Snow days and a clean house…

It has been a strange week in Nashville. This is my seventh winter in the great state of Tennessee, and in all that time I have never gotten more than one day off per winter for weather. Usually, we get a few dustings of snow every year–the kind that looks beautiful in the morning and melts by noon. This week, however, we got an inch and a half of ice on Monday followed by snow on Wednesday morning, and we haven’t left the subfreezing temps all week, so nothing is melting, and everyone has been stuck in their houses! I didn’t leave from Sunday night until Wednesday afternoon. Now I am back to work, but it’s still been a strange week. Wednesday night it got down to something like -2 degrees. We just don’t handle that well in the south, y’all.

All you northerners are rolling your eyes at me. Go ahead and roll those eyeballs all you want. But, Nashville doesn’t have the right equipment and ice is downright dangerous,  y’all.

So while the world has been stuck in a FROZEN state, I said to my husband, “Do you want to build a snowman?” and Jeremy replied “let it go, honey.” So, instead we decided to take care of our own little fixer upper and did a complete organizational overhaul for the first time inforever… or at least since we started this renovation.Now we are waking up to a clean house, and these few snow days turned out to be even better than vacation days in summer because when you stay at home with your honey, all you can say is that “love is an open door.” 

Wow. I just wrote that paragraph. And it’s actually true. Fist bump, Disney fans. (If you have no idea what I just referenced above, go watch Frozen).

So, now I ask…is there anything better than a clean house? I am not naturally tidy. I wish that were not true. When I get busy, I get messy. But, I am starting fresh with our new bedroom.

Starting fresh with a clean house on these snow days got me thinking about how we need to start fresh in many areas of our lives. I was feeling so overwhelmed before this storm hit. My brain was foggy. We have had a lot of change in our lives lately, and I have just felt the weight of stress on my shoulders. God knew what I needed because he trapped me and my husband together in our house.

While I opened up closet doors and reorganized what I was hiding back there and swept up dust bunnies and vacuumed furniture, my introverted little self was being revitalized. I found time to spend alone with God and a cup of coffee. I held my husband’s hand on the couch. I was refreshed both physically and emotionally.

What do you do to keep yourself tidy emotionally and spiritually? How do you unwind and keep your focus straight in the midst of life’s little tasks?

And, on a practical note, do you guys have any tips for keeping the house clean? Do you do a daily cleanup routine?

The cold never bothered me anyway.