I was that girl today

My family and I have been in this year long process of getting government installed windows. If you live in the city and have children under the age of 5 living in a home built before 1970 you can qualify for new windows if yours have lead in them.

Guess what? Ours did!!!! And so we went to the day long class, we have filed over 35 pages of paperwork, faxed our taxes 4 times, and called more than 20 times.

One of the stipulations is that you, the homeowner, are responsible for scraping off all the lead infested paint around your house, cleaning it up and sealing it in under new paint. So, my parents came into town over Thanksgiving and my dad and my husband went out and scrapped and scrapped until the sun went down.

It was so great. The scrapping that is.

What wasn't so great? The fact that they scrapped it off and let it all fall to the ground. Paint fragments just sprinkling down, drifting and resting all over our yard. Well, there was snow at the time, so you couldn't see the paint.

Now the snow has melted, and now there are paint chips all over our yard. Big paint chips and small paint chips, scattered along the house, some in the grass, and most along the dirt in the back around the garage.

We have to repaint in the next couple weeks, and our new windows will be coming in August. We have to get a complete full inspection of being lead free before we get windows.

So what are my options? I can't rake, because I won't get all the pieces. I can't sweep, because frankly that would take forever and not sure its possible in the grass and dirt.

I put a call into my friend and borrowed his shop vac. Yup that's right, I was going to vacuum it up and rid ourselves of lead invested paint chips so that we could get free windows.

It was beautiful out today and my project was vacuuming. Vacuuming our yard.

There I was, my kids riding bikes and me bending over vacuuming our grass, dirt, flower beds and wood piles. I was totally that crazy lady who no one knows what they're doing and the method to the madness doesn't make sense.

Of course in my hours of crazy work, vacuuming our grass, three neighbors stopped by to talk. Why oh why do visitors seem to come when you least want them.

So there it is. I vacuumed my yard today. It felt as weird as it sounds.