Reorganising and beginning to think ahead

Well, the vacation was well and truly over today. It was rise and shine, today's a WORK day! My husband doesn't actually go back to work until Monday, but still there were errands to run, plans to make, rooms to tidy, lawns to mow .... loads of fun! We even managed to grab two more bookshelves from IKEA and set them up. I still need to load them with books, but that will have to be done another day now. I think my friend Debs has a great idea about putting all the DVDs in alphabetical order, that way I know what we've got (just in case someone gives us a double) and the children practice their filing skills as DVDs are taken and replaced from the shelf.

Oh, and no pictures today, sorry. I've had my camera only 3 months and it has successfully 'eaten' through a whole packet of batteries. I've just bought some rechargables, so hopefully we'll get that up and running soon.

My major achievement today was doing a total cleanout of the pantry and then restocking after a shopping trip. Nice fresh herbs and spices refilled into jars; found I had enough dried dates to last a year - LOL!; also trying to make shelf space for any bottling which will be done in the next few months depending on how the fruit supply goes.

I need to find a much more attractive way of keeping my favourite recipes, too. At the moment they're all either clipped from magazines, handwritten notes or printouts all inside a plastic display book. It's a very jumbled affair, and should the children want to pull out a recipe to make on their own, I'm sure they'd be lost trying to find what they were after. I've tried the recipe cards in a box, but then cards were going walkabout sometimes, so ideally I'd like to have it all printed out and put into a bound book. Having recently purchased a book binder, I think that this would be a great way to go. So, I'll keep you posted about any progress.

Other items on the agenda for the next couple of weeks:

• re-organising the children's bedrooms, including going through shoes and clothes they've outgrown.


• trying out my 'new' secondhand overlocker. I need to also make drapes for the learning room window, as it faces north and all that summer sun makes it very hot. We've been renovating and the plan was to replace this window with a sliding door which will eventually lead out to a pergola. None of this will probably happen for some time yet, but I can certainly get those drapes done pronto!


• Mariposa needs a few new skirts and shorts, so more sewing. :)


• re-organise new shelving and cupboards for the learning room, making sure all stationery and books are 'ready to go' when we start our new school year. This is a fun job that I don't like to rush. If it's all done well, then I'm calm and the children won't fret either. I did manage to put all the board games neatly into one of the shelves ... who knew we ever had so many? At least now they're all in one place.


• if it's not too hot (although we're going to be getting some days in the high 30degC soon), then I'm also wanting to finish our front gardening chores. The most difficult part of the job is digging up some rocks we had half buried as borders. I want them out as the weeds love hiding their roots in there and I just don't get enough time to fidget around. Our water restrictions has also prompted many neighbours to replace any front lawn with some form of mulch or gravel, and I'm thinking that a path through the garden made from compacted pebble mix is a good way to go. We can still make it look cottagy, just no lawn pathways.

That's about it for now. I'll probably think of lots more 'to do' items for my list as I go along, but that's a sketch anyway.

Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are!