Rough summary

Linnea is nine, Emer is seven, Astrid is three, and the house is bigger.

We had the two ground floor recep rooms knocked through and folding doors put in where the wall was. We also had a little WC put in on the first floor and an attic conversion so now we have a second floor.

There's a new back door and a total of three toilets in the house and lots and lots more light. We've had new floor and plaster and paint, the chimneybreasts on the ground floor were opened up to make space for shelving, and everything in the attic was put into storage units for four months. We have now emptied two of four storage units and not brought any books back yet. Freegle is our Friend.

I'm particularly pleased with the colours of the "new house". I'll take photos if we ever get tidy or clean.

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Other than that, the Theatre Train classes are still going well and Linnea loves performing in public, the girls love Brownies and swimming, Emer is learning to read things she was afraid to try before, and Astrid has discovered addition. I'm drowning in squalor and housework but at least almost all the builder's dirt is gone now.

We got through the last four months thanks to Netflix, basically.

Size

I'm a little thinner than I'd like again. I was a size 16, which was nice because I actually WAS a size 16, not a mix of seven different sizes none of which quite fit in any shops, and as someone in her mid-thirties after three children, 16 seemed like a nice even number at which to settle.

But I'm a fraction thinner again now. I can't tell whether it's the stress (my hair is thinning, too) or just that I'm not Astrid's primary source of nutrition any more so I don't need the reserves.

It's much less scary getting thinner when I start off a size 16 than a size 8. I have this niggly "shouldn't I be panicking and planning high-calorie snacks?" feeling, but not the actual panic itself, which is very comfortable.