Friday I'm in love... with storage

So this is meant to be an 'after' photo, but the 'before' view was so horrendous that I couldn't bring myself to actually take a photo of it. Picture the scene: open shelves with clothes everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. For the first six months or so after Arlo was born, I had a fairly small capsule wardrobe of feeding-friendly clothes - so basically tops that could layer or unbutton to feed Arlo from, usually with baby sick on most of the time. Not my best look, I'll be honest. But then, after Arlo started to eat bananas and various other squishy foods, and the need to feed him all the time subsided, I was able to rediscover my old wardrobe. Not just clothes I hadn't worn for 6 months, but clothes I hadn't been able to fit into while I was pregnant, so things I hadn't seen for over a year. Mostly dresses. Many dresses. It was very exciting.

But while my wardrobe got bigger, my storage didn't, and I basically ended up with clothes everywhere. Not a pretty sight, nor a very relaxing bedroom environment to be in. So I was really excited to order (but less so to assemble) this massive chest of drawers this week. It's the width of two normal chests of drawers, and the drawers themselves are really deep and roomy so it's basically big enough to hide all my mess out of sight... heaven.

If you love storage too, I've been collecting pictures of perfect storage over here for ages - including this lovely colour-coordinated collection in the perfect storage display which I'm currently a bit mad about:

Camping out

We made the most of our first family three-day weekend by heading out for a night's camping on Sunday. We turned off our phones, drank cider out of tin mugs, sang along to the guitar, built a fire that we had to save from the brink of going out more than once, and had the best night's sleep we've had in a long time. By the morning we all ended up snuggled into the same double sleeping bag, keeping each other warm. Hopefully the first of a few night's camping we get to squeeze in before the summer ends.

A balancing act.

Something quite exciting happened in the Lewis-Wild household this week - Alex has gone from a 5-day to a 4-day working week. We made a family decision for him to work a day less and spend more time with Arlo while he's little. It means we'll have a bit less cash to spend each month, but a whole lot more family time to spend together, so in the end it was a very easy decision to make.

It feels very empowering to make a decision like that. Right when we were thinking about having a family, a (very wise) friend said to me "the first thing you have to do is realise that money is not important. Then a world of opportunity opens up to you". She was right. As soon as she said it,  something just clicked. Everything changed. With that perspective everything seemed obvious to us and within a year we had moved from London to the country, Alex had left his job, and Arlo had arrived.

'Work/life balance' was a  term we used to use a lot when I worked in London but I never really got it. It didn't feel particularly relevant to me in my full-time, full-on job, and, as I've mentioned before here as a self-confessed workaholic I was pretty happy to give it my all at the time. But now that I've had Arlo I totally get why everyone's searching for a work/ life balance and why it's so important. Don't get me wrong, I would never want to not work, and I do love my job, but doing it part time means I'm lucky enough to enjoy it when I am doing it, knowing I have enough time to spend with Arlo to make up for it.

And it's also got me thinking about the whole 'women having it all' thing, which is apparently something I'm meant to aspire to, if you take all those exactly-the-same-every-week Grazia articles at face value. I think the concept is pretty ridiculous. All any woman - or man for that matter - needs to look for in life is to be happy. If happy for you is getting to the top in your career, bravo. If it's having a house full of kids and cats, high five! If you fancy moving to Peru to become a monk then hey, can't say I quite see where you're coming from, but good for you anyway! It's such a weird (and potentially dangerous) benchmark for women to feel they have to have it 'all', because - psssst! 'all' doesn't actually mean anything, so let's all just give ourselves a break and get on with doing whatever it is we want please.

Funnily enough, since we made the decision for Alex to go down to a 4-day week, I've noticed a few articles online about the benefits of a shorter working week - both from the point of view of employees and employers. This feels like something really exciting, and something we'd never have been able to make happen if we still lived in London. We get to have a long family weekend together every week, who could say no to that?

Friday I'm in love... with the prospect of reading a good book

What's better than a good book? Having some spare time to actually get round to reading one, that's what. I haven't read a book for over a year, and I need to do something about it soon. When the day comes that I don't fall asleep instantly on sight of my pillow, this is my growing stack of reads to get through:

one. Love Caitlin Moran, love her writing, already know I'm going to love this. If you haven't read How to be a Woman yet then I suggest you do so right away. You won't be disappointed.

two. This was a Christmas present that I was so happy to receive but have never had time to read. I suspect it may provide just as many laughs as How To Build A Girl, but for very different reasons. I'm almost a bit scared to read this in case it makes me fall out of love with Morrissey.

three. Wasn't aware of this one until my mum recommended it to me. Apparently she spent many an evening laughing her way through this book and that's enough of a recommendation for me.

four. Not a newie but such a goodie. When we had to pack all our wordly belongings into my mum's shed for nearly a year so we could move to the country and stay with her before finding our own place, I threw away three bookcases worth of books in a bid to downsize. The only novels I kept where by Sue Townsend. As well as this I have every Adrian Mole book ever written, each one all dog-eared and missing covers and pages because they've been read over and over again. Hearing that she'd died earlier this year was one of those rare times when a celebrity death actually makes you feel something - because her books were such a big part of my teenage years. When I heard the news it made me want to read them all over again, and I plan to, starting with this.

