Friday, January 25, 2019

Calming


January seems to naturally bring with it a desire for calming all the things: schedule, visual spaces, clutter, disorganization, etc.

This past weekend calming was on my agenda: putting away all of the Christmas decorations - I was ready earlier than usual and although this year I loved our Christmas decoration arrangements perhaps more than any other year, I was just ready to put it away and calm the house and visual stimulation.

Saturday morning started slow and I stayed in my pj's until after lunch! I made these enormous cinnamon rolls which were a.m.a.z.i.n.g. Seriously, I didn't expect them to be so good but they were!

On the topic of food and drink, have you ever tried the Orange Ginger Mint {this is an affiliate link} hot tea at Panera? Oh my goodness, it was so good - I looked it up on Amazon. It's a little pricey so I am waiting for now to see if I can find it elsewhere, but wow, so tasty with some honey in it!


After some yummy breakfast and sitting quietly for a while, it was time to tackle the calming of the house and Christmas decor! I'm so grateful for this stage where my children are such a help! They got all of the bins up and down from the attic for me and helped pack things up since David was out of town. Such a blessing.


While we had the bins out, I wanted to go through and really make some decisions about things I've been holding onto but not really pulling out to use. I set out a box of things for the girls to look through and give their opinion on and they only wanted to keep one thing so I happily packed it back up and put the rest in the donate bin!


I spent some time clearing anything extra off of the counters and trying to create some calm there. Getting things all put back in their rightful place feels good and so peaceful. And, in the case of the entry way, I reworked some things I had to come up with a new arrangement. David's mom painted this barn picture which I brought home from her house a year ago and it has been sitting in my closet - high time to do something good with it!


Rachel and I had fun poking around some fun little shops over the weekend and we stumbled upon this lavender store that I didn't even know about! Lavender everything you can imagine inside:


And we came home to this sweet little scene that Emily and Samuel worked on to surprise us! Homemade cookies, carrots picked from the garden, little gathered flowers and a card drawn with love:


After dinner, I enjoyed the calm of a clean kitchen while peeling and trimming these carrots and some other veggies for meal prep -


In other news, I'm trying to sleep without a sound machine at night. Realizing that sensory rest was an area I needed to improve upon, I wondered if blocking out noise at night was more work than benefit. So far, it does seem to be helping me feel more rested in the morning to sleep in complete quiet rather than listening to the creek sound even though I love it.

What sorts of things calm your senses?

3 comments:

Deb said...

I am not sure where you live, but Cost Plus World Market sells that brand of tea and you can sometimes get coupons for them. Hope that helps!

Monica Wilkinson said...

@Deb: oooh! Thanks for the tip! I wondered if World Market would have it, so I'm glad to know they sell that brand. We have one about 30 minutes away. Have a great weekend!

Jen said...

That barn painting is so lovely! I'm glad you were able to find a place for it. And I bookmarked those cinnamon rolls. Yum!