Half-done half-assed

I'm in a quandary for I know not which job to do and I want to do a lot. So I'm in that situation where I have a mental list of what needs attention, and instead of doing any of it, I'm writing my blog instead.

Yesterday I constructed most of a little fence around the alleged vegetable patch so that the children know not to dig mud pies in it. This took an unfeasibly long time, for I didn't have the right materials and I was attempting to fashion it from green wood, taken from the saplings sprouting up in the pony field (the nuisances) and some elderly bits of post. I was also using screws ... and a hammer.

I could use a screwdriver and drill, but that seems over the top for a fence that is supposed to be a mere nod to fencing rather than a full-blown real-life fence.

I could buy appropriate materials ... but that would involve spending money.

I could just tell the children not to make mud-pies in that area, but I'm not sure that T is old enough to differentiate one bit of mud from another, and I don't want to stop them making mud-pies, as it's an activity I remember fondly from my own childhood and it makes me smile to see them doing it. Apart from the disadvantage of tracking mud into the house afterwards.

So really, my first job should be to finish that off, there's only one bit left to do and then we can actually do some planting as a family.

But this morning I woke up with this sudden notion that I should do something about our bedroom. The landlady stripped it bare of wall-paper before we moved in, and it's filled with stuff for a putative car-boot sale. I come in every night and dash for the covers, not wanting to look round in case there should be a spider, and not wanting to take in and contemplate the full scale of the mess. I'm not hugely scared of spiders, I just don't want to see something moving and go through the rigmarole of trying to kill it and possibly missing it and wondering where it went all night...

OK, maybe I am scared of spiders.

I'm not as bad as I was and I don't shriek or flap if I see one, (not really a shrieker anyway) and I wouldn't want to show fear of them in front of the kids. Bop 'em with a shoe and in the bin with them, I say.

I know, I know, they serve useful functions and they don't really deserve to die. I probably ought to merely throw them out of the house, but I'm not willing to porter them around the place. I'd like to have an entente cordiale with them where they could live in a corner of my house as long as they don't dangle over my head at any point in our relationship. But I know they won't stay in that corner; they'll start sneaking about and next thing you know, one will be inspecting its legs over my head as I check for mud in the mirror, or will abseil down in front of my cup of coffee in the morning.

It's just not on.

Anyway, about our bedroom. It shouldn't be like that - a desperate hurry to get into bed and hide before I notice anything about the room. I also always liked to read in bed, and now the warmer weather is coming it would be nice to do so again. Not feeling able to read in bed curtails how much I read quite a lot, as otherwise I'm denying time/attention from the children or M during the day or evening. So what I want is a tidy bedroom, with painted walls so any spiders are immediately visible and can be evicted and a bedside light so I can read.

It doesn't sound too impossible or far-fetched really.

The other major job is the bathroom. It is partially wall-papered (don't ask me why) and part of the wall-paper committed hari-kari this morning. Well, I, er, tested it and it fell off in my hand, really, honest, guv! I want pretty much the whole house daubed with new paint. I can even picture myself up a ladder on the outside now I've discovered some masonry paint in the lean-to.

We're allowed to tart the house up a bit, as the landlady is only too well aware that it isn't in good decorative order. It's a bit run-down, you might say. And I'm not complaining, even if it might sound that way! We've got a very good rent deal with her and she's a nice person.