So I have the reads, and I have the inclination - now just to find the time! If I can get through one of these this Summer, I'll be so happy. Resolution made.

London, ILY

We were in London this weekend, and on Saturday night I went out to meet some friends at a party on a barge. As I walked down along the Thames I was all excited - to a) be out on a Saturday night, and to b) be right in the middle of London as the sun was setting. I snapped a few pics as I went on my way, and then proceeded to board the boat, and then feel very tipsy after just three drinks.

If one of the good things about being pregnant and then with a very small child is that your tolerance levels go down and you become a very cheap date, then the flipside of that is that you get hangovers that last for days. I'm literally still hungover now, 48 hours later, and nothing is helping. Not all the water in the world, and sadly not the Burger King that was eaten while speeding down the M3 yesterday. I don't think I'll be drinking again for some time.

It's been a few months since all three members of our little family have all been in London together and it felt really good to be back. So good in fact that I felt my first ever little chest-pang of remorse and found myself thinking "did we do the right thing moving to the country?!" It was a brill weekend filled with family and friends, and they do feel a bit far away at times. Sometimes though you need to go away to appreciate coming back, and I was relieved to find that it felt very good to get back to our little house last night - phew! Conclusion: we did do the right thing, but let's make trips to London a bit more regular please.

On safari

Lately it has been hot. Really hot. So it may have been slightly ill-judged that my friend Susan and I decided to go to Amazon World on the hottest day of the year, seeing it as most of it is under greenhouse-style roofing to keep the temperatures nicely humid and Amazonian (the clue's in the name, should've got that).

Despite the sweltering heat, the babies had a lot of fun. Arlo saw armadillos, lemurs, penguins and iguanas, and lots of fish, which are his new favourite thing to point at. We topped the trip off with a trip to the play park, which was overlooked by dinosaurs (the fake kind, I'm pretty sure). We came back with two sleeping children, which in my books is the definition of a successful day out.

Life lately

It's been a busy old week in the Lewis-Wild household, and some lovely things have been happening that I want to stop for a second to remember before life whizzes by and I find myself preparing for another Monday.

Yesterday Arlo got fitted for his first pair of shoes. They are the bright red version of the shoes in my last post (yay to gender-neutral footwear!) and he looks proper grown up in them. The shoes are the latest in a long line of things that are amazing me and making me feel like time is flying by and he's getting more grown up by the minute. Some of the things he's learnt lately are useful and totally brilliant, like going backwards to get off the sofa or go down stairs safely, eating his cereal with a spoon or waving at people when they say goodbye. Other new tricks are less welcome, like knowing how to turn on the radio, set it to white noise, and turn the volume up. Really loud. (This happens daily - new out-of-reach shelving is needed). All in all he's going through some major leaps at the moment and it's really exciting. And obvs we couldn't resist a little father-son shoe shot. Look how small!

Arlo's grandma, aka my mum (must remember I don't need to call her grandma when Arlo isn't listening) has been a bit of a saviour this week. She looked after Arlo when we had to go to the dentist (four fillings between Alex and me, three of which were mine - ouch), took me out for a trip the cinema, and does things like impromptu washing up when she pops round, which is the way to my heart. She'll never read this of course, because she doesn't own a computer, but I am writing this more to remind myself how grateful I am to have her just around the corner. Here's Arlo climbing into her basket the last time she came round, so she couldn't leave (or so that she would take him with her if she did!)

Other things I don't want to forget this week is how bloody amazing the weather has been, and how nice it has been to be here on the island to enjoy it. The week has been filled with trips to the beach, local parks and dunks in the outdoor kiddy pool, and we've enjoyed picnics and walks with friends (both Arlo's and mine!) - basically all the stuff I daydreamed about when I was in London looking for a change.

Oh and this week I also completed my very first crochet granny square. It's two weeks since I wrote this post about starting a crochet project, and about six weeks since I bought the wool in the first place, so at this rate I may have something resembling a blanket by the time I actually am a granny. This first attempt is pretty wonky and probably won't even make the final blanket, but it's a start, and I reckon every other square is going to get a bit easier from now on. So that's one down, only about a hundred left to go...