Something in the air......

So I don't know if anyone else has noticed it or whether it has just been confined to a circle of friends and family around me but yesterday for me was a great day. I stayed at home with Lachie and HRH while Doug took James to his friend's party and had a look around the shops over at Indooroopilly. I got a sudden burst of energy from goodness only knows where and spent the day cleaning, decluttering and did a huge purge of James and HRH's room, donating toys that were still clean, usable and complete to charity and throwing everything else that was broken, not able to be fixed or that was missing pieces. I half filled a trailer with rubbish and I sat back by the time Doug got home at about 3.30 and felt really happy with myself for achieving so much. Cass is right - decluttering and purging really is cathartic and therapeutic, and the fact that our house is so small that I can't afford clutter helps too!

The plan for the rest of the day was a kind of a business meeting thing for dinner which suddenly was cancelled in odd circumstances and then my Dad rang to see how we were all going. My mother died when I was 19 and my father and I have never ever been close although I've tried to keep an eye on him as I imagine Mum would have wanted me to. So I ring once or twice a week to see how he's travelling and he dispenses the odd bit of helpful info such as where to find something I might want on sale or where to find cheap car parts if we need them. That kid of thing. We're not at all close but he has really improved over the years. We used to have huge, but very short arguments because he had an opinion about how I lived, the choices I made etc so I don't speak to him more than I have to because (sadly I suppose) I'd just rather not speak to him at all if that's how it's always going to end with him. I can't be bothered these days with the drama of someone telling me what to do after thirteen years of having no parental control or input since my mother died. So he apparently rings to see how we all are and things went downhill at a great rate of knots when I told him about a house I'd seen for rent near the school. It's also near Cass which would be lovely as our kids seem glued at the hip anyway and they could all walk to and from school together each morning. Yes it's a budgetary stretch and no I don't have the bond right now but it is perfect size, perfect location, all that stuff as the stress of living in a tiny 3brm house with no storage space for anything is starting to build a bit. I know we should be grateful that we have a place to live at all in this day and age but I basically want more for the kids than the tiny house we live in, in what isn't exactly the nicest area. Let's just say I have a couple of issues with what my kids see if we walk around our suburb and I don't want them to think it's normal for some people to live the way they do. Now that sounds snobby but where I live is depressing, with lots of domestics, hooning cars using our street as a race track, kids getting belted and being called four letter names by their mothers while they walk up the street. I don't want my kids to think it's normal. I want them to want more for themselves. I want more for myself. We moved here for financial reasons and now our financial situation is a bit better I don't want to stay here. It is a 20 minute drive each way to school for the kids and to let them walk each morning would mean not having to rely on family to pick them up each day as we only have the one car and Doug takes that to work as I work from home and don't really need a car during the day until when the kids need to come home.

Lordy lordy I digress!!!! Anyhoo the whole thing went a bit pear shaped when my dad decided that I was getting "too big for my boots" and wait for it - "oighty toighty". I'm nowhere near sure I spelled that right! Funny coming from he who lives in a big house in a good suburb etc etc. Oh, and I've "changed" as well. So basically I told him to ring me back when he was feeling normal again because he hasn't picked a fight with me like that in years and years. I don't know what happened in his day yesterday to put him so off kilter but I wish he'd kept it to himself.

So Doug and I stayed in, drank red wine, had thai red chicken curry and had a good laugh about the weird day while we repeatedly burnt about half a dozen attempts at making popcorn on the stove because I didn't have any of the microwave bag stuff. He always makes me feel better just being around him - his company is balm for the soul IYKWIM.

And he's also a complete legend because while he was at the shops yesterday he went to Cash Converters at Indro (loves his Cashies he does - likes to rummage through the electrical stuff because often they don't quite know the value of some things so there are bargains to be had). He picked me up an A3 printer!!!!!! Yay yay yay! I've been wanting one for ages because it would be nice to be able to put 12x12 cardstock through it to print journalling onto my pages instead of having to print out the journalling on cardstock cut down to fit my A4 printer then have to find a way to make the journalling work on the layout. I haven't installed it yet but it will be fun to play with. That's about the biggest goal I have today. I'm going to play with printers and hopefully get some layouts done and Dougie is going to declutter his computer parts and electronic jiggery pokery. Oh and I think I have to go to the supermarket to get a few lunchbox things as the littlies start back at kindy on Tuesday. James however will now be a "schoolie" as they call them so he will get to go on excursions and have a different program to before he went on holidays and used to be a preschool kid. Now apparently he's a big boy and is using holiday care, not day care! I'm surprised he knows the difference let alone cares! When Blayd and Lachie get back from their dad's place at the end of this coming week they get to go to holiday care as well as Doug goes back to work then too and they will enjoy the holiday program at the kindy far more than having to hang out with me while I work at home. And if I had wanted to spend the last two weeks of their holidays settling arguments, rationalising complaints and sorting out major meltdowns I would have become a police negotiator!

Hope your week is off to a flying start whatever you have going on, cya Lu