The Life Audit

Here we are again: time to get a grip on my head and my heart by auditing the ins and outs of my world. As always please feel free to steal the graphic and do a life audit of your own, or indeed download the Life Audit PDF (it’s free) and get your pencil out…

Today I am…

Flustered by a last minute flurry of questions from my solicitor as the sale of my house finally looks to be drawing to a close. (Thanks heavens: I now understand why they put moving house up there with the most stressful things in life!). Viewing a cute little house slightly closer to school this afternoon. Waiting on a call from an estate agent about another. Consulting with REAL Rock ‘n’ Roll Movers (realrocknroll.com) to determine how big of a van we need and how many trips will be done. Being a full-time Step-Mum for two weeks as Stevie’s Mum has gone to Mexico. Worrying about being a hopeless full-time Step-Mum because Stevie is so very quiet it is hard to tell whether he is in heaven or hell. Planning a week or two at Helen’s lovely house in Oxford while she hops over the channel to France. Over-using exclamation marks in all my texts like an over-excited teenager. Bless me.

Feeling…

Excited. Helen, Dad and I open our our first BrocanteHome vintage concession at Station Mill, Chipping Norton the weekend after next! Eeeeek! Its finally happening: life is slowly but surely coming together. Though in the midst of it all I am feeling pretty rubbish: permanently sluggish with a hiatus hernia that is stabbing me in the chest and a lovely headache dogging all my mornings. I really do need to get back to the daily routines that once sustained me instead of wasting entire days burning the candle at both ends with worry…
Oooh and feeling proud! Yesterday I went through ALL my paperwork and now consider myself thoroughly organised and able to put a hand on whatever piece of officialdom is necessary with just a flutter of my un-manicured hand…

Reading…

Blogosphere, poetry and diet books. But otherwise consumed by the sheer volume of books I seem to own in a house without bookcases and no obvious place to put one. It’s a bother. One really shouldn’t have to consider the housing of far too many books in the hunt for somewhere to live but hey ho, when a person loves the written word quite as much as I do there really doesn’t seem to be a choice. This then is up there on my list of little house must haves.

Eating…

Crumpets. Because the weather is behaving shockingly bad. And although in my head I am dreaming of sumptuous salads and barbeques on the patio, in reality it hasn’t stopped raining and a combination of stress and miserable weather has got me wanting to hole up under a blanket with the cosiest food I can think of, so crumpets, Welsh Rarebit style it is!

Planning…

Damnit… planning is hard right now. We still don’t know whether we can stay here in the bungalow. And I have lost my connection with these four walls in the interim. For the first time in years going through the motions and simply focusing on keeping it as clean as can be without worrying about aesthetics. This is such a major departure for me, I hardly know what to make of it… but I am simply hoping that as soon as the tenancy is confirmed one way or another I will be able to run my home the Brocante way all over again…
It’s so very hard to plan when you are scared isn’t it?

Dreaming of…

Getting lost in a city full of warren like cobbled streets. Discovering secret little places only those who dare to dream know about. Hobbeldy shops filled with antique books I can pour over. Wandering by myself with no time restraints. No obligations. No children wittering! No football!

Coveting…

Organisation. Though BrocanteHome feels more organised than it has done in years and I am so thoroughly enjoying The Living Room, there are still systems and routines to be established and I am yearning for the day when the entire business runs like clockwork. Is it a sign of madness to even begin to imagine that that day will ever come? I’m working on it…. all day and all night. This m’dears is a passion that will never abate…

Wishing…

The world was at peace. Everywhere I look there are signs of dis-harmony and I can hardly believe how much rage and hate there seems to be. Finley talks about the news almost constantly now because he is shown it daily in school and as a Mother it is so very hard to sound reassuring about all our tomorrows when we can barely feel reassured ourselves.

Working On…

The workbook for my GET A GRIP program. The first post last week was so well received and according to all the chatter in the Living Room exactly what we all need right now to get back on track to living a life less ordinary. Writing it is helping me to establish some order in my own mind too: because heaven knows even those of us who usually manage to keep a grip on things during even the most turbulent of times, need a little help occasionally too!

Celebrating…

Grit and determination. Because I’ve got it in spades and heaven knows I need it right now…

Grateful For…

Finley. The child is a walking font of wisdom and although his growing up so very fast is bewildering, as each and every day passes I become more astonished by the man he is clearly going to turn in to. He is calm, considerate, reassuring and probably old beyond his years, and at parents evening two weeks ago all these qualities where confirmed by teachers who assured me that he was not only a lovely kid, but that he had settled in to his new school so very well and that he is both popular and happy. I can’t ask for more.

And finally tomorrow I will be…

Giving up coffee. Recently I have been knocking it back with a vengeance and I do believe it is contributing to my general bonkersness.

On my to-do list this month?

* Buying school uniform so I don’t find myself running around in a demented fashion come the beginning of September!
* Working my way through the entire box-set of The Gilmore Girls, now finally available on British Netflix!
* Calling the Salvation Army to donate furniture I am not bringing with me in to this new life.
* Cleaning my old house from to bottom before handing over the keys because one must not be the talk of the neighbourhood after one has moved on to pastures new!
* And carried over from last month: please, oh please, oh please exchanging contracts on the house so we can truly step in to our new life together…
Happy July Housekeepers!