Spring.
For us this still means a lot of winter. The heavier snow begins to melt, the brown stubble and muck peeks through and the garden beds begin to emerge from a long winter nap. We have some warm sunny days that give hints of spring only to wake up to a fresh snow the next morning and a few freshly wet mucky days to follow as it melts again.
Living in northern Alberta I struggled to tolerate the long winters and slow departures of intense cold, muck and snow. One January during a particularly cold winter and a rather miserable pregnancy, I realized I needed to create a routine and purpose regardless of how I felt or how the weather behaved. Even though we lived in a townhouse along the highway, far from homesteading, I decided to create a rhythm led by the seasons.
We had land and we were building our house by hand, I knew I could start my homestead life even if I didn’t live in the country yet. This included my housework, how I rotated my kids clothing and shoes, how I shopped for groceries, the meals I made, the way I set up our homeschool schedule and because I thrive when I’m creative, I found thrifty ways to build a seasonal tote with a few chosen pieces of seasonal decor. Even after 17 years of marriage, I only allow myself one tote with seasonal decor items as we don’t have enough storage space. My goal of one tote also keeps me from spending money and filling my home with junk.
A lot of my seasonal decor today is handmade natural dried elements I make living on our homestead, as I found myself reacting to the scents of craft store fake foliage and such.
My daughter’s crochet and have made me decor like Christmas gnomes, pumpkins for fall and even sewn me reversible pillow cases for my sofa’s. When I harvest my garden I bring in my prettiest pumpkins and squash and store them on my kitchen cupboard tops as decor until Christmas. For Christmas I cut extra spruce and pine bows and layer them on my cabinets and in pretty pitchers as bouquets, adding dried orange slices and handmade crochet garlands. In the summer I grow some tried and true cut flowers that thrive in my climate and fill my house with them all summer.
I think our hardest “season” is spring as most years spring never truly arrives. Rather it finally does, but after a great deal of more snow and bitterly cold winds; only to finally wake up one day in late May/early June and realize the grass is turning green, spring bulbs are pushing through the soil, the bare poplar tree branches are dotted with delicate kelly green leaves and in most parts of the world it’s considered summertime already;)
Years ago I decided to make spring our deep clean season. I used to try to do a deep clean in the fall too but I found it very stressful bringing in our small harvest, cutting the gardens back, processing the cow’s milk for freezer butter and cheese, getting the cow bred and preparing to dry her off, along with processing the last of the firewood, winterizing the animals, sourcing and storing hay, AND adding in a deep clean of the house. I realized that was me fighting the seasons again.
By spring we are struggling to stay focused on school, the shelves still bare a bit of fall dirt from last year’s garden produce, dust accumulates on fans and walls and frames and under beds… our general weekly Friday clean house doesn’t take care of those built up winter messes. We are still very much stuck inside and feeling wrest-less; this is the time of year to clean. I can’t access my gardens yet, the animals are still not needing much other than daily food and water and eggs collected, so it’s the perfect time to pull furniture away from walls, scrub walls, wipe fans, dust bulbs and shades, turn mattresses, deep clean window sills, clean the tops of the kitchen cabinets, wash shower curtains and bed spreads and sofa pillows… get into all of those places and spaces we ignore most of the year.
I also use this time of year to go through my children’s clothing. I use vacuum space bags to store previous sizes in and pull those out to move my younger kids up to the next size. This gives me the opportunity to go through each of my children’s clothing; throwing away threadbare or clothing with holes, making a list on replacements like socks and underwear. I go through our snowsuits and boots and put away the smaller sizes and pull out the larger sizes.
Our laundry/mud room is rather small so my husband built shelves and hooks. Each kid it assigned two hooks and one basket. I switch out the snow gear for lighter gloves and because there is limited floor space and shelving each kid keeps out one pair of muck/work boots and one pair of runners. I keep extra shoes like river sandals and cowboys boots in the main closet and my kids only bring those out if we are in midsummer or going to town and they need to wear clean shoes.
13 and under we set up a system for footwear, choosing monochromatic colors so each kid can pass their boots down. Our younger kids love wearing cowboy boots so we do let them choose those colors when we replace them. Otherwise they’re wearing black bogs or color coordinated river sandals or runners. I’ve been buying these splay shoes for healthy foot growth and they’re easy to pass down to younger kids.
13 and beyond, and my kids start figuring out their own style and choosing their outerwear, footwear and clothing. Our kids are really into military surplus and historical military wear so they have a lot of fun tracking that down with my husband. My only rule is one heavy coat and one light jacket/ sweatshirt on their seasonal hooks while the rest get put away. One pair of work boots and one pair of daily wear shoes. Otherwise everything else gets stored in the hall closet. This just keeps our laundry room floor cleaner and more open for getting in and out and keeping space for company shoes.
