Huge October

Happy November 1st!

Wow – where do I begin?

October was a huge month for us. Both our sons got married, and we moved into the meat of renovating the new little house up north. Every day was either filled with activities or work or coordinating for upcoming work at the house. It was a time of celebrations and transitions – a time of just being present and not even necessarily being ready to put pen to paper.

Friday night as the work week wrapped up and I looked at options for a quiet weekend moving into November, I began to formalize a project. We live in a moderately sized townhome with minimal opportunity to stow away things and abide deferred decisions. Our laundry room doubles as a workhorse of a storage room. This year it has worked even harder. Everything from extra food storage and supplies to harvested seeds have gone in there from March to September. Then with the October activities, even more items made their way back there. The cluttered state it was in was not good for me – dust catching, unpleasant to look at, and not serviceable to easily access anything. It needed some love – purging and a whole lot of organizing. So you know how it goes – from realization to starting motivation to the thick of it to pragmatism taking over. Today I can walk in there and go “Ahhhhh!” Mid yesterday, not so much. Bonus was finding a 3 wick candle I love, still in the box. Nice!

Today I need to move my attention outside and pull in all the garden decorations. We had a historic (literally record breaking) early snowstorm on Oct 21 and my garden clean-up cadence got a bit derailed. I need to wrap that up before beginning hygge indoors.

My sister put together this wreath for me last year and my mother recently gave me this plate. Going into November, with the temptation to let my energy be pulled away into things that are neither productive nor beneficial, this is a good place to stay grounded.