Finding the Sparkle

Spring Fever has hit around here!  The hubs is outside on the mower as we speak.  He's also been planting and nurturing the Spring Planting.  Then, he has been doing some cleaning and restructuring on his barn to get ready for some baby calves.  Yes, that is correct.  He is going to bottle-feed some baby calves.  I guess he and I can never get away from our dairy farm roots, huh?

Knowing that the nieces, daughter, and daughter-in-law are going to be hosting a baby shower for another daughter-in-law of ours here at our home-place, I have begun making mental lists of things I need to do to be cleaned up and spiffed up a bit.  Why do we wait till we are having company to do some really deep cleaning?  I guess it is a good thing to have company giving us that excuse at times.

After cleaning the breakfast dishes Sunday morning, I had a half-empty dishwasher.  So, I thought I would try to put a little sparkle back in the room by washing up the crystal and china that is in the china cabinet.  I frequently dust and wipe down the outside of the china cabinet.  Knowing that I don't use those dishes stored behind glass on a frequent basis, I usually will give them e quick rinse before using.  I didn't realize just how neglected this little niche was until I began emptying it out.

Even this cell-phone shot shows how the area has lost its sparkle.

So, I picked up some of the glassware, cups, and saucers and placed them in the top rack of the dishwasher.  Then, I went back to get the plates.

Oh.  My.  Goodness!

The. Dust!

I thought I was a pretty decent housekeeper but truly the dust do tell!

I'm almost embarrassed to show such filth!

Needless to say, during the next three weeks or so, everything in this house is going to be topsy-turvy as I do some deep cleaning!

Right now there is china and pressed glassware in the dishwasher.  There are crystal glasses drying on the counter.  I've washed down half of the china cabinet, the stove, the backsplash behind the stove, the toaster oven, the crocks beside the stove, the pictures on the wall between the sink and stove, and the cabinets between the sink and the stove.  I was wringing wet with sweat and had to sit down to catch my breath.  That is how this post came to be shared...

I just saw that I never posted this edition back at the beginning of the month and here it is almost the last day!  That tells you how our lives have been this month and maybe that was a Freudian thing trying to tell me not to show my dirt to the rest of the world.  As Mike well knows, I'm not that kind of girl, though!  So, here it is...

I will go ahead and update to show the finished sprucing and sparkling up:

Isn't it sparkly and beautiful?

Everything in there is so beautiful that I almost don't want to use it - I just want to sit and admire it!  However, I am of the mind that beautiful things are to be used and enjoyed.  So, Mike and I have eaten bacon and eggs on the plates and drunk V-8 and Cranberry juice out of the champagne flutes.  I drank coffee using one of the cups and saucers earlier this week as well.  I tell myself that maybe if I use these dishes more frequently I will keep it cleaner.  (Stop laughing Mama, you know I'm a better housekeeper than you or Brenda ever dreamt I'd be when I was growing up and my bedroom was a "disaster area!")

Here is a close-up for you non-believers.

It may have taken me a bit longer than even I anticipated to find the sparkle here on our plantation, but, as you see, it can be done!  I hope you find your sparkle this spring, too!