Springtime with Sister

In our neck of the woods, we got our first dose of Spring weather a couple of weekends ago. Temperatures were in the 70s, the sun was shining, the dogwoods broke out a few blooms, and the birds seemed to be chirping a little louder.  It was just the motivation I needed to finally take down the "winter" decor (aka the Christmas decor that I was too lazy to take down so I just hid baby Jesus and Santa and reclassified the nick naks as "winter") and get my girl ready for Spring.

For the boys in our family, the transition from Winter to Spring means its time to pull out last years shorts and t-shirts and see what still fits and isn't too stained to wear this year.  The whole process maybe takes 30 min per child because at this age my boys could really care less what they look like as long as it's comfortable and "not too handsome" (aka shirts with buttons).  Sister's springtime ritual, on the other hand, is a much more timely and tedious process, as you would expect with any girl.  It begins with the mother of all cleaning sessions- the Spring Cleaning.

While most normal humans dread this annual deep cleanup, for the recovering DRS* sufferer it is as anticipated as Christmas.  For it is with this deep, top to bottom, cleaning and organizing session that she believes she can finally achieve the Donna Reed Level of housekeeping perfection.  Of course, because this level of perfection is fictional, she ALWAYS burns out before the whole house has been cleaned.  This year I clocked in at 18 straight hours (started at noon burned out at 4am) of cleaning with only the Master Bathroom, Laundry Room, Dining Room, Master Closet, and Living Room achieving Spring Cleaned status. The remainder of the house got a surface dusting and a shot of fabreeze.  This was better then last years effort but didn't touch the spring 2010 cleaning-that was the year I bought a special tool to clean out the dryer lint trap AND all the bedroom furniture was moved so the vacuum could reach all those unreachable places............what a year!

After the cleaning is abandoned the next, and most fun, step in the Springification of this two-story sister is to accessorize.  Sister and I just love Springtime because it is the ONLY time of year we get to bring in a little pink to our male dominated home without too much complaint.  So after a little crafting and a little repurposing, Sister now has just a few simple pops of Springtime throughout the main living areas to give the whole family a little Spring Fever.   

Here are some pics of Sister showing off a few of her Spring touches:

Nothing Says Spring like pinwheels and bunting!

And Introducing the Dining Room

And finally, the last step to fully Springify Sister is to open her windows and let the smell and feel of Spring waft inside as I sit on my front porch swing, sipping lemonade, and watching the boys play fetch with their dog in their "handsome clothes."  Ahhh isn't that a nice visual......... Too bad I don't have a front porch, and my eldest has allergies, so the only smells of spring wafting into our home are coming from the kitchen and bathroom scentsy pots; but that's ok I don't really like lemonade anyway!  Happy Spring!!

*DRS is a fictional disease that I came up with and dedicated a whole other insane blog about several years ago until the insanity of the disease required me to shut it down.  If your curious you can sample it here.  In the real world this disease can look a lot like OCD.