March 2010 Archives

I was struck this morning by the power of what you can accomplish in just five minutes.
Granted, it came to me when I stopped to make my bed before leaving the bedroom, but that doesn't lessen the impact you could have.

In my life, five minutes might be spent on emptying the dishwasher, starting a load of clothes, watering plants, or sweeping the floor. It could also be signing an e-file release and faxing it to the CPA, or paying bills, or typing a waiver.

I believe that we build on the simple five minute chores to create a platform that lets us get to the more important things. I've said before that I do well when my house is tidy and the desk is organized. When those things seem overwhelming, if I break it down into five minute chores, I can whittle away at that burden and get through it.

I can't think of anything that couldn't be solved or resolved if you didn't break it down into simpler steps. So what if you tackle the easy ones first, the chore still gets done.

So, today, I'm going to be looking for five minute chores, and watch to see if I accomplish more.

What can YOU accomplish in five minutes?

I expect this to be a busy week. We will be hosting a small part of my extended family for Easter Dinner. I think the count is somewhere in the 14-18 range, less than a third of the family. I won't have to arrange for extra tables and chairs, and we won't have to cook in Oh-My-God! sized vats. I think it should be a really lovely gathering.

Part of my oldest sister's family will be out of town this coming weekend, so she is bringing just part of the crowd. Dear Husband's daughter and her family will be joining us, and we hope his second son and the son's girlfriend will join us, too.

Even with a small group coming, there is still cleaning to be done, and I need to clean out the gardens along the sidewalk. I had intended to have them done last week, but our plans were interrupted when our son-in-law needed emergency surgery (see the next entry).

I plan to start my spinach, go to exercise and then grocery shop for Elegante Mother. After a visit with her, I'll do my own grocery shopping and then head for home. Tuesday is house cleaning and ironing. Wednesday is exercise, library and a visit to Comcast to return equipment, before I spend the afternoon in the office.

The rest of the week, I'll be working toward being ready for quilting bee on Friday evening and dinner on Easter. There are dozens of chores to be taken care of, but fewer than usual, because our gathering will be smaller. I'm really looking forward to it all.

We're expecting temperatures in the seventies on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I hope you all have the wonderful week that we are expecting!

It's been an exciting week at Chez Buffy. My son-in-law went to the hospital for emergency surgery. He'd been ill for four days when our daughter insisted that he see the doc. He was sent on to the hospital on the suspicion that he either had a burst appendix, or it was going to burst imminently.

He arrived at the hospital in the early afternoon, and they kept him waiting from three o'clock until midnight, when they started the surgery. The doctor said that the appendix had burst earlier in the week. He was kept in the hospital three and a half days, and then was sent home to finish his recuperating there.

We visited with the kids (and grandkids) today, ten days after all this occurred, and other than being cautious around the girls as they played, SIL looked fine. He has recovered enough to have returned to work. His work is primarily telephone and computer oriented, but still.....he was back at work within a week of a perilous illness, and surgery. The man is made of steel!

We're all hoping that he will be more careful about delaying a visit to the doc in the future.

I personally felt it was a week that warranted prayers of thanks for letting our son-in-law come through this safely!

I can see daffodils just waiting for one slightly warmer day to burst into bloom! The daylilies are coming up nicely, as are the tulips. The crocus are still in bloom, but the cold, windy weather has been hard on them. Some of the larger ones have been blown over, or perhaps the raccoons have trampled them.

The chives have greened up and I can see starts of feverfew in the herb garden. The forsythia is taking on a golden hue. I hope to do a little trimming in the gardens next week. I need to cut down purple coneflower stems from last year, as well as chrysanthemums and verbena.

Wednesday afternoon I spent about 90 minutes raking gravel out of the lawn. Dear Husband had to plow the drive this winter and he managed to deposit a good portion of the drive on the lawn. We've both worked at this project off and on for a week or so. DH moves the heavier stuff, and then I come along with a leaf rake and get the finer pebbles. I've managed to thatch that portion of the lawn at the same time. We still have a bit to do, but I think we are two-thirds through the project. It will be time to sow some grass seed soon.

This weekend I plan to start my spinach test. I have conflicting information on how early to start spinach seed out of doors in my hardiness zone so I'm starting seed in large containers this week and next, and then in the raised veggie beds in three weeks. I should be able to get an idea what conditions will work for spinach seed starting, so that I can get an early crop started next year.

