While I was gone,, my husband, daughter, and son-in-law were here at home. My daughter did a lot of the cooking and cleaning, but she is pregnant, so she didn’t do much of the deep cleaning that I do on a regular basis.

It was very nice to walk into the house and have it be pretty clean. In the past when I’ve gotten home from a trip where others were still home, the house was a little rough. My kids told me they were instructed by dad to clean up, the evening before, and day of. But, when I’ve been gone for a while, that’s a lot of cleaning to accomplish in just a couple of hours. I am grateful that my daughter was more on top of it this time.

This week has and will continue to be a good reset and refresh. There are deep cleaning items I’ve accomplished, like cleaning out the oven, cleaning out and restocking the fridge, and getting the microwave degreased. There are also some items that are spring cleaning related that I’d like to accomplish as well.

• Cleaning out the cabinet under the sink (it’s in desperate need)
• Cleaning the windows inside and out
• Prep the garden and greenhouse for planting
• Clean my basement – this is where my daughter who moved had stored all her household items for a year and a half. Now that they’re gone, I need to do a good cleaning.

I’m sure there’s more, but those are the current big ones.

My greenhouse needs a bit of work this year before we get it going, although my plants are huge and ready to be out there. We need to install the chimney on the woodstove, I think that will be done today. The floor coating that we put down originally to prevent water damage has gotten some cracks through the winter, so we are reapplying the coating (it’s kind of a rubberized paint) to the corners and the plywood seams to hopefully keep it waterproof. That way we can insulate the floor and it won’t get wet.

Once we get the floor coated I can finish filling my beds with soil and get some compost in as well. Then I can plant all my greenhouse plants, and move my other plants out to a table in the greenhouse until the big garden is ready to plant. I’m excited to get these plants outside as they are too big to be inside anymore and will start to have problems if I don’t get them out soon. It should happen by the end of this week though.

I am grateful to be home. I miss my family a ton, but life goes on and it might as well be enjoyed. I am super excited for this spring and the warm temperatures I came home to. Now, off to get some work done!