Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Thats a fair point beanielou.

Have stopped degrotting to bung a chicken in the oven and some rhubarb in the slowcooker. Wheelie bin is now full of outgrown battered toys which are too shabby to pass on. Have also ousted DD1s mattress after I had a brainwave and moved the one from her underbed up. Just hope she keeps up with her current run of dry nights. I know 3 weeks doesn't seem very long but the old one really honks. Started washing handprints off walls but the more I clean the more seems to need doing. The whole of upstairs really needs redecorating. Mind you most of downstairs does too. Our home is not so much shabby chic as shabby. At least its marginally tidier than it was this morning.

moo2moo

Finally have the house to myself. Its been a very very long day. Mostly its been productive and dare I say its evn been fun although DD1 did appear to complain that I'd shrunk her matttress. Poor kid couldn't work out how I'd managed to get it in the washing machine in order to do such a thing. Upstairs smells an awful lot better now her old matress is in the garden. Yep I'm one of "those" neighbours. Was planning to take it to the tip today but OH wasn't home in time. Made buns and biscuits and sorted todays laundry, half of which I've even managed to put away. Normal service will resume tomorrow.

beanielou

Pass a bun & a biscuit, ta.
Yah to mattress.

moo2moo

I'm awake. Thats about as good as it gets. DD1 has been up since 5am. Her earache appears to be tollerable but she keeps reminding me its still there. She must be feeling better as shes spent the past half hour in her bedroom putting together the perfect "I'm at school but I'm too ill to stay here" ensemble. Obviously she doesn't get that from me. I will be lurching upstairs to grab the first pair of shorts that I come across and the t-shirt on top of the pile regardless of colour or logo which is why I spent a day last week wandering round with masking tape across my boobs. Clearly sporting a tinypen!s.com t-shirt was not my smartest move of the week. Muppet. Still at least the staff saw the funny side and it was covered up before the kids appeared. Have done that twice now.

No chance of getting to the tip today with DD1 still not being right. Plan to blitz another unsuspecting room instead whilst I am in this most ruthless of moods. The wheelie bin is almost full with a week to go to collection so I must be making progress of some sort. Still need to wash the handprints off the walls in the hallway. perhpas that should be my start point along with a wee bit more hedge trimming as the stuff in the bin s seems to have shrrunk a little in the heat making a teeny bit more space. At this rate it will be October before I finish the hedges even though the ones I started on need doing already.

Sold one book last night. No interest in anything else but its a start.

Payday is three days away. My account is overdrawn and has been for most of the week. Only by a little bit and still within the free buffer zone. Will need to be quite careful during the summer hols though as I have a lot more abnormal expenses to cover as well as two weeks worth of holidays where I'm guaranteed to spend far more than I expect.

moo2moo

Wedged the mattress in the back of the mobile shoe box and deposited it at the dump. Its finally raining which means the half dead plants in the garden should look much perkier by the end of the day. Really should do some weeding though, once its stopped raining obviously.

Having a cuppa in peace whilst DD1 watches Zoo Days, she seems to have perked up remarkably well now that she has the day off school.

Going to start going through the carp on the welsh dresser. What should be a display unit is groaning under the weight of an assortment of poultry medication, a land rover headlight two heat lamps, a box of lightbulbs, firelighters, matches, chafing gel, several dozen used padded envelopes and a hideous candelabra. And thats only the top shelf. The rest are even worse. This could take quite some time.

moo2moo

Two and a half hours later I emerge dusty but victorious. The Welsh Dresser looks less like a dumping ground for a variety of stray objects and more like a piece of furniture. Sadly its new found minimalistic status means that I will have to dust it regularly. Have filled a bag for binning and two carrier bags with paper for recycling, everything from the handbook for a car that went to the great scrap heap in the sky five or so years ago to a collection of notes on Christmas dinner arangements from the year before last. Whilst this does indeed sound impressive it should be noted that this is only the shelf and drawer part of the item in question. I still have two cupboards to go. Have discovered over a hundred environmentally friendly last for a decade lightbulbs, mostly with 10p price labels. Won't need to buy any more until I'm about 90.

