Spring Joys Daybook

How is it possible that it has been months since my last journal entry? Well, no matter. Here I am.

For today…April 30, 2010. Is it unbelievable that today is the last day of April?

Through the windows…glorious sunshine is streaming in! I’m told rain is coming…but no! I shall not think of it! For the moment it is absolutely delightful – a little breezy, and the front gardens are all abloom. Our iris are so pretty this year (transplants from mom’s garden), and I have 2 large planters of lily of the valley waiting to go in the ground on my back deck. These are another gift from mom’s gardens. Apparently, they were banished by a certain zealous and fiercely protective rose gardener who felt they were encroaching on his roses. 🙂

Let’s see…I must tell you of our latest adventures. You know I simply cannot leave you without telling you of our latest fun!

We have ducks – well, they’re not ours really, they seem to have adopted us though! They’re mallard ducks and they simply love waddling into our backyard and munching on the discarded bird food that lies in heaps at the bottom of the backyard feeder. Though we have determined that all 3 are males, Sparkly insists that they be called, “Mr. and Mrs. Duck, and Jr. Duck”. Mr. Duck is skeptical of our presence and yesterday he waddled right up on the deck to check us out!

In addition to this, we’re overjoyed here at our Purple Martins. We’ve been attempting for years now to lure them to our Purple Martin house – to no avail. Our little family of bluebirds would take over one nesting box and that would be it. But, this year, Purple Martins have chosen to nest here! Yippee!! Mosquitoes, be gone!

I’m grateful for…my local thrift store! This week I found the prettiest blue and white curtains – such a little joy! I love looking at pretty things! AND…a sweepy, twirly red gingham dress. Is anything more thrilling?

My apron is tied…and I’m absolutely determined to work on my menus! I’ve got to get some spring menus in place…before spring is over. sigh. I have a date with my Barefoot Contessa cookbooks which always inspire me!

Around the home…Well…one of the reasons for my absence here are my “around the home” projects! We are blessed with 3 walk-in attics and one gigantic attic above our garage. 4 attics. All stuffed. And 2 of them were not floored attic spaces. We emptied, sorted, bagged, binned, labeled, floored, and made piles to give away. It’s so fabulous to have that done!

We transformed a middle room upstairs into a playroom. I’m still not certain I like it – I mean, I like the space, and I still practice the same ideals about toys in our spaces, but we’ve never had a “playroom” before. We’ll see how it works out. For now, everyone is enjoying having a room of shared toys. Everyone shares the job of clean-up. And the Doodlebug has a place to play upstairs – and that’s nice. Each child kept delicate toys and possessions in their rooms – they each have a shelf of their own for containing these.

Our learning spaces…are really quite delightful, I must say! I’ve been labeling, labeling in there! I labeled shelves with genres of history and science books.

I TOTALLY organized all of our liturgical reading and put those on shelves in our learning room — labeled 🙂 by month. I’ve made small labels for their spines which denote a particular century or setting for the book, but I haven’t yet affixed them.  This will be helpful because the older children read these coordinated with history studies as well.  I can’t tell you how ridiculously FABULOUS this liturgical literature organization this is!!! And the clip on book supports I ordered to help me with this project are so fantastic! I must order more when the budget allows!

I had to flip the science side of my room to the other side because I needed to make use of what used to be my “rainy day shelves” to hold more science materials and supplies. It is absolutely wonderful to have everything so tidy and organized and accessible! It means no wasted time in hunting for a resource, and it makes it quite simple to locate a resource while I’m planning for next year…which I’m doing right now!  Delicious, inspiring planning!

A treasured book…I’m re-reading Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence.

A favorite thing…well…I’ve already linked those amazing clip on book supports. But, they’re just amazing enough that I had to mention them twice.

Pros — clip on, enough room for a label, easily repositionable, visually pleasing, if you’re organizing a collection of books and only want to remove one small group from the collection at a time to place in a book basket, the book supports continue to hold the remaining books in place. LOVE THIS!

Cons — they do take up valuable shelf real estate! Each shelf clip is 1 1/2 inches wide. You’ll have to decide if it’s worth it to lose that much shelf space. It’s a definite con when shelf space is at a premium, but for this book grouping it was worth it for me. I will probably only use a few more on my shelves, but with a lot less frequency.

Do you want to see a picture? Of course you do – I would! 🙂

A few plans for the… weekend. Hmmmm…well, there are those menu plans I hope to finish, and ironing. I downloaded some great mp3’s from Family-Centered Press that make ironing more bearable!

A picture of…spring in our little corner…

I hope you’re all enjoying the joys of lovely spring days together!