Outside: The sun is setting over a snowy hillside. That's right.  While Instagram is showing me the beginnings of spring from my coastal friends, we just got another six inches or so of snow.  In fact, we just took advantage of some end of season good luck and bought a snowblower.  Our sons are beside themselves with relief.  

Wearing: a navy linen tunic dress with black leggings and boots.  Variations of this theme are pretty common right now.  

Around the house: deep cleaning happening.  Now that we have had a few days in a row at home I have been tackling some long put off chores like pulling out the fridge and wiping down the light fixtures.  

Reading:  I read The Great Divorce on the road trip.  It was a fast read and gave me lots to mull over.  I hesitate to recommend without Lewis' own disclaimer:

"I beg readers to remember this is a fantasy. It has of course – or I intended it to have – a moral.  But the transmittal conditions are solely and imaginative supposal: they are not even a guess or a speculation at what may actually await us. The last thing I wish to arouse is factual curiosity about the details of the afterworld."

I agree wholeheartedly.  Whatever awaits is bigger and wider and deeper than we will ever be able to picture literally.  I read the story thinking his hell or purgatory is actually more akin to our daily decisions here in life. THAT part of the story is not meant to be considered literally.  It is the character discussion, the life choices that he means for us to consider well.  With that said the analogies are convicting, especially this one about grumbling:

"Understand me.  The question is whether she is a grumbler or only a grumble?

But how can there be a grumble without a grumbler?

It begins with a grumbling mood,  and yourself still distinct from it: perhaps criticizing it. and yourself in a dark hour, may will that mood, may embrace it. Ye can repent and come out of it again. But there may come a day when you do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood, not even to enjoy it, just the grumble itself going on forever like a machine…."

While my total number of classic novels read is still short of my target I am encouraged by this article. 

"Here’s how much time a single American spends on social media and TV in a year: 608 hours on social media and 1642 hours on TV. That’s 2250 hours a year spent on TRASH. If those hours were spent reading instead, you could be reading over 1,000 books a year!"

Now I don't think I read as many pages per minute as the author estimates but I would be happy reading even 20 books a year.  A good deal of my reading time I don't "count" right now because it is nonfiction/instructional content but it's still happening.  

Listening to: my children, my husband, the quiet, the pages turning.  I began something of a social media fast early this year, mainly Facebook which requires closer monitoring and feedback and is more and more given to debate and disagreement.  

Years ago when Managers of Their Homes (MOTH) was a popular topic of discussion I recall an article where a woman showed her hourly spread for the week.  She was contemplating committing to a new project and put her head together with her husband who said very practically, "Which of these squares can you take off the chart each week?"  Those old enough to remember know that MOTH recommended an hourly grid you could fill with removeable post it notes that were labelled with your commitments like appointments or classes or housework or meetings etc.  While some balk at the regularity of it all it IS a good tool to lay out your days and check to see if you are trying to cram more activities into your day than there are free hours to do them.  

That happens.  

It was happening here.  

I have some personal creative projects I wanted to commit to and we had a wedding, a First Holy Communion to prepare for, a mentorship to complete, and family travel.  Then we got a large scale basement remodel added to that. Something needed to go because my thoughts were scattered a dozen different directions.  Pulling back helped me find more hours.  More quiet.  Sometimes it feel too quiet and the lost conversation is felt keenly. It was a good decision for right now though.  

Towards wellness: We joined a local athetic club and are having a marvelous time together there.  My air hockey skills are awesome just so you know.  I rock the game room.  The other rooms, not so much but we are improving.  We are doing a Whole30 during lent though modified to accomodate the tradtional fasting and abstinence.  Feels good.  

Creating: new projects in the works.  If you are over on IG or the Facebook biz page there will be updating happening there. Basically I am rambling and thinking out loud over here and sharing artsy images over there.