Note to self - an item is only a bargain if you have a use for it in the near future. Must not be tempted with fabulous offers just because they are ridiculously cheap and too good to leave.

moo2moo

DD1 managed an impressive five hour long afternoon nap yesterday. Will be keeping her home again today. Hoping she'll be human by Thursday otherwise I'll be rethinking the weekend with my wrinklies. Doesn't seem fair to send them when they're not well no matter how much they want to go.

OH brought her to school to collect DD2 with the hairballs. Lady in the office came out to meet them and wanted to know where the puppy was. Hmm. Having explained she fell about laughing and introduced her to one of the teachers who said the same thing. Turns out an 18 week old four legged fiend is considerably bigger than a year old Labrador. In other exciting news her new chest harness, the one we got two weeks ago, is almost too small. Hope we'll get another couple of weeks out of it before she needs a large.

To give you a vague idea of size the legs belong to a very tall DD2 aged 7 and a half (the half bit being incredibly important). Piccie was taken three weeks ago. THe hairball has grown another couple of inches since and is close to the 2' mark from floor to shoulder.

moo2moo

Plans for today surprisingly involve yet more tidying. I'm on a roll. Turfing stuff out is both therapeutic and space generating. The more I chuck out the more I can cram in cupboards and drawers and the tidier the place seems to be. I do have to wade through tons of carp before minimalism can be achieved but serious progress is clearly being made. Of course this explains why OH walked in the front door yesterday without tripping up over a matress and asked what I'd been doing today. *Sigh* sometimes you really wonder why you bother.

Both DDs got most excellent school reports. Told them they could each have a reward. DD2 asked if she could stay up late and paly a game on the Wii. Told her she could do a bit better than that so request no. 2 was a horse. Hmm. I think not. Shes down sizing her ideas a bit and disappeared to bed armed with that font of toddler tat, the Argos catalogue.

pennywisepoundstupid

Morming moo.
Gorgeous dog, have to say on first glance i thought it was a fully grown labrador and was wondering had i missed a post and you had got a new dog.
Fab reports here to, my two have decided to go and see Karate kid as a reward, oh joy.

moo2moo

Am regretting decluttering a ginormous bag of crisps and six homemade dinosaur biscuits. Really shouldn't read whilst I eat. I don't pay any attention whatsoever to what I'm troughing.

Have bunged three bags of stuff for charity into the car to dump at school when the charity people collect the left over stuff from the summer fair. Am sick of moving stuff round the building.

Exchanged a cross stich chart by post for the threads I need to do a few things I fancy but didn't quite have all the colours for. Hopefully now I've everything I need for the next couple of years. Most definately do not need to buy anything else cross stitch related for a very very very long time. No sign of the other stuff shifting though.

Master bedding fluttering in the breeze. Bet this inspires the neighbours to burn something despite having had bonfires on a daily basis for weeks. Perahps they're finally sick of the smell too.

Have glued broch backs on to the garish coloured dolphins that DD1 has made as thank you gifts for her teachers, TAs and SENCOs. She did want to give them all a bottle of wine but since this would involve the purchase of nine bottles I think not. Pursuaded her that they'd appreciate something from her more than something from the supermarket. DD2 has made her teacher a flowery hama bead heart. Just cards and gift wrapping to go. At least its keeping them quiet on an evening.

Swapped two dozen eggs for some runner beans and blackcurrant jam. Still have a fridgeful though and am well and truly sick of eating the things. Will be rather glad when the hens begin their winter go slow.

Going to tackle the desk before returning to work. Have onl been putting that off for a couple of weeks. Still have the annoying handprint at the bottom of the stairs to remove too although did notice that it has aquired a friend.