Further financial faux pas and even more disasterous decisions

MatyMoo

Not sure I have posted on your thread before but I have been lurking for a while and look forward to catching up each morning. You have a great way of writing and make me smile each day :T

I saw this on another thread I follow and thought of you:
http://www.menus4moms.com/homeorgani...ily_reminders/

It is a bit like fly lady but it just has one 15 minute task a day such as sorting out 1 drawer. It runs in themes for each area of the house one theme at a time.

Hope it helps

Also hope you have gone and enjoyed your Laydeez day, you really deserve it!

MatyMoo

moo2moo

Normal service has resumed after yesterdays mini wobbly. Had one of those rare moments where I wonder if he is right and then suddenly realised that thinking that way was so ridiculously bonkers and so I pootled off to the middle of nowhere in the mobile shed having declined OHs kind offer to drive me there and escort me home, I may be paranoid but anyway thats a tale for another day. Arrived and drank coffee (with posh biccies) in a huge log cabin with an enormous stove and fabulous tiled floor. It would have made an astounding home. Met a whole load of eccentric laydees (I fitted right in) with double barelled surnames and small holdings considerably larger than the average farm.

Spent the day randomly chatting about just about anything and everything. By 10am my arm was aching, mostly because an eagle weighs a ton, although scarier than an eagle is holding a falcon whos very sharp beak is level with your eyeball. Had an amazing time holding and flying all sorts of birds of prey. It does take a fair bit of nerve to stand still with your arm outstretched when soemthing with huge clawed feet and a v. scarey looking beak hurtles towards you from several thousand feet like an exocet missile. More than one laydee ran screaming for cover which was ridiculously funny.

After that we retired to the lodge for coffee and extremely generous slabs of homemade cake slathereed in cream, I think describing this as a quarter of a 12" cake would have been a bit of an exageration, but only just.

Spent an hour on the airgunning range with one of the laydees helpfully pointing out that if you imagined the smallest of the targets to be the genitalia of ones ex it was in fact ridiculously easy to hit. After that most peoples shooting improved immensly.

Reached the half way point of the day and retired to the lodge in order to consume a bucket of homemade soup with a few giant rolls. Was rather stuffed by this point and pleasantly full and lured into a flase sense of security feeling that this was bally good value for money what ho chaps when out rolls an enormous tray of roast potatoes followed by another and then huge trays of veggies, several gazillion yorkshire puds and a wild mushroom something or other with caramelised mushrooms that constituted a large meal without all the extras. Ate far more than was good for me and then a bit more. Plates got whisked away and we sat around groaning and feeling sluggish but soon located a tad more energy when cheesecake materialsed with fresh cream.... rapidly followed by chocolates.

Rolled my way to the clay pigeon shhoting stand where I made a complete and utter !!!! of myself. Turns out that its best to be a well padded laydee when handling shotguns to avoid small things like shattered collar bones if you screw up. For those unfamiliar with shotguns unlike any other firearm they don't have sights of any description, they have a groove and a knob on the end. One simply lines the knob up with the target, points in the direction of the clay and prays that you hit it. Its not so much random as pot luck. According to the instructor you imagine the clay is balanced on the end of the shotgun and pull the trigger at the point what you actually see the clay. Sounds far easier than it is, but its so much fun.

Retired, once again to the shooting lodge for more coffee, cake, chcolates and biscuits. Was presented with a certificate, a firearms licence holder, pen, badges, bags, hats and magazines. Will definately be booking on the next course and can't recommend it highly enough, even for those who wouldn't know one end of a water pistol from the other. Finally made it home early evening just as my second roast dinner of the day was hitting the table. I could get used to days like that although I fear I may become the size of a small continent.

Spent the evening making Mrs Beaton's apple chutney with a hint of ginger. Hlved the recipe because it seemed a bit excessive then had to divide it into two pans as there was still far too much. Now have 7 jars for Christmas gifts and enough apples to make as much again although will be trying a different style next time round which is likely to be later on this morning as they're windfall aples and they're decomposing as I type.

Spending the afternoon foraging with the rangers on one of the riverbanks so theres every chance of coming home with more stuff to jam. Most definatly need to invest in a decent sized pan and locate some more jars and crucially somewhere to stash everything I've made so far.

Also need to fit in some laundry so that the DDs have clean school uniform tomorrow, this means a brief foray into their rooms in order to retrieve the discarded garments otherwise one of them will announce that their dirty PE kit is still dirty on monday morning.

honeybear_2

Sounds like it was a great day

moo2moo

It was!

The house honks of vinegar *again* as another batch of chutney cooks, this time a basic recipe found here on a blog which looks like giving me a fair few ideas over the next couple of months. Fear I'm turning into my mother though. Am amazed its taken me this long.

One of the neighbours dropped off a dozen egg boxes, some rhubarb and runner beans in exchange for eggs and a jar of yesterdays chutney. Tis most satisfying when stuff like that happens unexpectedly. Will be making rhubarb crumble for pudding along with banana bread for lunchboxes. Still have to find something to do with the remaining bucket of apples. Was vaguely considering apple marmalade purely out of curiousity. Not entirely convinced though. Am also running out of jam jars which will curtail things just a bit.

moo2moo

MatyMoo wrote: »

Not sure I have posted on your thread before but I have been lurking for a while and look forward to catching up each morning. You have a great way of writing and make me smile each day :T

I saw this on another thread I follow and thought of you:
http://www.menus4moms.com/homeorgani...ily_reminders/

It is a bit like fly lady but it just has one 15 minute task a day such as sorting out 1 drawer. It runs in themes for each area of the house one theme at a time.

