Juggling, Organising, and Holding it All Together - 2011

Triggles

Alrighty then. My car has four nice new tyres on it. And my wallet is whimpering sadly from the horrible loss of £245!! However, it simply means we will be putting our "be extra careful, even more than usual, with our money" hats on for the next two weeks. We can do it. (rah rah cheer inserted here )

Of course, where do I browse while waiting the hour it took to change out the tyres?? The Range. I was very careful, and didn't purchase the 16 million gazillion things that looked nice in there. Dreadfully tempting place to go, I'll admit! I won't make THAT mistake again... oh actually, yes I will, as I'll probably end up browsing there again out of boredom when the car is getting its MOT in a few weeks. :rotfl: Glutton for punishment, that's me!

Came home with DS2 from the garage to find DS3 and DH napping. Ah well, nice for some. I'm relaxing right now, but will need to go tidy up the bomb site known in our house as "the kitchen" and then hang up the washing to dry. I'm still quite pleased with the two airers we have, so the thought of a tumble dryer is permanently on hold.

I will point out that we currently have STICKY TAPE holding our door closed on our small freezer. DH says he thinks the seal on the door may be gone. I will look at it a bit closer later today after the boys go to bed. If it is, then we get by with sticky tape until it's empty and go from there. Is it possible to fix it cheaply?? I will have to look. It's not something I've ever had to deal with. Surely it's wasteful to throw away an entire freezer simply due to the seal. Is there a "re-seal" kit somewhere?? Time to fire up google and see, I think. If I can't find it, I'll pop into the Home section on MSE and ask. Someone is sure to know. I'm too cheap to buy a new freezer if I can repair it relatively cheaply and easily.

We need to replace the taps on our sink in the downstairs toilet. They are twisty taps, and DS2 cannot open or close them, due to coordination problems. Admittedly, that was a plus previously, but now that he's a bit older, we're trying to foster some independence (even if we are still monitoring him for safety reasons), so he needs to be able to wash his hands himself. The sink is in a tight spot, though, and I'm not sure if the twisty taps were put on because the others didn't fit..? More stuff to look into. I'm sure the other kind are not that expensive, just means a bit of DIY. I suspect I'll be doing it - when I mentioned it to DH he immediately figured a plumber would have to do it. It's just changing out taps, which I've done before years ago. I don't remember that it was that awful. (I may regret that thought..we'll see :rotfl:)

Off to do some browsing for taps and freezer seals.

brizzledfw

Hi Triggles..that's yuck about the tyres...real pain. Sorry to hear that.

We use Mo@ milk a lot as a stand by. Or the sm own brand of the same thing and I hardly notice...except in tea. We also freeze butter and find its fine. Hardly ever buy spreads or marge anymore. We also use Lakeland vanilla but the paste which I love and I think even at £6 or so it lasts and it is the real thing.

I made cinnamon ice cream the other day. Reckon the spice cost me about 5p ( from the scoop and weigh type shop) and the cream was about to go off. Added some vanilla and sugar and it's lush. Kids loved it this eve. With some frozen forest fruits from my new German ( or is it Swiss??!) friend Mr A it was almost healthy!!!!

Don't know abut the freezer but I hope you can find something like the insulating tape you can get for windows and adapt for freezers...I know my grandfather, the king of the neat solution for every single household maintenance problem would have fixed it with something so as you say someone will know on this website!!

Will drop in again soon

Brizzle

Triggles

Brizzled - the cinnamon ice cream sounds lovely. The vanilla paste as well - I've never actually tried that. I try to avoid looking too closely at Lakeland - it's dangerous!! :rotfl:

Oh my. The sickness fairy did a number on us this week. DS2 started us off, then DS3, then me. So after 4-5 days of high temps (today included) I'm finally on antibiotics. With any luck at all, I will be feeling a bit more human soon.

