It still feels a bit weird to type “2021” and always does for about a month after the New Year. The first month of this year is a bit more than half over, Inauguration Day is 48 hours away (please God let it happen peacefully), and I’m thinking up more projects around the house to keep myself occupied while holed up at home. With not one, but TWO new variants of the virus floating around out there, one of which is even more contagious than the original, I have to be much more mindful about my exposure to others even if it’s a fleeting walk-by in a shop. I ALWAYS wear my mask in public. Always. Unfortunately many others are beginning to let their guard down and that does NOT help the situation.

So, about those projects…

Last week my gallon container of wall sealant finally came. That’s it then. No more excuses. This week I hope to give the kitchen walls a final TSP bath and a sanding, then I can roll on the sealant. (Oh, right. First I have to tape off moldings, baseboards, outlets and such, as well as remove the blinds from the window.) Then it’s skim coat time! WOOT. That alone should brighten up the kitchen tremendously.

Another project that I’m eager to tackle is purging the house of all clutter. (I can hear y’all laughing. Stop it.😆) My plan is to start in the master bathroom, where the drawers and cabinets haven’t been cleaned out in I swear as long as we’ve been here in Texas. My walk-in closet also needs serious help but with some judicious purging I should be able to reclaim it without much difficulty. Rory’s closet is another thing entirely. His clothes aren’t much of an issue but he’s got boxes and BOXES of fabric, games, miniatures, God-knows-what in there and I can’t weed it all out for him, as much as I’d like to. I might chuck something important and I know from experience that that would be bad. Very, very bad. Anyway, after our bathroom I’ll probably move on to the kitchen cabinets. They’ll need sorting out soon because of my plans to repaint them and I know that there’s stuff hidden away that we haven’t touched in years. If it hasn’t been used in a year, out it goes. That’s becoming my rallying battle cry. (Thank you, Dwell Magazine, for the motivation to de-clutter!❤️)

Not much more to report. Rory’s folks are beginning their preparations to head out to Arizona and we probably won’t see them again until April or May. I envy them. I’m itching to get out of the house for an extended period of time but I know that this isn’t going to happen for quite a while yet. This summer will be spent helping Lauren to heal from her back surgery so we’ll be staying local. It’ll simply be too painful for her to sit in the car for even the four hours it takes to get to Port Aransas, so no trips to the coast this year, unless we schedule something for late in the fall. Maybe we’ll do some day trips instead. There are lavender farms up in the Fredericksburg area as well as pick-your-own peach orchards and that would only be a 90-minute trip by car, if that. We’ll just have to play this one by ear.