Foreword: I have been gone awhile. If you've been a reader since the beginning, you know I have spent the last 15 years caring for loved ones through illness and aging. Last November my mother passed away. She was the last of those needing my time and attention. I've taken these months off, before her passing to care for her, and after, to heal and find my path again. I'm almost there. Rekindling this blog will be bittersweet. When I began, my mom was my biggest cheerleader. She'd lived her life with a homesteading mindset, knew about the things I was learning, coached and enabled from the sideline. Even in the latter days of her illness, she always wanted to know about my chickens and garden. I will find bits of her every time I put a thought into words. I'll be sad but I know the peace will come because she taught me that, too. Thanks, Mom!
I've been reading articles about other cultures' New Year traditions. One that I found really interesting was the old Irish custom of deep cleaning their homes. It was done (and still observed today) to help start the year with a clean slate. In our own way, we observe something like this in our home. Before Christmas everything gets a good dusting and/or washing. While we're putting away the Christmas decorations we discard the worn out items. After the holiday get togethers, we rearrange the cupboard and recycle/repurpose the mismatched plastic lids and bowls. Worn out linens get put in the dust cloth collection or sent to the workshop for greasy jobs. The fridge gets a good going over for chicken treats and kitty scraps and the stove top gets a scrub down. Molly gets a new dog bed and blanket for Christmas so we can trash the old ones. This purge is a great feeling of renewal.
About the time we get everything cleaned out, however, we start collecting other things. Egg cartons start to pile up because the hens are laying less frequently. Take out containers and deli/bakery cartons are a hot commodity for seed starting around here so we're saving all of those. Speaking of seeds, the catalogs start showing up in the mail around this time, too. There's one in every reading nook!
Suddenly, my yarn supply doesn't seem big enough either. I've finally got time to look at all the new colors. That spinning wheel I dusted before Christmas is calling my name. The jigsaw puzzles are marked down, too. I would love to get one or two new ones!
I don't have children at home to clutter up the place with new toys but I do have a DH who enjoys his big boy toys. I'm not alone in this collecting caper! There's "projects" stacked up in the workshop, parts to build a chicken plucker, and campervan supplies.
We've managed to clear out the unnecessary stuff that is a weight to hold us down and start adding the things that make us hopeful for life to continue in a fulfilling way. Here's to 2023- may you be blessed beyond measure!
