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Housejunk (20 unread)

July 21, 2008
20:24
Emergency Teacher
» ‎ Housejunk

Last Friday, the Deputy Principal of the ‘Ladies’ College’ phoned, completely out of the blue. And so it was that I ended up in front of a class today for the first time in nine years. In my usual calm fashion I was such a mess of anxiety overnight that I managed about 4 hours of broken sleep for the whole night. I wasn’t so much worried about the teaching itself as about the idea of not sleeping. So I didn’t sleep.

Nevertheless today involved the most gorgeous, co-operative, industrious class of Year 4 girls that could be imagined. I’d just forgotton what an absolute delight a group of 16 little girls can be. (A mere 16 of them, given the class sizes in this school). They were almost embarrassingly polite and hard-working. It was like living in an Enid Blyton book for the day.

We started the day with Chess. Given that the Chess teachers are sub-contracted, I had nothing more taxing to do than collect and mark all their homework from the night before. Next lesson was Drama - again with a specialist teacher - so I finished the marking, checked the running sheet for the day and got organised. Next up was an ‘Extra’ with Grade 2. Revision of Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives. We had a lovely discussion about snow trips, listed all the snow words we could think of in various categories, then did a page in their workbook with a snowman incorporating grammar exercises.

After recess it was back to Grade 4 for a 2 hour literacy block on “Argumentative Essays”. I explained the concept and outline, we did some class discussions and pair work, then they had to write an argumentative essay in their workbooks. All I could hear was the scratching of pencils for the next 40 minutes. I used the time to go over some of the homework issues individually with girls who had had trouble. Just before lunch was Touch Typing in the computer room, where they all sat silently and furiously typing. Again I had nothing to do so it was onto correcting the Argumentative Essays.

Lunch involved a happy reunion with at least 10 colleagues who used to teach at the school back in my day. Yard duty followed, which was patrolling the halls and shooing out stragglers from the lunchtime classes such as Choir and Music. I noticed the French room was plastered with Year 6 stories, a whole A4 sheet each written in French, and each of them using the imparfait. It was very good French. I was quite jealous.

After lunch, it was back to Year 4 for 20 minutes of silent reading as usual each day, during which I finished marking the Argumentative Essays. Then Science, on the topic of ”Liquids, Gases and Solids”. We did a bit of investigation work and discussion, then a computer-based activity on the topic on the laptops. Again they were so quiet that I managed to go over the Argumentative Essays individually with each girl, making sure they fixed up anything that was a bit amiss with their written expression. Last lesson for the day was Maths. We had to measure temperature in various locations around the school and do a workbook activity.

All of them managed to finish all their Literacy, Maths, Science and Computer work and many went on to do extension tasks. Almost all of the correction was able to be done in class. Then just as they were about to be given a short game for working so beautifully all day, the school bell rang. I could not believe this but they volunteered to stay behind for a few minutes so they could play a game of “heads down, thumbs up”! Oh my goodness they were cute!

I’m not sure how much work will come up but I’m on the ET list for two days each week while James is in Kinder. Grandma is happy to help out with minding him in the mornings and then dropping him off to Kinder for the afternoons. It was a bit hurdle to overcome to get back in the classroom, but you really could not get an easier school almost anywhere.
July 18, 2008
8:49
Oh, treacherous Poppea!
» ‎ Housejunk

I was very fortunate last night to to be Joanna’s date for the Opening Night of the Opera, The Coronation of Poppea. Mind you my status as “date” had to be defended quite staunchly as the evening progressed. More on that later.

I have never been to the Opera before and given the lack of background education, I wasn’t sure how accessible it would be, or whether I would enjoy it. However I really enjoy Joanna’s company so that was the main reason for going. I thought there was at least half a chance I’d enjoy the language side and that I might learn something basic about the music.

