Thank goodness for wine

I did more tidying today. That is three, maybve even four days in a row. We certainly didn't have 'proper' food for dinner. I can't be folding so much washing, interspersed with washing and drying and carting up even more new washing to be folded, AND cooking like Nigella. Cos' of course I cook like Nigella the rest of the time y'know...

So you can now see some of the couch and has the world changed? No. Not a bit. But anyway, maybe the visitors will want to sit on the couch and maybe they will be able to. We are having our third lot of visitors in a month tomorrow. The first visitors lucked out a bit - we had three hours warning of when they were coming and Favourite Handyman was working long hours at the time. The second visitor arrived at the same time as we returned from our short holiday in Marlborough. Given that Favourite Handyman was home and it was school holidays, she lucked in very slightly and didn't have to make her own bed up. But tomorrow's visitors, well they will have the opportunity to walk from the bathroom to the study without completing an obstacle course. They will be able to eat in the dining room without any detritus on the table or even any boxes around the edges of the room spilling over and out at unpredictable moments. They will even have a new continental blanket on their bed. Does five star entertainment get better than this? Well obviously it does, but no flash hotel also provides access to the beloved niece and nephew like our place does. I've mentioned the possible couch sitting opportunities several times already...

I had to buy wine this evening to keep myself going.

The school spud project is coming together nicely. We'll be dishing them out this coming Wednesday morning. At the weigh in competition at the end of term, children will be able to take their potatoes home to eat with their families or to donate them through the school to the Christmas charity food bank. I'm delighted. So far anyway. I've also managed to procure a Bokashi bucket for the school.

Being Friday, it was poultry palace day. I tipped half a wheelbarrow's worth of river sand into one end of the chook run so they could all enjoy a decent dust bath. I changed water (which I do most days) and I changed the straw down the pooey end of the night coop. I notice that the chooks left the chickpeas out of the last lot of leftovers I fed them. Probably too big to get in their mouths. They've had hummous leftovers before and eaten that.

I am loving all the comments lately. Now I need to get my head back in nappy country and teach the world to contain poo and wee on a tiny budget. Without going down the let it all out wherever whenever route. I do have boundaries you know.

Grumpy and spuds

Today we cleaned. A lot. Almost all morning.

Fionn's room and the end of the hallway are clean. Don't go imagining that just involved picking up a couple of books and dusting off the surfaces. We are properly messy people here.

Do I have a feeling of zen, of shiny spic and span pleasedness?

No I do not. Grumpy as. Had to go to the pub. That was the good bit.

In between, I did some more organising for the growing spuds in buckets competition which I am organising for every child in Fionn's school. The idea is that this will kick off the beginning of our school garden. We are going to use swift potatoes as they will grow fast enough for the weigh in mid December. Not buckets after today's research though. PB28s. Which are black plastic planting bags. Much cheaper. They also don't require me and some other mugs which i hadn't yet found to drill holes in 185 plastic buckets either.