Little luxuries

I will never stop being grateful for all of the things that I have, and recently I have spent a little time with a few people who have reminded me of this - not just my home and the things that I fill it with, but mostly my family, our health, our values and our dreams for the future. I am also very thankful for the little things that make up my day, and make most days very happy.
So, today I am grateful for:

Homemade lemon curd on toast!

The daffodils on the windowsill starting to come out

More things to send off to charity! Add to this some of Ivy's old clothes and an air mattress that deflates itself for today's bag of 40.

Having the energy once again to take care of my home and the people in it and have clean surroundings again!

I am also grateful for the washing machine and tumble that on a grey grizzly day like today has allowed me to wash and dry all of our linens and towels. I am grateful for the slow cooker which is full of bubbling casserole, and the bread I'm about to bake for tonight's tea.
Ivy is sleeping but seems a lot better today. All is well. Today is a good day.
Wishing this much peace and happiness for everyone.

Another one gone

Another busy weekend has passed. We spent yesterday morning absolutely blitzing a couple of areas of the house that have been long neglected - the understair cupboard which, much to my disgust - has been clogged up for the last few weeks with God knows what (I blame Will, and quite rightly he has now reallocated a lot of things to his shed and just left behind Christmas decs and my hoover!), the kitchen counters which over winter where I've been unwell have collected allsorts and not even had a proper clean, and a couple of baskets of odds and sods from around the house that I scooped up some time in Autumn with the intention of sorting through that day... and never did. Feels good, and we sorted out a bag of stuff for the binman, mostly broken rubbish that we will never get around to fixing. I'm yet to scoop up a bag to get rid of today and the clock is ticking, think I'd better have a quick look over books in a bit.
Will had a few friends over yesterday for a pre-birthday celebration, and I had a birthday party to go to for a couple of Ivy's friends. A long night as Ivy's croup is back and neither of us got a spot of sleep, and a long day today with everyone crabbing and moaning.
Hopefully Ivy will be sleeping soon and will catch up on her Zzz's a little (won't hold my breath) and we can have another positive, productive week.
This weekend I started reading Perfect Wives in Ideal Homes by Virginia Nicholson. A really interesting look at the lives of wives and women in the 1950s - definitely biased towards the 'aren't things better now thank God' side of things, but a lot of thought provoking points.
We were meant to be going to a fun day a couple of villages away tomorrow, but with Ivy's cough it'll be a housey day instead. I have all of the linen from having people staying to take care of, so fingers crossed for a blowy day and they can go out on the line rather than the tumble.
That's all for now. We are going away on Friday, just for the weekend, but our first holiday together since 2014, so a few things to get sorted around the house before then.
Lovely week all!

40 bags in 40 days

Continuing in the never ending spirit of getting rid of more things I am taking on the 40 bags in 40 days challenge over the lent period. I like having something to work towards, and filling a carrier bag with stuff I don't want once a day seems an achievable goal, and will mean by Easter, and the start of spring, the house will have had a total reset ready to start a new year.
I have made myself a nifty little grid for the fridge and we have already gotten together two BINbags - wooah, slow down there! - of clothes for charity that we can drop off tomorrow after Will finishes work.
My expectation is that once we have tackled the obvious clothes, books etc, this will extend to corners of the house that gather stuff and remain largely ignored.

Although my desire to own less is nothing new - you've read my blog, right? - I have been thinking a lot lately about the role of the housewife and how that has changed. How the expectation was once that a house was spotless, regardless of whether you had children, and that it no longer is. It is my personal preference, but I would choose a spotless house any day, and haven't the desire or resources to pay someone to clean it for me. But in the past women somehow managed to achieve this. I think much of this was a combination of good organisation, and a lack of the distractions we have these days like T.V, smart phones... but I suspect a lot of it was also simply owning less, and therefore having less to pick up and clean. I have been working on the organisation element and have noticed a huge difference in how clean I'm able to keep my home in the time that I have. The areas that I am still dissatisfied with are those that simply have too much stuff in them.
In other news I think I am finally feeling better (!!) This has been helped by a morning of beautiful sunshine and a couple of days of Getting Things Done. I have been out in the garden this week and planted my tomato seeds. There will be nothing else for me to plant for a while, and since I am not meant to dig either, not a lot to do now until the spring.

Sunshine!

Will built a window and door for his shed. 

Other news in the house - one luxury and one bargain:
The luxury is that we bought a rug! Yes we did. It finishes off the lounge perfectly and will protect the carpet which is looking a little worse for wear.

And the bargain (but also a bit of a luxury) - I've been after another, larger, parlour palm to go in the lounge for ages, but as they are quite slow growing the big ones are expensive. Well my luck was in, I picked up a biggy in B&Q at the weekend reduced to £10. He was looking a little sad, but I think he just hasn't been watered enough as is perking up already.

Now, I need to get on with making lunch for Will. Just sweetcorn fritters and salad today, I can't get enough of my veg at the moment.

Walking Dead and Signs of Life

Walking dead - well, that's how I feel right now. After a winter packed with colds, coughs and other nasties we finally started to recover and Ivy has started teething again, so back to sleepless nights and difficult days.
Signs of life - they're everywhere! We spent a good part of yesterday afternoon pottering about in the garden (in the pouring rain) and started to get very excited about the spring and summer to come.
Ivy is sleeping so this if my brief chance for a rest, so forgive me, today I will just picture dump and then run away!

Things Growing

Bit puddles after a day of rain - makes a change from all the horrible snow

Looking a bit greener

Ivy helping to tidy the greenhouse ready to plant things

Taking shelter

A big ole raised bed that Will has made behind the greenhouse

We did have plans to go away this weekend which we've had to cancel, so that means we had a surprise free weekend (which we've filled up already) to do a few housey things that need doing. Will needs to build a new chest/shelving to store his clothes in the bedroom as he sold his old one a couple of weeks ago and his clothes are now in a big pile of floor. I'm hoping a trip to Swansea to B&Q is in store (!!). 

I am already getting quite a big belly and starting to feel uncomfortable with that, so it's working out what the new limitations are. I also feel a change in my diet is needed as haven't been feeling that well lately, I assume I've become a little more sensitive from the pregnancy, but I'm not quite sure what to do about that yet. Basically a weekend of Sorting Stuff Out ahead - yay!!!! (Not sarcastic!)