I'm going to see if I can buy some pansies to plant near the front door for Easter. We need a little color to welcome our guests, and they should be hardy enough to cope with the cool weather.

I hope you're all getting the chance to get out and work in your gardens. I know it's rushing the year a bit, but I have cabin fever, and really need to play in the dirt. Happy Spring to you all!

Don't you love it when a plan comes together. I managed to get the dishes done, the clothes washed and folded, and THEN......I started working on the mail.

Mail is a major undertaking here. We get mail for five different entities. A huge amount of it is junk mail, but most of it needs to be opened, and a lot of it needs to be shredded. I organize the rest into four piles (DH and my mail goes into the same pile).

I took one stack at a time and filed or pitched almost all of the mail. You can see the top of my desk now. I wouldn't go as far to say that I was finished, but I've made tremendous headway, and it's very satisfying.

Now, I can go outside and play!

Our chipmunk population has been redesigning our gardens. I have a wave of tiny purple crocus across the garden at the foot of the sidewalk. I was sure that I planted crocus closer to the front door! There's still one gold crocus, and a white one, but these tiny purple ones are multiplying and making a pretty spring statement.

The iris seem happy with the weather. I see short leaves from all of them. I hope to do a major redesign of the sidewalk garden and I'll be sorry to move all those iris. We haven't recovered from the move of two years ago. I suppose that means that this would be the right time to make the adjustments.

I wish I could tell you that I had made good use of the 60 degree weather yesterday and today. Unfortunately, I've been chained to my desk this afternoon. I may go out for 30 minutes to rake the gravel off the front lawn. The chipmunks aren't the only ones who have been redesigning here. Dear Husband relocated the lawn in four places when he plowed the driveway this winter, so we need to roll out the lawn and reseed. Too bad I can't get the chipmunks to work with DH. ;-)

I need to make plans. Actually, I need to give some thought as to how to share what I know about quilting with a beginning quilter, without scaring her off! *G*

Elegante Mother was a member of the Empty Nester group at her church. I got to know a number of the ladies when they came to our house for a monthly craft session. They made all sorts of things including lap robes, baby quilts, neck coolers for the troops, and gift bags for women in shelters. I discovered that they have a new member who is interested in quilting, and I e-mailed her. We plan to spend a day together in my quilting studio. She makes quilts for troops returning from the Middle East. I just discovered that she is a beginning quilter, so I'm trying to decide what pattern I can show her to expand her experience, without being too difficult.

Dear Husband and I will be visiting a quilt show this afternoon, so perhaps I will get some ideas there, and I can check to see if there are any books on the subject.

Mary plans to come for the day, and we'll have soup for lunch. We can set up both sewing machines and still have room for a cutting mat. We can put completed blocks on the design wall, so that we have an idea how things are shaping up. I may try to put together some blocks ahead of time that could be mixed into what we make on our quilting day.

I'm really looking forward to making a new friend, and spending a day sewing.

Oh, my! Spring is arriving early to northeast Illinois. We've had a week of off-and-on rain. The snow has melted away, grass is greening up, and crocus are in bloom. Each day I visit the gardens that lead to the front door to see what's newly sprouted. The daffodil leaves are at least six inches tall. The Darwin hybrid tulip leaves are all up. There are scads of iris coming up, sharp little points of green pushing their way up out of the dirt. The lavender is greening up, and I can see leaves on the phlox, foxglove and centaura montana.

I've seen the first chipmunk, but not the first robin. My sister said she saw one, so they will be here shortly. I figure the rain has flooded the chipmunk den and floated him up and out, along with the worms. The robins can't be too far behind, since the worms are such easy pickins.

Dear Husband is getting his ears lowered this afternoon. He said if I accompanied him, he'd treat for lunch. I asked if he would go with me to a quilt show after lunch, and he agreed. It turns out the show is just half a mile from Elegante Mother, so we'll make a stop there.

Tomorrow, I hope to get some more work done in the basement, and work on my ironing. I let that stack grow until it begins to irritate me, and then spend an afternoon cutting it back. It's always more fun when there is new fabric to iron, but I've been trying to resist buying more fabric until I use up some of my stash. I think there may be about twenty quilts waiting to be designed from the stash, perhaps more. I hope the quilt show will provide inspiration!

I hope you all have a great weekend. Stay dry!