There is nothing like a clean house. I’m talking sparkling windows, every surface dusted, vacuumed or freshly cleansed.
The kind of clean house that doesn’t happen every day, at least not around here. Our daily cleaning includes a tidy kitchen and clean people. The rest usually waits til weekends ... or every second one, if I'm being honest.
It may have come on the heels of a new year, a fresh start to 2021. But I’m not one to set resolutions or anything, I just like how it feels when our house is deep-cleaned from top to bottom.
It’s a great feeling.
I only took pictures of the living room after we cleaned. I have two kids and a dog … there are definitely toys and living beings slightly cropped out of the two pictures that I did take. But I’m proud that it looks so nice, though we could use a new rug that goes with the rest of the room’s décor. One day I’d like to get a washable one, so until then, this rug will do!
Our Living Room <3
I’m one of those people that can’t relax until things are at least tidied up, so having a relatively spotless house for a few days meant I was really able to relax in the evenings. It was great! I sat with a glass of wine after yoga class on Monday, browsing my phone, intentions of picking up my book (which I never did). I was able to really practice my intention for the year: see my blog post from last year where I wrote about setting intentions as opposed to New Year’s Resolutions, My New Intentions. The biggest intention that I went into last year with was to follow my own creative path, wherever it may lead. It definitely led me in a way that I never could have predicted, having set time to myself aside to teach Archer from home and manage both kids for 6-ish months last year. 2020 also brought us a word that we started to live by at all turns: Pivot.
Everything we did in 2020 involved a pivot: a change that we made on the fly when things didn’t go as envisioned. And while I definitely plan to bring that word into life going forward with me, I’ve decided to assign a single word to the forthcoming year as well.
My new word is:
Intention
None of it would be possible without this guy.
I’m sure this year will come with some twists and turns that I could never see coming, but my plan is to make choices and do things with intention at every step of the way. To stop and ask myself why it is that I am making the choices that I do, and weighing options against each other. I want to be intentional in what I do. Ask whether we should clean the house or spend time away from the house, building memories for the kids and getting outside, which is best for all of us.
It’s funny to look back on last year and see that I wanted to move into my year with new intentions. I think it’s still fitting, and am happy to have 2021’s theme be Intention. Purpose. Fulfilment. Health and well-being. It always seems to be the theme of a new year, doesn’t it?
Tell me, what are your intentions moving forward in 2021? We are already half-way through the first month of the year, have you been sticking to your plans, or are you one to not care that we’re in a new year? I’m interested in hearing all about it!
Moving forward with intention, and a clean house,
Anya