Every March, the men's college basketball teams play in a single-elimination tournament called March Madness. Tonight play the Final Four teams and on Monday is the Championship game. It is always an exciting month, especially if your team makes it to the end. But I'm also calling this post March Madness because that is what our month was like: MADNESS!
On March 1st, we bought a house. While the kids and Derrick were almost over their head cold, I got sick myself and definitely needed some rest to recover. But March was everything else but restful. We worked a lot on the house to get it move-in ready. The previous owners did not maintain the house much and it took a lot of elbow grease and time to get it cleaned up. Here is a glimpse of what we had to deal with:
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| Before, during the cleaning process and after |
This formula worked the best on grease, dust and grime: Sprinkle some baking soda on the dirt, spray with homemade cleaner, take a sponge and scrub a bit and then wipe clean. It took me more than 10 to clean the entire kitchen but it looks good now. Here is how I made the cleaner: put orange and lemon peels in a mason jar, top off with vinegar and then close with lid. Let the jar sit on your counter at least 5 days. Then drain liquid into spray bottle and top off with water. It is amazing what you can all clean with baking soda. I used it on the blinds too but we noticed that Scrubble Bubbles actually work the best on dried on dust and dirty door frames.
We also almost finished painting the entire house, which was no small task given that the house is a bit over 3000 sq ft.(280 qm). Most rooms had to be painted twice to cover these hideous wall colors.
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| BEFORE |
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| NOW |
During the middle of the month, I was also interviewing for a job, which I will start on Monday. After accepting the job, I needed to find childcare for Elliot, which was no easy task. Amelia switched schools and even though she had no issues, there is still a bit of an adjustment period. Especially the early start time of 7:15am (compared to 8:30am at the other school). The kids had Spring Break too and while we did some fun stuff, we also finished up with the renovations as we moved that week. Moving-in took two days and then Derrick had to leave on a business trip right away while we unpacked. We also cleaned up the rental house and handed over the keys yesterday. By now, we are pretty exhausting but there is still a lot to do around the house: finish painting the bathrooms and hallway as well as fixing a toilet, installing ceiling fans and a new dishwasher, etc. The backyard is a mess too as there is an unused above-ground pool and a customized, old wooden pool deck that need to be teared down. As you can imagine, we will be busy for quite a while. But we are really liking it here and the house is quickly becoming a home. If you were wondering how the cat did on her 5th move in 8 years, wonder no more: She likes it too.
On Monday was Amelia's first day at her new elementary school and she liked it (more about that in another post). That same afternoon, both kids had their semi-annual dental check-up. Both did awesome and their teeth are all in great condition.
Because it didn't take long at all at the dentist, Elliot got a much needed haircut afterwards. My big boy:
This boy is so funny. Every day he comes up with a new name for himself. Here, he is Star Wars Elliot (he never watched the movies and we don't talk about Star Wars but he still knows):
What the heck??? An expression he is using lately:
We made sure to take some time this week to check out a new playground (and the local library) on a very hot sunny afternoon.
Too cool off and as a well-deserved reward after such a hectic week, we ate some ice-cream.
This month has been truly crazy, hectic, and exhausting but so worth it. We feel so blessed to be able to own a house and thank God for providing for us. I'm also excited about reentering the workforce and the opportunities that come along with that.
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