Hope it helps

MatyMoo

I love the idea of only doing 15 minutes housework a day, sadly it was just that approach that got me in this mess in the first place. I need to devote an hour a day just to keep things at stalemate and considerably more time in order to get anywhere. This is the downside of a big sprawly house with gazillions of spider, huge cobweb gathering beams and two dogs who are incapable of wiping their feet once they've been for their daily swim in the pond.

whatatwit

The day sounds great, can't believe you arrived home to find tea had been made. I would have to start it when I got home.

moo2moo

Yep, I'm very fortunate to have OH 90% of the time. Its the other 10% that I have difficulty putting up with.

Four more jars of chutney are now cooling on the worktop. Am wondering if perhpas this batch will be a tad on the spicy side as I used DD2s one and only cayenne pepper form her 20p cayenne pepper plant in place of the quarter teaspoon of dry powder. Guess I won't know what its like util the stuff has matured enough to eat. Am planning on spending a chunk of the morning reorganising the larder so that all the homemade jams and wot not are on the same shelf, that should also give me some idea of what I have stashed for Christmas prezzies. Also need to start brainstorming ideas for DD1s birthday which is only 5 weeks away.

MatyMoo

moo2moo wrote: »

I love the idea of only doing 15 minutes housework a day, sadly it was just that approach that got me in this mess in the first place. I need to devote an hour a day just to keep things at stalemate and considerably more time in order to get anywhere. This is the downside of a big sprawly house with gazillions of spider, huge cobweb gathering beams and two dogs who are incapable of wiping their feet once they've been for their daily swim in the pond.

OK, so try my way I set an alarm to go off every 30 minutes. I work hard cleaning for 30 minutes then do what I want for 30 minutes and then repeat. It has made my cleaning and tidying routine so much more productive

moo2moo

Plans for the day involve oiling every single sodding squeaky hinge on OHs route to the car. Why is it the only time he ever shuts the gate with the ear piercing shriek for a squeak is at 3:45am when hes on a super duper early start? Meh. Am on the extra strong cafetiere coffee in the hopes of staying awake today.

Had a hotchpotch of a day yesterday. Emptied the dining room of its remaining furniture and put two layers of liquid polish on the floor. Had to put the table back in there last night in order to get the DDs tot heir bedrooms but need to put everythhing else back today. Have someone coming to collect the fish tank this morning which will allow me to generate a bit more space too so more dusting will be required. Theres also the potential for filling plaster and painting the chimney breast but thats dependant upon finding some filler lurking in the shed.

Went to the coast to meet the rangers who failed to show up, nor did anyone else for that matter so I presume it was cancelled and I was the only person not to know. Fortunately the DDs and I have started travelling everywhere with a bucket in the boot so we pootled off along the costal path at the side of the estuary in the hopes of spotting grey seals or other interesting creatures but only suceeding in locating spiders, ear wigs and a herd of very bemused looking bullocks. Its obviously much sunnier there than it is here because we picked several kilos of elderberries in very little time which DD1 and I destalked whilst DD2 played in a miniscule patch of sand. Returned home considerably later than planned having eaten a few too many blackberries on our travels and commenced making Marguerite Pattern's extremely sweet Elderberry and Apple Jam. Am now totally and utterly out of jam jars and space in which to put them. Seem to have made an awful lot in a v. short space of time. Resorted to freezing the surplus elderberries ready for next time. Have started dropping subtle hints to OH about a preserving pan for my birthday. Will stick a picture to the fridge door when I figure out precisely which one I covet. You know you're officially old when your birthday present wish list consists of kitchen paraphenalia and you drool over the contents of the Lakeland brochure. Mind you the drooling could also be caused by badly fitting dentures.

Not a clue what to expect at school this week. All the after school activities start up which means there are children under foot until 5 most days and it'll take twice as long to get the simplest of things done, also have a disco on Thursday night which means I'll be lucky to get home before 9:30. I have two teachers after giant noticeboards which take three people to put up, not a hope in hell of getting that done anytime soon but of course they were hoping it would have been done on friday. No doubt they'll have a whinge at the boss v. shortly. Also have to go for a rummage in the portacabin of doom in order to retrive a set of drawers from behind a mountain of carp. That should keep me amused for several hours and will be a suitable activity with which to fill up my time thus guaranteeing another v. early finish on Friday.

Also need to figure out how to stop the puppy retrieving things. She worked out how to carry stray chickens around, having cornered them first, and is now wandering around with the cat wedged between her jaws. Judging by the amount of hissing and the rapidly wafting legs the cat is not overly amused by this game but emerges unscathed if a little slobbery when the puppy has taken her to where she thinks she should be. Incidentally this is not usually where the cat wishes to be plonked having been rudely awoken from her sleep.

MrsMoo2U

Just wanted to say thank you for bringing a smile to my face. Even when you are down you still manage to be humorous.