Nearly the End of March

 So as is, I guess, usual, March has been up and down a lot.

Mostly down, really.

We have had a cooler March than average and when the temperatures have heated up, they have generally been accompanied by wind and rain. Today it is supposed to be in the mid 50's with lots of rain and winds up to nearly 30 mph.

Miriam is groaning a bit at that. She works at Burger King but just one day a week, usually Saturdays. She is busy with college so one day a week works best.  Every Saturday this month (I think) the weather has been rotten when she works.  Today will be no exception; the BK windows are facing toward the west, where the winds come from. So winds will be whistling through the drive through windows, and maybe some rain as well!

In other news, I worked on organizing, decluttering, and cleaning a lot this week.

An explanation is in order.  The wicker basket is where I throw papers of dubious provenance. That is to say, I put random paper items which I think I might want sometime, but am not certain of.

It fills and fills and fills, and then every three or four months, I go through and basically throw it all out.

Of course, you have to wonder, why don't I just throw the papers out immediately? Well, because I am not CERTAIN. MAYBE I will want to look at the papers later.  I generally don't, but this works for me because I can just make decisions once every three or four months and in the meantime, all those random papers are confined to one place.

Angela has cute hair.

Rose is funny and big.

This bookshelf is a lot clearer than it was but I don't have a before picture.  I moved a bunch of books downstairs and donated some others.

This ... this is my life.  

Kevin and I have produced a bunch of really creative children. They like to draw and make things out of paper and mess around with boxes and it is great!

However. Every horizontal surface set aside for art ends up looking like this. Rose, in particular, doesn't care if she is working in a four inch by four inch space. She has no concept of "tidying up" the art table. She makes stuff, shoves aside the refuge, and keeps working.

 Now she cleans other things and so do all the kids. I could not keep the house in decent shape otherwise!  

But yes, the art tables always get really messy in a short time, and then I need to sweep in and work on cleaning things up.

Which is Ok. It is just a little weird to me because I am pretty tidy and always have been.

I am also not artsy craftsy at all so maybe that is part of it?  

I distinctly remember hanging out with a friend when I was like nine years old. She was really good at drawing faces.  I tried and failed to do something remotely decent and gave up.  So I wonder -- if I had persevered, would I have been a reasonably good artist?  All the girls have persevered in that area and are now good artists.

Or was my giving up a sign that I just don't really care about creating art?  I have been a bookworm since I was able to read well, which was like age 7 or so. I had my nose in a book a lot.  I still adore reading books. And I write them too, of course.

Anyway.  That was our week.  Cleaning a lot, along with the other normal stuff.