Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

moo2moo

Wide awake at 1am. How did that happen? Technically I'm awake because I'm thirsty which is my bodies way of telling me I had too much wine and not enough water. Am now rectifying that although t'was a pleasant way to end an evening.

Took DD1 for a pootle down the lanes with the kitten as chaperone. Decided after a mile and a half of her walking to heel more obidiently than the puppy that it was time to turn around and collect the blackberries from the hedges on the way home. Picked far more than I expected despite DD2 eating five for every one that ended up in her pot.

Shared the bounty with a neighbour, stayed to play with her puppies and kittens and left with a bag of Bramley apples, some muslin and instructions for jelly making. Did precisely as we were told and now have a bag of soggy cooked fruit balancing from a plank of wood threaded through the handles of the cleanest trug we could find (ie the only one not caked in chicken shoite) which is slowly dripping into a collection bowl underneath. At some point during daylight hours I need to boil the liquid with some sugar and bung it into jars et voila pip free jelly. I fear this may become a tad addictive though. The only thing limiting me appears to be the number of jam jars I can get my hands on as theres an abundance of hedgerow fruits at the moment.

moo2moo

Woke up just as dawn was breaking through the tangerine barrier between the slumbering world and the waking one. Always amazes me just how spectacular it is and yet how few people are around to see it. People trek across the world to see the Aurora Borealis and yet most of them will never experience the simplicity of something on their own doorstep.

Its monday which means its the start of my first full week back at school, I still ache from last week, its going to take me a while to get back into the swing of doing so much hoovering at the end of a day.

Plans for today involve slapping a defrosted cockerel in the slowcooker for ten hours in the hopes that it won't be as chewy as its predecessor. After that comes the usual lunch making, child waking boogie followed by a brief stint of randomness at school. Then its the final stages of jam making in the hopes of having it done in time for lunch to go with whoopsied posh squishy bread. Should really get back into the hang of making my own but the last loaf I tried that deviated from packet mix was ghastly and contained far too much salt. May have to give that another go because the pre-mixed stuff keeps creeping up in price. Half wishing I had a bread machine with a jam making function although I can adapt yesterdays recipe to incorporate the slowcooker because boiling stuff on LPG for a prolonged period of time is going to work out rather expensive.

Have three bags of clothing in the boot to drop off on my way home. Next on the agenda is E-bay listing. Much as I hate it its the only way of getting cash for some of the stuff that we no longer need. Even if I only list a couple of things its all income. Its just soooo tedious. But it does generate space and it is making a difference. I'm so impatient though. I want it to get tidier faster and the house is refusing to co-operate.

OH spent yesterday fiddling with bits of Landrover. Apparently if the weather holds out towards the end of the week he'll be ready to fit the first axle to the chassis and then the suspension. At that point the headache starts because the addition of wheels makes it v. easily nickable so we need to come up with a way of securing it so that its not just a case of rolling it onto a trailer and taking it away. Quite how we'll do this is another conundrum altogether. Have promised I'll keep Friday completely clear to assist though. Will be flabbergasted if it does get that far by then.

mooomin

Sunrise this morning over Edinburgh Castle was stunning

Still on moviles internet, but will message you later about lunch on Wednesday once I figure out where it is I'm working! My grasp of geography is shameful for a woman of my age

MrsMoo2U

Morning Moo, sunrise over the valley here was also spectacular and I agree that people just dont notice what is on their own doorstep. Where I used to live was a big park (reclaimed from years worth of chemical factories being there) and it was just beautiful, different seasons saw different wild flowers, I saw kingfishers in the stream, herons, foxes and many other species. People used to laugh at me because I looked forward to going there. I used to pick berries there too. I loved it, pictured it and even though I now live in the depths of rurality I do sometimes miss that urban park.

Re jam making in bread machine. Last week when making my jam the electric cooker tripped out all of the sockets and died (OH then told me that it used to do this regularly and wouldnt work for a couple of days) so I was left half way through jam making. I utilised the microwave. Check out the internet there are lots of microwave recipes and it tastes just as good. I also never use wax discs as I use screw tops, however if you do want some try Lakeland on line. They are great.

moo2moo

I'm intending detouring via a Lakeland store on my way to meet FF in the big urban metropolis that is Chester. Will be very restrained but may well be tempted to well pretty much everything really.

