Potty Talk and Other Tales of Spring Fever

This has been – without a doubt – the longest winter EVER.  Not because January and February were unusually cruel, but because December was a pure misery.  My thin southern blood just can’t handle so many blustery months in a row.

Between cabin fever and mourning the loss of my favorite feline, I have found a strong and sudden urge to distract myself.  This is exciting stuff, so prepare yourself.

1.  Fixed the toilet.  I thought I’d replaced toilet workings before. Clearly, that is not the case. After successfully removing the broken pieces, I realized that I not only had no clue what I was doing, but that I didn’t have the proper tools.  FOUR HOURS LATER, I managed to coerce everything back into place. I’m proud to say that it now works like a champ. But I sure cussed like a sailor every time I saw the words “easy installation” printed on the packaging.

2. Refinished chairs.  My big project this spring is renovating the kitchen. I had planned to start with the most thankless job: tearing out the drywall in the ceiling and walls. But since we still have sub-freezing temps at night – and there is no insulation in the walls to buffer the ever blowing winds – I decided it would be best to wait on that a bit.  Instead, I refinished a set of not-so-gently used chairs I bought years ago for a song. They should fit perfectly around my yet-to-be-built kitchen table. I still need to Scotchgard the fabric before upholstering the seats, but I think you get a pretty good idea where I’m going.

    

3. Inside gardening.  I’ve wanted to have an inside kitchen garden for as long as I’ve lived here, but was stuck on the idea that a kitchen garden should be in the kitchen – which gets zero light.  Being the bright girl that I am, it finally dawned on me to put up shelves in the brightest window in the house. In anticipation of renovation work, I removed these shelves from the kitchen just a few weeks ago and had them earmarked for the dump. With just a couple coats of white paint, they look like they were meant to be there. Another happy ending.

4. Outside Gardening.  Despite the endless cold, we have been lucky enough this month to catch at least one pleasant day each weekend.  Before the 6-ish inch snowfall last Monday, we had a lovely 60-degree Saturday: perfect weather for clearing debris out of the front flower beds.  The yard is sadly barren now, but it will be overflowing with perennials in just a few weeks.

But what makes me happiest of all are my first forsythia buds ready to bloom.

I’m so happy I could cry.