My inspiration for creating and hosting this challenge is actually threefold. One is my husband, Doug, the second is a Facebook post made by a friend and the third was inspiration itself - I want a clean home, my favourite Sabbat is coming, I bet there are a couple of others that are in the same place, we could do it together!
Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving and honestly I didn't think we'd be celebrating. You see nearly nine months ago, February 19th to be exact, we had a huge flood in our home which completely damaged our kitchen, to the point where it had to be fully gutted, right down to the wall studs. We were already in a state of flux at the time of this happening, planning for a wedding on March 21st (ours), moving the final vestiges of my previous home up to Edmonton, and living in the time capsule that was Doug's parents' house. Sorting through my things, his things, their things and just years of accumulation of stuff on all our parts, we were surrounded by life-draining, overwhelming, and down right piss-off amounts of crap. Yours, mine and ours had taken on an entirely new dimension!
I puttered here and there, sometimes working up the energy to make some real progress and then would hit a wall of frustration. Apathy - why bother until the kitchen is repaired? Two steps forward, 9,365 steps backward. A BAD BAD attitude and honestly we were both guilty of it. Doug may have worked more than even the busy season required and spent time at home glued to the TV. I slept, then slept some more, then pretended to get something done, procrastinated and the worst part, turned to buying things as I am wont to do when depressed. So much money spent on so many stupid little things at my new addiction, the weekly auctions.
This past Sunday became a turning point for both of us, though we each reacted in quite different ways. By 11:00 AM our kitchen & den were filled with dozens of flat-packed boxes and little plastic packages from Ikea. The kitchen cabinets (or at least most of them) had been delivered! We checked off all 173 items, labeled them by cabinet location, and proudly gazed at the next, and most important step, to returning to a life of some normalcy (as much as we can claim anyway, lol). These piles and piles of random sized boxes and bags, from the huge back panel of 36"x 96" to the tiny packages of hinge dampeners, represented our future kitchen. The fifty-dollar question - waiting again, how long until the contractor would come and do this part?
Doug, my amazing, patient, loving, and Oh so frustrated! husband took action while I buried my head in the sand of sleep in pure depressed, "OMG there is so much! I can't do this" frustration. For the past seven months our "kitchen" consisted of a stove, a fridge and a free-standing Cuisinart cabinet and we'd both had quite enough of it. Before lunch Doug grabbed his wallet and went out to buy the fixings for a home cooked turkey dinner. All afternoon, with the help of our 16 year old daughter, he cooked us a simple but delicious, from scratch, Thanksgiving supper. AND he began the process of measuring and preparation to install the cabinets. By the time he had supper ready to serve, Doug had also assembled and installed SIX of the upper cabinets. My hero!!
We plopped ourselves in front of the TV for a family Thanksgiving dinner (remember, no kitchen to eat in) while watching a movie. Ordinarily a Marvel film would have my undivided attention but that night a fire had been lit and I was not going to leave this all to hubby, time to make some real plans. Originally, this was all intended to be something I was doing alone, for myself and my family, then I came across a photo shared on facebook by a friend, "As I see the old year out, I sweep away all fear and doubt. The coming year will be good for me, As I become all I can be." Epiphany! Plan a full out autumn cleaning expressly with the goal being a beautiful Samhain and beginning to the new Celtic Year!
Better yet, why do this alone?? It is, and always has been, my life purpose to help others, whether it is one person or one hundred, the numbers are not the point, I just want to help. If I am in this boat, there are likely others who are as well; the boat may look different in each person's case, but we are all feeling like we're baling as fast as we can with no visible progress. I sent out some feelers into Facebook land to see if I could drum up some interest. I did not expect the response I would get! In less than 24 hours from the first inklings of an idea 16 people had signed up, perhaps more by the time this post is live, and here we all are!! Welcome! I look forward to getting to know all of you <3.
I've set up the event page on facebook and I will also set up a closed group for private sharing for those that prefer that. From October 16th to October 30th we are going to work together to prepare our homes and ourselves for Samhain and a New Year on the Celtic Wheel.
This was not meant to be so flipping long, so I apologise for my wordiness :). But having said all that, I would love to hear from you before we begin, what are the challenges that you are facing, have been or will face, which brought you to join me here today? Please share in the comments on this blog post, on the event page and/or in the secret Facebook group.
An introduction and checklist of supplies will be posted Wednesday.
Love & light,
~Síonaínn ** ƸӜƷ **The picture that really started it all. Hubby straining the turkey gravy with his newly installed cabinets. I am ever so thankful for having such a wonderful husband!
