I wanted to tell you a bit about my weekend a few weeks back.

It was a cooking intensive weekend. I made spaghetti with homemade marinara, shepherd's pie, and chicken fajita casserole as my dinners. All provide excellent leftovers which gave me lunch for the following week.

On Saturday morning, I participated in an adult bike-riding class. Yes, that's right. I never learned how to ride a bike. So, I signed up for and took a three-hour class. I can't say that I know how to ride a bike now, but I'm closer than I was before. If I keep practicing, there's actually hope that I'll get it someday.

In addition to the possibility of gaining a new skill, I got to spend a gorgeous day outdoors and to remember what it feels like to struggle to learn something. Hopefully, staying in touch with that struggle will help me to be a better teacher and to be patient with others' learning curves.

I finished off the weekend by undertaking the first major cleaning of my attic since I moved in 20 years ago. I'm about 75% finished. I'll need one more afternoon up there to complete this phase. I have a stack of things that can be moved out of the house and donated, plus, there is a stack of empty boxes that I need to break down and recycle. It will leave me with a small group of boxes that I will need to sort one at a time – a great winter activity I think.

But the attic cleaning has had some significant benefits:

• I found stuff I forgot I had.
• All of my Christmas decorations are in one place, easily accessible for when I need them after Thanksgiving. (I will bring everything downstairs and sort through it to make sure I want to keep everything I have.)
• I have a ton of open space that is well organized by use. That means I can move items that I use less frequently to the attic. These are things I absolutely want to keep (like my canning equipment), that don't need to take up the limited space on the main floor of my house. Getting everything into the right place will help me keep my main living spaces in good order while I hang on to things I still need. I can't wait to finish!