Spring is here

Spring has finally arrived at our house. I know it's been a long time since we posted, but spring is a very busy time at our house. We spend a lot of our extra time trying to stay ahead of the lawn mowing, garden cleaning-out, planting the vegetable garden, spring cleaning the house, etc. It's been hectic. We also had ten windows in our house replaced (actually 9 windows and 1 door). The difference is incredible. I had no idea that we were living in such a drafty house. I just figured we were too cheap to turn up the thermostat.

We've also been having problems with our rental property. Looks like we will be heading to the courts once again to deal with tenant problems. After this experience we have definitely changed our format for handling management issues. Even though it's painful, expensive, and time-consuming I look at the experience this way: the only way we learn is from making mistakes. If we did it right the first time we would have no way of knowing why it worked or if we were just lucky. When we make mistakes it forces us to look at the underlying issues and decide if the problem is us, the tenant, the property, etc. That way we actually know why it works.

Onto lighter topics: everyone's doing well. Adam's job is still there, mine is still there, the kids are still there only a little bigger and suntanned. They keep telling us they need a bigger swingset. We have opted to build them a big teeter-totter in the meantime since it's about one percent of the cost of a swing-set. We'll post pictures when it's done.

I've also been busy making strawberry freezer jam. Trying to keep up with the demand in our household. Little kids will eat a lot of jam if it's good! I confess this is a really good batch. Like candy. I bought a flat of strawberries (8 lbs.) for $4.99, spent $6 on pectin and made three batches of jam. Made about 11 pints of jam. Only 9 pints made it into the freezer. IT'S GOOD!!!