Peace, perfect peace.

I still maintain that having one child was the hardest work that i’ve done, but i must admit having “Just Josie” today has been a pleasure. She has tootled around, giving us love and playing happily; i think she is a very different child to the one Fran was, but even so, i’ve been glad of bursts of Cbeebies. The big girls do a whole lot of baby amusing 😆

We’ve achieved loads today; 3 out of 4 cupboards of death have been sorted, i’ve managed to reduce myself to 1 folding crate of baby clothes, 1 crate of stuff awaiting Amelie and 2 awaiting Josie. Not bad. Cried a bit but managed to give an entire car load of things to Scope. Max took another car load to the dump and there is more to go tomorrow as well. Our room is clutter free with a new washing system set up, the dining room has a new table and is de-cluttered. It looks really nice, Max has even washed the carpets. The dining table is an extending one that is actually his family one from when he was little. Famously, his mum and dad left him on it in his carrycot and got 60 miles away before they noticed! Feels kind of nice to have a connection to his mum, even if its just a very second hand, scuffed table. Means something somehow.

I’ve piled the table with things to list on MP and Ebay and our old table has moved upstairs to the bead room. There is just room for Josie’s cot (which will have an mdf “top” for when i’m working and need extra space), a large desk, the table and my beads. So it gives me a little “office” and also means that i’ve got a place where a girl can go and have some quiet time if they want to play or draw undisturbed. Its not a bad house this, for a 3 bedroom one, but we fill it pretty well now. But we’ve managed to make it one tiny bit more flexible, which is a big help. Certainly all the stuff we’ve dumped makes me feel lighter!!!! We’ve been here nearly as long as we’ve been in any house since 2000 now, so we’d collected a good bit of crud. I’ve been ruthless, even chucked away a bridesmaid dress from my wedding i had hoarded and all the small clothes bar things i just love (and secretly hope to use again 😉 ) I’ve thrown away my work suits too, can’t see me needing them!

Best bit of the day was finding a box in the garage of loved photos in frames i thought we had lost. The garage is a wreck and the box was in a puddle so i opened it almost in tears that i had not known they were there and they were going to be spoiled. But they were untouched; 2 lovely wedding photos and lots of photos from “sittings” from when we just had Fran and Maddy. Seems amazing we ever didn’t know Amelie and Josie 😆 Particularly love one of Fran, aged just under 4, with SUCH an Amelie expression on her face, really made us laugh. I remember when it was taken, Amelie was about 2 weeks away.

Fran has phoned this evening, feeling a bit lonely for us but a call fixed it. I hope she’ll be okay when she goes to camp. I sent her off with Brownie badges to do with my mum and dad so hopefully she’ll come back with Stargazer and Computer under her belt. They’ve been to visit my brothers adopted rooster today as well, Prince Albert (:shock:) or something.

Josie finished the day by being spectacularly sick on me, hope its just her cold that has done it. I’ve found myself musing on the future: Fran wants to be a Archaeologist, Maddy apparently wants to be an Artist. Does this mean it naturally follows that Amelie will want to be an Anarchist??? And what does it leave for Josie? Astrologist?????

Tomorrow we have to find a new bookshelf. We have one bit of wall left and it is going to HAVE to have a bookshelf on it. Oh, and finding the metal bits for the cot would be good too.