Juggling, Organising, and Holding it All Together - 2011

Triggles

Bit of a down day today. I think I'm just tired of feeling ill, overwhelmed with all the paperwork that needs to be done - it probably didn't help that I got ANOTHER huge bundle of paperwork (questionnaires re DS2's medical stuff) that I need to fill out. Is going to take aaaaages to do, even with DH's help! So while I was just feeling clever for finishing up the taxes and getting that out of the way, this was in the post to bring me back down to earth with a bump.

On a separate curiosity... being ill, I have coughed and gagged so much today that my eyeballs hurt. Surely that is the oddest thing ever... my eyeballs?? I mean actually ache in their sockets when I turn my eyes to look at things. yup, weird medical marvel, me.... :rotfl:

I think I need an emotional and psychological boost at this point. I have reached stress point I think with all the DCA stuff - they mess with you on purpose, I'm sure of it. We've had some debts where they switch around from DCA to DCA at the drop of a hat, without advising us what's going on. And some that are refusing to be cooperative, for no good reason, then send out those blanket letters saying "are you having difficulty paying? Call us..." yeah, right, cuz that really helped! :mad:

Ah, well, will try to get some sleep tonight and let DH take some of DS2's nightly fussings. Maybe I'll feel more positive in the morning.

victoriaplum1

Hi, just happened upon your posts as I am trying to make some changes too....not been one to stick at money saving before or for being organised but need to make changes this year. I had flu myself over Christmas and it knocked me sideways only just back on my feet (though have a hip problem now!) so don't try to push yourself too hard - this round of flu is a nasty strain and takes a while to get over - I couldn't think straight for days either and every bone, muscle aching in my body - felt like had been rock climbing. Paperwork always takes a time to fill in and to keep organised - hope you are having some success with getting that done and good luck with your challenge!

victoriaplum1

p.s. I have a DS2 who nightly fusses too...several wake ups per night - so we are also working on an unfull fuel tank....give yourself a break! I have cut down on taking my little one milk and night and the wake ups have become less, think it was a happy that I was encouraging by responding with bottle of milk.

Triggles

Victoria - thanks - I've almost completed the course of antibiotics and still the cough and dragging feeling is hanging in there. I do at least feel somewhat better and able to cope today, so hopefully we're on the up again! :j

Tomorrow we are off to visit DS1, DIL, and DGS2 and are taking MIL along with us for the visit (couple hours drive south). Looking forward to it - should be a pleasant day for visiting. I have to admit that visiting other people's houses can be a bit exhausting for us, as we spend the whole time monitoring DS2 to make sure he is safe and out of mischief. Our house has got all the safety gear and is fairly childproofed in the main areas, but obviously we can't expect other people to do this. One of the main reasons we don't go visiting much, and try to encourage friends to visit us here, as it just tends to make things go so much smoother.

Almost through putting together DS2's DLA paperwork. My god, it has taken forever to get it done, and as it is, it's going to be a bit late due to me being so sick from the flu that I couldn't complete it on time. I've got 30 typewritten pages of information and probably another 6 or so to go, then I should be done. Hopefully I can get it in by Wednesday at the latest. It's dreadfully hard to do all in one go - depressing, difficult, and stressful. The information has to be extensive and complete, and that takes a fair bit of organisation and care, then writing it all up so that it makes sense with examples to support the information. I will be so incredibly relieved when it's completed, copied, and sent in finally! But the DLA will go a long way towards paying for some of the things that could really help DS2 that we simply cannot afford at the moment. School meeting with the SALT next week. DH has an appointment in about 10 days, hopefully to get the stitches out of his surgical scar on his leg.

I've just realised I was going to bake some banana bread and bring it along tomorrow for DS1 as he and DGS2 love it, but I forgot in all the chaos of the day. Blast it. And it's far too late to start making it now - especially as too much clunking around in the kitchen with dishes will wake up DS3 at this point. Not risking that right now!! As it is, I'm trying to cough quietly :rotfl: and that's not working very well.

At least I've gotten a fair bit done today. Cleaned up the entryway and the catchall sideboard. Did the washing up and 3 loads of laundry, 2 of which are drying still in the dining room by the radiator, and one is folded and ready to put away. Went over the budget, checked the bank account. Wrote a brief email to a DCA advising them that the delay in contacting them was due to us having to wait for information from the original creditor. :mad: And advising them that we would follow up by post. And filed a bunch of paperwork that had been piling up over the last 2-3 weeks. I also noted that the DCA for Tesco has placed our account on hold and requested the CCA AGAIN from Tesco. Curious to see if they're going to produce it finally - we've been asking for it since July. :mad:

I should be sleeping but can't seem to relax yet. Possibly the constant coughing has something to do with it......

