Because You Have To Start Somewhere.

A relatively normal backyard.

What a year it has been! Yep, it occasionally bothers me that I haven't posted a blog entry since February, but I wrote lots of posts in my head, just so you know. And I read lots and lots of other peoples', so in a way it's good. After all, blogging might help me clarify some things in my own mind, but it's still my own point of view, and a zillion times over, I'd rather be absorbing other peoples' thoughts, and assimilating those. I think a joke about being a thought whore probably belongs in here, but typing one-handed = it's too hard.

I don't think I can possibly catch up on a whole year. Might as well just start with now. Whoa, the house is messy. So many people crammed in, and getting up to stuff. No, we are not one of those households that keeps everything neat, stored, and looking like nobody lives there. We are most definitely here.

And so, to a photo essay (as much as I can figure out with Blogger), to explain why things look the way they do.

The herb patch, bolted to stems and seed with all the rain.

Can you say "Bicycle Shed"??? As in need one, now!

I included this photo, to show that depending on the angle and composition, you can make even the trashiest house look almost good enough for your favourite Mormon Mommy blog.

You are now entering the serious mess zone. Maybe a half dozen sewing tasks piled up on the right, storage tubs to contain the raw materials, vacuum cleaner (left out by teenage son after cleaning his car), shoes for the Op-shop and Planet Earth shoe recycling program that I forgot to take yesterday, and Grete's baby doll in her carrier. Oh, and two baskets of sorted laundry, and one to be hung outside (when I've finished blogging)

Kitchen, with handwash going on, and the bins needing doing (Knox, that's your job there sweetpea).

Kitchen table, with another sewing task laid out by Knox - "Can you widen these cut-offs for me, mum?"

Two maids-a-sleeping. Yes, we sleep on the floor. As a preference. Very Japanese of us.

Bissy's Lair - all of her stuff brought back from Uni last week, after 3 years as an undergrad. TBC...

And in no particular order, Grete's dollhouse shelf, the piano, the hopping ball that we have had since Jacinta was a toddler, tubs of toys waiting to be stored in the laundry again, and jumper and blanket from last night's run (literally) to the store with the Mountain Buggy.

The blackboard wall, waiting for some seasonal drawings to be added before Grete can add to her random spaceship works.

Rocking horse from Op-shop, futon because Daddy P slept over and has gone to work, the Barbie collection and storage tub for Barbies, the imitation feather Christmas tree, lost in the flotsam and jetsam.

And the Hallyway. Potty Central, plus stuff waiting to be stored in the roofspace for the summer. No, that is not a Stormtrooper costume, it's Knox's fullface helmet, for his serious Kamikaze stage of mountain biking. Fan, because Australian summer is meant to be hot (even though it's still cold at the moment).