Living with It.

Since Chloe started Kindergarten a few weeks ago, I have been blessed with a rather abundant amount of "me time".  Now I'm not telling you to make you jealous (although I would have been if I read that sentence a year ago!), nor any other reason.  I've embraced me time, and have avoided doing anything remotely close to housework as much as I can.  Except for laundry.  There's just no avoiding that.  Especially when there's six loads of it piled high in your living room......

I said to a friend last week "the silence is deafening".  Right now, all I can hear is the rumbling of our most attractive brown in-wall air conditioner.  That's it.  This morning, whilst wandering aimlessly around the grocery store, I started to think of all the things here at home that we are just "living with".  You know, things that you really should do something about, but you really just can't be arsed?  Yeh, them.  Here's just a few.....

Look familiar?  These are gorgeous ready made curtains from Spotlight.  But the stooooopid curtain rods have a join in them where you can extend them - and there lies the problem.  The curtain hooks get caught on the join, and they end up looking like this.  In three separate bedrooms......

When we were moving house, and renovating, we had many a discussion over where children would be sleeping and where I would be sewing.  I very gracefully begrudgingly gave up the 5th bedroom so the kids would all have their own rooms, which meant I have the shoebox (which is actually named storeroom on the plans).  I suggested at the time that I could use the upstairs living room, but Andrew said NO he would like my sewing room to be closed off when it needed to be.  Well........this is the entry to my sewing room.  It is one of the downstairs living rooms.  Fail.

When we built the new deck, we asked the builder for a quote on a gate so the dogs couldn't get up.  If my memory serves me correctly, his quote was over $1000.  For a gate.  So since June last year, we have tried a number of tactics to keep the dogs off.  This being the latest.  You may note the top left hand corner of the timber is broken?  Yeh - one of the dogs chews through it when there's a thunder storm.  Really need to get that gate built......really need not to be charged a fortune for it.

And the most hilarious thing we live with?  This.  The entire staircase was the colour of those stairs, and we decided we would paint them white and then carpet them.  Back in June, when the carpet was laid, the carpet layers made a mistake thinking we wanted it on the stairs, but after I explained that we needed to paint the staircase first, he told me he'd already put the spiky wooden strips down.  "Not a worry" I say.  "We'll paint it soon" I say.  June............March.  Eight months of avoiding spikes in your feet, warning small children, and hearing yelps from unwilling victims.

In our defence, we planned to get the painting done over the Christmas holidays.  But three people decided to get chicken pox, which meant my planned trip to the beach with them so Andrew could paint, got shelved.

Sooooooo, what are you living with that really does need to be done?

Sun Day Random

Sun Day?  Not in Melbourne.....More like Grey Day.  And not in a 50 shades kind of way.....  I've worked all weekend so have not really stepped foot outside except to transfer this lame ass body of mine from home to vehicle, vehicle to workplace.  Oh, I lie - we went over to our friends house last night for a relaxing bat-shit-crazy evening!  Celebrating children's birthdays is never relaxing, but I may say - hanging out with three of our closest families is fun none-the-less.  Last night it was eight adults and nine children.  NINE.  Would have been ten, but Lochie is with his Dad - he escaped the madness.  In the haze that is my head at present (currently on day 11 of an epic migraine/headache) I was able to sit back relatively quietly and watch the unbridled fun and madness unfold.  It's amazing how much joy can be gained from setting up a bean bag at the bottom of ONE step and continually running and jumping on it?  Lucky for all of us, this round of bean bag diving did not end in tears.

Tonight, I have arrived home from work to an empty house.  Bliss.  Kudos to the AFL big-wigs who schedule the odd 4.40pm game at the MCG, allowing me some contemplative peace and quiet, to think of the million things I have ahead of me this coming week.  And a big hi-five to Andrew, who so capably packs up the three youngest kids and jumps on a train to the city - all in the name of cheering on your team!

This morning was my designated "sleep in day"....... Fail.  The all too common sound of "Mummmmmmm" at 7.28am woke me from a deep slumber.  I pretended not to hear it, hoping (in vain) that Andrew would rise instead.  "Mummmmmmmmm" continued.  So I rolled out and trotted to Chloe's room, to find a wet and cold little girl in bed.  She hasn't wet the bed in  months, so me thinks she too is very tired.  Got her dressed and set up in front of the tv and crawled back to my bed.  Closed my eyes and just lay there for the next 30 minutes.  Fail.

