From the Library

Shaker Lane by Alice and Martin Provensen

Driving around Pepacton Reservoir in the Catskills on our recent trip, we saw signs marking the "Former Site of Arena" and the "Former Site of Shaverton," two of the four towns that were destroyed to build the reservoir. This stirred vague memories, and I came home from our first trip back to the library with Shaker Lane by the wonderful Alice and Martin Provensen. 

The book recounts the rise and fall of a small village not far from the Provensens' own home in upstate New York.  It is an unsentimental story about place and loss and life going on. 

Great Household Reorganization Project of 2012!

Nesting urges are kicking in, I guess, but also just the frustrations of trying to keep the house tidy and clean when there is too much stuff floating around without homes. Peg Bracken advice to the random housekeeper is to "act immediately on whatever housewifely impulses come your way," so here we go.

Aims:

• Declutter/purge
• Assign everything homes
• Address inadequacies in our furnishings (need more seating in living room, like, yesterday)
• Better prepared environment for the kiddos
• Finally unpack and hang our pictures and artwork

Starting in the master bedroom because it needs the least work and will give me a quick and easy feeling of accomplishment and productivity. The main tasks here are to sort through my clothes and tidy the closets, add some decorations and a crucifix, as well as give it a decent cleaning. I also think I want to move the chest with the linens into the guest room and bring the kids' clothes dresser in here, in which case I need to sort through their clothes and do the big seasonal switch. If I get super-ambitious, maybe even add a Montessori-style self-care corner? 

Housekeeping and the Little Flower

I started reading Heather King's Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Thérèse of Lisieux yesterday, her feast day. It's a wonderful book on St. Thérèse, but I was particularly pleased to be reminded that "unaccustomed to housework of any kind--she'd hardly known how to fix her own hair or to make a bed before entering the convent--Thérèse was never particularly adept at sweeping, needlework, or any of her assigned chores." So there's the one thing I have in common with the Little Flower.