New Year - introspection

I always find myself every new year, in a resolving mood. I love a fresh start to a day, a week, a year, a new exercise book and a clean car interior. I do irritate myself when I let days, weeks, years, books and cars get into such a mess (and they always do). This year, I will not resolve to do lose a zillions pounds by February or read 12 books a week or never each chocolate again as they are easy resolutions to break. This year I will take stock of what I have, use things I need and charity shop everything I don't need or use. We have a reasonable sized house but we have limited storage available. I plan to go through every part of this house (and my life) and re-organise every little corner, understand what we have and what we need and clear out the excess shite and make the most of what we have. Today I tidied 2 cupboards in the kitchen and made a note of things we need and moved things that were in the wrong place and will charity shop the stuff we have that I hate. 2 cupboards down and it's only day 1!

I also spent a hour or so in the garden whilst the boys messed about. It was good to get some fresh air as we have a had a bit of cabin fever these last few days. I want to DO the garden this year. Get a greenhouse. Dig a border along the back fence. Dig up my pots. The front garden needs a LOAD of work done to it but I think that if I focus on the back garden and get that where I want it then I will be brave enough to tackle the front maybe later in the year.

I will re-visit the 101 list and go back to the monthly goals I started last year. When I was blogging and writing them I was doing them and it was good.

This month I shall ...

1. Write and start a weight-loss plan. I work well when I have it written out in front of me.

2. Clean the inside of my car (Mr G did the outside today and I feel compelled to finish it!)

3. Make a playmat for my best mate's little boy.

4. Get a gardening diary and work out my plan for the year.

5. Find a dentist.

6. Complete The Great Organisation of the kitchen.

Come on January - let's get sorted!

Family fun day

We don't really celebrate Easter here in the Gherkin Jar as we are not religious, (though I did give in to a chocolate egg hunt around the house which the boys LOVED (Little Pickle bellowed "I GOT ONE!" when he found one all by himself before Cornichon beat him to it!) however I felt I really should do something together as a family so we went to a car boot sale this morning. I had originally planned on going myself alone, with nobody else for a good rummage but Mr Gherkin said "I'll look after the boys, can we come too please? I'd like to have a look!" I really did not think that it would be his thing at all but I could hardly refuse him as he was so sweet. We all went to one about 5 mins down the road and it was lovely! I had time for a good look and they didn't moan and we all came home with something. We had a Scalextrix set for £6, hotwheels set for £3, 4 Transformers for £2, Power Ranger suit for £1.50, Weird Fish jumper for me for £1.50, book for Mr Gherkin for 10p and one for me for 50p. All in all a good shop (although I was thinking about my beautiful streamlined organised toy cupboard with 2 big boxes stuffed into it!

We spent hours playing with the Scalextrix which Cornichon loved but Little Pickle was a bit too young for it, although he had a good go but was a bit heavy-handed with the trigger! We spent the afternoon outside after Mr G cooked a beautiful linguine bolognaise for lunch. I managed to clear out the shed and there is now room to swing a cat in it! Woo hoo! It felt good to sort that as it is our dumping room as we don't have a garage so we really need to keep on top of things in the shed. And now we can! Pat on the back for a job well done! I also put together a little plastic greenhouse that I bought yesterday and it is fab! I can just see it full of little seedlings. Bring on the vag patch!

Getting things done

Today was a good day in the grand scheme of things. I had a full night's sleep, been for a run which was awesome, played with the boys, been to B&Q and Asda and bought a loads of bits for the house including a plastic greenhouse, bean and courgette seeds, door hooks and screws, plastic boxes for under our bed, boxes for the toy cupboard, doormat, Sew Hip, easter eggs, and a blu-ray DVD player. All these things will make this gherkin jar a little more bearable and comfortable for all involved.

I received some freebie seed potatoes and a grow sack in the post this morning! I am very excited about this as they will become part of my veg garden! I intend to work on it tomorrow with the boys, weather permitting. Photos to come tomorrow.

Growing a colony

I am expanding the gherkin family and getting a wormery! I am so excited! I bought the hardware yesterday and have to send off for the worms in the post tomorrow and they will arrive all wriggly in a packet - I can't wait for it to come! I have had a compost bin before but never in this house as we have not had the room for it. Now we have opened up a channel down the side of the house and I planned to get a compost bin for the corner there. I went to a bin sale yesterday in Ikea and was going to spend £20 on a compost bin but they had bins for £5 and wormeries for £20 so I pushed the boat out and bought an extension to the gherkin family too! I set the wormery up with the boys today and explained how they work and Cornichon seemed fascinated with worm poo!

Can't wait until the little darlings arrive!

Today I felt good. I cleaned the inside of my car - vacuum and everything! No more feeling disgusted when I get into my car and ashamed when Jon is rightfully sarcastic about the filth he has to dig out before he can get into the front seat. The boys helped to a certain extent but I had to finish off alone. I did all those things that have annoyed me like tidying the restrain belts on the car seats, cleaning the coffee I spilt in there about a month ago, taking out the books that have been there and not read for as long as I have had the car! I fell like I need to put an air freshener in it ( I HATE air fresheners) that has that 'new car' smell. I can't wait to drive it tomorrow!

I also had a couple of hours alone and managed to clean the porch, dust the front of the house, weed and de-leaf under the kitchen window, took the dead heads from the nasty ornamental grass at the front, washed the wellies, decided to make more of the room outside under the porch and decided to plant some flowers there. Little project here I come!

Introduction

I suppose a good way to start this blog would be to reveal some stuff about me...

I'm Gherkin.   I live in Wales.   I am 33.  I am happily married with 2 fantastic little boys and I love spending time with my family.  I love so many things but do not have the time to do most of them.  I love crafting and making stuff and would love to stop time at the end of every day and spend a few hours pottering about with a bag of fabric scraps or a box of beads.  Such a shame that life gets in the way so often and ironing needs to be done or bathrooms have to be cleaned!  I love being active and am in the process of losing 3 stones in weight (just under 1 stone to go! Woo hoo!).  I have recently resurged a love for gardening and am working on a vegetable patch and planting out a load of plants that are pot-bound and have been waiting to be planted for months.  I love reading and have recently finished Memoirs of a Geisha which I could not put down and was sad to finish.  I have a sleep problem (I don't get enough) but that can be remedied with a quick log off.

Nighty Nighty