Memorygirls - Make Do and Mend

Memory_Girl

Morning everyone

Firstly a quick apology - this is a post and run post as things are really hotting up on the school refurb stuff. I promise that by monday morning I will be back to normal and might even be able to think straight.

Thanks for all your posts - and PM's - it would seem that catching our kids at 16+ would seem to be a really sensible idea.

I promise to respond to all you questions as soon as I get some free time this weekend - but some really interesting stuff there.

Good luck on the house nattypants - I'm itching to find out how they get on.

Has anyone heard how courgette is doing - has she had the gherkin yet??

You are all in my thoughts as I whizz outthe door to clean a floor on my hands and knees (painters decided against using dropcloths in the hallway and now its covered in gloss splatters!!!!) Methinks hth was having a strop and has left it for us to clean up. Still i'd rather do it that try to get him to come in and fix it.

Bye for now - back soon i promise - with one of my biggie goals for the 100 days finsished and delivered.

Memorygirl

Helen105

Hi y'all
It's Friday so it deserves an update on the 100 day Challenge although I am rather in awe of Memory Girl who has already finished one of the tasks on hers.
Last weekend's trip to Stirling was very pleasant but I rather feared that my get up and go had decided to stay up there lounging on the sofa whilst I plodded through the week in Leeds, but now it is back & I'm ready for the weekend.
The weight loss is back on track with another 3 pounds gone (tick) and the DIY tasks for this weekend are:
1. Eliminate the drip from the hot water cylinder (will need ex unfortunately)
2. Attempt to replace wiring to hall light, dubious about this as it means taking up floorboards
3. Put up shower rail

Sounds quite easy when it is written down like that :eek:, I'll let you know how I get on.

vasseur

Careful with that wiring Helen.....

troglodyte

Hello Memory Girl and everyone else!

After following MG's first 'make do and mend' thread and being so inspired, I lost track, didn't catch the 71p story and then found this one and have now spent about 10 days reading all 59 pages a few at a time in a marathon effort to catch up. What a story! MG you have really been through the mill with the whole school experience, hope it all works out in the end. And you are a role model and an inspiration :A

Of course there are lots of things from weeks back I would have liked to reply to but it's a bit late now

Just a couple of things though; I so agree with the minimalist parenting approach, we never did anything to baby-proof our house either, I thought that would just make it so frustrating for the child to have anything at all interesting always out of reach, and after all my mother just told me not to stick my fingers in the plug sockets or I would get fried, so I didn't, it worked for me! So far so good (DD is 4 and a half now and only one thing broken so far).

On the subject of a study skills course, MG I want to do one! Although teenagers are the obvious target, there must also be plenty of adults out there like me. I was certainly never taught anything like that (or in fact anything at all useful :mad::mad:) at school so my successes (and there have been a few) have been more down to luck than good study skills. If I'd been offered a course at the time though I probably wouldn't have seen the point in it as I seemed to be doing OK on my own. I have spent 20 years in research and struggled all the way through trying to keep on top of new developments because it takes me ages to read the literature and then I just forget it instantly and am half way through reading the same stuff again before I realise it might be slightly familiar. Also I know I'm not the only person who has this problem! At uni I had absolutely no idea of how to study, didn't really know what I was meant to do; in fact I was so clueless that it was only years later that I realised that I hadn't done what I should really have done because I simply had no idea. I love reading but it takes me such a long time, I read in my head in exactly the same way as I do when I read out loud, and often re-read the same bits over again. I do the same when writing too as I constantly re-cap what I have written so far. (My OH is the opposite, he speed-reads even out-loud which makes his bed-time stories rather hyper and stressful to listen to ! :rotfl:) So I think adult education would be a great potential market - and if you PM me your book title I'll look for a copy!

Anyway now I've found you all and got up to date I'll be back soon!

Helen105

The shower curtain rail has gone up, I have no confidence that the screws are going to hold for more than 6 months (crumbly plaster) but at the mo the curtain is up and straight.

Even I think 7.30 is rather too early to badger ex into coming round to fix the drip so that leaves the wiring. I am being careful Polesalot, I keep going to look at it and then going off to read the DIY manual and then going back for a second look and of course the power gets turned off completely befor I touch anything up there. The problem is that some of the wiring in the house is very old and the whole caboodle could do with rewiring but of course I don't have the money so I am left with the option of either leaving it or replacing obviously dangerous bits as I come across them.

Will get up now & do put some washing on and make pizza dough for tea tonight before I tackle anything dangerous.

moo2moo

You can cheat with crumbly plaster by painting it with watered down PVA glue (even the kids stuff does the trick) this soaks into the plaster and reattaches it to the wall and itself and waterproofs it a wee bit too.

lucielle

That sounds a bit scary Helen, hope it goes ok.
L

Courgette

Memory_Girl wrote: »

Has anyone heard how courgette is doing - has she had the gherkin yet??

Gherkin! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Best one yet!

And no! 3 days overdue now with absolutely no sign of having it anytime soon :cool: DS was 17 days late so hasn't really even occured to me that I even might have it yet. Poor old hubby has to go back to work on Monday (he's had a week off which he was hoping would run straight into paternity leave) so I think he's more fed up than me. I'm enjoying the extra lie-ins and am still considering painting the inside of the porch - just needs a coat of white and clean really (not necessarily in that order!) so might do that on Monday if Munchkin doesn't have other ideas

Memory_Girl

hello everyone:)

Signing in to report that i have now achieved the second major goal of my 100 day challenge.

The first was to move ds2 into his own room and have him happy enought to take himself calmly off to bed and stay in it for the whole night. Now, just after 7pm i say to him "sleepie boy time" and he goes through in to his room, climbs his ladder and picks a bedtime book. soooo much easier than sharing a bed for the night with a wriggling toddler.

The second was to find and renovate a beautiful school building in time for the firt day of school on the 23rd. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:j:j:beer::j:j. everything has been cleaned, painted, screwed together, unpacked, collated, arranged beautifully and made safe (for H & S inspectors and other legal bods).

I have one last job to do today - and that is to screw the coathooks onto the porch walls. they are mounted on battens and ready to go - but my drill wasn't up to the job, so i've borrowed a joiner with something bigger for half an hour today :T

It looks s beautiful - we have taken before and after pictures and will posthem on the school website soon - i will let you all have a look and judge our work then.

i must confess i am pretty tired today though.

now i'm off to grab a cuppa and catch up with whats been going on her over the last few days - all the goals, dreams, books, babies and houses that have kept me going scrubbing floors and cleaning windows these last few days.

so how has your week been?

memorygirl

Memory_Girl

just jumped ont he scales and i have stayed the same - but seeing as this week has been about grabbing food thats fast to cook and eat i am pretty happy to have stayed the same.

this week i will be focussing on building healthier habits for us all

MG