or a walk in the park, or a breeze.
Sometimes its tough to moan or feel able to gripe when a situation is of your own making. I am feeling a great affinity with a couple of specific friends today…
I am hoping this is the toughest part of preparing to go off next year – the pressure is on to get the house empty – both so it is ready to be decorated and invite people in to try and get it let and so that in the last few frantic weeks before we go we are not still struggling to let stuff go. The only thing left to fall into place now is to get the house rented out but that is such a big deal that unless we have a tenant lined up to be paying the mortgage we can’t go, so fairly huge.
The process of clearing stuff is understandably tough on Davies and Scarlett although once we have had the same conversation again about it having to happen if we want to go off next year they always willingly let stuff go it does mean we have a few tears each time. This is a really unsettled time for them, for all four of us really and whilst we are all going in with eyes open and full of positivity and commitment to doing it it’s not always easy.
I’m rather struggling with feeling I am doing the bulk of the tough stuff, the persuading the children to say goodbye to things, the being the baddy pushing hard decisions, the ensuring we keep to our schedule (that I drew up in the first place) as well as the practical sorting out, ebaying, listing on freecycle and so on.
So today it all came to a head, I did some crying and shouting, Ady did some stropping and Making A Point and the kids did an amazing job of throwing out loads of pencils, felt tips and art stuff that was no longer any good. I went through the playroom, dismantled shelf units, threw loads away and now have 4 boxes worth of games and toys for keeping, my sewing machine and a box of material for keeping, two boxes of toy animals and one of lego for keeping, a couple of boxes of things which will be presents for people before we go, a sack of stuff for ebay and another sack of stuff to come to camp to giveaway. There is more to do in there but we’re close to done and near enough to have Dad in next week and shove stuff in cupboards to show tenants round from the week after.
I found countless beads, geomag balls and about 37pence in coppers.
The hall is full of stuff now up for grabs on freecycle and an initial flurry of replies has a lot of it going tomorrow. Anything left can go to a charity shop later in the week if it’s not claimed.
Ady made a very nice roast dinner and peace and goodwill was all restored – we watched a dvd I’d brought home from work while we ate The Secret of Kells which was interesting. What it lacked in gripping storyline it more than made up for in beautiful animation and art work. The kids deemed it ‘okay’ which I thought was a little harsh as they were quite entranced at times.
We watched Countryfile and then they went to bed. Davies had ‘rescued’ an old address book I’d set aside to go on the fire and has started using it to write a story about us going WWOOFing. It’s incredibly creative in it’s spelling but I can just about read it and it’s very funny, written very much in the style of Andy Stanton or Roddy Doyle.
Very much looking forward to sitting with friends this time next week.
I would imagine this limbo time is the hardest bit, where you are dismantling one life to make room for the next, which hasn’t yet arrived I think it is probably pretty rational to feel peeved and stressed at this point even if the overall choice is positive. Hopefully once house is let it will become really exciting.
Comment by Joyce — 21 November 2010 @ 11:50 pm
Thanks Joyce. Definitely the tricky limbo bit when it’s hard to focus on potential positives of the unknown whilst dealing with the trickiness of the here and now. I think we will all appreciate a week off from it at camp 🙂
Comment by Nic — 22 November 2010 @ 12:38 am
I think it sounds such a hard thing to do and tbh is one reason why we’ve never made it travelling. I’d have to do everything and I’d get bored, really quickly. I have no determination to do things so I think you’re doing great to have kept going.
It was on the news about demand for rental properties, I bet you’ll have no trouble getting someone in.
Comment by Kirsty — 22 November 2010 @ 10:55 am
I think I would easily cope with the giving up of treasures but neither M nor C could. I still have all the stones, shells, and sticks she’s ever collected and brought home.
Admire you all tremendously for following an adventure like this.
xx
Comment by michelle — 22 November 2010 @ 10:50 pm
Thank you lovely friends for your support. Everyone woke ready to face it all again this morning 🙂
Comment by Nic — 22 November 2010 @ 11:35 pm