It turned out to be a fabulous night; I really enjoyed it. Joanna will no doubt do an informed review of the actual Opera, but I will add the layman’s review. The story was a ripper. Full of love, intrigue and murder attempts. A few threats of torture thrown in. Classic surtitles in the style of “I shall torture you!” (pause) “Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no!” The end was billed as a complete triumph of evil which was really quite satisfying. Musically it was apparently a replica of the original 1635 performance and this was intriguing. I couldn’t understand much of the Italian in its operatic form [lucky there were surtitles], but to my surprise I did end up completely taken away with the music at least at several points throughout. This was as much as I hoped from my first attempt at Opera. It is definitely something I’d like to do again.

Joanna had tickets for the ‘after-party’ so I just followed her and copied what she did. She has this knack of sashaying through a room smiling at everyone and scoring a drink instantly. I am going to practise this at home later but I didn’t try it last night in case I tripped over my own feet. Many of the cast were there so I can now say I have rubbed shoulders with the cast of the Victorian Opera. Actually what I did was sort of hide behind Joanna as she smiled and chatted, wangled us excellent service with the finger-food and explained aspects of the instruments and music and operatic history and things I wouldn’t have a clue about.

After we needed still more food, so we headed out for dinner, a very entertaining dinner at that. I’m still not sure what on earth Joanna did or how but I know it happened from the second we walked into the room…Perhaps again something I should leave for Joanna’s version of events, but very entertaining. All I will say is that clearly Joanna was MY date for the evening, and the cheek of some of these young men! Next time I’m bringing the umbrella not just for the rain but so I can bat them off the sides of the table…!

Lastly the night was a great success in another sense… John was in Sydney last night and normally I wouldn’t even consider going out anywhere as a result. Being able to do something without John in Melbourne was a hurdle I wanted to overcome. Normally it would massively defeat my minimal organisational skills to try and orchestrate babysitting, get ready to go out and even navigate the car there on my own. It took four tries to get a babysitter but in the end, I dropped James at my best-friend’s house for a “sleep-over” on my way to meet Joanna. The two 4 year olds were apparently fantastic. They went to sleep happily in the same room with barely a murmur at 8pm. John then picked a sleeping James up on his way through from the airport at 9:30pm. He barely woke up in the transfer and was safe and sound in bed when I arrived home about 2am. He obligingly slept in till nearly 7am which was clearly better than a 5:30am wake-up after a night out.

Thanks to Joanna who was marvellous and sparkling company. I had a fabulous night!
July 16, 2008
15:21
Bits and bobs
» ‎ Housejunk

John is in Sydney for the latter half of this week. Yesterday we had the play-date here with the 4yo, 2 yo and my stay-at-home Dad friend whose wife/breadwinner is overseas for 3 weeks. We all agree that the hardest part of the single-parenting stints is just the lack of adult company/conversation, so this family is coming for another play on Saturday morning as well. Meanwhile have organised babysitting swaps for another friend’s 4yo/1yo next week to cover her husband being interstate while she has a work commitment/childcare clash.

It is nice to have friends in the same boat who also have travelling partners. It has taught me to be just slightly less whiny as most of my friends do tend to trot along with fairly good humour, and we all have a fine appreciation of the fact that we are not full-time single parents. It must be very hard for lots of people who are.

Tomorrow we have a “24 hour notice” inspection by our landlords. I’m not sure what they are up to. But I am glad of all the recent decluttering as the house is no longer quite as messy. On the other hand, I think the lack of mess only highlights how little proper cleaning has been done. One lovely little boy did at least load all his outside toys into his sand wagon and pack everything away in the shed, so the yard is tidy and the pavement swept. And he has helped me vacuum, clean the shower, the cooktop and the oven. I think he considered these things ‘entertainment’ given how infrequently some of these happen normally.

I did two assignments done this week. I’m not being even remotely perfectionistic, I am aiming only to complete things and get them in.

