Easter Preparations

Easter 1970 - my first one (me in the middle) and our first in Canada

I have been continuing to purge and clean, this year's Spring cleaning unlike any other.  I came across this old photo of Mom, my sister (I don't talk about her as I don't get along with her) and me.  I was born in August 1969.  We moved to Canada in January 1970 from the USA and this would have been late March as Easter was early that year.  I still remember that old toybox in the bottom left of the picture.  Easter always meant a small toy, usually home made (I think Mom made that stuffed rabbit in the background, she used to sew), and some chocolate.  When I was older we always coloured eggs and hid them inside if the weather was crappy and outside if the weather was good.


Easter preps this year involve taking out the turkey on Friday (bought at .99 a pound) and having Mom over for a feast on Sunday.  I invited my friend as well but she unfortunately has to work.

I managed to file our taxes in Turbotax - apparently if you input income ie dividends in the wrong area and then try to change it later it may not be possible.  You have to start over - pain in the tuckus.  I even called them and determined that starting over was my only option.  So, anyway, it is filed and between the two of us we get back about $280.  We always figure out our taxes in January so we have time to purchase RRSPs to ensure we don't need to pay additional income tax so I knew we were getting back some money, just not exactly how much.  This likely will go into the medical fund as it needs topping up.

I am having a hard time working on company business these days - I have two large projects with no deadlines.  Maybe I work better with deadlines but I am going to slot off several hours to work on our new website on Friday which is one of the projects.  Instead my mind is whirling about what to clean and purge next in the house lol.

We are on a stage 4 water restriction - which means zero water use unless absolutely necessary.  They even have several businesses that have been unable to use water ie window washers, dog groomers and car washes - I feel for them as there was only 2 weeks advance warning.  This is due to an underwater pipe breaking in December and the repair happening this week.  They have had to funnel all water through one smaller pipe for two entire towns (Courtenay and Comox) and are worried that there will be no pressure for fire fighting without the water restriction.  It is for only 10 days but I am trying to do my part to conserve water so since the restriction went on which was Friday I haven't done any laundry.  Likely I can get away with a single load the entire 10 days.  I will hold off on washing towels until the restriction is off. I am holding off on planting more flowers until the restriction is off as can't water them unless it is with rainwater.

I purged our spare bedroom closet.  I wanted it to look decent and for guests to actually be able to hang clothes if necessary.  This has been accomplished.  I can't completely remove this stuff as we use it all the time.  That bag of shredding has to go somewhere as we shred 100 percent of our corporate documents for privacy reasons of our clients.  It only gets picked up every 2 weeks.    Anyway, it is much better.  Many boxes were taken to the recycling centre.  Some items were purged to give away and some sold.  Part of the reason I dislike Marie Kondo is that she says only keep things that give you joy.  Well, facts of life indicate sometimes you need to keep crap that doesn't give you joy.  Plus - I just find her super annoying.  I do get the whole wanting to get organized thing though and I think she's helped a lot of people.  My best friend watched her video on Netflix then asked me over to help purge her closet.  We hauled out 2 full bags to go to the thrift store and got her a little bit organized.

Before - behold the terrifying spare room closet

After - Order has been restored 

I am going to put some hangers in here to remind myself that it needs to stay this way.  The closet does need a coat of paint as is scuffed and scratched so maybe Hubby and I will tackle that this weekend.  The room needs a coat of paint too but that will have to happen after our carpet is changed out.

Ok, Happy Easter for all those who celebrate and for those that don't - enjoy your long weekend!