Wednesday 28 March 2012

the big trip is cancelled

a lovely day in the sunshine with the wonderful motherfunker who bought us all kinds of goodies, boxes and bags and yummy things to eat. but i can't shake the disappointment that our big trip for tomorrow is cancelled. the yurt guys can't fit us in and so the kids will have to wait, i will have to wait until another day. we were, to make a day of it, also planning a trip to the british museum. doll has gone mad for the egyptians these last few days and we were going to see if we could hunt some out. however we have decided that london is too far for us to just go anyway and we ought to stay home and tick some things off the to do list.. but you know what.. fuck it.. one day can't hurt. it is papajoes birthday and i refuse point blank to make him give up a lovely day in the sun for boring house stuff. so we won't go to london, doesn't mean we can't do lots of other fun sunny things and have one day not thinking about the move.  

since writing the above papajoe has refused to go along with my plan, he is convinced that i am mad.. we must make use of the day we have been given to get on with stuff. there is just to much to do to relax we must work work work! we may, in order to celebrate have a mini butterfly hunting trip to the woods but that is all. for the rest of the day we must deny all knowledge of birthdays. he has insisted on no presents, and although i would normally ignore this ridiculous request i have totally failed to get anything what with the kids bugs etc, so he will have nothing to open. i will have to get up first so he can have coffee and toast in bed.

oh well.. still have the party to look forward to. tiny bit worried that if this weather continues we will all lounge in the garden, drinking the cider papajoe has requested, and nothing will get done. but it will be a lovely way to say goodbye to the house. i am grateful for the things it has given me over the last 18 months and it deserves a good send off.


Sunday 25 March 2012

the mess that is half living half moving


  the one bookcase we intend to  
  keep, i will have to fit all the toys, 
  books and crafty bits on here.. 
  good luck with that! 

doll and big boy enjoying their last week in the playroom 






what was the grown up living room and home to all the grown up books, now packed and stored in nonnas loft, oh how i miss you


the room that used to have a gigantic bed, and is now just a mattress filled bomb site


can you spot baby?




the ridiculously full garage..
what am i still doing with all this stuff? 







if i tell the truth although i blame the packing i wasn't much tidier than this before we started..





Friday 23 March 2012

everything is going to plan and then...


after i promised myself and my mother that i would at least write a few sentences everyday i have not even opened this page for over a week. in my defence i have achieved next to nothing with regards to the big move and i almost felt there was nothing to say. i was wrong. a good friend reminded me that is important to be honest, no sugar coating life. it is just as valuable from a looking back perceptive to know there were times that nothing got done. when everyone felt poorly and we just watched tv for days. i say tv, big boy has just been watching octonauts on a never ending youtube loop. finally after almost a week of sick and fever and then pus and blood leaking from his ear he is starting to brighten up. doll has flirted with feeling ill also but has not managed anything more serious than an infected thumb, which would be recovering nicely if she would stop picking at it.


what else have we done that has prevented our organising and packing? we went to watch doll being a bridesmaid (and eat some fabulous cheesecake) at her dads wedding. and we celebrated the life of my grandfather with a beautiful service in wotton baptist church. consequently i have had the dads army theme tune in my head for the last few days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jvr6X054xLY


now we are home the panic is setting in.. we have less than two weeks to get organised. i haven't found a garage for local storage and the house is FULL of stuff. but still i am struggling to find the motivation to do very much. i even went to our favourite home ed group in my pjs. i have got to get on with it..

and so in the spirit of getting things going again i have today taken down my picture wall. my family and friends are now safely wrapped in newspaper and ready to go into storage. i will miss having those photos about me very much. i will endeavour to get them out again at the soonest possible moment as i am worried that it won't feel like home without them. i also had a conversation with granny knickers who, despite obviously thinking i have lost my mind, is being very supportive and has offered us somewhere to stay while we wait for papajoe to finish work. the kids absolutely love her so it should be good fun and i can starting pretending that we are taking a long holiday rather than becoming voluntarily homeless for a month.


Monday 12 March 2012

mummy has a mini break

although i feel that i somewhat abandoned papajoe when we need our weekends more than ever.. i have had a lovely couple of days in the south west. baby (honorary girl for the day) and i spent saturday celebrating the soon to arrive and the recently departed. my wonderful cousin is due to give birth and to prepare for this joyous occasion we had a girly day at her boat. filling her birthing space with female energy and beautiful handmade bunting. we ate scones and drank tea from china cups and saucers supplied by the lovely becca at http://fancyvintagechina.blogspot.com/ while we sewed like our lives depended on it. in remembrance of my grampy, who left us just last week, i used some off cuts from his old shirts to make a patchwork triangle. a fitting tribute to a man that we all loved so very much and now will miss meeting his newest great grandchild.


while i will have missed two days of packing and tidying i do feel i have achieved something. a long car journey with my mother provided us with lots of time to talk and think. i always feel better once something has been discussed with her.. even as an adult her advice and opinions are invaluable to me. we have organised for her to empty our house of her belongings and anything we plan to store in her garage. she has also persuaded me that it will be worth investing in a new bed as we are currently sleeping on a futon matress on the floor. since space is going to become a big issue for us i have started to obsess about triple purpose furniture. if it doesn't do at least three thing it isn't welcome in my home! for that reason i have been looking at pull out daybeds http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/50080315/. they function as sofas pull out to double beds and have drawers for storage. ikea can be great, light and easy to assemble, fairly good value for money but so boring and generic.. if you are going to live in a yurt your furniture should have some personality.  

despite my guilt for leaving him and my panicking that nothing would get done it turns out i left the sorting at home in good hands. papajoe had organised for a bookcase and an armchair to be collected and i have come home to a very empty living room and an amazingly clean kitchen. he has even cut the grass! doll has tidied the playroom and big boy has messed it up again.

last job for the weekend organise a clean and paint my house party so look out for your invite...

Thursday 8 March 2012

what is next for us?

so.. papa joe has quit his job and the pack up has begun. we have less than a month to be out and with no where to go i should be starting to panic. i am in fact quite calm. happily spending a chunk of each day sorting things into piles.. keep keep, keep in storage or goodbye forever. every room in the house gradually seems a little emptier as my goodbye forever pile grows and grows. how wonderfully cathartic it is just to let go.. though i have not yet tackled the hat or scarf collections that i have been growing for the best part of my adult life.

what is the plan? when we are organised and ready to go we will have to float for a while.. a week here or there, maybe a brief trip to france. we will wait it out till papa finishes work and then we will buy our yurt. http://www.yurtsdirect.com/. and yes, we probably ought to of found somewhere to put it by now but i have faith that the right spot will appear just in time. 

if you are anything like most of my family you have, by this point, fallen off your chair in a combination of shock and hysterics, but we are not mad. we are just desperately looking for an affordable way to be more together. and we most certainly will be more together in our one room. of course there are worries but i will come to those later. today i am just enjoying dreaming and planning as i bag and box and clear and clean. 

this is just the beginning.. who really knows what is next for us.