So the holidays are pretty much over–Twelfth Night still to come. After that, I put away the ornaments, and it’s just Winter.
Busy late morning/early afternoon. Haircut. Errands. Home and late lunch and now it’s figuring out what to do next. I need to write some late Christmas notes, set up 2020 business files, and continue the seemingly never ending task that is the sorting out of my Life. The problem with that is that I decide to toss something, then check to see if it can be recycled. If the answer is Yes, I set it aside in a different place, which means it’s still in my house. If the answer is No, I wonder if I looked hard enough. Then I stumble over the crafty articles describing how to reuse different things, and I really freeze up despite the fact that I have no intention of ever making gift tags from old greeting cards.
Today, I sucked it up, and sorted through old cards, some dating from 2003. Reread a few notes. Teared up once or twice. But it was time to let them go. I tossed the plain paper ones into the recycling bin, and consigned the ones with foil and other decorations to the garbage. Then I filled a box with the boxes of unused cards and stashed it in my office closet. I swear, I have more Christmas, birthday, and other assorted cards than I will ever use. But I know where they are now, and have a general idea of the inventory.
I would like to do one small organizing task every day, but I’ve found in the past that if I miss a day, I feel like I’ve failed. That way lies freezing up. Instead, I will settle for most days a week. Organize one shelf. Get rid of one box–large or small, doesn’t matter. It took decades for me to accrue all this stuff. I won’t clear it out in a week.
What other 2020 not-calling-them-resolutions do I have? Write more, and try to settle into the more regular schedule that has eluded me for years. I would like to revive this blog. I have both Jani Kilian and Lauren Reardon/Gideon Witches stories in progress, and various other short and longer works rattling around in my head , and I’m having the same problem there that I’m having with everything else, namely an inability to settle on one thing and finish it before moving on. Given that I will soon be entering my Social Security years, one would think I should’ve figured this out by now.
I…guess not.
In other news, the weekend menu will include an English roast that will be turned into a pot roast. I will likely blend a couple of recipes, this one from Taste of Home and this one from my longtime favorite, Ina Garten aka The Barefoot Contessa. We’re expecting a little snow over the weekend, and pot roast seems a nice, homey antidote to the winter gloom.