And breath…

I don’t want to unpack anymore 😦

It has been a long week. We started packing the van on Friday night, moved Saturday morning til 1, rushed to a wedding for a couple of hours, back to the flat to take apart the wardrobe, move that, fetch a bed from my mums, unpack some stuff, go to the evening do of the wedding, sleep, wake up and move some more, unpack a bit here and there, return the van, go and be enthusiastic with the kids at church, help with catering, back to the house, unpack the kitchen stuff, sleep, sort out bills and address changes, move MORE stuff with friends, unpack, shop, cook, unpack, sleep, unpack, sort out more bills (hello ginormous phone bill – not best pleased, British Gas!), walk to the bank, change address, meet a friend, unpack, cook, be sociable, unpack, sleep, clean old flat, organise last bits and bobs, walk home, be sociable, unpack, cook, be sociable…

You get the gist. Half term – what half term..! Thank the Lord that it is half term though, it’s allowed us to be much more flexible in sorting ourselves out. We’ve finally emptied and cleaned the old place and are handing over the keys tomorrow. Now it’s just sorting out all of our crap valuable, meaningful belongings. Read: I HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF.

I could/should just give/throw stuff away. But it’s those little bits that you don’t really have a place for but can’t quite bring yourself to throw away, so they get shoved in a shoebox til the next time you have the debate with yourself over 3 year old birthday cards. Or glass jars (I moved a bag full of recycled jars…I might need them one day..!). Or kebab sticks. Or a bag of tealights. Or little piggy banks.

Argh, time to get off my bum and get on with it. Besides, I need to move about – the heating is a bit dodgy, so the middle floor is like a sauna whilst downstairs is about 5 degrees colder and feels like there’s a constant draught. Brr! Time to get a wiggle on.

Newborn snuggles and Life Ponderings

There seems to be an influx of babies around me at the moment. One every month or so at church (or three in the last two weeks?), a few at work, odd ones popping out in the blog world (following too many mummy-blogs – darn it), nieces and nephews being added to my husband’s side of the family at a rate of two a year…none in my close friendship group just yet, but it’s only a matter of time.

It’s great. I love babies, especially newborn snuggles. It’s such a nice weight to have in your arms. I love watching them grow into smiley and giggly humans, seeing them take steps and build toddler friendships as they chase each other round, giving hugs and sloppy kisses.

Sunday was a day of mega baby cuddles. An afternoon spent with friends and their 6 week old girlie, then a good 20 minutes after church with a scrumptious 2 week old boy with a PROPER head of hair. Natural mohawk an’ all. It left me feeling pretty broody, I’m not gonna lie.

Just look at those little fingers! Obviously it’s not all sunshine and rainbows with babies (and you know, when they grow into kids), but it has got me thinking about the future and timings and the like.

When to try for a baby. Now? After a Masters? After working for a few years? Do we still want to live in New Zealand for a bit, or Lebanon (random choices I know, maybe I’ll explain one day)? When should that happen? What about fostering, or adoption? How does that fit into life plans?

That last one is a biggie. We want to adopt kid(s) as much as we want birth ones. But they recommend you adopt kids that are younger than your birth kids by at least 2 years. A long time to wait! There are kids in the system that just can’t wait that long. I feel convicted to do something sooner rather than later. Could that spare room in our house be used for more than occasional guests?

It’s a massive thing. I don’t even know if we’d get through any kind of approval process, but God has placed fostering and adoption firmly on my heart and it’s a cause that is not going anywhere. So watch this space 🙂

“How goes the work?”

Anyone else read Farmer Duck out there? Probs not. Basically, poor duck has to do all the work, lazy farmer lies in bed and shouts, ‘How goes the work?’ every page or so [my Mr read this before I posted and said, “Are you saying that I’m the lazy farmer?”…which he obviously isn’t, he’s been great :)]. The phrase popped into my head as a good title for our evenings at the moment.

So, how goes the work chez nous as we prepare to move? Well, it goes slowly, but hopefully surely. A few boxes have been packed here and there and things are gradually disappearing from the walls and cupboards. The pile of empty boxes is still a little high and I have no idea how we’ll get all of our clothes into bags and suitcases…not to mention the still-fully assembled bed and wardrobe that need to be taken apart. Addresses still need to be changed, windows measured for curtains, curtain poles bought and put up, the van still needs to be booked/borrowed…the list could go on.

It still feels a bit unreal. Almost like, will it actually happen? We still haven’t signed the tenancy agreement (!), but the ladies at the estate agents seem to think it’ll go through without any problems. Even if all goes well, I just can’t picture us there. I can’t (or don’t want to?) envisage getting everything down four flights of stairs, into a van and/or a few cars, driving over, unloading, going back for more…then having to unpack, find everything a new home (or just the same home in a new place), settle ourselves in. Figure out the heating, change energy supplier, sort out the council tax, get a parking permit…thankfully it’ll be half term, but it’s a whole lot of effort.

And yet, how wonderful it will be to be closer to friends. We’re 5 minutes walk from 2 friends’ houses, a 20 minute walk from church, 5 minutes from an array of awesome restaurants, about 10 minutes from a cute park with an interesting cemetery attached. We’ll have a washing line outside, radiators that you can put clothes on, and a wheelie bin (yes, still excited about this one!). There’s space in the cellar for our bikes, we’ll now eat our meals at a table rather than in front of the TV (which we could have done for the last 2 years, but having the dining table and the TV in same room meant the TV wins pretty much every night), I’ll be keeping fit by cycling to work.

So we power on. Trying to keep in my mind that this house won’t bring happiness, it won’t make us better at life, but we can be thankful for and excited about it all the same 🙂 hopefully next time I’m talking about a house move, the work will be done!