Tiny Sparks of Autumn Joy

Two important birthdays, lots of family fun and some lovely moments.

New ballet shoes for my new 10 week term of ballet. I. Love. Being. Back. At. Ballet. It’s become an important part of my mental healthcare.

Sending stuff we don’t want or need anymore out into the world, mostly to people we know who’ll use it. Goodbye Bugaboo Donkey. For ten years you were an important part of our family transport system. I think the umbrella stroller will be moving on soon too.

A little day out to Ikea with the Mini Orchids. Meatballs and chips, storage solutions and skipping the cursed gingerbread houses. Lesson learned.

A new to her backpack for a cousin. And feeling happy we’ve kept the right things so they can be pulled out when necessary.

Never did I ever think I’d be spending a third holiday in Longford, but we’re officially completely converted to the Centerparcs experience. Cycling around the lake with the kids early on the most beautiful Saturday morning in September with the mist lifting was bliss.

In Praise of (A Small Amount of) Clutter

These are our bookshelves, well about half of them. The other half are in the playroom, which underwent a major reorganisation last weekend. Some books moved from here to there, such as my Malory Towers and St. Clare’s collections. Eldest Orchid is dipping into more and more of my beloved childhood reads and this sparks great joy.

Every so often we get an urge to purge and take out all of the books on these shelves and go through them and 99% of the time every single book goes right back onto the shelves. This process means for about 3 days there’s a system to how the books are arranged. These are deep shelves, so there’s two layers of books on each shelf and sometimes the urge to purge means we rediscover the second layer’s delights.

I have a complete paperback collection of the Drina books I so enjoyed as a child, one or two of which are at the read-so-much-they’re-falling-apart stage of life. To my delight, I was able to get my hands on hardback replacements for 4 of them and they arrived this week. I enjoy the slight editing, with references to Hungary rather than a fictional Iron Curtain country and some of the uniform is nylon rather than silk. I pondered a while on who’s job it was to edit the originals and what decisions were made to bring them up to date. I especially enjoyed the covers.

I have no space for these books, nor do I have space for the 3 library books I collected yesterday. Books on loan to others come back post urge to purge and I forget they need space. There are books shoved hastily on top of neat rows of Chalet School treasures. There’s a cookbook that should be in the cookbook cupboard in the kitchen. There’s probably a stray Miffy somewhere. There’s definitely a less than perfect order to the whole.

While I do prefer less clutter on the whole, I took a moment to appreciate these shelves while shoving my new Drinas in this morning. These are the shelves of people who read books, who dip in and out of interests, who get a thrill from a musty second hand copy and who want to spend more time reading and enjoying the books than keeping them shelved backwards or looking like a rainbow. Sometimes clutter does spark joy, and that’s something to celebrate.

On A Mission

Being ‘on a mission’ in my family needs little or no explanation. It can range from looking for new furniture to major renovations. I have set myself a little pre-Christmas mission of getting back on top of our usual, ongoing decluttering and home organisation jobs.

Today’s job was our attic which, to be fair, wasn’t too bad. Thanks to some major work a few years ago, I had a fair idea where most things were and my investment in storage boxes proved worthwhile as there wasn’t a massive amount of things to sort through.

The tools are now organised. All the Christmas decorations are ready to go. Santa knows where the elves have left the presents. Some dresses are off to a new home. And I have more vacuum bags than I know what to do with.

Next week’s mission is TBD.

Tiny Sparks of Joy

For the first time in several weeks we got the bikes out and cycled to the library. I collected the very latest Sally Rooney book, thanks to the amazing online library system, and I’m really enjoying it.

The kids did a lot of Lego this weekend, including a Covid self portrait complete with mask. I love how much they love Lego, and that they’re using some Lego that’s nearly as old as I am.

Eldest Orchid had a birthday party to attend. Instead of sitting in a cafe scrolling I went for a walk along the seafront and enjoyed the views.

I reread an old favourite while Himself watched the rubgy. My idea of a good Friday evening.

I had two hours to myself on Friday morning and did a long overdue overhaul of the dining and sitting rooms. The sheer bliss of clearing out the crap, rearranging the things I want to keep and sitting down to a clean and tidy dinner and after dinner glass of wine. It felt like redecorating without the hassle.