Triggles

We had a very nice day visiting family today. DIL was supposed to work until 1pm, but managed to get off work a bit early and was home about 11am. So we had a bit more time with them all than we were expecting which was nice! Traffic was even pretty light both ways, so a nice journey and visit all the way around.

Can't believe it's Monday already again tomorrow and back to the school run. Some days that school run just does my head in! Illegal parking, blocking pavement, kids (and parents) running out in front of cars. Insanity!!!

Ah well. Lots to do tomorrow, so better get some sleep. still have a PPI request I have to put together but will have to do that next week, as I have priority paperwork this week.

Triggles

Okay. List of things to do today:

- DS2 get ready for school
- school run
- washing up
- laundry (at least 2 loads)
- DLA paperwork to finish
- start on sensory assessment paperwork if time
- pop to post office this afternoon
- bake couple loaves of banana bread
- farm foods to pick up (regular sandwich) bread, milk, sugar
- sweep kitchen

Hmmmm... we have a chicken in the fridge that we're going to cook, and will most likely have curry for tea tonight. DH still home after his surgery on his leg. He's able to get around a bit more now, but stitches not out yet and obviously not ready to go back to work until after that (according to the consultant, not for 2 more weeks), so he can help out with DS3 while I'm getting things done, which will make things so much easier!! Anyway, leftover chicken will most likely mean chicken soup and chicken and mushroom pie over the next couple days.

We turned the heater right down again yesterday as we were gone all day (up enough to keep pipes from freezing though!). Doesn't seem too bad here, so plan on keeping it low for as long as possible. I'll have to check the weather for the next couple days and see what we're expecting.

Triggles

Oh my goodness! Here I was all keen to turn the heater down and now it's been freezing the last couple days! So back up it had to go. I think at some point we're going to have to replace the window in our living room. It's nice and secure and all, but the draft coming around it is unbelievable. I don't normally sit by the window, but did for a bit this morning and just about froze! It does explain why our living room is always freezing. Although, to be fair, so is our entryway, and that's even if nobody has been going in and out. Shouldn't they be warm still? If the door hasn't been opened? It's a new front door, good seal and all. Hmmm..

Finally finally finished all the DLA paperwork and statutory assessment paperwork and it's all sent in! What a huge relief!! Now I've got a couple more medical papers for DS2 to finish filling out, and then a few creditors and a quick update of the budget. MOT coming up next month, as well as water bill (annual) and gas/electric. So it will be tight getting it all paid up front, but do-able. Then we can replenish savings again for a while.

I can't believe it's January and we haven't had 1 fire in the fireplace yet. Obviously can't have them during the day, because of DS2 & DS3. But usually by now we've had a fire or two in the evening for awhile after the boys are in bed. Too tired to sort it in the evening I suppose.

Cheap entertainment recently. DD loaned us her DVDs of the first season of Glee. Both DH & I have been enjoying it. And we've still got our "My Family" DVDs to go through.

Cheesy potato soup for tea tonight. We were lazy and just cooked fish fingers and made sandwiches for us for tea last night, and fish fingers and chips for the boys. I made 4 loaves of banana bread yesterday, 1 is almost gone already, 1 is in fridge, and 2 in freezer. The boys love it, so it's nice to have some in the freezer for later.

Hoping to get Christmas stuff put up in attic in the next day or so. Everything's all boxed and ready to go, but DH isn't up to climbing up the ladder after surgery, so I'll do it - just needed him to be up to holding the ladder, as it's a bit of a reach into the attic for me to put the stuff in. LOL

Well, off to get a few things done, I suppose......

Triggles

I think the heater is feeling a bit like a yoyo lately. We've turned it back down again. LOL Waiting to get that next bill, and with the cold snaps we've had this winter, I'm dreading what the total is going to be. :eek:

I've been ignoring the finances for the last week, which I really shouldn't have but I think it's a bit of ostrich/head in the sand thing. I have had so many other things, especially with DS2's stuff, going on that I simply could not deal with the additional finance stuff as well. But feeling a bit stronger now, and I will be devoting a huge chunk of time tomorrow to them and to doing a temporary revamp of the budget.