And I did get the Tax dropped off and discussed with the Tax Agent, after chasing down horrible bits of paper with scary words on them, like this unit trust thing and investment property details. Even looking at these things is a little scary so I am hoping that by doing the tax early I can go back to denial for a while. Oh my goodness it will be nice to get back onto two incomes one day.
July 11, 2008
22:22
Duh
» ‎ Housejunk

I’ve just realised that to catch up on all the work for my course (after enrolling mid-year) I will have to do two assignments a week for the next 10 weeks. All of them are relatively technical with lots of reading about incredibly practical things that I will never understand and plenty of hurrah about Australian Standards and visits to various government departments.

I am actually undertaking a life PhD in Disorganisation. Fiona - PhDD. I have no idea yet how I am going to do all the reading and bang out the assignments on time. I’ve had a bit of a crack tonight at banging out 1,000 words about “concrete” (what is that?) based only on my imagination, some thinly veiled references to Australian Standards and nearly a whole bottle of wine. John has watched the football in the meantime so I better catch up on the scores.
13:46
TAFE!
» ‎ Housejunk

At the start of the year I wanted to enrol externally at TAFE Tasmania to study “Residential Drafting”. Unfortunately I didn’t quite get organised enough to complete the enrolment at the time (this may not bode well for the actual study.)

Anyway now I am enrolled, complete with packages in the mail and online login to the Blackboard system. I was under the impression that “rolling enrolments” meant I could just begin now and study at my own pace. It is actually the case that I have to catch up on the whole year’s assignments all in one hit. But I’m only doing two subjects. One is “Principles of Construction Technology” and the other is “Evaluate Materials for Construction of Residential Dwellings”.

The first assignment for both subjects was to log-in and do a set of multiple choice questions ‘blind’. If I didn’t have 8 years work experience it would have been tough (they recommend a background in the industry before you start. I can see why). But given that I’ve worked in the area, the first two assignments only took a couple of minutes.

Assignment 2 is the real thing. I have to do ”a 1,000 word technical report on the use of concrete in residential construction.” For the other subject, I have to pick a block of land in the local area and write a design brief outlining local government restrictions and requirements.

This could all eat into my decluttering time.
July 09, 2008
22:00
Toys and Clutter
» ‎ Housejunk
John’s home. Back to the crucial issue. decluttering.

I think many people are capable of being organised while also owning things. I don’t seem to have the knack of being able to control of all my stuff. When the house is messy (as usual) I can’t find things, or it takes a long time to find things. I don’t respond to that with equanimity.

It also seems to consume a wasteful amount of mental energy. Maybe I just don’t have much available RAM but certainly I’m concerned in preserving what I do have. I want functional RAM. The unending preoccupation with trying to locate the sticky-tape/stamps/bay leaves/library books seems to tie up more time, life and mental preoccupation that I would like. I just want less clutter and less time spent on clutter. I feel quite strongly about it.

Toys and Clutter. John and I both come from families of 4 children. There are 3 sets of siblings and partners on both sides, plus both sets of grand-parents, plus some of John’s and my Aunts and Uncles and Cousins (James’ Great-Aunts and Uncles) who give him presents at Christmas and Birthdays. There’s even two Great-Grandmothers. He appreciates his toys. He plays with them a great deal, even knows who gave him many of the things (I insist on telling him). But we have a LOT of stuff. Even with my usual high tolerance for mess, this stuff takes a lot of time to move around, kick out of the way, clean up occasionally etc.

So I decluttered it this week. This was how I did it:
- Physically removed all of the toys (in stages, surreptitiously) except for a couple of ‘classic’ toys that he uses constantly, nearly every day
- Displayed the remaining toys nicely in his bedroom (everything now fits in his bedroom, instead of needing storage areas all over the house)
- Put the ‘vanished’ toys in storage at the highest point in the spare wardrobe
- Brought things out one by one only if he asked, “where is my ….”
- After a respectable period of time, we will remove all the ‘unasked’ for things from the house
I have noticed a few things.

