Thursday photo #301

Well hasn’t half term crept up all of a sudden? It seems like only a few days ago that we were preparing for the children to go back to school. Now, there’s another holiday looming. For the first time in ages, we’ve got no plans to go away. My husband is on a course that week, so the girls and I will be busying ourselves locally.

The slow divorce

When the girls were tiny, we put them into the same bedroom so I could have the other bedroom as an office. They continued to enjoy this arrangement as they got older, it was like having a playmate as part of the furniture. Despite this, they’ve always known that if they wanted their own room, I’d move out of the office so one of them could have it.

Sure enough, a few months ago Lia finally flipped. Libby is a morning person in every possible way. Not only is she awake at 6am most days, but as soon as she’s awake, she’s up out of bed like a shot. Inevitably, she wakes Lia up either intentionally or accidentally virtually every morning. After one too many early starts, Lia decided it was time for a sisterly divorce.

Since then, I’ve been getting the other bedroom ready. It has taken me a ridiculously long time for various reasons. Firstly, I rarely have a block of time to spend on it. Secondly, there was a lot more to do than I realised. Huge areas of the walls needed filling. It took numerous coats of paint to get everything looking good and I had to take off some cupboard doors to paint those properly as well. Then, there was the small matter of a carpet, curtains and a new bed. Finally though, everything is in place. This half term, we’ll be moving all Lia’s things into her room and she’ll have her own little space. She can’t wait.

Developing new interests

Unusually for us, we’ve spent the past few Saturdays working on the house and garden rather than having days out. You wouldn’t know it, everywhere looks more of a mess than it did before we started. Apparently things have to get worse before they get better.

Surprisingly, the girls have been really enjoying the time at home. We’ve been playing maths games and Libby is absolutely loving time spent in the garden. She is a child who is always brimming with energy. I don’t think I’ve known her to hit a lull or a low point. I only know she’s tired because she becomes more argumentative. So, being in the house can be quite difficult for her. Being out in the garden with me for the past couple of weekends has really sparked her interest in plants and gardening.

When we decorate her room, she wants it to have a plant theme. We’ve got some plants on a windowsill that were table decorations at my sister’s wedding in tiny pots. We’ve repotted them three times and they just keep growing. Libby wants a pot in her room and we’ve also bought a lot of seeds that we can start on the windowsill and transplant into the garden in due course. I hope that this interest of hers will continue because it’s so well suited to her personality and energy levels.

Thursday photo #301

Of course this week’s photo was taken in Lia’s new room. It’s the last time it will be tidy with bare walls and no furniture. Next week it would surprise me if we can see the brand new carpet at all.