So, I’ve been single parenting for 10 days now and I have to say, it’s gone pretty well so far. So far, I have not had too many issues at all. I am so lucky that Dave’s trip coincided with my time off; it would be a completely different story if I was working and having to wrangle us both out the door at the right time.
Bedtimes have gone to shit though. I pretty much have lost the will to argue by then. I could really do with a Good Cop to run interference at bedtime. Before Dave left, he sat down with B and told her that while he was away she had to look after Mummy for him. “Okay Daddy,” Bianca said. Then we came back from the airport and I wouldn’t let her do — some ridiculous thing, I can’t even remember what it was that time — which of course, cue shouting and stamping. “Hey,” I said mildly. “Didn’t you tell Daddy you’d look after Mummy for him?”
Bianca looked at me and said matter-of-factly, “Daddy isn’t here.” Ooh. So I do what I can and every night once she’s finally in bed I get back to my favourite decluttering project, the wine racks.
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On the organisational front, I was disappointed at first with how I was doing. On Thursday, my first Bianca-free Day of Doing!(tm) my friend Becky came over for morning tea, didn’t leave until 1pm, and after that the day was shot. Friday I barely moved, it was too hot and humid to get anything done. I was feeling pretty annoyed at myself. But! This week, I have been awesome! I have had Monday, Tuesday and Thursday to myself, and I have done all of these things:
- decluttered and organised a couple of kitchen cupboards
- cleared out the laundry (again) and got rid of things that shouldn’t be in there.
- cleaned my oven
- cleared the study again and actually found homes for things (like stationery) that have been sitting in boxes under my desk, on my desk, or in the middle of the room, for four years.
- finished setting up my filing system. WITH LABELS. Oh the beauty, it hurts.
- labelled the crap out of everything else in the study too
- organised our wardrobes
The oven was a major project that’s been hanging over me for ages. When we first moved in I baked a cake with berries which leaked all over the bottom of it, and for the last four years that has been getting cremated several times a week. I can’t use oven cleaners because we have birds with little lungs, and getting the steamer thingy out always seemed like such a faff. But on Tuesday it was reasonably cool so I dragged it out and you know what? Setting it up is NOT a faff. It is easy and although it took a fair amount of elbow grease, after an hour the oven looks pretty damn amazing. It’s not perfect, there are still little black specks in places and the oven ceiling is a bit chunky but it is CLEAN and grease-free, and the wire shelves are silver again! I can even see through the little window now. And it doesn’t smell when I use it anymore. I am really proud of myself for this and I keep opening the oven and peeking in at its beauty.
Likewise the wardrobe has been bugging me for ages but I’ve never got around to it. Everything was squashed in and on mismatched hangers and generally a mess. So I pulled the sliding doors off, grouped like with like, rehung everything on the matching hangers I bought ages ago, worked out the best most sensible way to put everything back, sorted the old hangers into sets tied with cable ties, and put them in the car to be donated. Again, it sounds little but it’s something I’ve wanted to do for ages and OMG I cannot stop opening the doors to admire inside. So pretty! (Shame about the rest of the room.)
And then today, I had lunch with a girlfriend and then shopped for things for our holiday. So really I’ve had only three full Days of Doing!(tm) and I’ve got a LOT of the big things I wanted to do out of the way already. Go me!
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So we’re doing pretty well, but that’s not to say I don’t miss Dave. I feel a bit aimless at the end of the day and I text him about ridiculous things just to read his words. By this time next week, we’ll be in Singapore with him, assuming B’s passport comes through, but that’s another story…