Back home and having trouble getting started again

knitting and beach
Originally uploaded by girl_of_bats

I've been home for a while now. The week of holiday was very badly needed. I saw friends and went places and had some time off from the usual daily grind. Pip insisted that I did no housework of any kind - he even made my breakfast toast - and although it was sometimes confusing in the mornings trying to cope with the noise of kids TV and sort-of-talking Boy and attempting to figure out the plan for the day ahead, it was definitely a good break.

This picture of knitting at the beach is for Carie as per the comments on my last post. To Mandy, I can only apologise for the lack of pretty shells - walking on sand for more than a couple of metres is pretty well beyond my capabilities and as you can see, the tide was right out. In my defence, I did bring home Tacky Seaside Fudge for the knitting group. I looked for sticks of rock but it's not in season.

This picture was taken shortly after the following conversation with the Boy, who had been being Very Good for the whole morning getting-up getting-dressed having-breakfast routine:
"You're being a very good boy! What do you want to do today?"
"Eat crispies."
"No, we only just had breakfast, so no crisps. Do you want to stay in, or go out?"
"Stay in."
"Okay... so what would you like to do while we stay in? We could play with your trains, or do your jigsaw..."
"Stay in, eat crispies."
"No, we're not having crisps now. On that understanding, do you want to stay in, or go out?"
"Go out."
"Okay, where shall we go? Shall we go to the park, or to Adventure Island...?"
"Go out, eat crispies."
*sigh*

Unfortunately I came home to discover Steve had been having one of "those" weeks, which meant that the third of a loaf of bread that had been in the cupboard when I left, was still there and enthusiastically waving at me when I got back. Likewise the washing up, the bin, and the bathroom. On the sort-of-plus side, the washing up hadn't really been added to in any significant way as in my absence Steve hadn't been eating properly. While it's true that in some ways that's better than getting back to a house with an extra week's dirty dishes piled up, I'm still having trouble seeing it as an altogether good thing.

Hopefully I'll know better than to go off on holiday again. If I do, I will endeavour to remember (and regular readers should feel free to remind me) that I need to take a couple of extra days off beforehand to make sure the house is in a fit state to leave. I'm not exactly houseproud, the only things I want to be able to eat off are plates and the only things I need to see my face in is the mirror. But there's a dividing line between "liveable mess" and "biohazard" and while I can live with grubby rather than gleaming white surfaces, it's gone too far when they start to turn green.

I've got a lot of it sorted out, but for the time being, and what with the additional demands of work (the volume of orders is steadily increasing, Christmas I think) and the setbacks caused by the colder weather (snow is lovely but causes a sharp increase in my joint pain and a reduction in my endurance) I still feel like I'm playing catch-up and like I may never get on top of everything.