Toys Grown Out Of - none of these have even been mentioned or asked for; they are not missed.

Educational Toys - I was guilty at one stage of buying ‘educational’ toys for him. Just cheap second-hand puzzles, stacking rings, peg boards and the like. The educational toys have got the least possible use out of anything we’ve ever had. He even sorted these out for me himself, gladly putting most of them in a box for the Op Shop. It’s probably not worth keeping things he actively dislikes and does not use.

Directed Purpose Toys - there are lots of toys in currency that he does use, but for limited periods as their play value is a bit restricted; they are not open-ended. He has asked for some of these back, but not many.

Broken/Worn - there is a section of toys that he might still like, but they were poor quality to begin with and they are broken or worn beyond being worth keeping. Some of these he’s asked for but I’ve explained that very broken toys have to go to recycling. It’s also been a bit of a lesson in caring for our toys and also in the idea of “quality” and “durable”. He seems to accept all this.

It is close to 50 toys that have been removed. Can you believe that? Most are only small items, like a stack of 15 small puzzles in a drawer. But another way to look at it is that they explode into over 300 separate parts. That is too much for one small kid to keep track of. Maybe he’s stressed by all his clutter, too.

What’s left fits entirely within his room, easily. He doesn’t seem to feel deprived. He is playing for longer and in more interesting and creative ways with what remains. He appears to enjoy being in his new, neat bedroom. He chooses to play in there instead of the lounge room. He is now able to pack things up properly himself without being overwhelmed. And with some restrictions on what he now has, I know that come Christmas he will really appreciate any thing new that comes into the house.
July 08, 2008
20:59
Five/Ninety Five
» ‎ Housejunk

John was in a school today not far from where we used to live in Tasmania. They gave him some stats on how many kids go on past Year 10 into the ‘academic’ stream that would allow tertiary entrance ranking.

Five percent.

That’s not even ’five percent gain tertiary admission’. That’s five percent go on past Year 10 into standard Year 11 and 12 academic study streams. I don’t know how many of the ‘five percent’ then go on to Uni or other tertiary study. I’m guessing the barriers of distance/cost to rural students make that number fairly small (as it did with many of my friends back when I was in high school).

Maybe there are plenty of schools out there like that but that’s still a shocking figure. We keep getting sent glossy brochures from private schools that we’re on the mailing list for (as ex-teachers) and they have lovely pie graphs on post-school destinations. Generally something like 95% go on to tertiary study of some kind or another. Sometimes around 50% of the year level have study scores in the top 10% of the state.

It’s just a little shocking when put side by side like that.
13:53
Live Local
» ‎ Housejunk

I do like this local living thing. Especially when John goes away it makes such a difference to have people locally that we can call in and have a chat with. Today we jumped on the Eastlink bike track and rode 10 mins down to Grandma’s (John’s Mum) where the cousins were also visiting (for bonus entertainment points). The kids played beautifully for an hour and a half with barely a look in. I had a nice chat with the in-laws. It’s good being able to bike to the shops or kinder or in-laws. This would be good longer-term.
July 07, 2008
16:43
Tas. Mania.
» ‎ Housejunk

What with schools being closed in Victoria, John has gone to Tasmania again this week. Yesterday he was in St. Helens and Launceston and today it was Devonport. Over the past two trips he’s visited both the schools I went to as a teenager in Devonport and it is very entertaining to hear his take on my old schools (not very favourable, to say the least).

Our TV ban has gone slightly to the pack this week and last week but that’s ok. With no kinder till next week; with cold, wet and wintry weather, a husband away and my best friend for playdates also away, I am not going to have a heart-attack over the TV. Better to be a reasonably sane parent and pace things out a bit at times.
July 05, 2008
23:39
Street Kids
» ‎ Housejunk

A few weeks ago we finally met the other neighbours in the court here, who I had thought were very reclusive. This court only has four houses with driveways opening on to it. One house is vacant and one is ours so that only leaves two other houses with driveways. So I was able to ask if anyone minds that we frequently let James use the court to ride his bike in (with me watching, of course). Much to my delight, the neighbours were positively misty-eyed, saying it took them back 30 years to the days when they raised their own boys in this court.

