Sustainable Living January

This blog has always been about living life in a mindful and intentional way, for me this means that most of the decisions we make have been thought about carefully, even if we decide to continue as we are a decision has still been made.  When we take a product from a shelf in a shop or tap a button on a screen, should we stop and think about how it has got this point before we do so?  It can be hard to make decisions over many aspects of our lives, we are often far removed from the means of production and it can be hard to find out how this operates.  Maybe we shouldn't be thinking is there a more sustainable replacement for something, rather do we really need it at all?  To help me keep on track I have come up with some words that I will be using to keep my decisions mindful and intentional, and my life in general as sustainable as I can make it.  These are the words (you can read my thoughts behind each of them here) that I been using in January.

Nourish

Winter here means lots of root vegetables in our weekly veg box, I always love them at the beginning of the season - not so much by the end!  We have been having lots of roasted veggies either as a tray bakes with lots of lovely flavours, as a lunch with dips or accompanying fritters, pies or bakes.  I have also been making lots of soup with them and experimenting with the best mix of veg to make a spicy vegetable soup, carrot, potato and sweet potato has been the best combination this month.

We usually have a salad for lunch at least once a week here all year round, in the summer/warmer months it is really easy to make up a salad with local ingredients that you would traditionally put in a salad.  I am loathe to buy tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce etc in the Winter as they all will be imported from overseas, this month I have been getting creative with ingredients some from the veg box and others from the pantry to create some really tasty salads.

I have also been making a salad to eat as an accompaniment, an old favourite made with celeriac.  If you have not come across this vegetable before it looks rather odd, often quite knobbly on one end, it has white flesh and smells very like celery.  I know that celery is not popular with everyone, so if you are not a fan of celery you may not like this vegetable either.  The salad I make is very simple so I though I would share the recipe with you:

Celeriac Salad
I head of celeriac
Sunflower oil
Mustard Seeds
Mayonnaise
Yogurt
Wholegrain or Dijon Mustard
Gherkins

Heat a couple of tablespoons of sunflower oil, when hot add the mustard seeds and leave to cook in the oil until they start to pop, the exact amount of each will depend on how much celeriac you have but you want enough to coat the celeriac without any left over.
Peel the celeriac, grate it and place in a bowl/dish that you will serve the salad in, once the mustards seeds have started popping pour the hot oil and seeds over the grated celeriac and stir.
Mix equal amount of mayonnaise and yogurt along with a teaspoon or so of your preferred mustard, again quantities will depend on the amount of celeriac you have.
Chop the gherkins in to small rounds and mix in to the salad.

Lessen

We have been having a bit of a declutter here this month.  I like everything to have a home, a place to be put away, whilst this can give the impression of a tidy house a lot of what we put away may be tidy but it is then never used again or it is forgotten about, so when we need it, we cannot for the life of us remember where we put it.  Clutter of a different kind, I have read that some call this deep clutter.  Whatever you call it we have been going through some of it and creating more organised and easy to use corners of our house.  We managed to rehome all of our unwanted things, a very slow process as some of it was going to friends or family we don't see that often.  There have been times this month when it felt like we were drowning in stuff.  It has all gone to pastures new now and I am enjoying the space that we have created.  Decluttering is a constant process though and there are plenty of places that still need attention.

I took delivery of a bulk food order this month.  I do this every three months or so, it feels like a lot of money to be spending on food but it is cheaper to do this in the long run.  A few friends add to my order for themselves too which is extra work for me but I am happy that they get to take advantage of the reduction in prices too.  It is also a reduction in packaging too as many of the items are in larger quantities than you can buy in the shops.  We don't live in a particularly big house but with clever use of space we have created the storage to enable us to do this.

Grow

We are in the full throes of Winter here, that means cold temperatures with frosts, a little bit of snow and lots of rain, there is very little growing in my garden.  I use this time of year to finish off the clearing and tidying up that I didn't manage in the Autumn which is what I have been doing this month.  I haven't quite got the garden to the state I would like it to be as yet, hopefully I will achieve that in February.  I planted my garlic cloves at the beginning of the month, not quite as many as I had hoped, I could do with some more and have been hunting for some locally without success as yet.

