Another Start

I hardly know where to start! We've had such a busy time recently.
Last Friday we moved out of our rented house, got tenants into our own house, and moved in with my parents.
If you say it quickly, it doesn't sound too bad :-)

But its been busy. We left far too much to the last minute, so Friday was far too busy moving out and cleaning, and not really having space to move our (unfortunately still far too much) stuff into my parents. We've been filling their garage ( after boarding out some attic space in it and filling that) but on Friday we had a van full, boxes all through the house, the garage full and even a some shelves and boxes in the greenhouse for a few days.

So, we have some clues about what we need to do- sorting through and thinning out on the 'stuff' front.
Actually, I think as we move into the tent ( no, we're not there yet) physically moving stuff up the garden will hopefully bring some realism into this. One place we're going to isn't sure the van will get along their access-moving our tent by hand any serious distance will be hard work, let alone 'home comforts'!
I'm still working almost full time, with the added interest this week of a commute. I've been leaving home at my normal getting up time, but getting home surpisingly early. A bus lane on the journey home by shuttle bus makes a huge difference, so much so I'm not sure I'll borrow the car I'm access to from next week.
I've been limited in my ability to fulfill plans this week- my back ( technically my SI joints, but no need to be picky) wasn't up to Fridays frantic moving. I've been having a few niggles fror the weeks since I stopped yoga ( and not managing to make the time to practice on my own) but Friday really finished me off. I was unable to move Saturday morning, gradually getting more mobile through the day but then really struggled with work on Monday.

Thankfully my wonderful chiropractor Debbie was able to fit me in that evening, and since then I've really felt on the mend. I even managed to walk around Ikea tonight ( wasn't great, but I managed it!) which is fab as standing and walking are the worst things, apart from work, I can do.

Today DH got the tent up with very little help from me, so we're starting to get things ready to go in there.
The stove (ours is called Louis) is in place, and our sleep mats. I've had a disappointing time today with the mats. I've spent hours hand and machine sewing covers on the final mats over the last few months, and planned to velcro them together. I couldn't face sewing all the metres of velcro on, so bought some heavy-duty stuck on stuff. Alas, it is not intended for use on fabrics and is also not suitable for machine sewing. I decided to give it a go anyway and the rotten stuff hardly stuck.

Stop press- I just tried the sample piece I brought into the house to check on, and there does seem to be some sticking activity happening, yippee! I hope it might just do the trick. the fabric I'm using it on is wipe clean plasticky stuff, so not 'fluffy' fabric at all, so all might not be lost to hours of hand-sewing...fingers crossed.

I've been a little apprehensive about sharing living space with my parents, not least that when I last permanently lived here as a teenager things were a little 'tense'.
My parents are not keen on autonomous home educating- I think if it was structured they might be more agreeable to it, but that isn't us. The first few days there was a daily 'comment' regarding 'what we're doing to that wonderful child' (with the speaker not willing to listen to any discussion about it at that time) but thankfully that didn't continue- I think we'd be struggling if it had. We did manage a good two-way conversation with a grandparent a couple of days in, which I hope might reassure them just a little bit.

Other than that, I've found sharing living space with them really great- the girls love being with their grandparents, and the feeling is generally mutual. DH and I have had several uninterrupted conversations, and even had an afternoon out together with friends at Portland Works on Sunday. I had expected stress levels to rise sharing in someone else's house- but so far ( admittedly I've been the one out at work all day) I've found it to be less stressful. I wonder how much we're irritating our hosts, but they do keep assuring us, apart from the boxes in the way, its not too bad for them. Of course, they are going on holiday in a couple of days- living with upset for a few days is different to the prospect of 3 weeks. Their trip is to Egypt, so recent events had us wondering if we would all be sharing for the full three weeks, which doesn't seem so daunting now we've managed one week. However when we were planning things three weeks sounded a long time to share!

Also today ( do you get the idea today has been busy?) our friend Tony ( who does a fab job keeps our van running) has been to investigate our electrics in the van. He's found things we had planned to buy hidden in there, and I've even heard mutterings of a space heater in there. I'm sorry to say I haven't got my head around electrics, so I'm reassured Tony reckons the wiring in the van has been done as he would have done (it was previously a company van, so when we got it it had racking in the back, complete with weekly maintenance schedule for chainsaws) and we've got a good starting place for our plans. We have a little fridge coming with us, so we want to keep that running and be able to charge up various laptops, mobile phones, camera batteries, etc. DH is definately doing the brain work regarding getting the van ready.

I mentioned a trip to Ikea this evening, which has been ( hopefully) the source of our 'camp kitchen'. I had been planning a wonderful homemade chuck box, but DH only properly looked at the plans 5 days ago and it would need some alteration to suit us, and serious work for it to materialise. We both realise we haven't enough hours left to make it (and learn the appropriate skills!) so have been looking for something to adapt to move our kitchen equipment, spices, etc. We expect to be self-catering the majority of the time we're volunteering- I think our kitchen will be important! We've worked through several variations, and thought we sort of had a plan- and went to have a look around Ikea. On our shopping trip DH managed to find something we think will work with very little work on our part  and I can't find it online to share. Its a little metal wire chest of drawers from the home office section called 'Lennart'. Its something like this, well, sort of.

I think that's a fair round up of the last couple of weeks- so I'm sure I've forgotten something major!