Making Headway on my To Do List

1. Joe and I planted our garden today. Normally, the second week in June is too late for me to put in a garden, but the weather has been really cool this spring. We didn't plant many long growing items, primarily food that will be ready to serve in less than 60 days. Here's our list: okra, green beans, two types of beets, radishes, spinach, carrots, and green onions. Tomorrow it will be time to do container plantings of herbs. The kids and I also planted 4 Rose of Sharon bushes (thanks Melinda!)

2. While I was puttering around outside, I fixed a section of the privacy fence that wasn't particularly stable. A new pole was installed and some nails/screws went in to provide more support.

3. The boy's bedroom is almost finished. Steve and Joe worked really hard organizing and disposing of unnecessary items. We had a huge amount of trash this week! The kids also worked on the play room, which is being renamed my Workout Room. The playroom has been a problem for several years. Small children go downstairs and dump out tons of toys in a few minutes and create hours of work. Reminding them to pick up one type of toy before getting out another doesn't work. Placing toys in hard to reach areas doesn't work, because they climb and get into the hidden toys anyway. Most of the kids don't use any of the toys in the play room any longer. My youngest two children have too much time on their hands when I'm teaching the older ones.

The girls' toys will be stored on metal shelving along one wall. When they want items from the play room, someone older will bring the items upstairs. Hopefully, it will give me more control over the number of things being used.

4. Five large shelves of books were organized in the family room. Sorting books is one of my favorite chores. I love rediscovering old "friends" and introducing new books to various family members. Two large boxes were filled with books we no longer want or need for our garage sale. Only 27 more shelves to do!

5. Seven loads of laundry were washed, dried, folded and PUT AWAY. Why is it that moving the clean piles of clothes to the appropriate drawers is so difficult? There always seems to be one or two piles sitting out when I go to bed.

6. One small laundry basket of Mike's shirts were ironed. There are two large baskets of ironing resting on my folding table in the laundry room, but they can be done another time. Mike has work shirts and slacks in his closet!

The kids were a huge help today. We got so much accomplished that I'm hoping to have my major cleaning done by the Fourth of July.