Inside I have been sprouting - not the small green cabbage kind - pulses and seeds, something I have done every winter for nearly twenty years.  They are soaked in a jar of water for 24 hours then drained and spread on the trays of my seed sprouter.  It takes anywhere from five to ten days for them to be ready to eat, at that point they have a small shoot and occasionally the beginnings of a leaf if I have left them that long.  They are packed full of great nutrients and make a tasty addition to our winter salads.

Thankful

I have so much to be thankful for this month.  One of my brothers, after a very difficult year last year seems to have had a better month, it was so much easier to have the twice weekly phone conversations with my mum.  We had a wonderful trip to London with my parents who we have not seen for a few months, we went to the V&A, one of my most favourite museums, to see an exhibition that Cameron wanted to see for his Arts Award that he is working on.  We got to stay with my mother in law (the first time I have done this without my husband) and had a lovely time.  We have restarted our french class after a break last term.  We have started a new art class for older home educated children which Alice and Cameron are really enjoying, I am so grateful to the mum who organised for this to happen.  Whilst the children are in the art class I get to spend some time with my friends which is such a lovely nourishing way to start my week.

Create

January has been mostly about socks, knitted socks.  I completed one pair and continued working on another that have been on the needles for about two years or so.  It is the second sock of a pair, a complicated pattern which makes it a much slower knit.  I have turned the heal, knitted the gusset and am now working my way down the foot.  I really hope to have this sock finished in the next few weeks as I have bought some yarn to make myself something and I would love to cast it on.  I know that if I do this that sock will sit there untouched for some time!

I have also been adding the odd row to Alice's tunic I am past the buttonholes and working my way up the body, I am about 2/3rds of the way up and again I hope to have this finished by the end of this month.

I host a craft group at my house every month, for Alice and some of her friends.  This month we had a go at painting pebbles, an activity suggested by one the children.   I will admit that I was a little sceptical about doing this but I really loved it, it was lovely to all sit together for a couple of hours painting and drawing our designs.  I have been using mine as a weight to hold down pages of a book so that I can work from them without needing to use my hands.  I want to create some more of these to use as plant labels for when the veggies growing in the garden.

I also got my watercolour paints out, after a long break, to add to the pages of my nature yearbook that I started last year.  It has a double page for each week of the year, I add to it as and when and will do so until the pages are full, which will be many years away I expect.

Learn

At the end of last year I had come to realise that the way I was doing the housework was not sustainable and frankly not working.  I was ill for most of November which meant the housework did not really get a look in, except the essentials such as the laundry and keeping the kitchen clean.  Come December which is often a pretty busy month the house was starting to look decidedly grubby and unkempt.  Up until that point I was doing most of the housework on one day, all at once.  For me this was hoovering, dusting, cleaning the bathroom, ironing and changing the beds.  Sweeping the hard floors and laundry were done as and when they were needed.  It would take several hours and felt like a big chore, there were areas of the house that rarely if ever got any attention and during busy weeks it all got pushed to the weekend, a time when I really did not want to be doing any housework.

I knew I needed to change the way I was doing things.   I hadn't even given it any thought when a solution fortuitously fell into my lap.  The Organised Mum has a method she calls TOMM (The Organised Mum Method).  Where by she divides things up in to three levels of jobs some are done every day, the next level is time spent on a particular room, which is the same day every week (Monday to Thursday), the final level is Friday Focus whereby you focus on one room and do a deeper clean, depending on the number of rooms on your list this might be every six to eight weeks.  I have been doing this method since the beginning of January and my house feels like a different place already.  There have been mornings that I haven't, for whatever reason, been able to do all the jobs on my list as I know I will back in that area again the following week, it no longer feels as the jobs are piling up.  I have made my days suit what we are doing each day so I don't do the rooms in the same order as The Organised Mum.  The only job that I haven't worked out where to fit in is the ironing, this is still a work in progress - the TOMM method does not include it as she doesn't do it!

