Cleaning Fit. Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

I have what we call Cleaning Fits. I don't like clutter and I can't stand things to be dirty. Bill and Otter have learned to get out of my way, when they see the signs of a Cleaning Fit. Which is very smart on their part. I'm having one today. Otter is at her friend's house, where she's been since about 5:00 yesterday afternoon and she won't be home until probably several hours from now. So she's safely out of my way. Bill wasn't so lucky. I've put him to work, he just didn't move fast enough and I caught him!

I've washed most of the curtains and the entire kitchen has been detail dusted - think close details and every little nook, cranny and corner. I've finished with our room - the window sill and all sorts of little corners have now been vacuumed and de-cob webbed. I'm moving to the living room next. The curtains are still in the dryer, so I'm going to tackle the window first. The living room gets dusted on a regular basis, but I'll probably hit it again today. Just because! I might even get Bill to pull out the couch and loveseat so we can get the baseboards. Well, there's no might to it - that will also get done today. I also will get the dining room curtains hemmed, they have been too long since I bought them and I never got around to hemming them. I'm going to get around to it today.

The dogs are currently outside and they are staying there for a while. I looked out the window earlier and saw that about 1/3 of Maggie Beagle was underground, and the remaining 2/3 would be gone soon - she looked just like one of those plastic yard ornaments of a beagle behind where it looks like it's digging. She was really moving some dirt, too - there was a big cloud of dirt being rapidly flung up behind her. Frasier was standing around, watching her but that's what usually happens. Maggie does the main part of the digging, Frasier kills the moles they unearth. Then he seems to think that he is the only one who did any work! (Typical male). I didn't see any sign of an actual mole this time, but I did have Bill go block them out. Also on my list is to mop the kitchen floor, because of their earth moving activities yesterday.

We have really got to get their area fenced off soon. If the weather will cooperate, that is! Also, I think I saw a bird going into one of the birdhouses that are on the dining room window sill, I'd love baby birds but so would Frasier so that's another reason to get their fence soon!

I saw blackheaded grosbeaks in the yard the other day. They are a type of sparrow, but they have black and white feathers on their backs. Very pretty birds. This is the first time I've seen them, although we've had a large variety of birds at different times. I did see the first Robin of spring about a week ago, it was in the front yard and I haven't seen any since. We also have seen hawks lately. Usually we see red-tailed hawks. Bill saw what might have been an eagle last week, it was out in the field behind the house and flew from the ground to the top of a light pole. I couldn't tell, but it was pretty big to be a hawk. Somebody he works with saw a bald eagle in the last couple of weeks, they have a nesting area west of Tulsa but do occasionally get to this area. I haven't seen one in the wild, I would love to. They are magnificent birds.

I might update this post later. So check back!

Ok, it's later now! Among other things, we rearranged the living room. The sofa table and loveseat have now switched places. I moved a couple of my plants from the dining room window to the sofa table and we put all the games in the hall closet. The games were on the bottom shelf of the sofa table. Bill got up on the ladder and used the vacuum attachment to get all the cobwebs and dog hair (of all things!) that was on the ceiling. He also cleaned the ceiling fans.

Then he cleaned the fireplace, and I dumped the ashes in the big hole the dogs were working on. Frasier immediately went to the other side of the yard and refused to even look at me! He must have forgiven me, because he's now parked on the floor at my side. Snoring.

All the curtains are now washed, and so are the dog blankets. I still need to hem the curtains from the dining room window, but I'm going to do that in a few minutes. I was going to get new curtains for the living room window, a tan shade instead of the cream color that's there now. But now that the sofa table is there instead of the brown love seat I think that it looks good so I'm going to stick with the original curtains.

We've raised a lot of dust today, but it needed to be dealt with. Now it's done for a while. Hopefully, a long while!

Later update:

I didn't get the curtains hemmed. I didn't have the right color of thread, so Otter and I made a trip to Wallyworld. I got the thread, and also the "cardboard pizza" Bill requested. Which was a mistake, it did not agree with me! Too much fat, most likely. It tasted good, it's just not sitting well. So the curtains didn't quite get finished, but they will in the next day or so. Otter got the job of sweeping and mopping the kitchen & dining room floor. She said that she fully expects it to rain tomorrow, since she was down on her hands and knees with a damp washcloth!

We got so much done today!