Made it home for 10 but as I pulled onto the drive I realised the boot was still full. Duh. Will attempt to remember to drop the stuff off this afternoon but am not holding out much hope.

Spent much of the monrning sweeping the playground as its covered in beech nut husks thanks to the squirrels. One of the new kids has a nut allergy so I have to attempt to eradicate all traces each morning. Does mean I get to spend the majority of my time in the fresh air on dry days which is always good.

Cockerel has been cooking for several hours already although I did get a bit carried away and ended up being late for work, still got there before anyone else though which is always good. Vandals appear to have discovered that the roof is v. sticky as there are lots of handprints in the vicinity of the anti-climb paint. Fingers crossed they find something else to do instead. Knitting would be nice but extemely unlikely. Makes you wonder how many kids would be put off community service if they were told that their sentence was to knit a tea cosy to W.I. standards. Persistant offenders could knit a jumper and some socks before crocheting a blanket. Far more useful than sending the oiks on all expenses paid holidays. Doubt it would catch on though.

moo2moo

Jam making is soooo much fun in an extremly childishly messily unpredictable kinda way. Lessons learnt:

1 - never make red jams whilst wearing white
2 - jam is like a very angry wee beastie and makes escape attmpts with minimal provocation
3 - never bother cleaning anything in the vicinity of the jam making enterprise because its v.v. messy
4 - never make jam whilst hungry because you end up standing around watching it whist eating biscotti and whatever else is to hand

Still the end result is thus:

Huge amount of washing up after the discovery that none of my pans were big enough I had to use two. One white t-shirt covered in jam splats much like the rest of the kitchen. Mostly though jam making is fun but not v. prolific. 2kg of fruit and an hours worth of forraging produced 3 jars and just enough left over for lunch. Still at least that allows for much experimentation.... post purchase (or temporary aquisition from the school kitchen) of a v. large pan.

moo2moo

Happy cold dark wet grotty Tuesday morning folks. Its one of those days where you peer out of the window and feel like going back to bed for a wee while in the hopes that the next time you peer out the window the world has brightened up. Thats not a very productive way to start the day though.

Finally remembered to get rid of the stuff from the car boot on the way home yesterday so have generated much space for the next lot whatever shape that may take. Didn't get round to bunging the hedge clippings generated in the middle of last week into the wheelie bin so only have one to put outside for collection. Must remember to finish jobs rather than abandoning them because its raining and then forgetting to return to them once the sun shines.

Am beginning to notice the level of clutter slowly building up again. Infuriatingly its almost all OHs. The DDs are trying incredibly hard to put things way or take them upstairs once they have finished what they're doing whilst OH is leaving a random trail of detritus so its possible to work out precisely what hes been up to whilst at home. Hes still trying to be helpful in his own random way with forrays into the supermarket although the helpful purchases co-incide with him running out of baccy and/or booze so its not quite as helpful as it sounds. Am slowly being drawn into the drinking trap along with him. I'm walking in the door from work to a v. generous glass of red vino, which whilst lovely on some occassions is infuriating on others. I don't want to drink every night, I certainly don't want more than one glass and most nights I'd prefer a mug of hot chocolate. Will have to find a tactful way of stopping this because my usual trick of pouring it into his glass or even more childishly chucking it down the sink untouched does not go down well nor does ignoring the glass like it doesn't exist as it materialises next to me. OH takes major offence when gestures such as this are refused. Why do the simplest things in life end up causing the most upset?

Plans for today post work involve much decluttering *again* followed by a spot of laundry, a bit of ironing, the odd spot of vacuuming and whatever else needs doing. Much like every other day of my life really. However on the bright side now that its cold and grey out I'm even less likely to venture anywhere which means minimal spending between now and spring with the exception of birthdays, christmas and winter fuel which is always ridiculously overpriced but v. necessary. Hopefully that in itself will make a big difference. Meanwhile I had an odd conversation with my father who is hellbent on investing £1K in a dozen bottles of vino via some vino broker for a predicted 25% profit in six months time. Why does this sound like a con? Ooh I know... perhaps because it is.

