A Woman's Work is Never Done

I understand that now. Now that I have a baby. It would be impossible to count the number of times I have to put down what I've started, as Megan unexpectedly wakes up after a shorter than usual nap, or when she suddenly misses me in the other room. The house is full of unfinished jobs. Piles of dirty laundry, yet to be washed. Baskets of clean laundry, yet to be hung on the line. Dirty dishes; an overflowing compost caddy; squashed strawberries on the floor under Meg's highchair; clothes waiting to be photographed and put on eBay. Upstairs there is further chaos. Papers strewn across the floor in the bedroom, waiting to be filed. Toys littering the landing. Nappies and nappy inserts, jumbled in a heap. A random pair of green overalls.

Outside, there are jobs which will never truly be completed. The cardboard amassing in the pole barn must be torn up and layered with the grass cuttings in the compost bin. I am trying to get it done before more boxes are added to the stack, but who am I kidding? It's like trying to race the sun. My (slightly OCD) need for a ticked box, and a task fulfilled is being somewhat challenged. I am trying to roll with it, trying to learn a freedom and flexibility. It's not easy, but I am enjoying the slow process of giving up what appears to be a very linear mindset.

Today I re-cut the edges of one of last year's vegetable beds, took out the grass roots which had been threatening to engulf the soil in a sea of green and then planted out the beetroot seedlings. Even without digging over the bed (I took out what few weeds there were), it was still quite hard work. Another thing to have to do every year, to every bed (we looked into making raised beds, but so far it seems too expensive at about £30 per bed. We'll have to try to source much cheaper wood than we had in mind).

Our lawn is a jungle, with long grass more than a foot tall. I almost lost Meggie in the grass today (not really, I just said that for effect).

Nine months old, and almost ready to play at getting lost in the foliage.

A woman's work is never done. I looked it up here.
It says: Prov. Housework and raising children are jobs that have no end.

I think I need to work on acquiring a love for things which never end. Things which are half finished. Things which are on-going. Things which do not tick the boxes.

My Beautiful Laundrette

Day Sixty Two.

Yes, since the washing machine broke down sometime in October last year, I've been a regular at the laundrette. When I say regular, I mean I've been twice, before that I was able to use my mum's machine. So this was my second visit, and even though it's literally around the corner from the house, there's something retro and exotic about the experience. You take one look at those rows of sleek, stainless steel, regimented machines, and you know they mean business. Accepting loads of 7kg, 10kg, and 16kg, these are the hardcore washing machines you've only dreamed of... until now.

I carry two giant bags full of dirty things - from sheets to socks, jackets to jock-straps. No, not really, that wouldn't be right. I'm just getting caught up in the retro-tastic nostalgia induced by those soapy smells and swishing sounds. I squeeze everything into two machines - two 16kg machines would have been perfect, but only one is working, so I have to make do with one 16kg and one 10kg. Being inexperienced, I must study the instructions fully in order to be sure that all will go to plan. I feed in the pound coins: £4 and £3, and the churning begins. The display tells me that the cycle will be over in 27 minutes - that seems rather brief! - so I return home until the job is done, wishing I could just sit in the laundrette reading a book or writing a short story...


Yes, I almost start to wish that I lived further away, so that I would have the excuse to sit and soak up this atmosphere of cleanliness and pure function...

Later I retrieve the stupidly heavy bags of wet clothes, and hang them EVERYWHERE about the house. Phil lights the fire so that our bathroom radiators will also become warm, and he hangs socks and pants on the rails.

The house is now filled with the smell of clean clothes, and the promise of presentability, and the assurance of an essential job completed...

Tea and Coffee and Cake

Day Sixty One.

Spent the day NOT thinking about smoking! Horray! And if I DID find myself thinking about it, I made sure I distracted myself. It's not being too much of a problem.

Our tenant and good friend Christian moved out yesterday, so we now have the house to ourselves. Our plan is to up the gear in terms of getting the house ready for market, but first we needed to reclaim the space a bit, and make it our own again. I had been itching for some time to sort out the wooden shelves on top of the work-surface, and today I was able to clean and organise them. Before:


The shelves house the teas and coffees, as well as the bread and cakes (!) - and are conveniently located next to the kettle and toaster. After:


I've got this idea though, whereby I'd like to start putting out some of the jars we need to use up - and the top shelf would be ideal. Realistically though, are we really going to go to the shelf first (to see if we want to use anything up) before going to the cupboard to get the specific thing we have in mind to eat? I'm not sure. I might try it, even if it doesn't work, it might at least remind Phil of some of the contents of the darker corners of the cupboards...

Spring Clean

Day Fifty Eight.

What a lovely sunny day! Perfect for staying indoors and sorting out the piles of STUFF in our upstairs sitting room, right? Er - right. I did manage to get out and enjoy a bit of a walk as well as visiting my friend Jenny and her 6 month old baby, but before that I had a successful day of Getting Stuff Done.

