Juggling, Organising, and Holding it All Together - 2011

Triggles

Ahhhh.. Boys feeling a bit better. I'm feeling a bit better. Still have a horrible cough hanging on, but feeling at least more human again. Hooray!! :j And DH is off this week (holiday time) from work. So we're spending the week (while DS2 is in school during the day) working on minor cleanups and fixups on the house. He's off again at the beginning of February, so we'll be doing some painting and more DIY stuff then.

We're putting some inexpensive shelving up tomorrow, for storage room for the puzzles, games, colouring books, crayons and such. There are loads and I hate having boxes full of it - too messy, too cluttered, and too difficult to look through to find what the boys want to do. This will be much easier.

Our room needs to be cleaned again. Honestly, it's always the worst in the house as it's the last to get cleaned. We're hoping next month to hire in a carpet cleaner for the weekend. MIL wants to use one too, so we're planning on doing our carpets, then taking it over to hers and DH can do her carpets, and we'll split the cost. I know that there are carpet cleaners you can buy, but we just don't have the storage space for it. I'd rather spend the money on rental and have the space in the house! Besides, it's not something we'd use that horribly frequently. We can use the regular "scrub in and vacuum out" stuff for smaller carpet stains.

I caught up with the laundry. For about 8 hours. :rotfl: Doesn't really last long in this house. But hey, it was good while it lasted! I have to say that so far, using the 2 airers is working really well! I'm glad we held off on the condenser dryer to try this first. Saved us a load of money!

We're trying to make most of our meals out of the freezer and cupboards for awhile. We have tons of food in, so need to use it.

Going without the car is working well. Pretty much full tank of petrol still. Just used it this morning to take DS2 to his RDA riding. I want to see how long we can make this tank of petrol last. :cool:

Tomorrow is market day, but I'm going to avoid it. I don't actually NEED anything, which means anything I buy would most likely be a waste of money. :rotfl: So I'll stay home and get cleaning and such done instead. I've got a few recipes to browse for, so I'll be off for now.

brizzledfw

Glad the family are feeling better and you sound like you're being really focussed getting with jobs around the house. Wish we would knuckle down and do the same:( but we always seem to find excuses. In the new phase of our MSE life though as we need to find things to do that don't spend money I think slaving around the house on little tasks will have to be the way forward :rotfl:

Roping in the kids will be the best part!!!:T

Triggles

brizzled - I think we tend to run in streaks on the DIY. It usually follows a bout of illness where we get frustrated with the house becoming a tip over the few days we're ill.

We have a number of things we're going to work on this week.
- finish the shelving (we went to purchase a particular kind, but found they were FAR too expensive, so went with a less expensive but just as durable option)
- reorganise the toys in the living room (we rearranged the furniture for the Christmas tree, and found it leaves a huge play area on one side of the room with the tree gone now, so we've left the furniture this way to allow the boys a good area to play in. We also bought one of those plastic stack of drawers for a tenner -on sale- and have put some of the smaller toys like play food and dishes and little cars in the drawers. Much neater and easier for the boys to find them and put them away), still a few things we want to do
- finish sanding the bannisters and trim in the entryway and hallway. We have a sander and sandpaper, it's just a matter of doing the work. No expense, just elbow grease. :rotfl:
- repairing the wallpaper in the upstairs toilet/bathroom. Whoever thought wallpaper in the bathroom was a good idea? (previous tenants) It's coming unstuck at a few seams, so we bought some repair stuff to restick it down at a cost of about £4 for a good sized tube of it. We'd like to repaint over the wallpaper (it's the kind you paint over - has already been painted once) with the mould protection paint, but that won't be until next month.
- reorganising files and paperwork and getting older stuff that we still need to save ready to pack away for storage

Things we'd like to do over the next month and few years:
Living room:
- repaint
- put radiator cover on radiator
- have wood burning stove installed in open fireplace and redo front of fireplace
- replace carpeting
Downstairs bathroom:
- remove yucky wallpaper
- paint walls and trim
- put up border wallpaper (already bought on clearance sale and waiting :cool:)
- put up shelf over sink
- replace carpeting with flooring
Kitchen:
- turn door on fridge so it opens the proper way :rotfl:
- replace flooring
- put light over stovetop
Entryway/hallway/stairway:
- replace flooring
- carpet stairway
- paint walls and trim
- replace light fixture
Upstairs:
- replace carpeting in bedrooms
- carpet landing
- replace flooring in bathroom
- repaint all rooms
Outside/gardens:
- drop curb for drive (must go through council)
- replace shrubs in front with nice fence
- pave small front garden and repave drive so they're even (will basically mean less maintenance needed for front garden)
- replace old fence panels in rear garden
- add on covered patio area in rear garden
- replace old shed that is falling apart in rear garden
- landscape rear garden into more attractive, useful area

So lots and lots to do. Obviously some things cost more money than others. We're planning on getting the inexpensive things and prep work done this year, then slowly putting aside money for some of the bigger things. The shed is something that needs to be done - we were going to do it this summer and put it off. Hopefully this coming summer we can do this. The painting can be done almost anytime, provided we budget for the paint. The fireplace work and the drive will probably be a few years. But all in good time.

