Every Little Thing by April Jeppson

 

I noticed this week that my foundation is a tad too dark, which means that my skin has reverted back to it’s pre-summer color — the color that my face gets after months of hiding indoors. This made me check my tan lines — what tan lines? They are gone, too. When did this happen?

Days turn into weeks, weeks into months and now it’s November. We’ve reached the point of the year where it is socially acceptable to purchase Christmas presents. It’s also acceptable for it to start snowing any day now. Ugh.

I’ll be honest. I’m not ready. There are all these things I planned on doing after the kids went back to school. When the weather is warm enough to work outside in the evening and cool enough to work outside in the day I wanted to repaint my front door. I really need to paint my kitchen. I actually have a few rooms that I had intended to paint. It’s not just painting though.

I’m trying to declutter. I read somewhere that a messy room is a reflection of a cluttered mind, or something like that. It was a hard truth, but I know myself well enough to know that I need to declutter both my mind and my house. After losing a few pounds this summer I’ve found that my bedroom is filled with clothes that don’t fit. So my daily routine is me digging around for something to wear, only to be bummed that everything I grab doesn’t fit. It’s not only frustrating, it’s a waste of my time — precious time.

So I literally have two clothes baskets sitting in my house that are filled with clothes that I need to get rid of. Consign, sell online, donate — but then guests come over and then I have to hide the baskets back in my room. Then they slowly start to get intermingled into my other clothes, and here I am again digging through clothes that I’ve already decided don’t fit.

I also have these items in my garage that I’ve been meaning to get to get rid of. We don’t own a truck, and our weekends are busy with work and activities. Trying to locate a truck we can borrow during a time when we are available and the dump is open has proven to be a tad tricky. I have to get my garage cleaned out before the snow really starts to fall, or all that stuff will be trapped in there till spring.

I did get my tomato fences taken down, but all the plants are still out there. The hose needs to be put away. The back porch needs to be cleaned up. I really wanted to redo some of the patio blocks by my front steps. Pull the dead weeds. Bag up some more leaves. Winterize the A/C. Pack up the swings from the swing set. Good grief! I feel like the list has grown! Oh, and we lose an hour of precious daylight on Sunday. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take an extra hour of sleep, but I gotta get some stuff done.

I know that any day now it could snow. It could stick or melt. We could get a few inches that last or maybe just a dusting and have a nice warm week. Minnesota is weird like that. November is weird like that. We really don’t know how it’s going to play out. Every day that it’s warm enough to get things done, you can look around your block and see that people are taking advantage of it.

I love winter, but I’m not ready for it. I bet if we all think positive, the weather will cooperate for a few more weeks, and we can all accomplish a few more things on our list that we haven’t gotten to yet. Seriously. Repeat after me. “This is amazing weather. I love how warm it is. I heard we aren’t going to get snow till after Thanksgiving.”

Albert Lean April Jeppson is a wife, mom, coach and encourager of dreams.