Circles - decluttering since 2010?

I had an interesting chat with a friend late last night.  It started with children's birthday parties, and how I am now in a place where I loathe to do them.

It wasn't always like that. In fact they used to be a complete highlight of my year. I love to make cakes, I love to theme parties.  I loved inviting little friends over for games.

And then I was explaining to my friend, one day it stopped being so much fun.  I still went through the motions, because I wanted to do nice things for my children, and because I wanted to enjoy making the cakes, I wanted to want to do it.  And it was increasingly less fun.  This friend and I have been out of contact for years, so I stopped and thought about when it really was that this had happened to me.  And it turned out to be quite some time ago, sadly.  The last time I enjoyed my children's parties, was in 2009. I made that year a Lightning McQueen cake for my son that I was incredibly proud of. Sadly no photos as interestingly, that year's photos are missing from all hard drives.  The following year was somewhat less enjoyable, and the cake less spectacular.  And so it continues.

Right up until now - when my baby is about to turn 2, and I have done nothing for my darling child. No invitations, no cake plans, no firm party theme. A big blank. 

And I look back to reflect on what else changed in 2010 in my life.  The biggest thing, for me, is that 2010 was the year I decided to really start cleaning up the house.  And at the same time, it was when my husband started (or re-started) his out of control spending on collections of toys. (usually for our son, but sometimes for himself).

Things that changed:

• our last long family holiday was a snow trip in 2009 and one week in Melbourne 09/10 New Year
• I went back to work in the city in October 2009, until around August 2010
• I developed psoriatic arthritis in October 2009 (no it surely is not a coincidence)
• my eldest child started school
• my high school reunion was on (urgh)
• we offered to build on Dad's property to help look after him
• When he said no, we instead bought an investment property
• we stopped going to counselling
• my hubby went back to work instead of uni in July 2009
• we had major hassles with childcare / work conflicts
• I started (or tried) decluttering the house
• hubby started spending on large toy collections (all of wooden Thomas, etc)
• we both started and stopped geocaching as a family hobby

Thats quite a list of significant things. I have a feeling there will be more to follow.  It has been an eye opener for me to realise that my increased unhappiness with something as beautiful as a children's party has been going on for three years, and that I have been oblivious to the wider sense of unhappiness in my life.  And that it all coincides with my decision to clean up!