Sawdust

A busy morning with the girls continuing to pack/sort all the stuff in their bedroom - a HUGE amount sorted for car boot selling which is very satisfying.  Feel guilty about not taking it down the charity shop, like I would normally do, but we'll need the money!  Both girls have started moving stuff into the caravan ready for our transfer, and have a whole cupboard each for their favourite books.  Hannah has also found a little corner for her treasured 'Snitch', and a beautiful magpie feather found at the weekend.

I've today made a deal with the girls who are bored with the tedium of packing up the whole house: the usual restrictions on 'screen time' are temporarily postponed, meaning that they can play/watch what they want, when they want, as long as they respond instantly to any request for help, at any time!  Seems to be working so far ...

I managed another car full of boxes for the Rectory today.  Must be burning a few calories just doing this!  Have also booked a removals lorry and crew to take all the heavy stuff (beds, sofas, mattresses etc) to storage in Worthing on our return from America.  Adrian was going to manage all this by himself, thinking it would cost thousands of pounds to hire professionals, but when I phoned to enquire it was only a couple of hundred pounds, so definitely worth doing.  Will be much easier.  Especially with jet lag.  (Have also booked our air port car parking today.  http://www.cophallparkinggatwick.co.uk/  One more holiday thing ticked off the list.)

Even with so much to do, the family still needs feeding so this afternoon included a trip to Sainsbury's for our weekly shop.  The girls were reluctant to come, until they realised that they could choose all the cereals, biscuits, crisps etc etc plus sweets for the long train journey up to Glasgow on Thursday.  We also had to buy some holiday clothes for Emma after realising she didn't have any shorts or vest tops for hot weather in the US - I'm assuming Maine and New Jersey will be hot and sweaty in August?!  Probably Glasgow not so much?!

I meant to mention before how much sawdust our washing machine has had to cope with over the past few months. It gets everywhere! Adrian has been covered in the stuff every weekend, crafting the beautiful Garden Room completely from scratch, and still chopping wood for the final bespoke window frames.  Will it never end?  Love the smell of it, though!