Imposing Order

Every day this week, between the hours of nine and three, I have been unpacking. Unpacking and cleaning, with just the radio for company, and it's been wonderful.

Yes, that is a perfectly reasonable number of mugs to have.

The kitchen was a challenge and I didn't enjoy this task as much as I thought I might - I was even looking forward to it, seeing all our familiar and much loved things come out of the bubble wrap and newspaper. I had it all planned out in my head: the toaster next to the bread bin, the kettle near the mugs and tap, the pans by the cooker. But I felt like I was playing a game with the boxes and cupboards. Will it fit here? No. Here? Yes, but only if I move all of this...and there are all these boxes still to unpack! It was like a big rubik's cube of crockery and cardboard, and there was always a box right in front of the cupboard I needed to get to. 

But then, one the second day (yes, this was a two day job), it all clicked into place. Order prevailed over chaos and I was so pleased by the neatness of it all that I took a photo of a cupboard on my phone. Just look at those beautiful, tidy stacks of plates!

The dishwasher is plumbed in, the leak under the sink has been fixed (thanks Dad) and everything is on and in and working. I've wiped, scrubbed, mopped and polished this little room and - this I did not expect! - I'm growing rather fond of it.

In our house in Leeds, the kitchen looked directly into my neighbour's kitchen, and I couldn't see the garden. Here, the window looks out over the garden and the room is full of light all day long. I can watch the kids play outside. What a difference things like this make. 

There is no budget for a new kitchen for now - and honestly, it's a perfectly fine kitchen, if badly fitted - but there are little things we can do to make it more efficient. A rail near the cooker, from which I can hang all my utensils, would be useful.

Plus some hooks on the back of the door for aprons, and we need a bin.

We moved in yesterday and those jars are now full of pasta and rice, ready to use.

I feel a teeny bit possessive of my, I mean our, kitchen. I've been in it on my own all week, making it mine, getting to know it. I don't want anyone to make a mess in there. I scrubbed that sink, I mean really scrubbed it, and it gleams. I dont want it to get dirty! I need to get over this, or I'll be doing all the cooking and washing up on my own for the next twenty years.

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A few lovely things happened lately which I forgot to mention. I've had three really nice coffees (lady dates, as I like to think of them) with friends I've made through this online world. I am missing my Leeds friends a great deal and, while I've started to make tentative friends at the school gate and on the PTA, these things take time and so it's wonderful to have already formed relationships with people I "know" through blogging or Instagram. A couple of weeks ago I met up with Jo; we connected through Instagram and share many things in common, and realised that we actually live about a mile away from each other! What are the chances of that? And I had a very nice morning in Chichester with Caroline and then a few days later in Arundel with Sara. With both it was like meeting up someone you already knew, and we chatted for ages about all sorts of things - children, education, blogging. Interesting, funny, intelligent ladies, all of them. Good eggs. And I hope soon to be meeting up with Chrissie and maybe even Jooles too - that would be amazing. Chatting about craft over coffee and cake - I don't think it gets much better than that.

We are now finally in our new house, surrounded by boxes. While the kitchen may look tidy, rest assured that the rest of the house is chaos. And unfortunately we won't have any broadband for the next two weeks. Agh!! This is going to be a huge test for me, for all of us. I hope I will read and crochet and spend amazing quality time with the children...hmm. We'll see. Which means blogging and emailing (and also really necessary things like internet banking!) will be challenging and so I may not be around much over the next few weeks. But don't worry, I'm not going any where. If anything, I feel like I've just come back home.