KELLY BROWN Mum's the Word...Help! The thief of time has stolen several years of my life

Perhaps it is a sign I’m getting old. When you are a kid it seems like that wonderful school summer break goes on forever.

But these days it seems to be over in five minutes!

At the weekend my husband and I were sitting in the garden having a very grown-up conversation about our mortgage when it dawned on us we have been in our new house for nearly five years.

How on earth did that happen? How can time run away so quickly?

Like everyone we had what seemed a realistic to-do list when we first moved in.

Little jobs, big jobs, redecorating and sorting things out.

Needless to say we realised that we have failed to get anywhere near getting through it.

It all got off to a great start.

We gutted and redid our bathroom in the first couple of months (well it was a peach suite)!

We painted our living room – actually thinking about it we have repainted it already – and carpeted the whole of the upstairs.

This great progress was all achieved in the first year – and then it seems we suddenly ground to a stop.

Now yes we did have our little man so that obviously threw our timetable out just a wee bit because we decorated his room rather than build that wall in the front garden.

But almost five years later our to-do list still includes levelling our garden, new carpet for the front room, new kitchen and a new shed.

And at some point I’ve really got to get around to buying some lampshades for my living room because I’m sick of the sight of bare light bulbs.

Now I know time and (especially) money will always get in the way of the best-laid plans.

But it is frightening how quickly you can lose time and you don’t even notice it.

So, I suppose we will come up with a new to-do list for our house.

And who knows – in five years’ time I may finally have bought that new doorbell I was planning to get the first week we moved in!