My son has a girlfriend and I am forced to clean!!

My youngest son, recently age 16, has a new girlfriend.    He had her over to the house about 2 weeks back, and well needles to say, I am not a Miss Clean by any means.  I would rather be doing my hobbies than cleaning everyday.  I also work full-time.  That said, I am the only female in a house of 3 males who would rather be doing anything else besides cleaning as well.   I feel resentful sometimes when they are all sitting back relaxing in the evenings and I am doing chores, so I have learned to slack off a little bit more.

Back to the girlfriend visiting.  There was no way we could have a new friend over without cleaning first.  I mean, I even tell my family to call before coming over so we can have a run-through-the-house-and-shove-things-in-other-rooms cleaning spree.  But this was different.  We knew she was coming, so we cleaned rather than shove.  It actually felt pretty good to declutter and tidy up.  It got the rest of the family involved with the cleaning as well.   Of course, we did not do it so it was spotless - our house is lived in, not a showcase.  It has remained fairly tidy for the past 2 weeks, but she is coming back today after school.

Guess what I will try to do in small spurts while working from home today?  Redding up (it's a Pittsburgh term that I grew up with) and couple of loads of laundry (wushing, as I call it - another 'burgh term), but I will probably feel better after it's done.  His girlfriend might turn out to be a good thing for me too - more estrogen in the house and a little neater home.

Missing in action

I knew that I had not been posting but did not realize that it was May since I was last here!  My gosh how time flies.    I've been busy working, taking a child to summer practices, and going on a few day trips with the family with my Mother's Day present.  (see previous post for that story)  I have also been nursing an injured left knee for a few months, also a result of one of those day trips riding ATVs with the family.

 Me at the end of a long day.  Everything needed hosed down - twice!

Pics from the end of the day after we decided to have some fun riding through the mud puddles. So much fun!!!  My DH and eldest son.

Memorial Day weekend we went riding for about 8 hours and I got a little over zealous and took a bend a little too quickly and almost turned over, but I caught myself.  Unfortunately, I pulled something in my knee and at times it was just too painful to walk for more than 10 minutes at the most, but with a few months of rest, I am happy to say I am about 95% better. 

I have still been making time for sewing and working on a year-long project that is (hopefully) just about done.  Here are a few teaser pics.

I'm in the quilting stages of this project and trying to free motion quilt this on my  home sewing machine has proven very frustrating at times, but I hope to have this one finished within the next 2 weeks.   

And I have been working on this:

 These are wild and goosey blocks, a pattern that was in the May/June issue of Quiltmaker patterned by Bonnie Hunter.  More on this one to come as well.  

Well, that's what I've been up to.  Hopefully, now that the weather is cooling down, I'll post a little more frequently.  Thanks for visiting!