Another Snowed in Weekend

With two storms last week, another coming tomorrow, and sleet and rain expected for the end of the week, we are really experiencing winter's longevity.  Although we are all longing for signs of spring, we've decided we can't beat it, so we might as well accept it. We hunkered in, yet again,  and busied ourselves with the cozy things of winter.

  

Although my new sewing room is almost completely set up, my fabric is still in boxes in the basement, making working on new sewing projects a bit difficult.  I have some ideas for spring sewing swimming around in my head, waiting to be implemented, so I decided it was time to tackle those boxes.  Almost a year ago I had purchased these, after seeing this idea of folding my fabric into neat little bundles and storing in a filing cabinet for easy viewing and access.  I grabbed a large box of fabric, settled down in front of the wood stove with a cup of tea, and started folding.  Before long the little ones came in to see what I was doing. They had fun playing with the scraps that I set aside for quilt making, and Little #6 even had a lesson in sewing, making her first dress for Buttercup, her stuffed horse.

I worked on my Scroll Lace scarf and gave Little #5 and #6 their first knitting lessons.  Little #6 still has a ways to go; her little fingers are so tiny, but Little #5 picked it up very quickly.  He chose a chunky brown I had in my scarp basket and wants to make a scarf for himself. He diligently worked on it for a couple of hours last night while the rest of us watched the Olympics, and he wanted to work on it again as soon as he woke up.  Since we are taking a week off from our studies, he will have plenty of time to knit this week.

Hubby and I also started a bit of de-cluttering.  I recently started reading Clutterfree with Kids, and we have been inspired to clean out the house, sheds and barns.  Although I am a very organized person and have tried to keep the clutter to a minimum, I realized that so much of my time was spent organizing, reorganizing, and reorganizing again...over and over again.  I would make or purchase storage units, containers, baskets, and shelves thinking that would be the end of it; my clutter was organized; I wouldn't have to deal with that "stuff" again, but no...that is not how it works at all.  It's a constant battle of cleaning and organizing.  After talking with Hubby, we have both decided we want to free our lives of the clutter of material things, which will mean less trips to thrift stores and goodwill, getting rid of things that may be a bit difficult to part with, and changing our focus.  We aren't going to extremes...I wouldn't say that we are even going to be considered "minimalists", we just want to take a look at what we have, get rid of what we don't need, and be mindful of what we purchase or bring back into the house.  We both want to be free of the constant cleaning and organizing...in the house and in the barns...and we want to focus on what is important.  Hubby cleaned out his drawers and closet (this was actually one of his Valentine's gifts to me) and was able to donate four garbage bags full to the local thrift store.  I also contributed a couple of bags by getting rid of magazines that I thought I would read again (yeah, right) and a number of toys.  We are already feeling lighter.  It feels good to take advantage of the time inside and get things in order, so that in a few months we can  move freely into my favorite part of homesteading, gardening.

I hope you all had a great weekend, and to those that are snowed in, I hope you are able to find ways to embrace the rest of this winter season.