Household Journal -- Hallowing the House

Country House in a Park, Jacob van Ruisdael

Happy Valentine's Day by the way!

You remember I was going to study Splendor in the Ordinary along with a winter home decluttering project?  I haven't forgotten the idea but I do admit it's been on the back burner way longer than I planned.

A few things happened that kept me from pursuing my plan.   I've had to be out of the house way more than I usually am in January and February.  In some ways it's been nice to get out of the house, and it's certainly given me more reading time on the Kindle while waiting for this or that son to be done with this or that appointment! but it hasn't been conducive to a serene, thoughtful decluttering project.

And when I am home, I need my remaining planning/executing brain cells to actually help my sons through their homeschooling.    I am not saying we get everything done, but I really don't want to be going through July, and that's what will happen if we don't at least chip away at the textbooks.

And then there's maintenance -- the basic cooking (very basic) and laundry and chores and hugs and conversation that it takes to keep this house from becoming a House with no Heart, a house lacking its core stability of a mom who is paying at least a modicum of attention.

Also, I got sick, though I'm finally getting a bit better.

But a key reason that I haven't gotten much further on the decluttering and cleaning is that I got stuck on the Entryway chapter, the very first one.  For two reasons:

1.   Because the entryway chapter involves a philosophical puzzle that I don't have an answer for.
2.  Because our entryway in winter is usually a sort of impromptu airlock/storage room/frozen zone.   Right now it's buried in firewood, kindling, cardboard boxes (more kindling), boots, gloves and winter gear.  There's a sled in there too.  Oh and several boxes of things on their way out to a donation site.

So I'm going to make the entryway the Final Project in the decluttering. That will give me more time to think through the philosophical part.  In another post I'll try to describe that part of it.