One thing I am really enjoying so far about this year in France is the holiday from all our 'stuff'. At the risk of sounding spoiled (obviously we are incredibly lucky to have so much 'stuff' in the first place), life suddenly feels much simpler, and I've been freed from a lot of the maintenance and attention the 'stuff' required.
Suddenly, I'm living life on one floor (we're essentially living in a small bungalow, with a 'bunkhouse' for the girls upstairs), instead of four; the girls have one plastic cup each (instead of ten); we each have a shelf of clothes instead of drawerfuls; the girls have a few beloved toys, instead of a houseful. And while we have a big garden to use, someone else looks after it and mows the lawn!
We did ship quite a few boxes of things for the year, but it was mainly computers, Toby's bike, winter equipment kit (x-country skis and boots, downhill skis and boots, and skates and helmets for FIVE takes up a fair amount of space), books and kitchen stuff.
I was feeling a little guilty before we left about separating the girls from their toys (the girls did play for hours with their duplo, barbies, stuffed toys, puzzles etc., and Zoe is only four after all) but one nice result is that they are having to get more creative about entertaining themselves. Thus they can spend hours playing forts, british bulldog, climbing the tree outside, hairdressers, drawing etc. Also, the local library does have a wonderful 'toy lending library', in addition to all the books, DVDs, CDs, magazines etc. so we've already enjoyed borrowing some new games to try out. I can recommend 'Settlers of Catan Junior' for the under 7 brigade! (And the regular Settlers of Catan for the older kids - completely addictive and what I want for Christmas this year...)
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