Stormy Weather

A storm blows in over the lake.

For nearly a week now we have had steady rain interspersed with storms. I snuck in a quick walk today, but it's clear from the dark skies more storms are coming. Saturday was a rare change, a warm, sunny day that lasted until about 3 PM. My parents came to visit and brought their pressure washer and wood chipper so we could do something about our house. Despite having probably cut down about 500 tiny trees and several larger ones since we moved in, there are still so many trees around our house the soil never dries out in the front yard, so it's always mud, grass and flowers won't grow, and mold grows on everything.

Even though we power washed the house less than a year ago with our less-powerful machine, the white trim was black with mold again in spots. We got up early Saturday (despite my having stayed up talking to my mom until 3 AM Friday and Saturday) and scrubbed the entire front and sides of the house with brushed dipped in bleach water. Then we power washed everything. After that we cut down one fairly large tree and limbed out three others. Then we chipped said trees into mulch until it started raining again. We didn't have to do P90X this weekend! We still haven't finished the back of the house and we have another pile of wood to chip, so my parents will come again sometime with their machines. I don't know when, though, because my mom, who had retired, took a teaching job until the end of the year, so they can't come during the week now.

Storm clouds sent us back inside.

Our garden is doing so badly we decided to shut it down. All we really got last year was rhubarb, and this year my two biggest plants didn't come back. They were probably eaten by voles. I am hoping to build an owl house to attract barn owls to the yard because we have a real infestation. My husband built some raised beds in another spot we hope will get better sun and wants to turn the old garden into a fire pit area. I hope the raised beds will protect the plants a little from the ground dwelling predators.

Sunday was a total wash out, literally. It just poured all day. We were taking our "day off" from P90X, but I had so much work to do I didn't get any rest. I took the kids to the mall over Spring Break and found my two youngest needed shoes two sizes larger than the ones on their feet. My youngest boy spent the past two years in a size 4 and suddenly shot up to a 6 in some things, so I had to completely replace his wardrobe. EBay had a listing sale that ended at midnight today, and I stayed up listing his old clothes right up to the cut off. If you need kids' clothes, especially boys' size 2T-4, make sure to check my store, Atelier Mandaline, or shop my catalogue.

Now that I'm FINALLY finished with my fabric reorganization and almost done listing kids' clothes, I hope to get back to working on dolls. I have three huge tubs of dolls to restore!