I don’t know what it is about the new year rolling around that makes me all hopeful and optimistic.
One of my favorite first of the year things is filling in all the currently known dates on a brand new calendar. One of the tricks I’ve come up with in the past several years to keep things a little more in control is the time & events on one of those multi-colored sticky dots (9:40a G:dentist) and posting that on the calendar on February 22. Then, if (and these days, it seems it’s more likely “when”) things change, I can pull up the dot without leaving my calendar a mess of scribbles and Xs marking through things.
At the end of the year, my calendar doesn’t look like a train wreck — just a bunch of happy colorful dots on the days they actually happened. (Yes, it’s the little things!)
By the same token, that post-Christmas clean-up when we put away all the Christmas decorations, always makes me happy, too. My son and I love decorating for the holidays, and we love packing ia all away, because our newly pared down living space seems so much cleaner and clutter free. I guess that’s what happens when you take a 7 1/2 foot tree out of your living room!?
In years like this year, when New Year’s Day falls on a Friday, the 3-day weekend is so wonderful. De-Holiday on New Year’s Day, and then on Saturday and Sunday, there’s time to take a day or two to tidy up the rest of the house, putting things back in the places that they go. Because we live in small farmhouse house built in 1947, we’re short on closet space, so keeping a handle on all the stuff is key for us to not getting overwhelmed.
Making time to sharpen all the pencils so they have nice pointy points, test the dry erase markers and magic marker and throw away any that are running low on ink, and hunt for all the lost scissors and stick them back into the scissors spot. Double-check on staple items: ruled paper, unlined paper, tape, and … well…staples.
It’s a new year!
Time to hit the mid-season reset-button. Give yourself a boost to the start off year right! Maybe, just maybe it will help us stave off the wintertime doldrums for at least a while because February….it’s out there…