This has been a huge learning curve for me.  Embracing the housework and doing a little bit each week day.  As I have absorbed this routine into the rhythm of my week I have found that I have time at the weekends for doing those jobs that I have always wanted to do but rarely have the time to, the ones that have sat patiently on the shelf and now their time has finally come.   I have read many posts on housework over the years, many which allude to the fact the people are doing what their mothers did.  My mother, whom I love dearly, was not a fan of housework or keeping a particularly tidy house.  When I would have been old enough to remember my mother doing housework she herself was back at work full time and my parents paid for a cleaner, she was the fairy who came in and magically transformed the house and did the ironing whilst we were all out.  Housework is something that I have had to figure out for myself, it has taken me a long time but hopefully I have found a better way of doing it, I will let you know in the coming months how sustainable it is for me!

Fun

It has been a pretty busy month this month, with two visits away from home to catch up with family and lots of wonderful new activities that we are now doing on a regular basis.  The highlight of the month for me though was spending the weekend with my brother, his partner and their two year old son, my nephew.  They are the relatives that live closest to me, although still a two hour drive away, Cameron and Alice love spending time with their aunt and uncle and now that they have a child, their cousin too.  On one of the days that we were with them we spent an hour in an inflatable theme park, we all went in and had an hour of madness and fun running around through the assault course, down the slides, playing in a huge ball pool and so much more.  We were exhausted and hot when our hour was up, but it was definitely more fun than an hour in the gym (not that I have ever set foot in one, they really don't appeal to me), it was a great workout!  It is so important to have a bit of fun in our lives.

Thank you for reading through this rather long post, I do hope you have enjoyed it.  You are most welcome to join me, if you publish a post do let me know in the comments below.  I will be returning on Tuesday March 3rd for my roundup of Sustainable Living in February.

Messy

I grew up in a messy house, at least my memory of my teenage years is such.  My parents have had a empty nest for around eighteen years and moved into a brand new house recently and still their house is far from tidy so I feel I am safe to assume that my childhood home was messy.  I am not a fan of constant mess and clutter.

We used to spend time, every week, at a friends house which was untidy, no I am going to be honest, it was more than untidy it was cluttered, messy and dirty.  That is of course my opinion I would never judge anyone on the state of their house if I had I wouldn't have stayed friends or visited the house so often.  There were times, particularly in the winter when it was too cold to sit outside that I wondered what on earth I was doing there it was with mixed emotions that we stopped visiting a few months ago.  I felt relieved and slightly guilty.

In my own house everything has to have a home, a place it could be put away.  There is a finite amount of places that things can be put away in our house so usually, around birthdays and Christmas time we have to give something away when we receive something.  I was discussing this with some friends recently and the FlyLady came into the conversation, perhaps my friend and my parents need to heed her advice.

I have perfected worked hard at the art of decluttering my house but other parts of my life, well they are messy, not in a my life is a mess sense, but more in a disorganised, flitting from one thing to another sense.  I am easily sidetracked and very fond of displacement activities when I need to do something that I would rather not be doing.  I have come to realise I am hopeless at planning ahead and saying no, so I end up with too many things in the diary and not enough time to prepare for each of them, for different reasons I was in the exact same position last year.  Hmm perhaps I could do with learning from my experience.

Everything we do outside the house involves some form of preparation be it a few bits and pieces of clothing, a picnic or a fully packed car.  When I am planning what we will do I forget about this bit.  Over the winter we tend to do less outside or that involves lots of packing, but that doesn't mean we spend the whole time at home!  But come the spring and warmer weather and suddenly we are like caged animals and I go mad putting so many things in the diary that I forget the bit about preparation.   So in a need to do better kind of effort I have once again reached that time of the year when I feel like I am going mad and have backed off organising much for the rest of the summer to keep myself sane.  What I could with doing is remembering that in the Spring, keep the bigger picture in mind, and to remind myself constantly it is ok to say no.  I am not sure how I am going to remember this so if you have tips you can share.........