MrsMoo2U

Oh, Moo you do make me smile with your writing. I really hope that your father isnt conned, more importantly make sure that he keeps the crates away from your house for 6 months otherwise he and your OH may lead you further astray and give you even more glasses that you attempt to resist.

It is so hard to not be drawn into the odd social glass that becomes a bottle rather quickly. I have perfected the "sorry medications" excuse if out with friends and not wanting to drink. Not sure that would work at home though. How about you tell him that you just arent enjoying it every night and you would much prefer to have one enjoyable evening per week where you know that you can fully relax. This could be another way of him avoiding dealing with stuff as he can draw you in thus you wont be able to complain. Just a thought.
Sorry to tell you that the sun is shining here

trixiepix

I can totally sympathise with the whole decluttering thing, i'm in a small house with a lot of stuff (not that i like to buy lots of things - hardly- lol!!), the last few day's have been a nightmare trying to steamline as someone was viewing our house last night (not selling as it belongs to a housing assoc as opposed to us but looking to exchange into something larger (to accomodate more stuff!!!!) or i could try to sell the housing association house and then flee the country -lol!!

Eventually after the attic being stuffed to the rafters i had to take some bags of stuff to my mums to look after during said viewing.

On the flip side my house is always tidy on the surface, but the cupboards are always jammed full of stuff (hence why i'm trying to address my spending habits) - the house today looks stunning and so spacious but how long will it last??????????:rotfl:

moo2moo

Its too dark out to figure out what sort of day its been. SO dark in fact that rather than doing her normal mad dash around the house before exploding in to the garden the puppy raised her head, looked at me like I was mad and continued snoring.

Had a mini crisis yesterday when the router decided to die. Having had this happen before, thanks to a duff power supply, I borrowed a power pack to prove it was that but still nada. OH arrived home and put a fuse in it. Duh. Never even though to try that. I assumed, v. wrongly that anything that had been PAT tested as working would actually be capable of working.

Had a rather productive day yesterday. Changed the bathrrom lightbulb so could see what I was doing when I cleaned my teeth, unlike the previous night when it was too dark to clean teeth or change lightbulbs, did try with the assistanceof DD2 but its not particularly easy to change a bulb in the dark and its even more difficult when your accomplice is shining a torch into your eyes.

Stayed at school until lunchtime refiling library books. I have an entire week to do this and the assistance of two TAs. Got a fair chunk done but will need the rest of the week and the next month to make much headway thanks to the junior librarians who obviously get as confused as I am thanks to the v. complex system of filing books by colour coded age group and then by alphabet as well as the non-fictional dewey system. Takes aaaaaaaaaaaaages to do anything. Especially knowing that the whirlwind that is Early Years can trash the lot in their allotted 30 minutes by randomly grabbing books and then wandering off to shelve them somewhere else. Still it means I've banked two hours for an early getaway Friday or a late return today if I get a bit too side-tracked in Chester. Need to make arrangements for someone to keep an eye on the DDs on the off chance I fail to return by kicking out time because my route home passes several private schools where the first few weeks are carnage as the 17 year olds who passed their tests over the hols attempt to exit school in their v. shiny new cars only to misjudge the traffic. They run at an average three accidents a week for the first month so its wise to avoid the area.

Utilised what little time I had at home to clean the kitchen. Am starting to find this quicker to do so either I'm doing it more often or its staying a bit tidier. Arrived home to find it looking much as I left it. Todays plans involve the dining room as the easiest room to tidy which would be made even easier if I could persuade OH to part wit the manky armchair in the corner. Also need to transfer to the shed four folding garden chairs which hes ingeneously homed in a plant pot, a cat basket and several pots and pans from camping which are languishing under the cat basket on the armchair. After that a quick tidy up and a mini painting session to cover the plaster around the fire that was fitted three or four years ago but never finished. Could also do with emptying the room and putting several layers of polish on the floor before winter but may well leave that for next week once they're all back at school and work.

In v. exciting news its four days until my Laydees Day... no sign of it being rescheduled this time round so a mere 18 months after I paid for it I'm going to spend a day outdoors in the forest with some v. well behaved gun dogs, flying falcons (me not the dogs), shooting clay pigeons (or more likely missing) and lunching with laydees along with whatever else gets hurled in my direction.