Friday, October 31, 2008

Possibilities...

Paul has an interview in Anniesland, Glasgow. Not sure when it will be yet, but watch this space :) Nothing is certain or set in stone, but it looks like it might be a strong possible.

It's been crazy in my house today. J2 and E each had a friend over and A&P had 2 sisters over to play (A&C). So in all 11 kids for lunch & most of the day - that made short work of a loaf of bread!! Surprisingly it was relatively peaceful - aside from the occasional crash & ride of drums. The children kept themselves very nicely busy. I managed to get on and sort out all my re-usable nappies for storage/sale/freecycle and sort out some fresh toys for N so that he is not so bored in the daytime. It's great bringing out toys I'd almost forgotten we had - a bit like an early Christmas. Hopefully it will help N a little next week, but it serves the dual purpose of helping me know what we could get him for Christmas without doubling up. In all honesty, he doesn't need anything and last year everyone put money in the bank for him I have then spent it over the year on odd things here and there that he has needed or I have thought he'd enjoy. But this year I think he will want to be opening stuff like everyone else, so I don't think we will get away with that again. I'm going to try and make sure that whatever I buy he can use for a good long time (value for money), or it's cheap and chearful and will 'break and bin' quickly enough to not add to our ever increasing ,mountain of 'stuff' (and then I'll put his real present in the bank!!).

I haven't been to bed before 3am all week - really trying to get the house straight and sorted even if it's not very clean. At least if its tidier it's easier to clean and it looks better generally. Problem is I am now pretty exhausted and getting grouchy, so when I walk into the girls room, after spending an entire day tidying it on Tuesday and a bit on Wednesday too, and find sooo much stuff out and bits spread everywhere again (due to have 3 extra girls playing in there I guess) it does make my heart sink a little :( It would have recovered fine if the girls had then continued on to put everything back away in it's right places - being that everything now has a new and better organised space to be in - but No! I go up to find, having been told they had finished tidying, bits scattered around, books and make-up stuffed under cupboards, things in the dressing up that simply are not (towel, nightdress), things just dumped on the nearest available surface through lack of thought where it should properly go, etc... Would you guess what I did?... Yup! I blew my top big time. I was SOOO mad with them. I am 'this' close to getting rid of everything and cancelling Christmas presents. If they continue to show so little respect for their things, or the time and energy I have put in over the last couple of days to improve things in their room for them then I might just do it. My guess they wouldn't let it happen again!!

Oh well, tomorrow is another day - I hope they will do better. I think I might make it a 'homework' day as they all have bits they need to do before school next week; Spanish practice, spellings, unfinished poster (A), unfinished Maths & History (JA). That will keep them busy and stop them making so much mess - maybe ;-)

It is a good time to be sorting though. I am managing to find things for the shoe box appeal parcels that my Mum does every year, for selling on Ebay to raise cash for Christmas, and to generally get rid of by whatever means so that there at least a little less to take with us when we do eventually move. Tbh - I am dreading it. We are going to need two big lorries I think - we have sooo much stuff! And sooo much furniture to contain it and us! But if it is organised before we start trying to pack hopefully it will go some way to making the whole thing less stressfull (c'mon, you've got to let me deream a little)!!

The Previa has a bid on it for £150 with 11 watchers, so it's sold at least this time (second listing), but I hope the bidding will go up a little bit.

3 comments:

Philippa said...

I just had exactly the same row with my girls this week over their room! It is so difficult when there are so many people in the house constantly and they never clean like you would. It is lovely though when you have a good day and they enjoy all their toys.
We had to throw out our double bed because it wouldn't fit in the removal van and we couldn't afford another van! We bought a new bed but couldn't afford the mattress. The Lord provided the exact mattress for the Ikea bed on Freecycle and it was from a friend so lovely and clean. What joy!

Jan said...

If he gets the job in Glasgow we can do you some introductions for some ecumenical networking - the Episcopal priest in the church round the corner is C and M's godmother, and the Church of Scotland minister is the owner of the house on Skye where we go on holiday. :)

Frogmum said...

cool - the CoS minister sounds like a good connection to make!! No, seriously though - that would be great :)