In my usual flurry that comes with a 10.30am Sunday shift, I got ready for work and then decided it would be the perfect time to vaccuum the house.  Of course.  But before I could say "Pick all your shit up off the floor" to everyone, I pulled Chelsea's curtains back and audibly gasped as I discovered Chloe's version of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" on the wall.  Fab.  HOW on earth did I get through FOUR freakin kids before one of them decides she is an artist?  A wall artist?  This child will be the death of me.  As will the frickin fours!  Thank God for Gumption (that's not an ode to my inner strength or courage, it's a life-saving white paste that cleans almost everything off anything!).  Little turkey sat and tried washing it off like I asked, and then watched as the gumption magically scrubbed off her masterpiece.

The never-ending project that is our home is *hopefully* coming to and end.  Well, to a point.  The lovely fellow we signed up to do all the works for us got a job a week after we moved in, so it slowed all of the finishing off right down.  It has been a bit of a nightmare, mostly because we are all living in a half-finished home.  Doors missing, or not closing properly amongst some of the little things irritating me.  But he's assured us he only has a couple of days left, and fingers crossed, will be done by end of day Wednesday.  Hoorah.  NOW the other stuff begins.  We've just got the quote for the new driveway, and are pleasantly surprised with the price.  Hallefuckinglujah!  We can't park in our driveway at present because of the swamp disguising itself as a front yard.  It's mud central.  That's the other thing on the list - flying my retired plumber Dad down from Queensland to lay ag-pipe through the whole yard in the hope of reducing its bog-like resemblance.  Oh, and the cracked pipe.....the list goes on.....

Andrew is off to Sydney next weekend.  Each year he flies off somewhere with a mate or his Dad, to watch the footy.  I'm wondering if it would be inappropriate to secretly purchase flights for the kids to the same destination and meet him at the airport with their luggage?  Then I could just toddle back home and sleep for two days?  No?

Okay, I've successfully tapped away here for a little bit, now what to do with my last hour or so of peace before a week of bedlam begins.....all over again?  Do you sometimes feel like you are living a never-ending version of Groundhog Day?

P.s. The farking cat has not even gone near the freakin lounges!!!  So disappointed not to see her reaction to the sticky paws - I had a video camera set up so I could win a million dollars on Funniest Home Videos.....shame.  I, however, have been stuck to it numerous times........

P.s.s.  I didn't really have a camera set up.  But now I think of it......

Crickets

This parenthood journey is a wild one.  I find myself going from one emotional point to another, in a matter of moments.  Yesterday I was lamenting over the loss of control, now my biggest boy is a teenager.  Today I find myself in a strange place.  Home alone.

Chloe hasn't been 100% the last couple of days, and given she still had a super high temperature at 4pm yesterday, I called my boss and asked her to fill my shift for today, as it's just too hard to get someone to come in for a shift at 8am if given no notice!  As per "Murphy's Law", Chloe woke up bright as a button this morning - temperature long gone and she was keen to go to creche.  So I did the usual school run and then dropped Chloe off to her "school".

Quickly stopped in to the shops to grab a couple of things, a girlfriend popped in for a long overdue coffee (I can offer REAL coffee to friends now we have a machine!), and then SILENCE.  I was sitting here at the computer listening.  To nothing.  No tv, no music, no Dora.  Nothing.

Silence is deafening....

It was then, the realisation hit, that this would be the norm in a couple of years.  Chloe will be off to Kindergarten next year, and then school.  And I will be childless five days a week.  For the first time in over 15 years!  This realisation put me in a little bit of a panic.  Strange - I know.  But after pottering around and doing a bit of cleaning, washing the dog and eating some lunch - I had nothing to do.  Again - strange.

What do Mums do with themselves, five days a week, when there are no kids at home?  Will I put Nick Jnr on the tv to keep me company?  Will I start asking myself "what have you been doing all day"?  Please don't tell me I'm going to have to go back to full time work again?

Day 15 - Phone
The rather lonely and not used much home phone.  I honestly don't know why we have one?