Determination

Whilst eating our breakfast one morning this week a chicken walked by the house, several of our neighbours keep chickens so we thought nothing of it and assumed that it would find its way home by the end of the day.   It stayed around all day and survived the night outside (we have foxes living nearby) though we know not where.  It did not belong to any of our neighbours and looked keen to hang around.  When we were able to get close enough we realise that it was one plucky chicken, not only has she survived several nights outside but she has escaped a visit to the abattoir from a local chicken farm.  Sadly she has had her beak clipped and is not used to foraging but we think she will survive a neighbour has taken her under his wing, so to speak.  It is pouring with rain today so she has sought shelter under a hedge.  Perhaps she is slightly bemused by these new surroundings like she has been dropped into a foreign country.  We have become rather fond of her and rather want her to survive, maybe she will even lay an egg!

I had a knock on the door yesterday which I tentatively opened thinking it might be someone trying to sell me double glazing, instead it was a beaming young man proffering an empty water bottle.  I am cycling end to end, he tells me, and I have run out of water could you refill my bottle.  As I walk away to do so he asks and have you got any snacks?  I provide him with a refilled water bottle and a bag of fruit and off he goes.

On Tuesday I set off from my house alone, a very rare occurrence, and spent the next twenty four hours away from my children.  As I drove away from the house I wondered what on earth had possessed me to make such an arrangement.  My youngest has spent every night in my company since her birth over four years ago, would she be ok?  Of course she was she had her brother and father for company and they kept busy, swimming, cycling and canoeing.  Meanwhile I had a wonderful two days out on the hill keeping an eye on a group of young people, knitting and reading.

This morning I tackled a job which I have been putting off for a while, my excuse is that I always have something else to do.  Finding myself with a few extra days to get ready to go away I could put it off no longer.  I have had a major declutter and reorganise of the children's books, toys, home ed resources and our desk we all share.  I have a big bag of books and toys which need a new home and a much tidier, more organised house.  I could really so with giving the Lego the same attention we seem to be drowning in it as some of it does not have a home.  I will save that for another day as we do have to go out now but I will try not to put it off for too long.

Things turned out ok.

Cleaning?

Welcome to the June edition of the Simply Living Blog Carnival - Around the House cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. This month, we write about what we do to keep the little things from overwhelming us. Please check out the links to posts by our other participants at the end of this post.

I grew up in a cluttered and messy house, my room was an oasis of tidiness and no clutter.  My mother hated housework and still does, only doing what is absolutely necessary.  I have definitely inherited the hatred of housework but as my house is infinitely less cluttered it is rarely as messy.  I would not say I am, by any stretch of the imagination one of those people who cleans, dusts or hoovers on a regular basis.  I am much more of an adhoc do it when it needs it type of cleaner.  You are much more likely to find me with a book, a board game piece or knitting  in hand than a duster.  Personally I would rather spend time doing other things and that does not mean that my house is thick with dust or my carpets covered in bits, well some floors are covered in Lego but I would not try and hoover that up!

I clean when I need to.  In the case of the kitchen this is daily, personally I would rather prepare food on clean surfaces using clean utensils.  In the case of the bathroom this is about once a week depending on how much use it has had.  In the case of the other rooms in the house it is definitely less often.  But I tidy up almost daily.  I clear the floors and most surfaces.  We don't have a lot of possessions so there is never that much to put away.  Friends often comment on how tidy my house is, in an enviable way, they bemoan the 'bits' that get everywhere those very small things that children are wont to collect and attract.  They are not everywhere because we don't have any.  I may be mean but I will not let them come into my house and if they do they make their way back out again quickly.  I know that it is those little bits that can create a mess and make it much harder to tidy up, as if it is not difficult enough being a parent without making life harder for yourself, they are staying away until the day when my children keep their own things tidy.

So we have simple toys, Lego excepting, that are easy to tidy away.  Lego is kept to one room in the house in an attempt, that seems to be largely working, to keep it fairly contained.  We have a small house which means we simply cannot store many possessions as we do not have the room, less space also means that there is less areas to keep clean.   Decluttering takes place on a regular basis, it has to particularly after birthdays and Christmas and in the case of the children's clothes, after changes in the seasons.  By owning less it is easy to keep our house tidy and then when I do feel the need to clean, I can do so with minimum effort.

Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Read about how others are incorporating simple ideas around their homes. We hope you will join us next month!

