We leave this house this weekend, and officially move in with our parents. Until we complete on our new house purchase, we are going to be temporarily without a family home of our own. James is staying up in Birmingham with his mum so he can work, while the girls & I take what I would prefer to think of as an extended vactation with my parents at their home in Cornwall! I will be reliant on my parents for transport as they live in a fairly remote village, so that will be interesting.
In the meantime, I don’t know whether to be pleased about how much James and I have managed to get done in preparation of our vacating our house this weekend, or whether I should be worried we still have a seemingly endless todo list. Sitting down to relax for half an hour seems like a waste of my precious time, as does taking time to do a spot of blogging, if I’m honest! I just feel like every minute that that I’m not looking after the girls or preparing to empty this house in 3 short days, is a bit silly.
On the other hand, I am exhausted. The last few months have been so stressful for us and I have been feeling run down and hit with bug after bug. If I don’t take half an hour to sit down and actually have a drink or take a time out, I might end up useless anyway.
The children are taking the disruption fairly well, although Georgie has been a bit clingy and upset at times. She’s not keen on so many books and toys being packed away, and finds everything that’s going on a bit confusing! She has loved spending the odd extra day at granny’s though, allowing James and I to Get Stuff Done in her absence. I’m getting lots of extra cuddles too.
Lydia is incredibly mobile now and I caught her trying to climb the stairs this week! It’s not great timing for her to be finding her feet and pulling herself up & climbing on everything, but it’s lovely to see her developing so well.
I have got a lot of Christmas stuff organised early this year so that is a relief. I will have more wrapping and a bit of ordering of presents to do after we’re moved out but for now I’m at a good stage to be hitting the pause button.
James and I celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary next Thursday. We have had tickets for Sarah Millican’s tour for nearly a year and for a while we were worried we would have to cancel our plans and sell our tickets. We are all staying with my mother in law Ruth from this weekend ’till the next, and thankfully we have now found a childcare solution that suits everyone involved! Phew. I’m really looking forward to a nice “evening off” – we certainly need it.
Next weekend James will drive all his girls down to Cornwall and leave us there, although he is going to be coming back down for a week over Christmas too, as we originally planned to do anyway. Packing is extra complex with this move as there are four virtual piles: stuff to go into storage, stuff to go to Ruth’s and stay there, stuff to go to Ruth’s then down to Cornwall, and stuff to go to Ruth’s then down to Cornwall at Christmas. I have a few lists of essentials but I’m mostly winging it as I go along, this is going to end up badly!
We have remembered to make sure that Lydia’s huge 12-18 months clothes stash is going near the front of the storage container though, in case she grows out of her 9-12 clothes before we move into the new house. That could have been a disastrously expensive mistake to make.
So far we have managed to organise this move without James taking any additional holiday which I am really pleased about. He only has a few days left to last him to spring, so it was important to us to try & make sure we use as little as possible. I’m feeling extra tired though, as this has meant a lot of very late nights packing and sorting things that we can only really do after the kids are in bed.
Once Sunday is over, and we have emptied and cleaned this house, filled the few holes we’ve made & painted over Georgie’s various attacks on the magnolia paint, I think I will feel a whole lot better. The next few days are going to be rather horrendous, but then hopefully things will be a bit more manageable. I hope!
Things are moving along fairly smoothly with our house purchase, so fingers crossed we won’t be “homeless” long! Although we’ll be saving on rent & bills, I won’t enjoy being apart from James, and the children will hate it, especially his Lydia!
Well now, I’d better go pack another few boxes…
Oh you poor love, no wonder you’re exhausted! You sound like you’re thinking out every last detail, I know there’s no way I’d be that organised. My advice would be to just keep the end goal in your mind, it will be worth it and this time next year this will seem like a far and distant memory. Take care x
Thanks! I might be overthinking things but there is so much to sort out I feel like I need to be in control as much as possible I guess. I can’t wait for this week to be over!
My brain spilled out into my blog today. Best thing about blogging is a place to just go “blergh” with your thoughts!
Sorry I’m late to this but hope it all went well, and that your time apart isn’t too hard and for too long x
Thanks! Now it is all over and we are becoming settled at Mum & Dads I am feeling MUCH better. This month has been ridiculously stressful at times, I hate moving house! Hopefully it won’t be too long until we complete on the new house. Thanks for your comment x