Climbing the Mountain

You're more than welcome here, jvr! I was thinking about your situation this morning, I'll reply on your thread a bit later.

Thanks Smolly, I still feel I'm not getting enough done and frittering too much time away when I could be getting on with more jobs. The difference in the house in amazing though, and the outside spaces will be tackled once I feel the house is truly finished. Reading this forum has been my main inspiration, the things other people have been able to accomplish through sheer determination are amazing. It finally sunk in that I am truly the only person who can get myself out of this mess. I know I'll need to keep on top of everything and continually do mini-declutterings but I no longer have that helpless/hopeless feeling that has been hanging around for years.

I have some bits to do for work today at home and am exhausted after work last night, so probably won't even look at my list.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend xx

Our lovely clean house has been turned into a mess by Santa's elves. Everybody wants to wrap presents but no one cleans up afterwards. The floor is awash with bits of paper, screwed up tape, the scissors are lost and the ribbon has been completely used up by an overenthusiastic dd. :eek:

We have delivered the small amount of presents we had for the relatives living near by. The house is decorated and as clean as it's going to get (aside from the elf mess) so I have put away the lists for now.

The older children will be home in the next day or so. I don't know how many more Christmases we will have without others involved, we certainly will welcome any partners but it will be so lovely for it to be just us for a little while longer. After I've bought a few things tomorrow, I can start on the baking, and for me, Christmas will have begun. :xmassmile

Nearly ready, the baking starts tomorrow! I expect we shall all gain a few pounds over the next week or so.

I don't bake that often throughout the year, which is something that needs to change starting in Jan. I always bake at Xmas though, it reminds me of my dear granny letting me help in the kitchen, she was a fantastic cook and seemed to have the patience of an angel. She baked her mother's and grandmother's recipes at Xmas, her parents were from Sweden and brought their traditions with them. Using her recipes makes me feel close to her again and hopefully the traditions will continue, though none of my children have asked for any of the recipes yet. It might be different once they have children of their own...