The ups and downs of living together...

It's been a strange few months, I'll tell you that for free.

New job

Training for 3 weeks in Sydney

Living in a motel in Canberra

Living by myself in an empty shell of a house

Moving furniture (or avoiding it)

Unpacking a billionty boxes

Having half the family here in Canberra and the other half back at home (the actual 'who' of who was where varied)

Having everyone (including the dog) all moved in in Canberra together

Staying for a week in Brisbane training.

This is the first week in AGES where we are all here, all together, not moving stuff, not driving up or down the coast, not working and not having to get on a plane. Breathe out.

Now, having gone through all that, these last few months, it's interesting to sit back and ponder on things.

Because I defy any mother not to dream a little dream of "having a break" from the everyday. You know what I mean. The grocery shopping, the washing, the sorting of clothes, the vacuuming of dust bunnies, the tidying up, the cooking of meals, the making of beds. And if you have kids or husbands that you've trained up to help out, I bet you still have to do a bit of nagging. And I don't think it's just me who dreams of living in a motel/hotel, where someone else does all the domestic duties, just for a bit, and preferably by ones self.

Because, now, having recently experienced both sides of the family coin, so to speak, I can see what really drives me mental. It's the leaving of dirty dishes on the coffee table, the dining table, the kitchen bench. It's the dishwasher not put on. It's the clothes that aren't mine left on MY side of the bed. It's the shoes left in the lounge room. It's All. The. Things. that aren't mine left everywhere, not necessarily for me to pick up, but not where they are supposed to be and I swear they drive me mental. Mental, I tell you!

But, taking a deep breath and ignoring all that for a minute, not having the family around you, every day, all the time, means that you can't give them a hug. You can't have a chat about what's for dinner. You can sit at the dining table and have discussions about suffixes and prefixes (as you do). You can't snuggle up on the couch and watch TV together.

And that's the point of having a family, isn't it? It isn't the domestic drudgery, it's the being together. Living together. Loving together.

And I guess that makes up for all the other stuff.

But if someone else wanted to run the vacuum over the lounge room floor voluntarily without me asking or nagging, that would just totally make my day!