The One Notebook Principle

Winter is far from over, as the blizzard we just had will attest, but I thought it would be a good time to reflect.

Actually, I was going to post a saved draft of house project to dos for the New Year that I had written about two months ago now but it has disappeared. It was awaiting photos that I never managed to take and, after admitting that it would be better to just post the thing, now I can’t find the entry at all. Is there a limit to how long a draft ill save for?

Anyway, in looking for it in Google Drive (sometimes I’m good and I type it in Google first), I stumbled across some of the pictures I already had that I was going to add to it. These are photos my husband has taken on his phone and graciously sent me when I explained why I wanted them. So it turns out that all of the photos were taken either in the fall or summer and everything is growing and there’s no snow anywhere. Considering the almost three feet of snow we’re digging ourselves out of, these photos are a jarring reminder that, eventually, the property will look green again.

Nothing makes you think about where you are quite as much, at least for me, as a visual reminder of where you have been–which leads me to the winter reflection.

Lately I’ve become very aware of how ambitious I was in the Fall and how many projects I started, thinking I’d finish them over the winter. I should have known better. At no time is my energy lower, on average, than in the winter. The sun goes down earlier, comes up later, and there are few waking hours where I am not at work. Winter curtains help keep the house warmer, but at the cost of the bit more light that the sheer curtains of summer let in. The house is warm and cozy, but it feels like a cave I should be hibernating in. I don’t want to finish sanding the stairs, or start painting the bathroom; I want to curl up on the couch by the fire, with my cats, reading a good book with a mug of tea.

Hopefully this is something I will remember next Fall and I won’t start new projects just as the my energies levels are about to tank. I need to stop fighting my seasonal energy levels and try to work with them. With this mind, hopefully there will be future posts of all the projects I hope to complete once it is warmer. Until then you can imaging a bathroom with five different colors of paint swatches on the walls, an upstairs hallway only partially painted, stairs that are half-to-mostly sanded, and a buffet/sideboard waiting in the garage to be refinished.

You can also enjoy some of the spring and summer wildlife photos below, courtesy of my husband.