NotSheep

Do you ever read people’s blogs and wonder how everyone else seems to have it all figured out? Do you get the feeling that their lives are organised and wonderful and they live in perfectly tidy houses with children who have clean faces? Do you think, sometimes, that you’re the only one who feels like she’s just muddling through?

I definitely do – but I also don’t blog much when I’m ill or fed up. It’s human nature to show your best side, isn’t it? And anyway, I’d rather write cheery stuff than moan, but then maybe I’m making someone else feel like I’ve got it all worked out. I read (but can no longer find) where someone described it as “comparing your inside to everyone else’s outside”. That’s a good way of putting it, I think.

A few months ago, Sarah over at the The Napping House did something she called Snapshot Sunday. The idea is that you walk around your home and take five photos – random things, messy things, interesting things – whatever you like, but no cleaning up or re-arranging things or posing people. Just photos which show your life, your home, the way it happens to be right now. Honest glimpses. Telling (or showing) it like it is.

How it is here, is busy. And so my first Snapshot Sunday post is arriving on Monday evening. (I suppose I could edit the publishing-time on this to make it look like I wrote it on Sunday, but that would seem to defeat the purpose slightly!) The photos were taken yesterday – but due to the aforementioned busy-ness, I didn’t get around to taking them until after the boys were in bed, at which point I really didn’t have the energy to do anything more with them – they didn’t even get moved from my camera to my laptop until this morning, and then it took me all day to get to putting them on Flickr. But anyway, here they are. If you like the idea, join in

First up is a photo of some kitchen appliances. Exciting stuff, eh? These are the three most-used small appliances in my house. Well, the toaster might get marginally more use than the mixer and food-processor, but the kettle is definitely number one. And it whistles when it’s done, so that I don’t realise an hour later that I had started to make a cup of tea…

Another pic from the kitchen – plants living next to the refrigerator. (Did I mention that the refrigerator is new? And that it works?) There is one less plant there right now – the result of Barney not realising just how far Louie could reach out to grab things. The plant survived, the clay pot didn’t. It was only one of the little ones though. The plants are spider-plants, aloe vera and a variety of holiday cacti.

There aren’t many plants through the rest of the house at the minute, because they’ve mostly spent the summer in the conservatory – and therefore it looks a bit like a greenhouse. I plan to redistribute them throughout the house sometime in the next few weeks.












Into the living-room, where the true state of my house becomes clear: books upon books upon toys upon books. A shape-sorter container with a toy Batman hanging in it. A speaker, face-down for some reason. And more books. I know there aren’t so many books actually in this photo, but let’s just say it’s representative.




This was taken in the front hall, and at some point this week these boxes will be taken out the door. One of them contains items to be thrown away, the other contains items to be given away. I suppose that would happen sooner if I actually listed them on freecycle, rather than glancing at them every time I walk past and intending to list them. Again, busy-ness.

And finally, part of the landing, taken from the stairs. These lights are really Christmas decorations – you can’t really tell from the photo, but they are little stars. There is a “night” mode on my camera, but I forgot it existed. I was tired, okay? Anyway, the lights are lovely, and rather than put them away until December, I thought they’d make great night-lights for the landing. They run most of the way around the top of the walls, and get switched on whenever anyone requests it, or when we’ve anyone staying over who might like a little bit of guidance when searching for the bathroom in the middle of the night

I’m going to try to do this again – not every week, because a) I’m busy and b) I’ll forget and c) I don’t want to bore you all – but once in a while. If you do your own Snapshot Sunday (or any day of the week – I’m not fussy) – let me know