A gentle walk into the new year

Hello friends. It’s been a while. I know I’ve always had a hard time consistently keeping up with writing but, you know, a pandemic and all really slowed my writing speed down to a screeching halt. As I sit here writing these words, I realize just what a strange and difficult year we leave behind. It is all still hard to process and digest and honestly, I don’t think I’ve allowed myself to process everything. I mean, we’re still going through it, so it can’t be neatly tucked away inside a memory yet.

I hope you are well and coping the best you can. It has been extremely hard but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I just know things are going to get brighter. My daughter, who is an ER nurse, gets her second dose of vaccine tomorrow and that takes a heavy load of worry off my life. I hope all healthcare and frontline workers get their shots soon. And, I especially hope that seniors and those in long term care receive the vaccine as soon as possible. Together, we will get through this.

So, in the big picture, painting and redecorating a room didn’t seem that important and that’s partially why I stopped writing here. But I did continue to paint, as it was a way for me to cope through the worry and the stress, and of course I was home anyways. Over the last half of 2020 I did manage to work on our upper level. Except for the flooring, (which still needs to be replaced in all the rooms), I finished (almost) three bedrooms.

What was once our guestroom turned into ‘my’ office (which due to my husband now working at home for the foreseeable future, has now been reallocated to ‘his’ office) – it’s ok, really, I am ok with it now. Although, I have to admit, it was a bit of a tough realization, when the paint was barely dry. But let’s just say, an office away from the main floor is much more liveable when one is quite a loud boisterous talker. 

I also almost completed our oldest daughter’s room/guest room/sewing room and our younger daughter’s room as well.  The last one was totally not planned and all of the sudden last September, before she moved out to her own apartment we ordered paint and just started doing it! 

I also spent most of November organizing and purging our basement storage. Most everything is in bins, safely packed away and visibly labelled. It was a massive effort but I could feel my shoulders slowly lowering as I went through each box. Over the next few weeks I hope to highlight some of these projects here.

So yes, I was quiet on here but I was still forging through with projects, albeit at a different pace than normal. In fact, ‘gin finch’ has become a verb in our household. ‘Ooh, are you going to gin finch this room?’  I kind of like that idea and I want to continue to ‘gin finch’ the rest of the house. Last year I set out to love my house again. At the time I had no idea what lay ahead, but in the end, as I look back, I did almost exactly what I had set out to do. I cleaned, decluttered and organized.  I painted the walls, refinished some furniture and restyled the book shelfs. And now, I love all of these rooms. 

I’m approaching this new year a little differently than most. No long lists of impossible to-dos or resolutions. I have plenty I want to do and work on but I’m walking into a more gentle new year. I can see where I’m headed and I know if I need to change direction for a while or longer, I have the strength to do that. It feels good to be back and I hope you follow along with me as I continue to ‘gin finch’ our house this year and just appreciate a good walk by the lake.