Then there are small cosmetic things - pictures put up, curtains, things like that. Those can be done as and when they can be budgeted for as well.

We're also going to try to use up the groceries we currently have and buy as little as possible over the next month. Obviously fresh fruit, milk, and bread will need to be bought, but we've got meat and veg in the freezer and tons of things in the cupboard. We just need to be creative.

We need to get the dog fixed soon, so that's another expense coming up. I will be checking with the vet when we take him in for worming this month and see what the expense involved is, so we can budget for it.

busy busy busy:rotfl:

brizzledfw

Hey

Am exhausted by just reading that lot and I am the queen of lists too! You put me to shame!

Well done on having all these goals

Have a good day

Triggles

Okay. The shelves are up, and I'll be doing some organising and putting things on them this evening. I'd do it now, but in a bit of agony - diverticular disease flaring up like mad today. pain pain... I suspect that Diet Coke was the culprit. It flared up last week, and I'd had Diet Coke, but didn't specifically trace it to that. But I've been careful to eat foods that are low fibre and wouldn't irritate the gut... plus one Diet Coke. And ouch!! Ah, well. It will save me money not buying soda any more. (sneaking away for a moment to take some pain meds)

We did some picking up in the rear garden yesterday, while the boys were playing and the dog was running around. It really does need a thorough clean up, but just wanted to make sure that there wasn't anything that was dangerous for the dog to chew on.

A friend was telling me that there is snow coming, according to someone she knows at the weather station. Interesting. We've got a stash of salt already for the pavement and the drive if needed, so that's fine. And a shovel if there's that much snow.

DS3 is supposed to start preschool in September. I'm really conflicted about this. I know it's the "thing to do" here in the UK. But he's 3!! And it's five mornings (ALL morning) per week! To my way of thinking, that's the equivalent of kindergarten in the states, which is when they are FIVE!!! I get told "oh it's good for them, to get used to school now... " and "it's a nice break from them.."... but... he'll get used to school when he starts reception at age 4, for heaven's sake!! And I don't really NEED a break from my own child - certainly not every day!! DD went to daycare five days a week when she was young because I worked full time and there was no choice but to take her to childcare. But I'm home, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of my child, why do I need to send him to preschool? He's social, he's happy to play with others. sigh.. I just feel that it's too young and it's not necessary. I know it's funded and we don't have to pay for it. But I really resent the whole "it's expected of you" attitude. Like saying I'm not ALLOWED to have my 3yo at home. :mad: DH says he's happy to go along with whatever I decide. DS3 is signed up for a preschool that is attached to DS2's school and has a guaranteed place. But as September gets closer, I find I'm really wobbling on this one.

brizzledfw

Hi, you need to do what's right for you and your family. If that's keeping him with you that's cool. We do ship our kids off to formal school settings at a crazily early age here in the UK..and most educationalists would agree its not right in every case.

He's also a boy and a second (?) child..he might find that harder than your daughter too. Is he a summer baby? Also remember in the early days if you do go for it that you can easily keep him at home for a bit eg. A couple of sessions a week when you want to.. If you need to then say he's knackered and needs quiet time.. many parents do..see how it goes. Much of the drive around full time places is not about the child but funding:(

Triggles

brizzled - Thank you. I think I need to clear up in my mind if I'm worried that it's what is right for him or simply what I want. Or if it even matters which one it is. :rotfl: A friend has already put her 2yo in a nursery 3 mornings a week, and she is not working. It's a surestart set up, and I know she is doing it because he needs the socialisation and because it was recommended because he isn't talking much. DS3, on the other hand, is very social and talks nonstop. I suppose I will have to speak to them when it gets closer to the day. I might be more comfortable with it if it were 2 or 3 mornings per week. To me, five mornings a week IS formal schooling and 3 yo is too young IMO. He's not as far advanced as DS2 was at this age in terms of numbers and letters, but DS2 is obsessed with numbers and letters and he's on a different playing field in that respect. I would say DS2 is right where he should be for his age, with plenty of time to learn things prior to reception. I just don't understand what the rush is....I've actually had people imply (ok, outright have told me) that I'm being negligent to my child if they don't go to preschool before reception. :mad: I don't believe that for a minute, but it still is a bit guilt inducing at the same time.

