Here in Liverpool we have a particular turn of phrase for when our homes have suffered the slings and arrows of real life. The house looks like a bomb has hit it, we mutter to each other, before declaring our intention to gone home and “blitz” it: meaning that we will work our careworn fingers to the bone, returning it to it’s former loveliness before said “bomb” (read children, too much work, depression, holidays or animals!) wreaked it’s very own brand of havoc…
That bomb talk should be thrown about so lightly in a city almost brought to it’s knees by the WW2 Blitz is probably testimony to the Scouse sense of humour, but some days there is simply no better way to describe a house that looks, after days of neglect as if it has indeed, been blown into dusty smithereens…
So here I am, on the verge of another weekend, resting on my laurels in a house crying out to be “blitzed”. My own particular bomb is courtesy of a nine year old who has built a den under the dining room table, Â a kitten who is wreaking beautiful havoc, a week lost to launching “Life, Love and Vintage Housekeeping” (oh the irony of writing about keeping beautiful house as I sit in my very own midden!!) and the kind of heavy melancholy peculiar to the pain of family upset.
So yep it’s a mad, crazy, bombed-out mess. And you wanna know a secret? I quite like it. Sloth becomes me. If only because I am trying to convince myself  that it is a way of being, essential to creativity and the freedom of a kid who rather enjoys having a Mommy who lets him erect a permanent patchwork tent in the living room, while forgetting to feed him, or indeed provide him with his full quota of vitamin D…
This is of course a bucket of nonsense. No-one works better in mess. Rather you sit in the rubble trying to work, while simultaneously entertaining fantasies about rubber gloves and a big bottle of white vinegar. Then waddle through the chaos to find something passing itself off as vaguely nutritious with which to keep the child’s mouth busy so he will not feel the urge to talk too much and thus disturb your dubious peace. Such is the lot of the work-at home Mother. A bucketful of nonsense tied with a guilt-coloured bow.
If I was a sensible woman I would step away from the computer right now, tie on a pinny and get down to it. But I’m not. Sensible is a state of affairs I have never been able to fathom. Â And so I do believe I am going to order take -out pizza, slouch into my dressing gown and make space amongst the detrious in which to collapse in a frizzy-haired heap.
This bomb-site will wait. Happy Friday Housekeepers…
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8 Comments
ive now reached the age of 53 i look back and wish i was at least 20 years younger all the things you find on different blogs that you wished you had known then if it wasnt for the wine you would cry do it anyway if you can still move around whilst stepping over everything exercise everthing works out the way it should be trust me you would give anything for things to be as they were x you also end ever text with a kiss xx or is that just me x
thought i had a few more spaces on the above comment will cut down on the wine no i am not an alcoholic but sooooooooooooooo could be now the kids no longer need me seize the day it take 5 minutes to clean house if we have to toilets and and everything else in a box when kids need us we are there after that there is wine xx
We use the term in Australia, it must be part of our Anglo heritage. I am having enormous fun and reward working through “The Art of Homemaking” Alison. Trash it or Treasure It will be run concurrently I think, I am loving it all.
Oh you CLEVER thing! I’ve been so wrapped up in my book stuff that I’ve only just caught up on what you’ve been up to this week. Can’t WAIT to hear all about it over coffee next week…we’re going to take over the book world. You with your gorgeous lifestyle beautifulness and me with my bonkers tales of seals and snogging and men in kilts. 2013 is our year, my lovely girl. xxx
I saw this all the time too… and my flat looked particularly like a bomb had hit it today but the rain pouring outside I returned it to loveliness… candles are lit and I’m just waiting for my mum to arrive for the evening with chocolate hot cross buns! Victoria x
Love the thought of bring able to ignore the chaos and sit down! Instead I find myself wanting to get things straight before I do so – just like my grandmother. It is so much easier to create, gather thoughts and relax in an orderly environment
I am reading your book….. After a few months of blog quietness as I got my head together I saw your name on Amazon and had to have. It’s really evocative, and so not a ‘swallow in one sitting’ book. Instead I read it a section or two a day. It’s like having a blog in a book, really it is. I can see the passage of time and the narrative of your everyday life running through. Hope your bomb site gets blitzed later!
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ive now reached the age of 53 i look back and wish i was at least 20 years younger all the things you find on different blogs that you wished you had known then if it wasnt for the wine you would cry do it anyway if you can still move around whilst stepping over everything exercise everthing works out the way it should be trust me you would give anything for things to be as they were x you also end ever text with a kiss xx or is that just me x
thought i had a few more spaces on the above comment will cut down on the wine no i am not an alcoholic but sooooooooooooooo could be now the kids no longer need me seize the day it take 5 minutes to clean house if we have to toilets and and everything else in a box when kids need us we are there after that there is wine xx
need to spell check before i send x
We use the term in Australia, it must be part of our Anglo heritage.
I am having enormous fun and reward working through “The Art of Homemaking” Alison. Trash it or Treasure It will be run concurrently I think, I am loving it all.
Oh you CLEVER thing! I’ve been so wrapped up in my book stuff that I’ve only just caught up on what you’ve been up to this week. Can’t WAIT to hear all about it over coffee next week…we’re going to take over the book world. You with your gorgeous lifestyle beautifulness and me with my bonkers tales of seals and snogging and men in kilts. 2013 is our year, my lovely girl. xxx
I saw this all the time too… and my flat looked particularly like a bomb had hit it today but the rain pouring outside I returned it to loveliness… candles are lit and I’m just waiting for my mum to arrive for the evening with chocolate hot cross buns!
Victoria x
Love the thought of bring able to ignore the chaos and sit down! Instead I find myself wanting to get things straight before I do so – just like my grandmother. It is so much easier to create, gather thoughts and relax in an orderly environment
I am reading your book….. After a few months of blog quietness as I got my head together I saw your name on Amazon and had to have. It’s really evocative, and so not a ‘swallow in one sitting’ book. Instead I read it a section or two a day. It’s like having a blog in a book, really it is. I can see the passage of time and the narrative of your everyday life running through. Hope your bomb site gets blitzed later!