I love that the neighbours know there’s kids around and I’m confident they won’t reverse their cars out suddenly without looking (not that I leave James unattended out there for more than a few seconds, as I take the bins up or drop the mail inside). I love that James is also wary enough of simply being on a road that he often stops dead and waits if he hears a car coming down at the cross road. It’s giving him enough real responsibility that he feels alert; but not enough that he is in any danger.

And it is just nice to finally know the neighbours, and know that we could knock on the door if we needed anything and vice-versa. Almost every day I set a chair up out the front and take a book out there while J. has a ride. Today when the family came over for lunch we had everyone out there with the bikes, trikes, scooters and pram. It’s fantastic to have a big open area to ride around in those brief 10 min bursts of winter sunshine.
July 04, 2008
19:56
Throw in bag; act normal
» ‎ Housejunk

One of the blogs I read got me laughing when she mentioned the “take half a day to throw in a bag, act normal” routine before people come over.

We have my family coming for lunch tomorrow so I am doing exactly that right now. I’m stuffing all the stuff I was trying to declutter today into random nooks and crannies; in cupboards, under beds, even in boxes in the boot of the car (out of mind; out of sight). And how dumb was it to buy a flat-packed, assemble-at-home item today? By tomorrow every single cupboard in our house will be stuffed with random pieces of PVC and old shoes. But the house will look superficially clean.
18:30
Being disorganised (in July)
» ‎ Housejunk

I am Queen of the Damned. Having reaped a small $200 windfall by cashing in the coin bucket, I had firm plans to buy the nieces and nephews their Christmas presents this morning. I left home with every prospect of actually becoming a super-organised person and getting a big slab of Christmas Shopping done and finished in July, at sale prices and also paid for in cash.

The saddest part is, I’d spent ages researching and planning what to buy. I had a list! It wasn’t going to be the first piece of inexpensive plastic craptastic on the first rack that assaulted me at Toys R Us!

Four seconds after the shops opened I succumbed to a horror moment of intense impulse buying. I’m not even game to say what it was that I bought, it’s enough to note that it required 2.5 hours for me to assemble, has over 100 individual pieces (of questionable quality), takes up a large section of the only-just decluttered and emptied dining room, and generated about a tonne of non-recyclable packaging and noxious odours.

Basically I now have a Shrine to Uneducated Consumerism sitting behind me in the dining room. Also a bin full of polystyrene outside. Feel free to come and visit and laugh at the Shrine. It takes up half the room so you won’t miss it. Luckily I did still have about $70 left of the cash (as expected with such cheap craptastic behaviour) so I did get two nice presents - both made from wood, minimal packaging and with open-ended play value (i.e. my nieces will hate me).

However I did try to redeem the whole event. This afternoon I just went mental, completely mental, in chucking out more stuff. Clothes. Shoes. Plastic toys. Anything with components containing PVC. James was running scared hiding his plastic toys. He was cringing in corners, whining, “No, Mummy! No! It’s good quality! It’s a strong, good-quality plastic!”

I blew my chance to be organised (again). But tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow I will probably buy something made in Australia out of plantation timber with a forest friendly logo, packed in a calico bag.
0:15
Crazy times with kids
» ‎ Housejunk

We had this play-date today. It was with a child from Kinder, we’ve never visited the house before, and it was fairly full-on. Much hitting, punching and hurting by the other kid. James was under fire as was the little sister. James was fantastic, he didn’t react and retaliate, but I was concerned he was going to get really hurt. He did get his hand deliberately squashed and bruised by a metal car and also he got punched a bit. I did my usual Playdate Survival Strategy, sitting on the floor micro-managing with the whole “use your words” and “now you use your words” and “you can both work this out if you talk about it”. This did improve things considerably but not enough. James was getting stressed in the end and he was becoming uncooperative and the whole situation was going to hell in a handbag.

Having had a boy for the past few years, none of this was overly dramatic, but clearly the playdate wasn’t running very smoothly. In the end we did the sensible thing, stopped for morning tea, then when things still weren’t running very well, I said to the other mum that the kids seem to “have had it for today” and that we “might call it a day till next time”.

I’m not sure what they normally do in their house when things are going pear-shaped. Here we rely on “Time In” (where you sit them down right next to you on the floor, with you on a chair next to them, one hand on their head/shoulder, until they calm down and agree to stop throwing/playing roughly/snatching/hitting or whatever). If they’re tantrumming, you sit them on your lap and restrain them if necessary. They’re allowed up when they calm down/co-operate/agree to a truce, or after 4-5 mins for really serious offences that you want to make a point over. This has been really working for us where Time Out never did. We have a hierarchy where most of the time, we use Reminders about Manners (is it good manners to do what you just did….?) but if anything happens that could damage property/people, it is immediate Time In, no warnings.

Anyway we went Toy Shopping after all that. All I can say is…Toy Sales + School Holidays…what was I thinking?! We still had fun and got a start on Christmas shopping.
July 03, 2008
12:48
Downsizing (ultimate decluttering)
» ‎ Housejunk

John sat down face to face with our tenants out at Rowville this morning and apparently the meeting went extremely well. We explained that we aren’t giving notice or kicking anyone out; we just would like to talk about their plans, how long they would like to stay etc. (they’ve been there 18 months, are now on month-to-month lease and had already recently rejected our offer to sign a new one-year lease). We explained that ideally we would like to sell the house, but we’re flexible on when we list it. We confirmed that if they do want to stay in the house, we can sign a new one-year lease and sell it as an tenanted investment property. Also we said they can have first option if they are interested in buying. The meeting went extremely well, they were appreciative of our honesty and glad of having the chance to discuss options. They didn’t really let on yet what they have been planning, but they must have something in mind if they haven’t taken up the offer of a new lease recently.

Apparently the house is in immaculate condition both inside and out. The Agent who valued it at the same time said it is absolutely immaculate and in perfect condition to sell. We’re lucky we’ve had such great tenants.

For us to move from there to here will mean downsizing: possibly a dual-occupancy site, or similar. It has taken me a while to get around the idea of having no backyard but I’m there now. It will be the ultimate decluttering to move to a smaller house. Nevertheless we do want to stay in this community, have access to better education facilities and be close to family and friends. I’m getting to the point where the benefits are outweighing the lack of extra house facilities.
July 02, 2008
21:20
Spendthrift
» ‎ Housejunk

We have a child’s toy bucket in the pantry where we throw our loose change. Every five years or so we count it all and send it to the bank. $196.95! Naturally I’d spent this six times over before I even finished counting. Money seems to burn a hole in my pocket, I’m not seriously considering saving it. I don’t think that would work for me. So tomorrow we are off to the current Toy Sales at Big W and Kmart to get a head-start on the Christmas Shopping. I do like this idea of combining the heady delight of retail therapy with the non-cluttered approach of buying gifts while also getting my Christmas Shopping done sometime before the 24th December (my usual deadline).
As I was looking up toy sales, I discovered Lasoo.com: an online search facility for sale items. Under Toys it pulled up all of the things we have recently had in the junk mail catalogues. It combines and categorises it all in one place, making it easier to pick presents.
15:54
100 Thing Challenge
» ‎ Housejunk

I was excited when I found Dave Bruno’s 100 Thing Challenge on Facebook. The aim is to reduce personal possessions to 100 Things. I have a list of my aimed-for 100 Things. Choosing the 100 is not hard. It’s just physically sorting and removing the excess possessions that is the hard bit.