So now there are 2 cranky boys, an exhausted me, and DH trying to stay sane here. :rotfl:

brizzledfw

Sorry to hear that Triggles....everyone better now? Hope so

Triggles

My goodness, that was a nasty nasty bug!!! Literally knocked me off my feet for over a week! I'm still exhausted and it takes an incredible amount of energy to get anything done. Thankfully, DH's 2 weeks off work coincided with this week of illness, so he's been doing most everything and I've been trying to do what little I can manage and get well. DS2 is better, DS3 is improving, although struggling with a fever off and on still and tired as well. I ended up on antibiotics, but they had to change them as the first one didn't help at all. Stronger ones now, and they seem to be helping ever so slightly. It will probably be a few days before I'm feeling anywhere close to normal again. (Actually GP said more like a couple weeks, but I'm trying to be optimistic)

We're still hoping to get some DIY done over the next couple weeks, but I think the list will need to be pared down a bit.

Everyone in the house is off their food right now - myself and the boys due to illness, and DH probably just due to tiredness. It's thrown the meal planning completely out the window. So over the next couple days I will try to put it back into effect - I think with lighter meals as we're just not too hungry right now. Perhaps it will save us money on the grocery bill?

I will say that I have decided that while the basics tissues are fine for normal use, when you have a miserable flu, it's good to buy the more expensive soft tissues!! :rotfl: I'm going to keep a small supply (just in case) of the soft ones in the cupboard, and keep using the basics tissues for regular use. And I cannot believe the amount of money on fever medication we paid out over the last week!!!

Hopefully we'll all be much improved as the week goes on, and things can get back to their normal chaos levels.

Triggles

We're all feeling a bit better today. Slowly but surely we're improving. Still have a nasty cough hanging in there, but I imagine that'll be awhile.

Spag bol for tea, made by DH tonight. Used our "onion-pepper" hash from the freezer - I bought a bag of onions and a bag of peppers, and ran them through the food processor, and put them into little tubs and popped them in the freezer. Last night when we put frozen mince in the fridge to thaw, we put one of the tubs in the fridge as well, and cooked it off with the mince. Very easy, no last minute chopping up, and tasted lovely!! (idea thanks to the Quince Tree blog!) We will definitely be continuing to do that - and no worries about the peppers or onions going bad too soon as they'll be frozen.

brizzledfw

Hi, good to see youre up and about again. Sounded horrendous.

Good idea re peppers and onions. Will try that- thanks!

Brizzle

Triggles

Finally getting things back to normal here. It's been such an up and down week. Kept overdoing it a bit and then worn out and feeling exhausted again. But I think I've passed that bit and am on the way up again. Whew!!! :cool:

I did make an effort this week to "decorate" a room in the house on a budget. I chose the upstairs toilet, as it's been one of the rooms that really bothers me. So here are the details:

Blue painted room, white toilet/sink/bath. It has a raised square on one side instead of flooring, as that's where the staircase goes down (that sounds confusing, I know). Anyway, these are my purchases:

£2 for 2 shower curtains in poundland (blue stripes)

£3.00 (can't remember exact cost) for small bag of shells (including little starfish, beachy type stick, and a couple cords)

£10 for plastic shelving unit (was half price at B&Q, and we used half of the unit in the bathroom and half the unit in the airing cupboard to put clean towels on)

£2 for white and blue paint pots (sample pots from B&Q)

I swapped the more modern looking wooden mirror in the upstairs bathroom for the wooden framed mirror in the downstairs bathroom, painting it white to match the trim. I also used an old wooden kitchen roll stand and painted that white, and it now sits on the raised section next to the toilet and holds toilet roll. :cool:

We had 2 thick hurricane lamps with candles surrounded by white sand and blue polished stones, so those are now set in there for decoration (where the children can't reach them).

I made a little hanging decoration from some shells, the beachy stick, the starfish, and the cords to put on the wall.

