A new royal start

QueenJess

Been missing a while.. it was half term and then I had a mystery stomach bug type thing that lasted about a week. We did have a good time being out and about, seeing friends and family etc during half term before I got ill, so that was good.

Having a difficult time at the moment as DD is teething. I think her teeth are just breaking through and she is really struggling with it. We’ve had to resort to Calpol as it is the only thing that seems to allow her to sleep. I’m looking forward to when they are through so we can all have a break!

I feel like I’ve lost myself a bit whilst being a baby attachment. Am trying very slowly to find little things to enjoy/look forward to, however pathetic they may be! I’m terrible at doing anything for myself, so it is very much a work in progress at the moment. I should take a leaf out of @themadvix ’s book and think of gratitudes.

As the nights are drawing in, I’ve ordered a new TV unit for our living room. I had planned to do it in the new year, but I’ve already saved the money for it and I really want to finish the living room so I can enjoy sitting in there over the winter. I will also need to buy a picture, cushions, some plants and maybe other bits. Am looking forward to getting it all sorted out and researching the things I want online.

Seeing as we are doing the room up, I’ve spring cleaned it and even managed DH to get rid of a load of stuff he never uses. I’ve started doing the kitchen too as I need to move a load of things around as it isn’t working for me. Somehow my baking stuff was in three separate places and now I’ve consolidated it in one. I’m about 1/3 of the way through, but am hoping I can get it and the living room done before the end of the year.

As for today, I’ve done a HUGE number of jobs. The house is slowly getting more organised and tidier. Hopefully I will get to a stage where I will not need to spend so much time on this stuff and will have a bit more time to myself. Things to enjoy today for me: Reading a PG Wodehouse book in bed in a minute. I’ve read it before, but not for a while and I love books.

savingholmes

Sounds like you've thrown yourself back into stuff after your illness. Hope you feel 100% soon. Your living room plans sound nice.

themadvix

The gratitudes work for me QJ - they really make you notice the little good things. But I can totally see how you need things to look forward to too, and to get a sense of self back from being a baby attachment.

As we're unlikely to be moving, I've been having similar thoughts to yours about rejigging stuff to make things work better. We have storage issues in the kitchen, but actually some of the space is taken up by non-kitchen things, so I'm trying to find some new homes for those. I'm thinking about some storage in the living room too, which is very minimalist, but now we're both working from home permanently we might need to actually use some of the space in there for storage to free up other space - DH is still working on the dining table, nearly two years after he first came home! 

savingholmes

Watching those declutter on utube can be great motivation. We cleared out loads in the kitchen about 18 months to 2 years ago now and gave things more definite homes. You've inspired me to have another look at it to see what else I can still clear out. 

QueenJess

savingholmes said:

Watching those declutter on utube can be great motivation. We cleared out loads in the kitchen about 18 months to 2 years ago now and gave things more definite homes. You've inspired me to have another look at it to see what else I can still clear out. 

I’ve watched some of those hoarder programmes before and I always feel stressed out by the mess and have an urge to get rid of a load of things!

savingholmes

The ones I mean create pretty labelled containers etc. Also look at programme called something like the home edit

QueenJess

Ugh. Finally got round to making a couple of calls and remembered why I put them off. Stupid bank leaving me on hold forever because there is an error in their software and they aren’t sure how to send me the documents in real form as opposed to virtual.. 🤦‍♀️

QueenJess

Having a busy week this week, hampered by DD still waking up at least every 2-3 hours at night for food. I was ok until yesterday and then I fell asleep in a chair whilst waiting for DH to finish cooking dinner (only 10 mins!). So went to bed at 7pm and am still knackered. I need proper sleep and really struggle with all this broken sleep. Not much I can do about it though.

Been writing a to do list to work through (although it is probably missing a lot of things). I don’t make it longer than a page on my phone as that’s too depressing. I’m trying to do 3 things a day minimum from it, even if I do something very simple I would have done anyway (like a load of washing). I’m hoping the list of things to do will slowly go down… I usually try to finish everything by Xmas so I can start the new year afresh. Somehow it’s always a panic!

This week seems to have been taken up by furniture deliveries/building of which the last bit will arrive tomorrow. Got to get rid of the old furniture (been busy listing it) and then I’ve got to sort out the final bits (plants, cushions, lamps etc). I did find time to sort out the mortgage which has been fixed for 2 years from Feb 2022. It is exactly the same rate as we have now but £300 cheaper a month due to all the overpayments we made. Unfortunately I won’t feel the benefit of that as DD will go to nursery in Feb and it costs far more than that!

Off to set up my new phone that arrived this week before my old one completely falls over. That’ll be another thing off the list for today.

savingholmes

Well done on sorting the mortgage. Good luck with the listings. Hope you get some decent sleep soon

QueenJess

Well that’s wasn’t what I was planning… DD got a tummy bug and refused to be anywhere apart from glued to me. So basically I’ve been cuddling a baby for 21 hours a day for the last few days. She’s all better now, but I’m totally knackered and the only thing I’ve been able to do is watch TV and read a lot of books.

 So need to catch up on a lot of sleep and then attempt to get the house in order now. Just ordered a fair few bits for the living room. The little things are adding up to be quite expensive, but I really want to get it all done so I can just relax in a nice room.

 I’m behind on everything and the house is a mess… so better get some sleep and start to take control tomorrow!