Everyone is making their own definitions and rules. In my book, anything that is a collection counts as “one”. For example, a box of photos is “one” item, it is not being counted as 300 separate items. Also shared household items that I use, like furniture, belong to ‘the house’, not me. They’re not counted. I’m only looking at personal possessions.

I would ideally love to live in a world where ‘the house’ owns 100 Things, and each person in the house owns 100 Things, and that’s the limit. That’s still hundreds and hundreds of items to physically care for, maintain, store, tidy up, clean, locate, keep track of, move house with etc. But for the time being it is only me not the whole household in on this.
July 01, 2008
21:42
6 dads and their kids
» ‎ Housejunk

It just makes me happy to see both John and James so happy. They were only out for a few hours today for lunch but clearly they both enjoyed it right to the top. or the brim. or whatever it is when you come home both tired but happy. It was Whopper, Aba, Leroy, Adam, Kizza and JB (John) and the assorted children. The kids apparently spent a lot of time running madly through tunnels, playing air-hockey and basketball and car games. In those moments when it pains me that James is an only-child I’m so grateful that he will hopefully grow up with a bit of a support network that involves both friends and family.
10:53
SAHDs
» ‎ Housejunk

John is not on holidays but given that all schools are closed he is just catching up on office work at home. However three of John’s friends are Stay-at-Home-Dads and they decided to meet with the kids at the Matthew Flinders this afternoon. John is joining them for a few hours with James. They are all kids that come on our annual camping weekend at Echuca so it will be nice for the kids to catch up.

As an afterthought, Whopper rang back to say, “Oh - by the way, we didn’t mean to exclude Fiona or anything. She’s very welcome to come. It’s just that it is really only going to be the dads and kids”. That was a very nice offer but I think unfortunately I have prior commitments such an afternoon of shopping.
June 30, 2008
22:25
Fetish
» ‎ Housejunk

I’m really embarrassed about my Decluttering Fetish. It has crossed the line from something I thought I should do into something I enjoy immensely. It’s almost like I look for moments when I can declutter. John has clapped a restraining order on me to prevent me throwing out any more videos.

It’s extremely tragic. I know that.

Almost all of the second lot of junk we put on the nature strip has vanished. I think this proves that we have quality junk. Council is still sending a truck our way, making me feel almost desperate to put two more cubic metres of junk out there. I was left prowling the house tonight searching for junk, but I couldn’t find any. I started wondering if we should put the TV table in the spare room out on the nature strip, not because it is junk but merely because I don’t like it.

I consoled myself tonight with rearranging the drawers in the kitchen with a better stacking arrangement, so now there’s about 3 entirely empty cupboards. It is actually becoming an illness.
17:37
And it all worked out fine in the end
» ‎ Housejunk

Karen and I had lunch today which was absolutely lovely. Our boys are only a couple of months apart in age, both of them now just over 4. Generally speaking we have spent a lot of time over the past few years exhorting them to play nicely, share, wipe their own noses, stop clobbering each other etc.

We were quite entertained when we overheard this little gem, as the boys played downstairs together and a tussle over a toy threatened to break out:

Friend: “We have to sort this out. Otherwise the Grown-Ups are going to come down here with us!”
James: “Oh, no! Let’s just share it then. We can work this out together!”

In the end, they played very nicely downstairs by themselves (within earshot) for almost 3 hours, with no intervention required at all, other than an occasional drink requested and a question here or there (this is just massively longer than has ever happened before). Meanwhile the 1 year old decided to have a 2-hour nap. And then the boys played outside for another hour where they built a fantastic sculpture out of sticks, huge old blocks of wood, old bricks, roof tiles and other junk that they found behind the shed. Both children finished up begging us to let them “play together again all day tomorrow”.

I’ve decided that maybe the kids will all work out fine in the end and maybe we will survive parenting after all.

To celebrate, we have a few Beasts lined up in the freezer chilling.