Anyway... on to other things. I put DH to work yesterday and today. Huge clean up of dining room (as a lot of the extraneous things were HIS - so I let him put it all away and find places for it). Today was kitchen day. He pulled out the freezer and cooker and cleaned under and behind them. The washing machine has been running all morning, so that one will have to wait for another day. :rotfl: He wrote up an inventory list of everything in the freezers and the cupboards. While he was doing this, I was dealing with DS3, washing up, cleaning counters, going through the sealable containers to match containers with lids (there are always more of one or the other, aren't there?). It is so nice to get things done!!

Yesterday (day before? can't remember now!! :rotfl:) we picked up a few grocery basics (milk, bread, fresh fruit, veg) and the plan is to use what's in the cupboard and freezers to last as long as possible.

I found a lovely website that has a step by step (with pictures ) of how to make bread loaves (white, unfortunately, due to my medical issues, although I will probably sneak some brown bread in there occasionally), and we're going to attempt to make our own bread instead of buying it. Based on the website (UK site), it costs approximately 34p per loaf, compared to 66p (if Farmfoods) or £1 (Sainsburys) per loaf purchased. Plus I love fresh bread!! And with supplies in all the time, no worries about running out! We go through a LOT of bread in this house, so this could be a big saver for us. If I figure correctly, that's roughly £8 compared to £16 per month just for bread, or £96 for the year. (always sounds like so much more when you figure it out for the year, doesn't it? )

The website has a lot of very good recipes on it, so I'll be scouring it for more recipes to use as well. Lots of frugal stuff, which I'm hoping we can use. I think it's okay to put web site info, so here's the site:

http://thequincetree65.blogspot.com/

In looking over, I see that I have not hung up my January calendar by my desk, even though we're well into January. Obviously, I'm slacking. :rotfl: I will fix that immmediately..... there. All better. Just need to pop a few appointments on it.

I received my notice in the post that I'm due for another eye exam soon. Probably just as well, as I've noticed that I'm having difficulty seeing some things, just a bit. I think I'm going to have to get the dreaded bifocals!!! :eek: A sign of aging, I believe. DH is reaching that point as well. I don't feel like I'm in my 60s.... which is, of course, good as I'm only in my 40s. :rotfl:

Loan company that we're haggling with sent us an interesting note today. Offer to wipe out the debt if we pay £5000 now. :rotfl: Or £2000 per month for the next 3 months. Then they'll wipe out the £4000 balance left over. Brilliant, except we don't have it. And they're not playing straight with us anyway, as we haven't received the proper CCA or SAR we requested ages ago. They've been messing us about for ages though. I suspect they are delaying the SAR as we want to request reimbursement of the PPI, and they don't want to make it any easier than possible.

Oooops. DS3 awake from his nap. Off to get him sorted before it's time for school run.

brizzledfw

Hi there, just a quick post to say hi and you're being SO SO focussed and productive. Well done all of you.

We love our bread maker. My BIL has just got one too on our recommendation ( he was also tired of running out as they live in a tiny village with no shop) and reckons he's quids up. We do get some free bread so am not so sure of our saving but when we used to buy a sack of bread flour and did it everyday it was lovely. We have also used it for pizza dough (altho now I use the Jamie O one) and some use for jam. Everything is possible! Do see if you can get one, freecycle perhaps?

Triggles

Ah, I'm being even more of a cheapskate than you've imagined. I'm not going to get a breadmaker. We had one ages ago and gave it to DD who uses it regularly. I hate the little paddle hole in the bread loaves. Drove me crazy! :rotfl: I'll be baking this bread myself. I have a Kenmore mixer combo (present from DH a few years ago when he saw me drooling over it at Lakeland ), so I'll use the mixer with the dough hook, and then do it by hand. I've already got the bread pans as well, as I use them for baking other things like banana bread and such. I'm quite looking forward to trying this tomorrow. :cool:

The nice thing is that the dough can be used for cinnamon rolls, bread rolls (sweet or savoury), and such. I looooove cinnamon rolls. I'd REALLY like to make caramel rolls like a neighbour used to make when we were children. It was so lovely - I used to love helping her make them. Going to browse for the proper recipe now.... yummmmm

Triggles

Electrician is coming out to look over our wiring and light in the front room. It's been blowing out lights regularly since we moved in (yes, I know, a few years ago), but it was a matter of buying a few light bulbs here and there. But the other day it actually tripped the circuit breaker, so THAT I have a problem with!! :eek: So we're having it looked at to see if they can't figure out what the problem is.

Due to this, I have to wait until this evening to bake my bread. I don't want to worry about the electrician needing to turn the power off right when the bread is baking. But that's okay. It's colder in the evening, so the oven going will warm up the house a little bit.

In the meantime, washing up done and laundry going. That can be interrupted if needed. :rotfl: