We finally bit the bullet, ate the frog, call it what you will but we finally moved all of Toots' toys to her bedroom.
Gasp.
I know. For years now I have insisted that her bedroom is for sleeping only. It's the main reason I feel that she sleeps as well as she does (a good 11-12 hours every night). There aren't any distractions in there and I liked that her room was a very relaxing place.
But we gave in.
Or maybe I am just a little bit selfish.
I wanted my corners back.
I mean the corners of my living room. For years now, my corners have been non-existent. First filled with buggies and strollers and nappy bags, then toys. She doesn't have a huge amount of toys but boy do those things get everywhere.
We spent last weekend rearranging her room. We picked up a couple of under bed storage boxes from Ikea and put her toy chest in the corner of her room. If anything, are the moving of furniture and reorganising, she seems to actually have more room to play up there. And it looks a lot more like a child's room rather than a spare bedroom.
Best of all, she still gets her shower every night, dries her hair and swans off into bed like usual, completely ignoring all the toys. Occasionally she has climbed back out of bed, grabbed a stuffed toy and climbed back in again, but apart from that it hasn't affected her night's sleep one bit.
And I've got my corners back again. And I used the large wooden chest in the living room to stash all my knitting and crafting pruck, so I have my kitchen table back again.
Woohoo.
Also, I've mentioned before how much I'm enjoying being at home. However, its kind of obvious, at least to me, that we can't really afford for me to be out of work in the long term. We're fine for a year or two, but after that if I'm still at home it may start to be a bit of a problem.
We've sat down and worked out that I may have to return to work at least part time once Toots started school. Now, that's fine in theory but that kid will get something like 15 weeks holiday a year and I can't imagine that I'll be able to find such a generous employer.
That is, unless I'm my own boss.
So wildly clutching at straws I opened a Folksy shop. Folksy is kind of like Etsy except its based in the UK. That's the button up there on the right.
Don't panic, You'll still get my usual run of rants, crafts, carnival whoring and anything else I find remotely interesting. I'm not going to turn into one of those blogs where I shamelessly self promote and only post pretty little pictures of the things I make.
Besides if I wanted to do that I could always just start another blog. Three and counting, sure what's another one, eh?
I've learnt a few very significant things...- I have absolutely no idea how I ever had the time to work full time outside of the house. I'm amazed I managed it without having a nervous breakdown.
- I really enjoy being at home. I've definitely been a much better wife and mother since coming out of work.
- Toots enjoys being at home with me a lot more. We've been working on the discipline (hers and mine) the last week and we're enjoying each other's company a hell of a lot more. She's snuggled up beside me as I write and she has a little smile on her face.
- A husband, with a wife at home, who knows how to use power tools and isn't afraid to, is a very happy husband indeed. He arrived home yesterday afternoon, completely exhausted after a very hard day and was planning on getting stuck into some jobs he felt needed done. He wanted to mow the lawn because it has been dry for a few days. He also wanted to put up the hooks on the back of the larder door for coats and other bits and pieces, plus a vent needed to be installed on the outside of the house to cover an air intake which is no longer in use.
He hadn't noticed before that I'd already done all those things, plus a few others he had forgotten about over the last few days. Needless to say he was a very happy man. He was able to sit down and relax with a meal and his family and then spend the rest of the night winding down.
- Being at home during the week, means that I can stay on top of all those little things which used to interfere with our weekend, grocery shopping, fish tank water changes, car washing and just the general cleaning and tidying which I would normally have done every weekend. All these things I now do during the week leaving all of us to truly enjoy our weekends, whether its a day out to the forest or the beach (still wrapped up warm though, we don't live in the tropics) or even just going out for a walk or spending time at home together.
- We're eating a lot better than we did. When I worked full time I tried OAMC which sacrifices freshness and I always prefer fresh. I would end up coming in every evening and preparing something quickly. I still tried to cook from scratch which means having to buy better cuts of meat which can stand up to quick cooking but also cost a fortune and are usually lacking in taste. Now we have a good meal everyday, Toots is really enjoying her lunches because she decides (to a certain extent) what to make and she helps me to prepare the food, plus the husband is enjoying the variety of lunches he gets sent to work with along with the baked goods. We eat a lot more fresh vegetables and fruit because I always have time and I'm not to tired to run to the market at 6.30am on a Saturday morning and I'm really starting to feel the benefit of eating all this fresh food.
- The garden is better organised this year. I already have all the plots of land cleared and have some of the earlier seeds in the ground and they're sprouting already. Last year we were all good intentions but wound up making a bit of pigs ear of things, planting seeds when WE had the time rather than at the right time, forgetting to water during the summer months and not picking the few things that did grow when they were at their best.
I could go on about this for hours, but I won't bend your ear for that long. If you stay at home, do you enjoy it? What are some of your favourite things about being at home? And if you work outside the house, how do you make it work for you?
