Yes--it's finally here--Spring! Get out there and enjoy all the new life around us. Just as God lavishes His love on us extravagantly, He does some amazing things in Spring. Flowers are blooming, trees are budding, birds are singing, little creatures are being born. Go ahead--if you know any of the words to "Spring Is Busting Out All Over" from the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, run out to the back yard, throw back your head, arms open wide and belt it out! (This feels great plus, it might stun the kids enough that they decide to behave because you've finally been driven over the edge). If you prefer to celebrate a little more quietly, plant a pot of pansies. Here are some other ideas to usher in Spring. (For ideas to celebrate Easter, please see the Caring for Kids & Others blog)
Let the Sunshine In
Spring Cleaning is a custom in many places to prepares homes for Easter. On a more practical note, it was done to clean all the grime left by coal/wood heating during the winter. Women scrubbed celings, walls, woodwork, and floors; washed heavy drapes and curtains, cleaned windows, beat rugs and polished furniture. Whew--feel free to mix and match! I save most of that kind of heavy cleaning for the fall, before the holidays and when we're not dragging in so much dirt from working outside. However, I do like the idea of a fresh, clean house for Easter. I would enlist the help of the kids during Spring Break or on a Saturday morning and we would do some of these things. Knowing what motivated my kids, we turned it into a competitive Olympic-like event with awards for different events. (I noticed the http://www.flylady.net/ site had a fun Olympic theme during the Olympics with an event for you to do each day)
Spring Cleaning as a competitive sport. Have your "team" dress in grunge wear, bandanas tied around their foreheads, wearing grubby clothes, holding brooms, mops, and dustbusters. For fun, take a picture. Events (based on age and ability) can be cobweb crashing(put a dust rag over a broom, go down corners of walls), blind buffing(dusting window blinds), my favorite, under-the-bed diving (vacuuming or sweeping)with a bonus for most amazing thing found under the beds. (We found lots of socks, toys, etc.) A similar event would be couch-cushion flipping. Kids can use a dust buster or vacuum attachment to vacuum furniture.
Polishing furniture, mopping floors with rags tied over their shoes(speed moppping) and filling trash bags with 5-20 items to throw/give away from their rooms are other events. Make a special fruit juice "power drink" and a snack for post event ceremony.
This is a good time to have the kids help change out closets and drawers, getting out spring clothes and storing winter ones. Sort out the clothes that need to be given-away, mended or dry cleaned. (I'm on my way to the thrift store with a load)
As a last part of spring cleaning, let the sunshine in by cleaning your windows. You may want to clean windows yourself. Just as clean windows let in more light, reflect (pun intended) on any cleaning that needs to be done in the windows of your soul to let more of Jesus' light in--or out!Now, things are clean and sparkling, and you can "lighten-up" your decor by putting away afghans, using fewer pillows, and putting away some accessories. Open windows on a nice day to let in fresh air. (unless you have allergies!)
Stormy Weather
Along with spring's beautiful weather, we can also get storms. We've had some close calls and even damage from tornados in the last couple of years so being prepared has become more important to me. Have a clear idea of where to take shelter and make everyone have shoes on and jackets with them. Take your purse, cell phone, laptop and any medications.
Before a storm hits, protect your family records and memories.
Scan pictures onto computers, and CDs. Store old negatives and new CDs in a safety deposit box at a bank, alongwith other important family documents. (Make copies of everything: birth certificates, social security cards, passports, drivers' licenses and credit cards. Keep these in a safe place at home.) As for all your records on the computer, be sure to transfer to zip drives or back up in other ways. My daughter transferred our old family videos onto dvds so they will last longer, and we need to store those in several different spots as well.
I helped clean up damage after the Greensburg tornado and that experience left me with some undeliable quirks, my family would say. (New quirks, additional quirks, as I had plenty already)
I had visited Greensburg several times for sports events, and though I didn't live there, while driving in the Monday after the storm, I was fighting back sobs. The devastation was incredible--4 foot high piles of debris everywhere but in the streets, trees stripped of any limbs over ten feet high, helicopters and national guard vehicles everywhere--it was a war zone.
The only things that lightened our hearts while searching for things that could be salvaged was the cameraderie of people there and discoveries of things that remained intact.
We were at my brother-in-law's family home and found an old trunk stored in a bedroom closet. With no roof overhead and with the houses's walls leaning out and gone, this trunk came through with the contents a little damp, but able to be saved. Inside were some quilts, an old wedding dress, a lovingly constructed scrapbook of family history, and love letters tied with pink ribbon that were 106 years old!
While the Bible clearly tells us we are not to lay up treasures on earth as rust and moths will consume and thieves steal (and tornado blow away), to find those family history pieces was such a God gift. Most people would tell you the stuff they lost can be replaced, but some things cannot be replaced, such as family pictures and momentoes. We also happened to find a hundred year old wedding ring that had been stashed in an envelope with some old eyeglass lenses--we almost threw it away, but happened to open the envelope and there it was.
So here are my quirks, courtesy of this experience:
1. Seeing all the piles of debris made me want to go home and clean closets--we all have too much stuff. (I know, how weird is this?) Actually we were collecting clothes and things for the victims, too.
2. Another quirk is grabbing my purse, jacket, and pictures that we don't have on computer(although we're scanning those now, too) when the sirens sound and we have to go to the basement. (Last spring I finally left the framedpictures stored in the basement and had blank walls as we had several warnings and I got tired of hauling them back and forth.)I've also purchased an emergency wind-up(no batteries)lantern/radio with a cell phone charger at the Coleman factory outlet store in Wichita. (I bought a 2 person boat, too, but that's another quirk for another time--purely for fun, not for emergency preparedness!)
3. If family momentoes/pictures are important, then they need to be stored appropriately. I have some pocket watches from my grandfathers that need to be stored better and I'm putting old family pictures in notebooks. (No throwing out the good stuff because it was stored with the mundane!)
In Your Easter Bonnet
Just as ladies used to set off their best spring outfits with a new hat, set off your home with a little cleaning and sprucing up of the porches or entry. It's been a long, hard winter and those areas have taken a hit. Being crazed with spring fever, I put a forsythia wreath (fake), real pansies, bird houses and a couple of bunnies (also fake) on my porch. I swept off both porches and got out the wicker furniture cushions, so I am ready. Unfortunately, I also had to put down more ice melt after our storm last weekend. Each time I sweep it up, we get more ice and snow. I may leave it there until July! Send the kids around the yard with trash bags to pick up all the debris that has blown in over the winter.
Happy Trails to You
However you choose to celebrate Easter and spring, remember the gift that is a fresh start, a"new life", that we are loved and forgiven, that Jesus said he came to give us abundant life. Throw off the sad, old, defeating thoughts and actions and take hold of what He offers us. Get out in the sunshine and enjoy a fresh start.
(If you are a fan of old musicals, you will have noticed several song titles in this blog. Can you name them?)
