When I got up this am, it was -3 degrees F outside. But, inside our house it was 68 degrees F. Thanks you, Lord, for a good furnace!! When we bought this house, I was a little concerned about what winter would be like. This is a cute house, but it is probably 60 years old and has mostly original windows. But, the original windows all have storm windows on the outside, so we can keep the cold air at bay. Our upstairs is pretty chilly, though. One bedroom (mine and P's) has a heater vent, another has a grate in the floor to let heat up from the main floor, and the other bedroom (L's) has no source of heat. L refuses to keep her door open at night, though, because the cats come in and jump on her at night! Despite that, her room is not really freezing - she sleeps under a comforter and a sleeping bag.
We have a fuel oil furnace now, which took a little getting used to. The fuel oil company will come around and fill our tank every month or so. Our other house had natural gas so we didn't have to worry about a tank and all that.
We also have a sidewalk in front of out house now which has to be kept free of snow. There are a couple of inconveniences, though. Since we don't have an attached garage, we have to keep a path from the door to the garage clear. It is also a small garage and P hasn't gotten it clean enough to put the car in yet. The van will have to stay outside. Our trash cans are right outside the back door, but I still got pretty cold putting trash and recycling out into the cans.
Having a small house has required some significant changes for us. We have taken loads of stuff to Goodwill, but still have some storage issues. Our basement is finally pretty clear, but still needs to be organized.
I have been thinking lately about the whole issue of having so much "stuff". P and I read the book Margin by Dr. Richard Swenson a few years ago and were very convicted about having such overloaded lives. We got rid of a bunch of stuff then, but still had way too much for our lives right now. We have also had to learn to be careful about using our time. Not having so much stuff and having a smaller house will mean that we have to spend less time taking care of our stuff. I have realized that there are many shows on TV about organizing and cleaning out our houses. It seems that our society has gotten so stuff-overloaded that we can't even take care of it all!
I caught a little bit of Nanny 911 on TV last night when I was walking on the treadmill and was pretty appalled by what I saw - the family, not the nanny. One parent was looking for the kids to meet her needs for friendship while the other parent was not really paying attention to the kids. No wonder they were out of control! I think, though, that the underlying issue of overload may be at play here. The family was too overloaded (i.e. too tired and busy) to really relate to each other. I may hate my headaches, but they have forced us to deal with the excess stuff (material, time, emotional) in our lives.
Well, that's enough for being philosophic. I'm off to do some more knitting!
1 comment:
What about Flylady? I know you were on her email list at one time. I got her book, Sink Reflections, last Christmas and it was really good. Your local library probably has a copy. It not only talks about decluttering the "stuff" (which it does a good job addressing) but also about how decluttering will simplify your life and bring your priorities back into focus! I love the idea of date night every Friday although I honestly haven't been doing it. I like her philosophy about baby steps too! It's so hard to do it all at once----you get too overwhelmed. The book is a great motivator if you're looking for something to address getting rid of the stuff and simplifying your life. Interestingly, Flylady (Marla) is a Christian and our pastor did a sermon one Sunday which talked about procrastination (which ties into some of her philosophies about decluttering your life). Just a little reminder about her in case you forgot! Good luck!
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