2015: The Year of Order

If you follow us on Facebook, you’ve seen that the farm renovations we’ve finally undertaken don’t stop at the outside. We started the year by gutting the kitchen and dining room, a project we’ve been planning since buying the house in 2005.  After giving it a decade of thought, we’re changing pretty much everything about the flow and the feel of the space, though we’re leaving it two distinct rooms to keep the original farmhouse spirit. In these first few weeks of the project, we’ve discovered a few things about ourselves and our house:

1. In 10 years, we’ve become hoarders. I think any of our friends could have told you this, but it took the removal of all of our kitchen and dining room stuff for the scales to fall from my eyes. Karl assures me that this impulse comes from a good place–we recycle everything, and those bits of strings and bags of corks and schnibbly bits of fabric and paper have all been kept with projects in mind (curse you, Pintrest!). But, to paraphrase Allen Ginsberg’s beautiful poem, “Kaddish,” it’s the accumulations of life that wear us out. Do I really need to keep every bit of felt, every mismatched toddler sock, every receipt with my dad’s signature on it? Emphatically, no. If 2014 was the year of repair, 2015 will be the year of order. Transfer station, look out!

2. We’ve been insulating with squirrel fur and corn cobs. I wish this were a joke.

3. Home renovation is addictive. We’ve turned a blind eye to so many big things over the past 10 years that now, as we examine and make decisions on the minutiae, it’s hard to overlook anything. Some decisions, like what kind of drawer pulls to use, or the finish on the cabinets, were expected. But during the renovation process, we’ve also been looking at what we have, what we use, and where we can put it to make it most orderly and accessible. I am hopeful that this spurning of chaos will spread to all 5 of us, and many areas of our lives. But to be honest, if the kids start habitually hanging up their coats, I’ll consider it victory.

4. If the kids eat packaged fruit cups, squeezy applesauce, individually wrapped string cheese, store-bought bread, and juice boxes for a few weeks, they’ll probably be just fine. So far, their 2015 diets have filled me with shame, but they’ve suffered no ill effects. Yes, I’d rather they drink goat milk, eat the applesauce we canned in the fall, and take thermoses of curried lentil soup for lunch, but I also value my sanity. And the kids are in heaven with all these “treats.” As Bea said to me last week, “We finally have good, normal lunches.”

5. We are incredible lucky. That could go without saying, but it shouldn’t.

Happy 2015 to all!

With love,

The Ten Apple Gang