By late spring though, extras add up and it’s a big satisfying task to take everything down, wash it or air it out and put it away. Pull out rugs, scrub walls, doors and floors. It gets a few shade brighter in there.
I love using Sals Suds when I clean. A bucket of soapy water goes a long way in scrubbing one’s home fresh and clean.
Being inside for such long winters, I just cannot tolerate using harsh cleaners. I discovered Sals Suds 17 years ago and it does everything.
Sals Suds is a concentrated liquid soap and here’s how I use it:
A few drops in a bucket amd some hot water. I use this to clean walls, baseboards and floors.
A few drops in a spray bottle and fill with water. I use this to spray and scrub counter tops and sinks. For sinks, I spray then sprinkle some salt, then spray again, then I scrub. The abrasiveness of the salt with the sudsy Sals Suds gives me a shiny sink.
I also like to pour boiling water down my drains. Once it cools sometimes I drop in a few drops of Tea Tree oil and leave that to sit once I’ve rinsed all the soap and salt from the sink basin.
Another way we use Sals Suds is as a laundry detergent. We found that even natural detergents have synthetic scents that were bothering us. Sals Suds is so concentrated and degreasing, we find it actually strips our laundry instead of masking bad odors and letting bacteria build up in the fibers the way most detergents do.
It only takes 1/2 to 1 TBSP per load depending the size. It’s lovely and it’s just another way I keep our house smelling fresh because it’s actually clean and not just covered up!:)
I also love that I’m buying one product for multiple purposes. My pantry cleaning shelf is very minimal which is a must with 10 people and limited space.
Because I only use sudsy non toxic soap to clean, I can give my toddler a washcloth and teach her how to swirl it in the wash bucket, squeeze it out and she loves scrubbing walls with me.
It amazes me each year how dirty the water gets just from the walls! It’s extremely satisfying to pour the year’s dirt down the drain and start with a fresh slate.
I even make a window cleaner with a mix of Sals Suds and isopropyl alcohol. I only use this for windows and for disinfecting my counter after working with raw meat as a bleach alternative. The vapors from the alcohol can be a bit much but this is the best way I’ve found to clean my windows and even kill off the mold from the sill edges.
I use a ratio of 1/3 water to 2/3 isopropyl alcohol with a few drops of Sals Suds. Shake and use.
It’s amazing how bright the house is after cleaning windows and walls!
As a homeschool mom my mind is always on teaching and making sure I’m doing my due diligence by my children. But during the months of March and April we cut way back on school as turning a home upside down, including my greenhouse, can be quite consuming.
I keep our school simple: morning read alouds, afternoon audibles or this spring we’ve been working our way through the Animal Planet series on Netflix. The videography and wildlife captures are stunning; and even though we believe in creation, I believe we can learn a great deal from documentaries like this. It also gives us the opportunity for thoughtful discussions comparing ideas and the argument between chance and purposeful creation. I think the more I study evolution with my children, the more I believe in creation and intelligent design. I want my children’s faith and belief to be their own and these discussions open up multiple perspectives that bring more clarity to uncertainty.
These three read alouds along with my morning coffee take no time, then we can resume our deep spring clean.
In the early mornings we still do firewood as we begin to run dangerously low. We use an outdoor wood burner to heat our infloor house heat, furnace, hot water, shop and greenhouse. We do firewood throughout the year, so besides a seasonal rhythm I follow a firewood harvest rhythm too. Engineering our entire heat system to firewood has saved us thousands of dollars a year, we could never afford to go back at this point, so learning to work with this necessary chore is important for us.
This is the time of year where the snow is gone from much of the forest we need to access and the roads are still frozen enough to not get our truck stuck. So we begin our yearly firewood restock a few days a week based on our schedule and the weather.
As we move through this oh so slow season of spring, the busyness of our homestead is such a joyful satisfying addition to this time of year. Living with the seasons and accepting hardship and difficulty by working within it and not fighting it, has brought so much peace to my heart. Knowing there’s a season for each task helps me focus on the work before me instead of stressing about what I’m not getting to.
I still struggle with the weather and its harshness and I definitely still struggle with working in the woods with grizzlies and cougars and all the dangerous things. But this is where God has us today and I’m stronger and wiser for it. Growing up a disorganized city kid, I often smile to myself regarding the education I’ve received living in northern Alberta and choosing to live in a still very wild and untamed place with 8 kids! It’s nothing like I grew up and it’s everything I ever wanted.
I hope you find your own rhythm in your own unique situation. Embracing any struggles you might face with joy and finding deep meaning and satisfaction in your everyday life.
Thanks for hanging out with me!
Warmest Blessings,
Ashley
