Spring is here!!!

I have gone a little A.W.O.L. on blogging for the past week.  It has been in the 80's in our area of the country and the warm weather puts me in the mood to get housework done. 

For the past couple of months I have been in a little bit of a "funk."  I love being home, however, being home alone during the day and looking out the window at a few feet of snow or rain or just general dreary, gray days can take a toll on a person.

I had every intention after Christmas to dig in deep and go through closets, deep clean the house and get some rooms painted.  Instead it seemed the only thing I could accomplish was basic cleaning, laundry, cooking and baking.  I didn't get a lot of the extra projects that I had wanted to get done.

Enter sunshine.  We have had several days of beautiful sunshine and warm weather.  It has been glorious.  My DH and I walked around the yard and noted all the work that needs to be done - the picket fence needs painted and several pickets need replacing, the brick foundation of the house has places that need tuckpointed, the house needs to be painted and more.  We joke that it would be easier to say what doesn't need to be done to the house than what does need to be done. 

There were other things we noticed such as the trees are budding along with the forsythia bushes, as are the raspberry and blackberry bushes. 

The birds were feeding out of the birdfeeder and getting drinks from the bird bath.  We have survived the winter and so has the wildlife.

For the first time since we bought this house 13 years ago, I really feel like it is my house.  I have spent years working and coming home at night to cooking dinner and cleaning up and then either going back to the office or working from home.

I can honestly say that this house has never felt like my home.  I have put off doing things such as a lot of decorating as I just didn't have the time.  Now I have the time and it is a joy to clean, renovate, decorate and manage. 

One thing I have learned about this path I have been on is that I don't want to screw anything up for us financially that would require me to go back to the work place.  It's not for me.  That part of my life is over.

Last week in the middle of doing laundry I made a cup of coffee and sat out on the back porch and watched the dog run around the yard.  Just sitting there in the warm sun and looking at our yard made me feel like the luckiest and richest woman in the world.