Spring Cleaning

Right now mostly what I'm doing is writing and cleaning. Spring is in the air, and I'm filled with the overwhelming impulse to clean my entire house (except the attic--I mean, please). If you've ever seen my house, you would know that this is an impulse that doesn't hit often, so when it hits, I get going.

Today I bought a microfiber ceiling fan cleaner. I've been spraying it with lavender oil and dusting all the high spots--fans, light fixtures, the tops of cabinets. One of my goals is to make my house smell divine. I don't know what it smells like normally--it's my house, and I can't smell it--but considering that I roast a lot of broccoli and cauliflower, and given that roasted broccoli and cauliflower taste delicious but smell terrible while they're cooking, well, I hate to think what sort of odors have collected in the corners and under the rugs.

Speaking of rugs, my friend Sarah has generously offered to let me use her carpet cleaner. Have you ever used one? It is both incredibly satisfying and really disgusting to see how black the water gets. It's like you live on the edge of a tar pit and no one ever takes off their shoes when they enter the house. 

(An aside: we have no rules about taking off your shoes when you enter the house, but the boys and I kick ours off the minute we come through the door. The Man, so much more civilized, trades out his work shoes for slippers as soon as he's home from work.)

Back to smelly houses--One major roadblock to getting our house to smell springtime fresh is that it's springtime, and therefore we can't open the windows. The Man and Jack have terrible spring allergies, and Will and I suffer some, too. It makes me sad, because I'd like to have the windows open all spring and fall, but I can't. If you have any suggestions for springtime freshness sans open windows, do let me know.

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Other bits and pieces: Jack continues to be nominally cheerful. He even pays attention during dinner table discussions, but mostly he's just waiting for opportunities to make very dry, very wry remarks. It's like eating dinner with a Cambridge don who likes to think of himself as a bit of a wit. 

Will's two front teeth seem to be getting bigger all the time. Teeth don't actually grow, do they? Maybe they look so big because of all the gaps around them. We've started calling him "Gappy McGee," he's lost so many teeth lately. The Tooth Fairy is broke from tucking dollar bills under his pillow. 

Travis remains the silliest dog that ever lived. It's nice to know that some things will never change.