2016: A Year of Change

So, what with having all kinds of personal upheaval going on and determined that 2016 has to finish better than it started, I have decided to really kick myself in the butt and get my house in shape. No, I still can't afford the repairs it needs, but I can declutter and organize myself better. To that end, I am jumped into the #365Declutter/365 Days to an Organized House approach, which breaks things down into 15-minute tasks every day, for the whole year. The whole year! I am writing this here as a form of accountability to myself, because we all know what a lazy housekeeper I am. I know, me, the woman who hates mopping and vacuuming and dusting, committing to an entire year of getting her nest in order. And D lent me her copy of the super-popular decluttering book that has been on the New York Times best seller list. Because in for a penny, in for a pound, right? Immerse myself and maybe some of it will stick.

January's focus is the kitchen, which indicates mine is not alone in being in the messy heart of the home. I have managed to keep up with several, dare I say most, of the daily tasks, although one pesky counter still needs to be cleared of its mess. Drawers organized, things tossed, even leftover shelf liner laid--who is this me? Tackling the pet food cupboard was supposed to be easy, but then I discovered a hidden dead nest of my mortal enemies, the carpet beetles. They apparently gorged themselves on stray kibble and then starved to death. I hope it was a miserable ending. I hate those things with the blinding passion of a thousand brilliant suns.

Urban Home cover house it will never be, but maybe the Mossy Nest can shed its Messy Nest alter ego this year. And of course, help me to feel a little in control of my dustiny, er, destiny.

Halloween Hike

Long time, no post, not much positive to talk about, so I won't.  Instead, photos of a hike SoM (Sister of Mossy), my friend T, and I took this past weekend down south.

Watch the Boys Run

Dudley and his buddy, Bertram. A mini flip book.

Engaged Reasonableness

"Adulthood, for Kant and for Neiman, “requires facing squarely the fact that you will never get the world you want, while refusing to talk yourself out of wanting it.” It is a state of neither easy cynicism nor naïve idealism, but of engaged reasonableness."

A.O. Scott, New York Times Sunday Book Review (June 15, 2015) of Susan Neiman's Why Grow Up? Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux, 2015.

I think this is where I have been stuck these past couple of months, facing the reality of my world and trying to figure out how to engage reasonably with it. Ah, the imminent arrival of a certain birthday...

Much better to just add a few photos of beautiful dogs instead of ruminating on philosophical questions that have been pestering us for at least 300 or 400 years.

DPNs--The Scourge of the World

DPN's--I hate them. They slide. They slide out. They misbehave. They are a curse.

Melted Snowdrops

Melted snowdrops on the Nandina sp. yesterday. The leaves turn red when freezing temperatures arrive.

Happy New Year 2015!