What's been going on?

Behold, where once there was a kitchen, now there is none. And from behind ancient wood panelling a door appeared. Then came the wallpaper revelation and the saga of removing the thirty year old wallpaper.
Gobbing great streaks of liquid nails on the dappled concrete walls. Rotting lino. The kitchen bench sitting in the middle of the room. A baker with a heavy heart.
The pregnant lady on a ladder. Shouldn't somebody have done something?!?
But then, it was cleaned. And all painted. And the floors went down. And it was ok.

There is a mania that occurs, for me, anyway, when you move house. It comes through not being organised, and living in a muddle of boxes and spending all your time getting everything 'the way it should be', instead of maintaining a decent and balanced lifestyle.

Usually I have it all sorted within a week or so and life goes on. But this time it's different. Living with a toddler demands good organisation- you can't be hunting for a pan and shuffling about for the grater when it's lunch time. It's LUNCHTIME. That's what they demand. So the speed with which I have been able to settle in has been halved, since a lot of my day is planning and preparing for a toddlers needs and then having to go out and do things with him, since a house full of boxes is too much for him and me to cope with.

But just last night, in one of those mid-pregnancy energy bursts you get, I managed to unpack and clear out several of the boxes that have been bothering me, line up my cookbooks, sit on my couch, in my newly carpeted and painted loungeroom and think about cooking. So I think we are getting there. Today I even took him for a walk in the pusher. This means I did not spend an hour unpacking, and that is something, too. Walks are much better for everybody, aren't they?

I have even made some head-space for blogging. Be ready for some great, cheap cooking, gardening and spending anecdotes once again, as I/we re-focus on our life and asses the aftermath of the move and renovation...... In the meantime, I hope the happy snaps justify my absence over the past month.