Week 2

Haven't managed to get much done around the house this week. Opened a few boxes but that's about it. Attempted to get into the garden but kept being interrupted by V trying to eat stones or crawl away, and K needing to go toilet or wanting to "help" me. Managed to deadhead a few rose bushes but there are more to go. The lawn is getting long, the grass in the paddocks is knee high, the vegetable garden needs attending to, the compost needs turning. But at least I attended to the decorative part of the garden!!!

Have started living off the land though - rather than buying juice from the store we have been making our own lemonade with lemons off the tree. As an unforeseen consequence we are drinking less than we used to, or drinking more alcoholic beverages, so as not to have to make the juice so often. Which was not the desired result.

P got rid of the birds in the ceiling. He climbed up and found their nest, complete with baby starling. He took baby starling away and we haven't heard a peep from mum or dad since. The city girl in me feels really bad about it. The city girl in me also smiles whenever she sees rabbits running around our property.

The hardware stores in Levin are all closed on a Sunday. P was mighty annoyed and drove to Palmerston North instead. He has built a fence to keep V away from the television (in our old house the TV was wallmounted so it wasn't a problem).

Discovered the local rubbish tip yesterday. We do not have a local rubbish collection this far out of town (unless you want to pay for it) so will probably become frequent tip visitors. Although that's not cheap either. But as our washing machine broke down just before we moved, we have been going through a LOT of disposable nappies since we arrived here.

Had our first party in the house this week. The dishwashers were working overtime the following day. You know your house is big when the vacuum cleaner cord barely stretches from one side of the room to the other.

-M