Spring has sprung, again

The problem with keeping a house blog for so many years is that the stories all start to look very similar. For every spring that we've lived here, we've thatched and overseeded the lawn and hoped to make it look healthy. There's only so much to be said about it. So let's just dispense with that this year. We're doing it and keeping our fingers crossed, as usual. The yard is looking mostly the same, too. So here are just a few updates for this spring.

First on the side of the house - the snowdrops our neighbor gave us came up beautiful, though perhaps a bit short-lived. A fun sign of early spring:

Our cherry tree, which seemed to have a growth spurt last year, is looking happier than usual, and awed the toddler with its pretty pink flowers:

We decided our 6 year old, homemade door wreath was looking a little sad (it shed flowers every season) so we bought a new one that makes us smile:

I can't decide if I should paint the hanger so it blends into the door better or not. Also I feel like the wreath would look better hanging a bit lower but apparently a 12'' drop (which this is) is standard. Thoughts?

Finally, a question - many of our flowering plants, like these hyacinths, are already looking singed (the leaves on the pink and purple) and shriveled (the purple in the back). It's been relatively cool and not particularly dry, and other plants I've seen around town look healthy, so what should we be doing to keep the around longer and happier?

What would you do?

So for about 2 months now, we've had a person come clean our house every two week (yay, New Year's resolution!). It works out well, despite my discomfort with hiring professional help for things I am able to do myself. But I must admit that not cleaning a bathroom or dusting since 2015 has been glorious.

We have an interesting relationship because I have only see her a total of 3 times. She is only available to clean on a week day when I'm at work, so besides our initial meeting and a couple times she has still been finishing up when I get home, we communicate only through sparse notes and me leaving her pay on the table. I have her phone number but have never felt comfortable calling her. We also have a small language barrier, which always feels much more insurmountable over the phone than in person.

There are small things I don't like - she could perhaps be a little more aggressive with the grout lines, and I occasionally see spots she's missed, but really, it's much better than I have ever done. The most annoying thing is that despite our efforts to declutter the night and morning before she comes, she always finds things to "put away" and then we scramble to figure out where she put them. It's almost like a scavenger hunt, though, and my toddler actually finds it funny. (Oh, and also, we've blamed some things on her, like when the cleaning lady "apparently" dismantled the toddler's cluttered lego structure when it was really us. She makes a very useful scapegoat.)

Today though, I came home to discover that our silk table runner had gotten bleached:

It's a sentimental piece that we bought when we traveled to China, and we actually have managed to keep it stain-free all this time despite the toddler's (and her friends') best efforts. So it was a bit heartbreaking to see.

So what to do? We certainly don't expect her to pay for it, especially since it's not about the money. Do we ignore it completely? Do we mention it in two weeks in a small note of "please be more careful next time"? Do we actually take the plunge and call her to mention it? We are leaning towards a note, but do a few lines on a post-it risk more confusion than a call or just ignoring that it happened?

First world problems, I know. But having never really hired regular help, I'm left completely clueless as to how this works.