• Embracing the Schedule - Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy writes about how her family learned to keep on top of household life by creating a family calendar.
• Simply: Car Free - On the one-year anniversary of selling her car, Lyndsay from ourfeministplayschool, reflects on her family's decision to go car-free in urban downtown Toronto.
• The Importance of Finding Your Housecleaning Rhythm - Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama outlines how she keeps her housecleaning under control with a daily rhythm. Even her 4 year old gets in on it!
• Keeping It Simple At Home - At Living Peacefully with Children, Mandy shares some tips for keeping the clutter and cleaning at bay.
• Cleaning? - In her post, sustainablemum outlines how keeping clutter to a minimum makes for an easy life when trying to keep her house clean and tidy.
• Simply Downstairs - Jorje of Momma Jorje has found a way to simplify laundry AND bedtime... all with one simple move.
• In Shares, not Chores: Helping your Kids Help You Without Coercion Laura from Authentic Parenting tells us how she gets work done with two little kids and without coercion.

Lagom

Welcome to the March edition of the Simply Living Blog Carnival - Clearing the Clutter cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. This month our participants wrote about de-cluttering and cleaning up. Please check out the links to their thoughts at the end of this

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I have been decluttering our belongings for a few years now and until recently was struggling to know how long to continue it for, I was looking for an end to it.  How much stuff did we really want, how much did we need, what could we do without, just when it seemed that I had reached a good state a birthday would come along and with it more stuff.  I felt like I was fighting a losing battle, but I knew I did not want to give up.  A house full of stuff was definitely not what I wanted, I grew up in one, it made me feel overwhelmed.  Then I discovered a wonderful word, Lagom.

Lagom is a Swedish word with, sadly, no equivalent in English it means just the right amount.  I instantly knew that this was what I had been searching for.  I was not looking to reduce my possessions to the point that I had so little and I was doing without, nor did I want so much that I had one of everything and more.  I was looking for balance.

I also realised that I was on a journey that had no end.  It was a continuous one that would go on and on, but that did not mean that it had to be difficult or arduous, more that it needed to be mindful.  I was not fighting against the tide but flowing with it.  When more possessions come into the house I now think it is time for some to leave.

***

Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Read about how others are incorporating simple living into their lives by clearing out the clutter. We hope you will join us next month, as the Simply Living Blog Carnival focuses on Going Green!

• 7 Tips for Cutting the Toy Clutter - In a post at Natural Parents Network, Mandy offers easy and child-respectful ideas for downsizing your kids' growing mountains of toys.
• De-Cluttering and Moving to Minimalism - Laura from Authentic Parenting is actively trying to achieve a more balanced life by giving up the things in order to make room for more enjoyment.
• A Minimalist Clutter Bug - Destany at They Are All of Me writes about the daunting task of clearing away years of clutter brought on by disorganization and a dislike for throwing things away.
• The Pack Rat Stops Here - Mercedes at Project Procrastinot doesn't want her twins to inherit the pack rat legacy but is uncertain how to lead by example.
• Clutter Minimized - Jorje of Momma Jorje shares how minimizing different aspects of her life and household have changed her life.
• Uncluttering Childhood - Are fewer toys and books harmful for your child? Does simplifying the stuff in your life, merely mean faster clean up? Find out if "less" is truly "more" for parents and kids alike at Heart-Led Parenting.
• Lagom - Sustainablemum shares her family's search for balance in decluttering their home and their lives.
• Letting Go - Of Things and Thoughts - Amy W. at Me, Mothering, and Making it All Work rejoices in her ability to allow others to teach her to let go - of things and of thoughts.
• From Cluttered to Clutter Free - Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children discusses the changes she went through from growing up in a cluttered household to becoming a decluttering diva.
• Facing the emotional roadblocks of clearing clutter - We all have reasons we hold on tightly to our stuff. Lauren at Hobo Mama offers advice for breaking through those walls.
• Spring Cleaning with Freecycle - Amy at Anktangle shares how her spring cleaning ritual has become much more fun (and productive!) since she's embraced her local Freecycle community and all it stands for.

Less

I have just finished reading a book that I found reassuring, inspiring and thought provoking.  Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne was a book that I kept seeing mentioned on blogs and a forum that I visit.  It was always praised and being recommended as a book to read.  As someone who is trying to simplify our lives I wanted to read a book that promotes less is more.

