Finding our patience during holidays and snow
Finding patience during holidays and during snow storms is something I am having a very hard time finding this year! I drove to work a couple of weeks ago and had to stop to take a picture of the beautiful trees. Of course I missed the exact moment of perfection that happened at dawn, before the trees had a little time with the breeze to lose some of their snow cover. But I digress, it was beautiful, cold and wet and nasty, but still beautiful. I have been counting down the days, weeks, moments, to when spring will get here. (It is not at all a good sign that I am already to this point and it isn’t even January yet.) Technically, it will be at least into the month of March before we probably see anything resembling anything but winter – this is northern Minnesota after all. But gosh how I am already ready for spring.
I miss my garage and my work shop, I miss being able to keep all of my projects away from the finished house until they are done! I miss not making a ridiculous mess every time I want to work on anything because it all has to be done inside now. I miss not having to put on eight layers of gear to just go make some cuts out in the garage with my miter saw. Have I complained enough yet? Sorry it seems I have taken on a bit of a Grinch-like attitude. The holidays were good here but, admittedly (here I go again) I felt frustrated with getting them over enough so I can work on projects in the house again. Lol. I wonder if this is typical of DIYers? “Go away holidays I have projects to focus on!”
Diesel has become my spirit animal over the course of the last month. He likes to eat, sleep and be heavily loved and cuddled with a brief little walk out to the barn once a day. He comes in from his doggie door and goes directly to sit in front of our wood stove, looking at me like, “What? Why are you giggling? You do the same thing every day!” I can’t deny it, the wood stove has become the heart of our home. At any one time one (or both of us) will be either standing in front of it or adding wood to it.
Finding patience during holidays has always been a chore for me, at least after I hit puberty. Not that I haven’t always loved and enjoyed Christmas and New Years, honestly I’m always just ready for things to return to our normal groove. Which is something Joe and I have found now, as newly weds in our “new” house, we have most certainly fallen into our groove – a groove I am very happy with. It is a quiet groove that includes lots of kisses, support and good old fashioned labor from the barn to the wood shed. It is good and I am overcome from time to time in just how fortunate we are to have found each other.
The other weekend morning I went to the couch after I got up (as I do every morning for my one hour on facebook and my one cup of coffee before starting my day – I am not a morning person) and just when I was about to get up and get my butt in gear, here came Diesel. Shoot, I guess I just had to wait him out and not get off the couch until he was done defrosting from his two minute run outside. Joe took this picture first with my morning expression of: Don’t-talk-to-me-don’t-look-at-me and he told me to smile for goodness sake! So, I did, though my expression before it was perfectly the look on Diesel’s face: pure hibernation. He’s a big dog to insist on being on top of me so often but, no, he will not (truly cannot) just occupy the couch beside me. I don’t mind.
So, Joe and I will be enjoying our first New Years as a married couple. It will be a quiet one. In fact our plan is to go and see the new Star Wars movie in town then sneak over to my mom’s house (she’ll be gone that weekend) so we can watch the ball drop together. (We don’t have cable or dish or anything besides an internet connection and Amazon Prime.) This weekend I can finally get back to having nothing to worry about but projects on the house and I am finally beginning to truly whittle it down. I still have a ton of closet doors to make: my New Years resolution will be to stop procrastinating on them! I don’t know how it happened but we were not able to get moving on the big barn door we plan on hanging over our master bathroom door but, I know we’ll get to it sometime soon.
I hope you guys all had a wonderful holiday and are looking forward to next year as we are!
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When yo have “stuff” you want to do, holidays can be an unwelcome distraction! Maybe you need to schedule the holidays in and not plan on any projects in December that aren’t related to Christmas!! Procrastination is a terrible thief of your time and energy…I find myself doing tasks I really don’t like just to avoid doing something. Make a list of what you want to do, put it in order of priority and just start at the top and check those babies off!!! Making a commitment where you have accountability (like on your blog) helps too – you have too much pride to not meet your commitments!!! Have a Happy New Year then get back to DIY!!!
Thank you!! You’re so right, I need to learn to plan better and not let myself get anxious! Its not like the holidays coming up is a surprise or anything!