September 2011

Well its a week until school holidays and I am trying to get prepared. Kt is still coughing a lot but is starting to feel better. I have the sniffles and traces of my battle with a cough from last month, but think mostly I have hayfever.





We are working on the garden ... I got the weeds down from waist height to knee height and then J moved in with a couple of tools and dug out some incredibly large root balls (like icebergs) that explain why I have been having trouble keeping a certain weed out of my garden no matter how much I try to pull it out.





The earth is clear and J started planting the bigger plants close to the fence.





I will buy and plant the smaller flowers close to the pond and the path and hopefully by the end of the week the completed garden will be mulched.





We only kept the gerberas and the rosemary from the old garden. Most of the rest was overtaken by weeds and grass. Once I had ripped out the plant that Ryan broke a peice off and put in his mouth (which I later found out was a poisonous one), the garden looked very bare and really needed some new life.





Hopefully we will spend a bit of the holidays in the new garden, watering it and enjoying it.





RJ likes using his little watering can ... and is content to run around the yard ... and tries to open the gate now ... he is less inclined to try and climb into the pond ... although he very much likes it when we feed the fish.





They have been breeding again and I think we will have a good batch of fishlings in a short time.





I am trying to get on track with my household workload.





There doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to do everything and I have dropped lots of activities over winter while we have all been so sick.





I will gradually have to pick them up again as the weather warms and I get more organized.





At the moment I am trying to do at least one load of washing a day, sometimes two, and instead of getting everything in off the line in one go and having basketfuls of washing all over the lounge room, I have been bringing one load in before I hang the new one out.





Then I only have to fold and put away one load of washing and it doesn't pile up.





I have also got 3 laundry baskets in the bedroom (one for J uniforms, one for ordinary clothes and another for sheets/towels). Rj has one in his room, Kt has one in hers and there is one in the loungeroom under the high chair for the wet washcloths we use to wash Rj's face and hands at mealtimes. This basket also holds any washing that can't be put into its correct basket because access to that room is restricted for some reason.





So now the laundry is sorted immediately and I can see at a glance which type of washing is most urgent, by which laundry basket has the most in it.





I do Kt's washing on a friday night so there is plenty of time to iron her school uniforms, but other than that I wash whatever load is the biggest.





I am also applying the same principle to other chores ... I used to drive myself crazy with the "monday is vacuuming day" etc.





I do it when I think it needs it and don't try to stick to a particular schedule.

I am trying to prioritize as much as possible ... but I find it really hard to do!

With ironing etc I no longer try to completely empty the ironing rack. ... or complete every last bit of washing.

If I do I, then I run out of coathangers and also run out of wardrobe space ... so the aim is to have some clothes in the washing basket, some clothes out on the line, some clothes in the ironing rack waiting to be ironed and some clothes in the wardrobe.

When the ironing rack is full and I have no white (hanging out on the line coathangers) I do some ironing, make space on the ironing rack and put the white coathangers downstairs ready to use again. I also switch to washing things that don't require ironing, like towels, teatowels and sheets.

When I have lots of white coathangers downstairs and not so much in my ironing rack, then I concentrate more on the washing uniforms and other clothes that will need to be ironed.

I also only empty and refill the dishwasher once or twice a day ... if there's more dishes afer that, I leave them until the next day.

I think it is working out better this way.

I also try and concentrate on one or two main themes each week eg this week is gardening, last week it was tax preparation, a few weeks back it was shopping for september birthdays and fathers day.

I am trying to find out information about one thing at a time, instead of two or three different topics ... all at once.


eg. knitting information during the months of June and July

gardening in August and september

organizing you home to make the best use of space in september and october

Ok tired now so will do a few rows of knitting and head off to bed.