It was reassuring to read about things that I am trying to implement in my family's life.  I have been going steadily through our stuff over the past year, decluttering and reducing.  I have introduced a rhythm into our week, we like the predictability and order it brings.  We live without a TV and try to limit our screen time to a minimum.  I try to be as mindful as possible in the way I speak to my children.  I have reduced the amount of audio we have in our house.  These are all covered in the book.

I am inspired to continue with my decluttering process, to continue to reduce the stuff we have in the house.  I have always felt that if my children were bored that I was not quite sure how I should respond, I wanted it to something that they dealt with themselves but I was not totally comfortable with it.  I am going to try and find comfort with leaving them to deal with it.  As part of my rhythm in my week I am going to ensure that I always include ordinary days as the author calls them, days when we are not busy to restore calm and balance in the week.  I know my children need these days in the week but I need to remember to ensure that they are included.

There are three areas in particular that have drawn me in and made me pause for thought.  The first is advice on how to react when a child is out of sorts for an extended period.  When things are not right and the disquiet extends beyond a bad mood.  The author suggests 'treating' this as you would a physical illness such as a fever.  He takes you through the steps you would go through for a physical illness and then apply them to a soul fever as he calls them.  You notice, you quieten things down, you stay at home, you let it run its course and hope for a strong return.  This seems so obvious to me when I read it and I will attempt to apply this the next time I feel one of my children is out of sorts.

When talking you through simplifying a child's toys he mentions fixed toys, those that only do one thing, he describes them as being too finished.  I have been looking at the toys we now have, trying to decide whether they are fixed or not and where you draw the line.  Are toy cars fixed, they do allow imaginary play but is that enough.  How about a marble run with pieces that you fit together?  I am looking at all our stuff through a new pair of eyes.

The last is how I talk to my children.  The author advocates talking less, making the words you do say matter, not bathing our children in words.  The more we talk the less they listen.  A child cannot play deeply and thoughtfully if we are talking through their every move.  He suggests that in certain situations if we must talk make it an observation without judgement or praise.  Talking less is a way of decluttering it gives a child more space for their own thoughts and feelings to develop.  The words we do use are so important, I do try to be mindful about speaking to anyone, to speak to others as I wish to be spoken to myself.  I often forget.  So before I speak I am going to try to remember is it true, is it kind, is it necessary.  The necessary meaning are your words more important than silence.  I am going to try to make this my pause before speaking.

Stuff

Over the last few weeks I have been slowly going though cupboard and baskets to give away stuff that we don't use, have out grown or no longer make use of.  I have not been particularly methodical at doing this but I know where I have and haven't been through.  When we have, in my opinion, too much stuff it feels overwhelming like it is threatening to take over, it becomes difficult to manage and keep on top of.  Don't you hate it when you go to a cupboard and can't get to what you want without unpacking most of the contents?

I grew up in a house that was full of stuff.  My parents seemed not to notice the volume of it, how it covered the surfaces and filled the cupboards and, after my siblings and I left home, the rooms.  My bedroom was an oasis from this, a room with relatively few things.  I carried this on when I left home, I moved around a lot and everything I owned had to fit into my car to move from a to b if it didn't, it was passed on to someone else.  But since buying a house, and settling, my possessions have grown in number especially since having children.  Our house is not particularly big and there is little opportunity to expand.  I love my house and am not keen to move so we have to fit into the space we have.

Whilst I have been going through this decluttering process I have mulling over the whole idea of what I actually need, to live as I want to.  I don't think I could ever live as minimally as the people depicted in these pictures but I am not sure that I would want to.  We have a small garden at the back of our house which we garden, to achieve this we have a small collection of tools, we enjoy camping, canoeing and walking, all activities which require particular equipment to take part in them.  To cease to continue these activities because the equipment they require needs to be stored seems to me to be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

This week I came across this interesting post on this insightful blog.  It celebrates moderation, a state of enoughness about not having too little or too much but somewhere in between.  That is what I am striving to achieve,  I've not reached it yet but I am on the right road and now I know where I am trying to get to rather than floundering along the path.

Gratitudes

I am joining in with Taryn for her heartfelt Sunday tradition.

