Spring Cleaning

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Spring Cleaning Current mood: cheerful Something about Spring tends to make me feel like organizing a bit. I must not be alone in this, considering the "spring cleaning" cliche. It seems a little odd to me that the urge seldom strikes in the Winter- wouldn't that be the best time, when you are holed up inside anyway? Wouldn't it make sense to concentrate on your interior spaces when you are staring at them all the time? But no. . . in the Winter, I feel like hibernating. I feel sluggish and unmotivated much of the time, and staring at the same clutter all the time can easily make one blind to it. No, it's the Spring that starts to awaken my senses- I throw open the windows and breathe fresh air, and suddenly see my rooms in a new light. I get the urge to finally finish storing and labeling the outgrown baby clothes and diapers. I want to overhaul my closet, and banish all that stuff that Billy and I will never wear. I want to turn out the kitchen pantry and cabinets, purge my shelves of ancient specimens and put everything back in some sort of logical order (unlike the current haphazard storage). I still want to finish storing and labeling my art supplies (a project long-since begun, and long-since suspended). I want to sort through the toys and banish some of the junk that's crept into the collection. And I want to scrub the inside of my fridge, wash all the windows, and really clean the floors. In the course of cleaning and organizing, I would like to set up some areas to be more condusive to the Montessori philosophy- so that the boys may have more freedom to do things independantly. I'd like to have an accessible cleaning station in the kitchen for them, with child-size tools (broom, mop, bucket, dustpan, rags, duster and a spray bottle of vinegar-water for cleaning with). I'd like to have the bottom shelf of the fridge organized to be accessible to them, so they may help themselves to healthy snacks when they want them. (Including a small pitcher of milk that they may pour from). I have other ideas in this vein, but you get the general idea. My tidying trend doesn't stop there- I want to trim shrubs outside, fill in the doggie excavations in the backyard, and dig out/level/mulch a path. And of course, I'm preparing the vegetable garden! I let it go sadly over the last couple years, but with a little TLC I think we can have a rockin' veggie garden again. It's a wonderful thing for Littleman to be a part of at this age- I have everything ready for us to start planting seeds tomorrow. Hopefully the garden will be ready to receive them by the time they sprout. Therin lies much of my motivation- any time I start to feel lazy or intimidated by all the work that needs doing, I remember that these things work right in to my preschool "curriculum"- my unwritten, loosely defined set of values and goals that I am using to guide us in our current homeschooling. Organization (to some extent) is important. Fostering independance and responsibility at home is important. A comfortable learning environment is important. Just being outside is important. And learning about plants and growing things is important. So, even in my extremely limited time, I am making time to do these things. (The organization has made minor progress so far, since being outside comes first. . . but there has been progress!) It feels good. I love Spring. P.S.- I know something you don't know. :)