I'm a bit "hmmmm" about redoing the budget right now, as we're in the midst of a bit of financial shake up here and there, and we won't know for certain where we'll be financially for another month or so. I want to get a payment schedule set up with the DCA re our OD, but don't want to commit to a payment that we may not be able to afford in a month or so. And they're pushing quite a bit to get a payment arrangement in place. I think I may have to send them a letter stating that the finances are going to be changing shortly and that we will be sending them £X amount temporarily until we know what we can afford so that we can make an informed offer for payment plans. Perhaps if I point out that we don't want to commit to an amount and then have to turn around and change it in a month.

We're hoping to start getting some more DIY done on the house starting next month again. Little things. STILL haven't gotten that staircase done. We keep planning a time to work on it, and something comes up that needs to take priority. I guess that's life, eh.

Our next big financial outlay for the house will be to pay for special locks for the windows. We have those huge tip and tilt windows which are great, but dangerous for the children, especially DS2. His room has a safety lock on it, but we need to put them on all the windows, as he's now able to reach them. The ones we want are fairly expensive, but for this it's worth the expense. We're hoping that, as it's a council house, if we purchase the locks, the council will have someone install them as we don't want to risk damaging the windows. They're not standard council windows as the person who lived here before changed them all. Very annoying, but not much we can do.

Whooops. DH just came in with coffee for me. yummmm

Triggles

Ah. A day for getting a bunch of stuff done! Hoooorah!

We've done some serious cleaning in our bedroom. That always seems to be the last place for us to clean, but today we decided to make it a priority. My desk is in the bedroom and that's where I work on all the budget/finance stuff, and it was literally covered with stuff that needed to be sorted and put away. So thankfully I have my desk back now! All the Christmas boxes are now finally tucked safely up in the attic, along with another box of lightweight stuff that we weren't ready to get rid of, but didn't need sitting around in our way.

We debated buying a few plastic storage units with drawers, but as we already had a couple, we decided that it would be better to clear out some of the junk we didn't need, rearrange things a bit, and reuse those. So they are now sitting by my desk, with office things in a couple drawers, and the sheets/bedding in a couple drawers. That leaves me with a couple drawers to put some things in - just trying to decide what would be best to put in there. One of them we took from DS3's room - his room is a bit smaller than DS2's room, so this gave him a bit more play area, which we're quite happy with. The storage unit mainly had clothing he had either grown out of or is growing into. So I put the clothing he's growing into with his other clothing, and I'll either ebay or donate the "too small" clothing and that's a bunch less clutter lying around. :j

Triggles

I've done a temporary update to the budget today, but still waiting to see where we'll be at over the next few months, and can't really do much until I know.

We're working on using up our food supplies already in the house in the freezer and cupboards. I'm hoping this will allow us to keep the grocery bill quite low this month. Sains had their baby sale recently, so I picked up some nappies and pullups while they were cheaper. Even though we buy the store brand anyway, when they then put it 1/3 off, it's an even better buy, so we take advantage of it when we can. We're making the effort to keep some items on hand in the freezer that we can just toss in the oven for a quick meal on evenings when we're tempted for takeaways. Things like steak or chicken pie, fish fingers, frozen chips. Okay, not always the healthiest, but at least cheaper than takeaway!

DH's leg is improving pretty much on schedule. He's off work for another week and a half, then will be going back. It'll mean a big adjustment for me, as I've been used to him being home to help out more with things. But it was nice while he was home, anyway. A normal schedule again with work and everything will probably make things run a bit smoother! LOL

Two days after DH goes back to work, the school is out for half term. :eek: Such a shame THAT couldn't have been timed a bit better! :rotfl: But we're going to make plans for the days that DH is off, and enjoy those days without a school run! (have I mentioned that school runs drive me spare? I'm sure I have! )

Tax stuff done yesterday. Finally. This was just one of those "you have a gap for xxxx year" due to me being off work for about 6 months when we first moved here, and then being self-employed for awhile. So I procrastinated for ages, and it only took me about 5 minutes to sort out. Ridiculous, eh? Could have taken care of it ages ago. Just paid the £24 something they needed to cover the gap, and that was it. All done. Easy-peasy. Silly me.

Oooops. Think DS2 is running circles around DH downstairs. Better go see what's up and get lunch sorted.