Habits

It’s too bad October and November come around only once in the year.  But thank God they do happen.  We welcome the shift in temperature by staying at the playground so long we’re late for our next activity, and then we make playground visits a daily event. An acquaintance who happened to be with us yesterday inhaled deeply as the wind lifted her hair and said, "It’s medicinal."  It surely is, this weather.  The past week has been warmer, and we grab our sweaters as we leave the house as a matter of form, but we hold them instead of wearing them.

Octoberish breezes spur me on to action, to purge all of the toys we won’t want to tidy in the next few house-bound months, to organize all of our linens and pull out the down comforters, to open all of the windows to let them in.  One area I am really struggling with this year is forming habits alongside my children.  I’m pretty terrible at returning things to their place!  I spent Saturday morning turning out my knitting corner and putting every stitch marker and blocking pin back where it belonged.  That one, tiny piece of the house now delights me, but I want the rest of the house to inspire that feeling, too.  Foremost is the sock-and-shoe dilemma (too many! all over!), but also, more generally, the habit of keeping all of our things tidy.  I’ve got three items on my agenda:

1) Fewer things.

2) A place to put them.

3) Tidying as I go.

Last week, in a low moment, I visited the room of my child who resists tidying.  I wanted to weep at the sight!  But then I noticed he had hung up his towel after his shower, without any reminder from me.  Wow.  We have been working on that one for months.  It was a lesson for me to persist, to persevere, because good habits take long term effort.  We’ll get there!

***I am 60% done with my sister’s wedding present!  I figure I have about a month of knitting left.  One more item for her, and then I’m devoting my time to selfish knitting for a few projects.  I can’t wait.