DIY Couch - Sofa So Good

I'm currently relaxing at home taking full advantage of a 5 week Tenure Break. Made all the better because it straddles both Harriett's 1st and Jesus' 2013th birthdays. We have snuck in a quick return trip to Center Parcs, I've  successfully fought off a bout of flu and we have negotiated Harriet's first Birthday party. It was lovely seeing our friends again and Harriet loved all the attention and lovely pressies.

With all this going on you would have thought I had no time to do anything else, but the Devil makes work for idle hands. With the garden makeover closed down for the winter, I find myself seeking a new pass-time to keep me amused. Under similar circumstances in the past, I would have contented myself with relentless visits to the pub and simply pickled my innards. But that was sooooo last year. I hardly drink these days now I'm a responsible parent. So my compulsion to "do stuff" has found an outlet in the most peculiar way - I'm building a sofa.

We need a sofa for the dining room but it has to be quite narrow and we simply cannot find one to meet our requirements without spending a small fortune and so with nothing better to do I have thrown myself into the challenge. I've rushed out to the DIY store and brought the wood, spent hours trawling through the web looking at plans, taken the wood back to the DIY store, revisited the plans, bought some more wood from the DIY store and armed with the Part-time DIY-er tool kit, a saw, a hammer,  a cross hair screwdriver, a 6 inch ruler and the indispensable knife-and-fork cutlery combo I'm off. 

the toolkit

Ive already made the base. I cut Jakey's old mattress in half with wire cutters, tied the remaining springs to the cover, wrapped it in fluffy stuff and re-stitched the mattress cover together.  And I've also assembled the base and  recycled some drawers from Wifey's Laura Ashley which was heading for the skip.

half a sofa

So I am currently at the halfway point and I'm happy with the results. But it's not been without a heavy personal cost.  A rouge stanley knife has savagely curtailed by DIY activities. Last week I sliced open my palm with the blade....The same dove into my thumb 2 days ago. This morning, with one slip of concentration, the demon blade struck again and ploughed into my index finger knuckle. And Sweet Mary how it bled. I manfully held my wound above the heart to stem the flow and whilst blood variously spattered about my person, Harriet wailed pitifully and Wifey clucked into life with a variety of band aids and plasters.

the cut is deeper than it looks...

  Anyway once we were all satisfied I was out of danger, as a cautionary measure I laid on the couch to keep my blood pressure steady. And I'm off dishes and nappy duties because of the infection risk with a open wound. Can't be too cautious I think....

Baby smiles and broken hearts

Most readers will know already that we have a new addition to the Goodchild family. Our toe-hold becomes more established with the safe arrival of Harriet Edith Goodchild.  I'd kept the event fairly low key - the priority was just getting our baby out safely. We didn't know if it was a boy or a girl but that was the furthest thing from our minds.

It's so hard to comprehend that it has been nearly 2 years since our beautiful Pollyanna died.  And next week we will celebrate her short life once again and those terrible scars will be raked open anew. I have come to terms with the fact that neither Janet or I will ever get over the loss off Polly. She will always be ever present, in the background, just out of sight but never far from our thoughts.

I can fully understand why everyone else has moved on but of course for us, it hasn't been that simple. For, even as we move forward, if that pace is slower than all our friends, essentially, we fall behind.

It's hard to empathise.

And some people think that the arrival of Harriet makes everything better....

But of course it doesn't.   

It just makes things......different.

Having Harriet in our arms makes us feel centred as a family. Me,  Janet, Jake Harriet. And Polly... a faint twinkling star in the twilight: just out of the corner of your eye. As soon as you turn to look, she disappears. But you know  she's there.

The saddest thing is that we will never get to see Polly grow up. Harriet will experience life and gradually demand more focus as our child and then teenager. Polly will wait patiently: always the older sister and yet always our 3 hour old baby. How heartbreaking that we will in the fullness of time have to explain to Harriet why her older sister is a baby.

When Harriet falls asleep in my arms, her mouth slightly open and eyes almost closed, for a moment I'm right back in that Godforsaken delivery room staring back at Polly as she slips from us. Sometimes I have to jostle her to get her startle reflex and the comfort that she is just sleeping. I see shades of Pollyanna in Harriet every day and the joy to follow must surely be that as Harriet grows up, so too will a faint light shine on the face of Pollyanna.

So life with a demanding baby daughter has been fun. I've been variously tired, confused, tired, frustrated and tired but I am relishing this wonderful experience.  Harriet has kept me off the beers for 7 weeks and in the gym for 4. Life is new and exciting once more. We move forward as a family.

All of us.

And I find my faith which was so sorely tested to breaking point re-invigorated at the miracle of life.

And also in equal measure simply because to imagine an eternity of death without ever smiling on the face of Polly again would be too tragic to comprehend.


Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."