We were all set this morning, coats, gloves and hats on ready to head out the door until...
Snow...and rain...and icy winds...and...no
So back inside and now I've have a three year old who was desperately looking forward to a walk around the town this morning,
because this morning we were supposed to be going to get her some new ballet pumps.
Ah well, such is life I guess. I'll measure her feet and run down tomorrow while she's with Nana, come hell or high water.
So I needed something to take her mind off, still wanting to go out regardless of the weather.
Hmm, crafts with nothing planned.
A paper dolls house.
All you need to complete this very simple project are 2 pieces of stiff card (or a cardbox box will do).
A glue stick (or PVA or Mod Podge, whatevers within reaching distance)
Some sharp scissors (for you)
And the Ikea catalogue (or home inspiration magazines like Ideal Home)
You need to have a quick flick through the catalogue or magazines and tear our ny pages with a room which pretty much covers the majority of the page (its easier to manage this with the Ikea book trust me). Then with the scissors cut a very narrow slot halfway along the long side of the card and halfway through the card. Slot the two pieces together to look like this.
Then you want to give the three year old a glue stick and swan off into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. Now you'll need a damp sponge to quickly sponge the (hopefully) still wet glue off the carpet because you weren't intelligent enough to put a mat or drop cloth down first.
Or if you're that way inclined you can sit and watch to make sure she "stays within the lines"
.
It's much easier if you keep the two pieces of card slotted together and then lie the whoel thing flat on the floor, that way all you have to do is make sure that the magazine pages you stick to the two facing sides are both of a kitchen, or bedroom or whatever.
Like this.
Carry on around all four sides (you'll need eight magazine pages in total) and it shoudl wind up looking something like this.
Doesn;t she looked pleased with herself. I cut two small slots near the corners at each side of the "kitchen" and strung a length of silver cord across, before hanging up a little t-shirt and trousers I cut from some old fabric. I'd picked up those tiny clothes pegs to use for hanging cards at Christmas and I've been trying to think of something else to use them for.
If you're feeling particular inspired and creative you could always colour the pieces of card yourself, then cut out individual pieces of furniture, chairs lamps that kind of thing and have fun designing your very own rooms.
I'd love to know if anyone does this their child.
For more great WFMW tips and ideas, head over to Rocks in my Dryer.
Hi remember me. I've been here before but not in a while.I'm trying to get everything sorted out and unfortunately this and a couple of other things were pushed to the back burner.I'm getting really excited now about coming out of work and I just want the next month over and done with. Talk about wishing your life away.I've had a few days off work and for some reason I've managed to wind up with even less time to get anything done. I just couldn't get past the novelty of being able to spend all day with Toots and not have to worry about being anywhere or being late for anything. We got up in the mornings and had a lovely cooked breakfast, something normally unheard of on a weekday morning. Normally, Toots has breakfast in daycare and me and the husband share a thermos cup of coffee on the way to work and he has a lunchbox full of cereal and a carton of milk chucked into his bag before we leave the house. Then we lit the fire (its been 1 - 3C here the last couple of days) and cuddled up in front of it for a couple of hours before making any plans for the day.We did manage to pinch our car back from my mum (her car is stuck in the garage because of dirty diesel) on Friday so that we could go to the Continental Market in Belfast and we had a great day. We stuffed ourselves with bratwurst, churros, hot chocolate, dutch pancakes, stroopwaffles, Turkish delight and red licorice. Toots got to see Santa (photo to come later) and we both had two rides on the merry-go-round. We went to the Disney Store (which had obviously had an attack of the "crap we haven't sold anything in monthsitis") and a 'Cast Member' was running around the store frantically slapping discount stickers on everything. Brilliant.Then we went to Hamleys, a lovely toy shop by the way just in case anyone happens to be passing one, it's the first toy shop I've been into in years without turning into a Potential Murder Suspect. Hamley's Santa wasn't going to be there until 3.30pm and we were far too early but they had an entire display of those little animals, you know the ones, like puppies and bunny rabbits and they stop and make noises and wrinkle their noses or waggle their ears and then scurry off for another few steps before stopping to do it all again, and they were all switched on. There were rabbits, and dogs and cats and giraffes and pigs and a drummer bear and either a hippo or a rhino running all over the place.Toots had a field day running round after them and turning them over to switch them off. Some of the other kids weren't happy, but hey.Also they had a full size stuffed lion. Only £300. Bargain if you ask me. Although, I think if I was going to blow £300 on a stuffed toy (and why the hell wouldn't I, I hear you ask) it would have to be Koda the Triceratops. At least for 300 notes that thing bobs it's head and burps. Oh and you get free leaf with it.We bought an Etch a Sketch. I didn't know they still made those, and they still look exactly the same as they did when I was a kid as well. Not like Mr Potato Head, he's went all big soft parts, and child safe.Anyhoo, I should go, because I should probably wash and find clothes if a plan on going back to work tomorrow.
