…blogtober day 15 :: so much for Saturday sewing…

Buying a nice chunk of land, the theory went, would give the children space to roam, and the husband space to do whatever it is blokes do on weekends, when they aren’t roaming the house looking for an excuse to go to Bunnings. Moving to the cabin, further suggested the theory, wouldn’t be too onerous, as there was All That Space for said children and husband to occupy themselves and keep out of my hair. What the theory failed to account for was the amount of remedial works needed after a record breaking drought, black summer, and then two years of La Niña rain.

It was too much to hope for, it seems, that I might actually get a solid run at the sewing machine today. I did manage to start the day with a finished book, but then, instead of pulling out my cutting mat, I was pulling on my work boots. With the new house build due to commence within the next couple of weeks, there’s plenty to get done and organised. The first thing on our list was a driveway clean up/trim. We are blessed to have a driveway lined with native tree corridors on each side, and it is such a joy to drive along. Over time, however, branches have grown in ways that are not conducive to unimpeded truck access. Which is a fancy way to say – we had a truckload of trimming to do. While we were on a mission, there were a few dead trees that needed to come out, and some shrubs that had suckered and needed clearing also.

I called time at 4pm. We had a monster pile started, ready to dry over summer and become a bonfire next winter. The kids had been absolute heroes, helping haul branches and make cuppas and ferry tools and batteries. As a little treat, we ran into town and bought a box of golden gaytimes for our little worker bees, and we all sat and chilled by the pond as we wound down from the day. A side bonus is it bought us some time for a later dinner, so I snuck inside, popped on a load of the washing I intended to do this morning, and considered starting to cut the fabric I had planned as this weekend’s project. That thought, however, lasted about as long as it took to walk the basket of washing to the machine and I suddenly realised how much my feet were hurting. And my back. And the scratches on my arm. Cutting fabric became the last thing in the world I felt like doing.

The monotonous back and forth gave me plenty of time to think. When there’s not a lot going on, my brain likes to go on little adventures. I started outlining a flash fiction response to a writing prompt I found on twitter. I started mentally writing this very post – and promptly forgot the whole thing when I sat down to physically write. I started thinking about tomorrow’s must-do list – a working bee for athletics, planning for school, housewifing, trying to get some of this sewing done. Then, with dawning horror, I realised my knitalong deadline was coming up a lot faster than I realised. And I’m a lot further behind than I should be. And I’ve not really made a lot of progress since I shared it in Sydney, so I couldn’t use it for blogging today. And I hadn’t been crafting, so had nothing else to share either. And then my head exploded with an overload of bloggy, crafty self-expectation.

See? Adventures. Brains are so silly.

We made good progress though, so I’m planning on using tomorrow’s to-do list in my favour. The cutting can be done first thing in the morning before I head out. The school planning when I come back. The sewing as a reward for getting the school planning done (if must-do sewing for little people counts as a reward). And the knitting? That’s tonight’s fun. I’ve thrown up the #saturdaynightcraftalong graphic. The kids are busy putting together some DIY mini pizzas. The third load of washing is almost done. Then I can clock off, pop on a movie, and knit away until late* into the night.

Weekends as an adult are so glamorous, aren’t they?

*by late, I mean Old People Late, not teenage Read All Night Late, which is more accurately described as Early. As in Early Morning.