A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful.

This week I have been grateful for....

...being able to stay with my Mum and Dad after a long period of not seeing them.

...my brother and his wife for looking after my eldest and allowing him to stay with them.

...my nephew for being such wonderful company for my eldest this week.

...having wonderful meals cooked for me by Mum and my Sister in Law.

...time to spend enjoying the company of my youngest, one on one.

...arriving safely back home after a long journey.

...time to spend tidying up and decluttering once back at home.

We have been mainly.....

We started the week with our usual trip into the local town to do the weekly food shop and visit the library. The school holidays have now started where we live so everywhere was much busier this week. I think I will try and leave a bit earlier for the next few weeks, the library was manic the children found it difficult to choose books in all the noise and hubbub.

The next day I was woken by my youngest reading stories to me from one of her books. She was doing it quite quietly and it was lovely to lie and listen to her. We joined our friends for our regular play date it was mizzling (very fine rain, much finer than drizzle) so you got wet quickly if you ventured outdoors. Nevertheless my youngest still spent most of the day on the trampoline. I am not sure what my eldest was playing as I did not see him for most of the day, he was however filthy when I left. He stayed behind for a sleepover and the youngest and I headed home. It was strange in the house without him for the evening.

He returned to us in the morning with his friends. They stayed for a short play and had lunch with us before heading home. We spent the afternoon building Lego boats before heading over to join friends for tea. Their little one, had started to toddle it was great to see him standing up. He makes my youngest look like a giant. She is usually the smallest in groups we meet so I am used to her being one of the shortest.

We joined friends the next day at their house. We took food to share for lunch and afterwards they played. The afternoon disappeared very quickly in play including getting very wet with a hose pipe in the garden and my youngest played us some music on their piano.

We had a day at home the next day my youngest had a lovely day singing for most of the day. We built models with bricks and K'nex.  We danced and played musical instruments along to music.  We got the paints out and did some painting.

Over the weekend the children and I attended a Steam Gathering which was an interesting day out.  We took a picnic and spent most of the day there.  We were tired when we got home.

For most of this week my husband has been at home finishing the bed he is building for our youngest.  It is a cabin type bed,  he built the frame, the base for the mattress and the ladder some months ago.  Underneath we were intending to build storage for her clothes, books etc and a desk.  This is what he has been building this week, it is looking great. 

On Sunday he had reached a point where we could start to move stuff into the under bed storage area.  The room is the biggest bedroom in the house and has been used as a dumping ground for the last nine years.  There was a lot of stuff in the room that needed a home.  By the end of the day we had had a huge sort out.  All my youngest's clothes out of the chest of drawers are now in baskets on shelves.  The chest of drawers is going to a new home.  The toys that were in pile on the floor most of the time also now have a new home in baskets.  All my sewing stuff is in this room and has now been rehoused in another chest of drawers along with all my wool which I collected from various places in the house.  We went through a huge box of tapes and recycled all the ones we no longer wanted.  We moved books, a dolls house and toys from a set of shelves to shelves under the bed.  The shelves have been put into my eldest's room and given him more storage room, the floor is clearer now!  By the end of the day we had five bags full or stuff to go to the charity shop, two bags to go to my sister in law and a further two for friends.  The room feels much bigger and better organised.  The cupboard needs a door, that is a job for next week.  Then I need to find some material for curtains.  The de-cluttering and tidying was a great end to the week.

Simplyfying

When I awoke last Sunday to a beautiful sunny morning, I felt the need to open the windows wide and let the air in for the first time this year.  The sun also revealed how dusty my house was and then I looked at the floors and looked away quickly.  Time to clean.

I set too.  Putting things away, moving things from one room to another, I seem to spend a large amount of time doing this!  It struck me as I was doing this that we have a lot of stuff.  It all has a home, and can therefore be tidied away, but it is stuff none the less.  What could I pass on?  Clothes got bagged up from my wardrobe and the children's baskets.  Books and toys went into a large box.  Oh the space I feel like I can breathe.

Suddenly the children have found toys that they have not played with in a while and are enjoying them, as I hoped they would.

It is that time of year, time to spring clean to declutter and simplify our lives.