I worked this morning. There was a big hoohah around the whole me working Christmas Eve and New Years Eve business with a well meaning colleague ‘taking my case’ to a higher manager yesterday on my behalf. The higher manager rang me at work to say she agreed it wasn’t fair and felt sure she could speak to my line manager Y and get it changed. Y happened to be sitting beside me and was not at all happy about having had all this go on above her head :(. I apologised, assured her I would never have undermined her like that and the end result was I am not working Christmas Eve anymore. So yay for that but boo for someone I like trying to do me a favour and really pissing someone else off and boo for other people getting involved in what is in the scheme of things a pretty minor thing 🙁 At my peak I had 44 staff to do rotas for and the Christmas period was a bloody nightmare with a sale to get ready to launch on Boxing Day, the busiest 12 weeks of the year to staff and every single one of those staff coming to me with really good reasons why *they* shouldn’t have to work the hours I needed them to. I so don’t want to be one of those people…
Back at home they had chopped firewood, cleaned out the chickens, had a chicken drama when the broody hen had stropped about being foisted off her eggs and flapped up to the neighbours garage roof (she returned), the kids had a bath (and Scarlett soaked her toe in a hot tcp footbath too as I was concerned she had dirt in it) and other assorted stuff.
When I got home we had lunch and then set about Scarlett’s bedroom. The aim was to get rid of the bookcase and wardrobe, leave a small pile of clothes and a couple of boxes of toys and nothing else. She cried over the bookcase so Ady spent some time fixing it (she had broken it by using it as stairs :roll:) and it has been reprieved. We’ve decided to see if tenants would mind having bookcases left and if not left here then take them to my parents, we’ll definitely be needing bookcases again wherever life takes us.
But we did clear the wardrobe out and she now has the bookcase, containing only books she loves, her bed with 25 soft toys (all the rest are in the loft), three stacking crates of toys and two piles of clothes. She still has a small chest of drawers which will go before we leave but is useful til that point. I’m hoping the wardrobe will be collected from the front garden tomorrow…
I was very proud of her, she made some difficult decisions but was rational and reasonable about everything that went. We have various clothes to bring to camp to give away, a small pile for ebaying and several bags in the bin along with a car full to take to the tip tomorrow.
All that done the kids had tea and watched some TV before bed. Davies’ room is being done tomorrow and about an hour after he went to bed he reappeared downstairs sobbing at the prospect of getting rid of his bedroom furniture – it was bought by my Granny as the gift from her when we had him so is as old as he is – and far the worse for wear. At least half of the knobs are missing, drawers are broken and doors hanging off. It’s done it’s time and it’s right for it to go even if we were not heading off next year. I spent about 20 minutes trying to talk to him, Scarlett got out of bed and joined in and eventually Ady took him off to bed.
I was really twitchy about what was being said but Ady did an amazing job of talking it all through with him and they concluded they would remove all the knobs and runners and hinges, keep them and build new furniture together when we come home, using the sentimental value bits as a base and using all the new knowledge and skills they have learnt during the year. We ended up all having another chat (both kids reappeared again) about the whole thing and talking it through; the tough bits, the worthwhile bits, the gamble, the it being hard for everyone in different ways and so on. Everyone got a bit teary but in a good way and I feel more like this is everyone’s dream rather than mine I am selfishly dragging the others along for the ride on. All a bit group therapy-esque. We’re the Goddards and we’re getting out of our box.