably writing lessons, this summer between visitors. This is rather anti-climactic for my kids, since there is no official "end" to school. Oh well. I also need to decide what I am doing with each of them next year. I hate deciding. Seriously, if I could have someone meet the kids, talk to them, and then pick out what to teach them and just tell me (and buy the curriculum and books, too, please?) that'd be awesome. Curriculum choices are not for the indecisive.

George is beautiful and exhausting. Sweet with the best smile sometimes, screaming like a banshee sometimes. Playing with Adelle and going along with her games sometimes, kicking his siblings at random at times. Charming sometimes. Kind of beasty. He is my 5th child and usually at least one time each day I think, "I have no idea how to deal with this child." Only there are more expletives in my thoughts.

I've felt for some time that something is "off" with him. Like I said, he's my 5th, this isn't my first rodeo. So I've talked with some early childhood people at the school district about him, we did a screening which they looked and he's going to have an evaluation in August.  It's kind of humbling to tell people, "I am just not sure how to handle this kid".  I am praying that between the evaluation and/ or preschool, he will figure out ways to deal with some of his things and I can figure out how to respond in the most effective way to some of his behaviors. Whew, parenting. Not for the faint-hearted.

Lifewise, moving has taken some adjustment, but comparatively, it has been such a smooth transition. People at Church have so welcoming, inviting our family to Easter, to birthdays, to random get togethers. It's been pretty amazing.  And the family time! Hikes and picnics and more hikes. There is so much to do here, even if it is just finding an amazing trail and walking for hours.  Joe and I have started taking a walk around the "block" at lunchtime, about 1.5 miles and it is wonderful. Good for the body, good for the soul. When we were walking today, I kept taking in deep breaths of fragrant, pine and aspen-scented mountain air. So fantastic.

Not perfect, but perfect for us :)

Out my window: It has actually been dreary and rainy this morning, but the sun just popped up over the mountain and from behind a cloud. I don't know how long that'll last but it is beautiful :)

Clothing myself in: Black yoga pants, blue striped long sleeved T, grey fleece and purple cabled hat.

Around the house: Well, we are undertaking a basement bathroom renovation, a bit earlier than we had anticipated :P The basement bathroom (half bath, actually, no shower or tub) was carpeted. And the carpet had been used by a cat as a litter pan at some point before we lived here. I noticed it was stinky when we saw the house last summer.  But it actually didn't smell too bad when we moved in, so we left the carpet and figured we could deal with it later.

A couple weeks ago, Joe steamcleaned the basement carpet including the bathroom.  A couple days later, I noticed that there was a bunch of sand around the base of the toilet. It looked odd, not like sand that would come off someone's shoes. The next day at bedtime, Isabelle came out and let us know that there were ants in the sand. Hmmmm. So we pulled up the carpet around the toilet and yes, that was not sand but ant hills. We vacuumed what we could and Joe decided to take up the remaining carpet and take the toilet off the next morning.

He set to it the next morning and oh. my.  He called me down and said, "Are you ready for this?" Uhhhhh? No?  Underneath the toilet (under the bowl part) was the biggest ant colony you could imagine living under a toilet, complete with larvae. *shudder*  The best we can figure is that the wax ring deteriorated,  rotted the wood around the pipe, allowing the ants to push through and set up house. Ahhhh, home ownership is neat sometimes.

Hence our bump on the reflooring project. We actually decided to switch the sink/ cabinet and mirrors in the basement bath with the one in our hall bath, which I think looks nice :)  Now we are painting the basement bath, Joe is putting down flooring and making sure the ants are done with. Then we will put the toilet and sink back in. Fun times.

Life with Kids: Liam received his First Communion on April 19th. It was a great day. He was so happy and excited.