You might have liked to have seen a before and after picture, but due to the camera battery situation, that was impossible. And when I looked at the mess before I started I was actually quite glad that no one would ever see it! It was disgraceful, to say the least!

As I have hardly any time before I go out to what I'm expecting to be a lovely party with music and food, I'll keep it brief:

I fixed the hoover (again - the sucky part keeps falling off, but I managed to re-attach it for the time being) and sucked up a ridiculous amount of cat hair as I cleared new areas of the room.

I've moved lots of things which I won't need for the next month (but wish to keep) downstairs into the spare bedroom, ready to go to the smallholding. These included our very few Christmas decorations (we usually collect holly and ivy and foliage in general, so have limited tinsel and a few red and gold baubles); the bag of carefully selected teddies; some wooden CD racks; and some more books.

I cleared the HORRIBLE hexagonal coffee table we have hated sine we were given it by a friend who was moving house and had no room for it, and Phil Took It Away, never to be seen again. Now there will be one less ugly clutter magnet in our world.

There was a whole pile of scraps of paper with people's phone numbers and addresses on them, and I've 'downloaded' them into my diary. At least now I might be able to find them if I need them, ha ha.

The folders full of the accounts were out, all over the sofa, so I put them away - out of sight and mind.

I can't believe I can see so much floor now, and moving around the room has ceased to be an obstacle course. If you could see it, you'd be amazed. :)

Better go and get ready now - in the coming days I hope to slowly catch up with myself and fill in the missing days... That is the plan, anyway. Maybe if I do two a day... Got a gig in Walthamstow tomorrow night (so sorry you can't make it, Tammy, I was looking forward to meeting you in person!), so leaving before noon - not sure what I can achieve before that time, but if I don't have time to blog, I shall write it up early next week.

Bottles and Jars

Day Forty.

Horray! Day forty! I can't believe the time is passing so quickly. By the time the One Hundred Days Project is complete, I'm hoping that we'll be settling into the smallholding. Not only that, but Ember's ten years of endless touring will be over, and there will be time to breathe, stay still awhile, and put down some proper roots. I have been trying to cut down on our (OK, my - !) belongings, ready for the move. Once you get into the swing of it, it gets easier. Well, no, there are good days and bad days, I suppose, if I'm to be truly honest.

Today was a good day in some ways, and a bad one in others. I decided to tackle the built-in kitchen cupboard, which could accurately be compared to Pandora's box:

Chaos!

Disaster area!

War zone!

DANGER
KEEP
OUT!

So I took everything out, gave the shelves a little wipe, got rid of the empty (empty! Who - I would like to know - WHO puts empty packages BACK INTO THE CUPBOARD?!) boxes and cleaned out the jars with nothing more than scrapings left at the bottom, and replaced the remaining items. In a slightly more orderly way:

Ignore the middle shelf in the picture below, it's packed full of our tenant's food :)

Yeah, now that I look at the pictures it seems like I've hardly made a difference, but it was quite a satisfying task, and it served to remind me of what we actually have (mostly lurking at the back) and now I feel that I am equipped to start eating through some of the emptier jars...

I feel better, anyway, ha ha :)

Can a Haiku Make Housework Poetic?

Day Three.

How am I going to make this interesting for you? Perhaps I could reveal my achievements in Haiku-form?

It's been a very satisfying day for me. First off, I've been wearing my new leg warmers ALL DAY, and they feel amazingly toasty! :) Today I did a few of the annoying little jobs which build up over time and which nag at you every time you notice that they need to be done all over again. The kind of things people may not find fascinating to read about! :)

1. Washed up every dirty glass, plate, piece of cutlery and every single pan which was "soaking." The pans were not really soaking. They were waiting for someone who could be bothered to wash them up properly.

I cleansed the dishes
And these so-called soaking pans
We are now baptised

2. Took out ALL of the kitchen scraps and compost waste. The problem had built up to the point that there were several bowls and egg boxes full of decomposing matter, alongside the designated compost tub.

All that reeks and rots
Banished from the kitchen now
Destined for rebirth

3. Cleaned the kitchen surfaces like they'd never been cleaned before. In actual fact they were wiped down only yesterday, but they looked like they'd never been cleaned before.

So smooth and shiny
This crumb-free, scum-free beauty
Lasts until breakfast

4. Cleaned out the fridge and found a very suspicious-looking chicken. Christian, our tenant, has since informed me that the chicken was definitely rotting. It was his chicken, so I will not carry the burden of guilt.

That costly chicken
Died for you, and it could sue
For livelihood lost

5. Sorted through some of the boxes and bags of things that my parents brought round for the Dog Shop. Everything they get rid of is always brought to us first, in case we find a need for it. In the past we have had some lovely woolly rugs, books, clothes, even unwanted food (which I think is their way of making sure Phil and I are eating enough, but without us having to feel as though we are charity cases, ha ha.)

I cannot ask you
Not to bring boxes and bags
Sometimes we like them

That's all for now, what will tomorrow bring? I can hardly wait.