Staying warm. my new obsession. lots and lots of wood in the fireplace and drinking hot chai tea. kids are playing hide and seek. daddy's doing diy. home improvement - the very best way to get your wife off your back. the tv is off and all is well. sigh. dh lets me obsess at the computer in hopes t'will appease the unfocused restlessness which causes his wife to pick petty arguments. and overfocus on which toys belong in which boxes and which tools belong in the garage and which shoes should be put in bedrooms and which can stay on the rack. one pair out per customer, that's the rule. otherwise it's shoeland. who am i kidding. this is shoeland. there's a pair of my dh's shoes at every door. until i throw them outside. with everything else he leaves en route to somewhere else. wait. stop this. i was almost peaceful for a moment there. just one other thing. sorting clothes. opened a box of carefully preserved six year old's stuff from my eldest now to go to her little sister. well, it's depressingly out of style and so here i am with a quandry. a laundry quandry. so sentimentally attached am i to the visual memory of "things". i know it's just stuff. but my big girl will never be that small again. it's a sickness. live in the now, says the critic. i know but look there's a stain on that dress form the canteen. "Maman, will you come and help at the cantine? Please? All the other kids mommies have come..." says the little stain. "i will some time honey but mommy's very tired with the babies and i don't have anyone to look after them..." says the place i meant to scrub so long ago but didn't. so i hang on to this stuff cause it talks. sometimes more than my actual 14 yr old . therefore, perhaps i will stop blogging and go help the kids mess up their room. and add another log to that fire.