Enough is Enough

I’ve made a decision to place a total ban on clothes buying for myself for the rest of the year. I recently tidied up and reorganised my chest of drawers and half of our wardrobe and I have so much stuff. I found dresses I had forgotten I own, brand new socks in packets I half remembered ordering as part of a buy one get one free deal and several pairs of shoes that need to go to the cobbler the next time I get off the train at Tara St.

I have not felt the need to buy clothes for several months, and the last time I bought something was over the summer when the shops reopened. I didn’t really need what I bought; I was just sick and tired of wearing what I already had. Working from home with very occasional stints in the office mean my ‘work wear’ now consists of a rotation of three pairs of jeans (one of which I got from my sister because they didn’t suit her), tops and cardigans (some of which have holes of varying sizes) and two or three Good Dresses.

There’s a full storage bag of clothes I haven’t worn since before March 2020 on a shelf on top of my wardrobe. I have things hanging in my wardrobe I don’t think I’ve worn for three years. Some of it makes me sad, because I don’t fit into it anymore. I’ve huge sentimental attachment to other things. My daughter is now wearing a sparkly pink tracksuit top I bought in a sale 15 years ago. I love seeing it on her and now it belongs in her wardrobe.

I had a spare morning so I did a mini KonMari on my clothes. I didn’t get rid of anything, even the tops with holes. They spark joy, because they mean my better non-holey clothes are saved for when I’m not working at home. I sorted through everything, from socks to dresses I bought brand new about six months ago and have never worn. I decided I definitely didn’t need anything.

I have no inclination to browse for clothes at all. I’m not looking for anything new for the planned return on some days of the week to work. I don’t need any new winter boots or walking shoes or heels. I don’t need any underwear, socks or nightwear. I have three capes and five(!) coats and (I think?) four jackets. That is enough for anyone, and it would definitely be enough for Marjorie, who would encourage me to mix it all up and try to be as chic as possible without looking at whatever nice coat someone else has and spending unnecessary money.

I don’t know how long the non clothes buying phase will last, but given how I feel at the moment I won’t surprise myself if it lasts beyond the festive season.

The End of Babyhood

Nine years ago, I was a very new parent and decided to try cloth nappies. I ordered a small bundle of them, and then ordered some more. They worked great, I felt happy about not filling bins with disposable nappies and they were much easier to get the hang of than I had expected. This nappy stash worked for one child, and then I bought some more in a sale when Middle Orchid arrived. A friend lent me her nappies that had been worn by her two children. They went back to her when her number three was on the way.

The nappies went into a storage bags the spring we moved into our new home because we had a sneaking suspicion we’d like to have a third child so I kept all the things I knew with certainty we’d use again and gave away almost everything else. When I was lucky enough to get pregnant again, I washed them and stuffed them and secretly enjoyed how lovely they looked. I got a free changing table via a Facebook group and the nappies and home made cloth wipes fit nicely under it in a wire basket.

Baby Orchid is now in his words ‘A Big Boy’ and as soon as he started toilet training he loved the idea and the nappies were quickly redundant. I stripped them, tidied them into a bag and planned on giving them away. I could probably have sold them, but I didn’t want the hassle of a sale and I wanted to send them off in a fit of generosity. As Marjorie says, generosity has a curious way of repaying itself with interest and I have found this to be the case.

I didn’t get around to putting up a post until this weekend, and I was pretty pleased to immediately get several requests for them. One person was able to pick them up today, and at lunchtime I handed them over for use on a fourth baby.

Its weird to say, but I’ll miss these colourful nappies. They were one of the first baby things I bought that weren’t on the ridiculous ‘essentials for first time parents’ lists. They’ve been a small contribution towards reducing waste. They look super cute. And they’re still fine for use on other babies.

I’m not totally nostalgic for the baby and toddler stage, but I do have twinges knowing this little boy is our last child and we won’t be going through the ‘should we keep this’ debate when he ages out of stuff. I don’t miss a lot of the stuff of babies and toddlers, and I was very happy to send the changing table off to a new home and hear that our jumperoo was now being used by a third family.

Once the red stroller I have a total love/hate relationship becomes redundant, I’ll feel like we’re officially, completely done. There’s no baby stuff left lurking in the attic, my maternity clothes (which I still miss in a weird way because it was honestly the best planned capsule wardrobe I ever had) have long gone and I’m down to a solitary nursing bra. When I see someone with a tiny baby or a huge bump, I feel relief that I won’t ever go through that again and very happy and thankful I was able to do it three times. And also pretty delighted so much of the stuff of baby and toddlerhood has found new homes and will then go onto other new home.

