Bad, bad blogger !

Wow, I haven't written in quite a while here...

It's hard to find things I feel are interesting enough to write something about. I do my daily things, I work, I take care of the family and the house, no big events occur...

Also, because I do so many different things, everything takes ages to complete and when something finally gets done, it has lost a lot of the shine of achievement because it took so long !

Things going on right now are

- The search for a new kitty... since our Kiki died, several cats have been offered to me but none were little kittens. Hanna wants a "real" kitten right out of the litter. I think this is normal for a 7 year-old so that's what we're going to get. But first there was a long, cold winter (few kittens to get) and now the mommy cats I know of are pregnant but none have given birth yet. I am pretty sure something will come through at work (one of my colleagues has several cats and not all are neutered/spayed). But it will take a few more months before our kitten will be born and weaned !

- Slow reshaping and cleaning up of the garden : I've had several old, cancerous fruit trees removed and want to replant some different things (elderberry, for one). Next on my to-do-list is getting the vegetable patch back in order, fertilizing the remaining fruit trees, replacing a few shrubs which have lived out their pretty lives, and expanding my herb garden.

- Getting rid of clutter : the ongoing battle ! Circumstances are preventing me from tackling this room by room so I'm doing several places at once, each for a few hours at a time, which is not always rewarding because I can't tell the difference... But when I see the number of things I manage to throw out every couple of weeks, something must be moving in the right sense...

- Replacing devices in the house : this is more a battle with money than anything else, since the work has to be done by professionals. First on this list is the hot water boiler. It's still working but scaling is taking over so I think it would be wise to replace it sometime soon... before it entirely breaks down (which, as everyone knows, always happens on a banking holiday weekend and may even be accompanied by some serious flooding, as our current boiler holds 2000 litres of water and is placed... on the top floor of the house... yep, it was there when we bought the house !)

- Crafting (knitting/crocheting) has taken second stage for the moment, because I am usually too knackered in the evenings to even watch a TV programme, let alone knit at the same time ! I am trying to assemble a knitted sweater for Hanna but this too is taking more time than it actually should... especially since I prefer to do this kind of work by daylight !

- Trying to keep Hanna motivated in school ! This is one of the bigger challenges which has turned up recently. She dislikes school very much and is performing poorly, in spite of her teacher's reassurances that her cognitive levels are more than adequate. It's a personality thing more than anything else but it is difficult to find incentives and routines that work...

These are the things which come to mind when I think about what I tackle on a regular basis these days.

No pix, note to self : snap some good ones to accompany next blog entry !