The harder you hustle, the harder it is to keep up appearances. My secret pretend boyfriend, Terrance Zdunich, compares being an artist to being a serial killer. It's the same general idea. The more you work, the harder you hustle. The more your house may now have bunnies eating the walls like that one episode of Hoarders, and the less likely you've washed your hair today. I know your nails aren't done, either!
I'm learning it's really hard to juggle all the chain saws at once in 2012. Inevitably, one or two always wind up nuzzled up against your foot. For me, the first to go is my appearance (including diet and exercise). This is followed shortly behind by home maintenance. We'll do the appearance stuff next week. This week, let's focus on what is likely your disaster of a hearth. (If yours isn't a disaster right now, feel free to be as smug as you like in the Google Group discussion!)
Here's the thing: You have to live there. You have to sleep there, at the very least. Likely you have to eat there--at least sometimes. Probably, you unwind there and possibly you even entertain there. I notice that whenever the house starts getting unraveled, it's only a matter of time before I become unraveled too.
Things you can do for hearth appreciation week:
* Tidy up living space areas. My messes are always on the two living room tables, the dining room table, and in my bedroom where it looks like my closet threw up all over my floor. When I clean those areas, I always feel significantly less psychotic.
* Buy your hearth a gift: Flowers, candles, new sheets, a new shower
curtain, an organizing unit, or new towels and/or a metal chicken
would do the trick nicely. These gifts make it nicer for you to spend time in your home.
* Cook something you don't usually have time to cook. Believe it or not, I find I don't have time to bake bread in a bread machine. This is the most ridiculous sentence in the English language. But here we are! Use fresh herbs. Make a roasted chicken. If you're more hardcore, make a soufflé or something. If you don't generally have time to cook, cooking anything at all counts!
* Magically cleanse your home. I will beat this dead horse until the day I die!
* Make light and water offerings to your deities/spirits.
* Do something else for hearth appreciation that you think of!
Happy Hearth Appreciation Week.
Cheers!
Deborah