Tiny Sparks of Joy

Finding the loveliest set for the Mini Orchids to help with cooking prep.

A bunch of paper flowers, thanks to Eldest Orchid.

The results of a major playroom declutter and reorganisation, and the happiness of sending things to new homes.

The results of a major wardrobe clearout for Tiny Orchid, and the happiness of sending things to cousins.

An easy, cheerful read. I have a stack of library books to get through and this one really hit the spot.

Weekend

It was one of those really, really good weekends. Every week it feels good to reach Friday and feel like maybe we’re a week closer to the beginning of some sort of end to level 5 and lockdowns.

We had the most delicious meal from Uno Mas. We have ordered from here before, and it was really good. This time we went for a duck feast and it truly was a feast. We had leftovers for lunch on Monday and saved our dessert for Sunday evening’s Antiques Roadshow.

I also caught up on a few small jobs like clearing my wardrobe of anything that hasn’t been worn since March last year. Mainly work dresses and clothes that don’t fit because of All The Eating and Drinking since March last year. I also found the beautiful cardigan my mother made for me in 1994. I’d wear it now if it came in my size.

I marked one year of This Shitty Situation with banana bread. I used up some questionable dates and very old frozen bananas. It was delicious and just what we needed with our afternoon coffee.

Mother’s Day was such a lovely day. For breakfast I reheated potato cakes on the cast iron pans that are my favourite kitchen equipment-every time I use them I exclaim how much I love them and how I can’t believe I left them unused in a cupboard for so long. Flowers, cards and homemade treats were all very welcome.

Finally, I’ve been listening to a lot of You’re Wrong About, especially after That Interview. This copy of the Sloane Ranger has been amusing me.

Tiny Sparks of Joy

A new(ish) bed for a boy who decided climbing over a cot railing was very good fun. Another last first thing for our family, and another load of gear off to a new home later this week.

Watching The Lady Vanishes on Sunday afternoon.

Some fancy drinks for Thursday evening. It was One Of Those Weeks.

Three loads of laundry washed and line dried today. I’m scraping the barrel this week, in my attempt to feel a little more positive.

Pancakes twice this week, because why not and tis the season etc.

How it started, how its going…..

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I had completely forgotten we had a bank holiday weekend this past weekend, so the bonus Monday off work was most welcome. We had no plans because we have nowhere to go. No visits to the family, no meals out, no day trips, nothing. Level 5 has the one advantage of FOMO being a thing of the past.

I woke up on Sunday and took a notion to clear out what’s my least favourite room. The playroom. I call it the playroom but it reality it functions mainly as toy and book storage. The toys get mixed up, there is LEGO everywhere, the books get shoved any old way onto the bookshelf and the less said about the ‘art box’ the better.

Knowing my children and myself, I made the executive decision not to make the children help. I’m not terribly goal oriented right now but I wanted this job done fast without much stress and I knew from bitter past experience that having the children involved wouldn’t be good for any of us. I put the two extra leaves in our well loved dining table and emptied the shelves.

Because I had free reign over this project I was RUTHLESS. Toys I thought they’d like but never used were put aside for new homes. Puzzles with missing pieces went straight to recycling. The piles of bits that annoy me beyond measure were binned. Books were sorted. Shelves were scrubbed. The children dipped in and out of the process. We stopped for a late fry up. I got back to work. Floors were hoovered, walls were wiped and things were put back neatly.

I let them keep some stuff I’d have tossed but which they expressed newfound enthusiasm for once they were uncovered from the piles. I reconciled myself to the money we wasted on some of this stuff. I resolved not to buy so much and then told myself even if the last thing I think they need is more LEGO, that’s what they love so why not.

The day ended with our wedding wine. Not the literal wine we had on the day we had our second wedding, but the same brand and grape. I love this wine. It has a screwtop so when you’re wrecked after a day of tidying, suppressed rage and cleaning endorphins you don’t need to hunt up a corkscrew. The playroom is still relatively tidy and still extremely clean. The toys are getting played with and the books are being read.

It started with a mess. It ended with reflections on life since we got married. The messes are good in many ways. I think we’d rather have them than not. Especially now.