All Change

We have been despairing in out house, Matthew doesn't sleep well, the kids have to sleep downstairs because of the layout of the house and none of them seem to have enough room. Mortgage deposits make it difficult to move and so we are stuck, so it seems! Well while we are away all five of us had to share a bedroom, we feared it would be hell on earth! It turned out to be OK!

This gave us an idea, we now after lots of heaving books, furniture and beds about have all of us sleeping upstairs. It seemed the two older children didn't really like sleeping downstairs so until we can afford to move, we now have a sleep room for the kids. Heather still has her own bedroom and we were even able to shift the sofa bed into it so she has somewhere to sit and read, she now has loads of space to do her dancing and we have a spare bedroom should we need it.

Matthews room still has all his toys but is also equipped as a study so Mr T can work from home, I can write in peace and Matthew can build train tracks and play with his road map to his hearts content. It is not an ideal solution but it is the best fir at the moment, we are hoping in a couple of years we will be able to move and then have a more conventional layout and individual bedrooms as the kids get older and less able to share.

They love it, perhaps a little too much, they each still have their own space and even in the shared bedroom the different areas have been personalised according to their preferences, Winnie the Pooh for Lucy, Thomas for Matthew and fairies for Heather. The house suddenly seems to have opened out, just as well as the children are on the school holidays for another five weeks!

The rain now seems relentless and the garden is sodden, thank goodness for libraries where the kids can while away an hour just flicking through books, often the same ones they have at home. The sibling rivalry seems as relentless as the bad weather and I am hoping that is just a phase. The games they play are now focussed around the holiday, they are taking Mickey and Minne mouse somewhere or saving them from some terrible fate.

School will be with us again soon and we seem to have a fair few sheets of homework to get through, as well as trying to encourage Matthew to get used to the idea of going to school every day wearing a uniform. Still next week we have our appointment to get said uniform, could be interesting, watch this space...