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Continuing the kitchen shelf organizing, weeded out the cookbooks that we were not actually using and leaving the ones we do.

Also, replacing a vessel we never used beyond a bookend with the one our everyday silver lives in.

Another project completed today, after taking the Christmas Tree down, was to hang this stained glass piece in our front bay window.

We are blessed to have several friends who are talented local potters. We are further blessed to be able to use their work around our dinner table daily. With the kitchen shelf reorganized it means we can display and easily access some of those most used pieces.

One of my goals for this month was to try to tackle one organizing/beautifying project around the house every day. Some days I’ve been better than others but if I miss one day and do two the next I’m counting it as a win.

Here’s a before/after of the main shelf in the kitchen.

Winter storm. Spent two hours last night snowblowing and shoveling various properties and neighbors as the snow had stopped. Thought we’d get a little more. Instead, we got at least as much as I shoveled yesterday. They say more’s on the way. At least it’s pretty.

Some Things I’ve Learned in 2022

  1. You can’t fight faith with facts.
  2. The world is made up of maps or traps.
  3. Changing where you are does not change where you’ve been.
  4. If you have a problem with them, and them, and them, and them, the problem is probably you.
  5. Failure is the tuition you pay for success.
  6. The main thing that keeps one from learning a new skill or ability is fear of failure.
  7. So many of us are just trying to make the best choices we can in constantly changing conditions with limited and conflicting information in the midst of fear and uncertainty. Most of us are doing our best. It’s not the best that can be done, but it’s the best we can do.
  8. Minimalism is a destination. Enough is a journey. It may lead you to Minimalism but it may not. The only place I expect it to lead is contentment.
  9. Do you know why history repeats? Because humans do.
  10. Task yourself with a huge must-do project that has a deadline far out enough that you can safely procrastinate on it for a day or two. Watch your productivity on every other possible thing go way up to avoid that one.
  11. The less technology involved, the better the tool. The tool with the least moving parts will last the longest. Digital bits are moving parts. Electricity is a moving part.
  12. Not all dependencies are moving parts, but every moving part creates a dependency. Dependencies introduce potential points of failure where none otherwise exist.
  13. A new way I’m thinking about mental health stuff is: “Do my feelings fit?” In other words, is how I’m feeling appropriate for the situation. Am I more sad or happy than I normally should be?
  14. We are never in the middle of nowhere. Every place is somebody’s somewhere.
  15. Once we can divorce profit and passion, only then can we find passion in any profit and truly profit from our passion.
  16. I personally believe, at the core, all faiths arise from the same place and hold the same core values.
  17. One day, I hope not to measure my days in minutes or hours, but in miles walked and pages read.
  18. New skills learned: Table saw safety, repairing rope and sash windows, installing laminate floors and ceramic tile.
  19. Most people will never notice if you use the good stuff when you could have used the cheap stuff. But, people in the know will always notice when you use the cheap stuff when you should have used the good stuff.
  20. Though honesty, even without malice, is not always pleasant, it is kind.