I've got some blue material that I will be making a skirt to go around the sink as well as the small shelving unit (to make everything look nice and tidy), so that won't cost anything as I can make it myself out of material I already have.

I have some lovely wallpaper trim with lighthouses that DH & I bought on clearance (£1 a roll for 2 rolls) when we first moved here, but haven't used yet. I may put that up as well, I'm still deciding.

I also have some picture postcards of beaches put aside, and I may use a couple inexpensive wooden frames (painted white possibly with some shells put on them) and hang a couple up as well. Again, all things I have around the house so won't cost us anything.

But a lovely revamp of our bathroom for the cost of £17. Not bad at all!

And the dining room is next on my list. I've told DH that I want to choose a new room every month or at least every 2 months and make a real effort to get things sorted. And DEFINITELY keep it on a budget as well. It's been rather fun sorting through things and looking around the house to see what we already have that we can use.

Ideas for the dining room include:

- Wallpapering one wall as a focal point and painting the rest.
- Curtains over the shelving units in the sections on either side of the fireplace wall (eventually would like to have built in cupboards and doors, but for now a nice curtain will do until we save up the money for the built-ins)
- Making curtains for the window (have to admit I saw this on superscrimpers when they used plain sheets and dyed them in the washer - DH & I thought this would be a brilliant idea and I can stitch them up on the sewing machine)

It's just such a wonderful feeling to get some of this moving forward. I've been browsing shops a bit to see what decorating ideas there are, then trying to imitate them at home with what we have or looking in charity shops. I found a picture of veg in a lovely wooden frame for £1.25 in a charity shop the other day. The frame was gorgeous, and I've seen similar frames costing much more in other shops. DH laughed when I told him "I don't care much about the picture, but the frame is definitely worth £1.25!!!" :rotfl:

Triggles

Have you ever sat in your living room (or any other room in your house for that matter) and just looked at it? As I sit here, looking around, I am drawn to the curtains across the room from me. They're closed right now, as it is dark outside, and I like the privacy. I think they could possibly be described as hideous. I'm not certain, mind you. The pattern is bold and a bit dark - blues, greens, reddish orange florals and stripes. I can't even remember where we got them, which means it's quite likely DH has had them forever, long before I moved in. But I would like to replace them when we eventually get to updating the living room. Maybe I can move them up to the bedroom, where we need a curtain. After all, we're sleeping up there, so it's not like I'll be looking at them all the time, right? :rotfl:

We have an open fireplace as well. I like the hearth, although it needs a bit of touching up. But the chimney part of the fireplace going up to the ceiling is not in the best of appearance. Some discolouration on a few sections of brick, and in need again of touching up here and there. A few bricks have sections broken or crumbled off from years ago. It's perfectly functional - the council came and did some work on it last year so it's all well maintained in that respect. DH mentioned painting the brickwork, but I'm not sure. Would it improve it or look awful? There are some decorative tiles in the front of the fireplace, around the box, and I'd like to replace them if possible. They don't really match anything, and they look a bit odd or out of place. There's no mantel and we're still trying to decide what to do in general about mantel or surround, as the opening is quite large. We were hoping to eventually put in a woodburning stove and a simple mantel in a few years' time, which I would love. But still... what to do with the appearance of the fireplace itself? Hmmmm....

On another front, all the paperwork has gone in to the LA regarding DS2 and his schooling. Now the wait begins to see if he can go to the special school that would be so good for him. Fingers crossed.

Still struggling with being tired lately, probably just from that virus I had, but stress is keeping me awake again and the combination of being tired but not being able to sleep is not fun!

One of our creditors has well and truly messed up our account. We requested the SAR last year and still have not received it yet, despite asking for it numerous times in writing. They sent us a statement saying we paid them £10 last year and subtracted the amount from our balance. The problem is that the £10 was supposed to be for the SAR that they are now trying to avoid sending. I suspect they still do not know where our paperwork is. They said a couple years ago over the phone that they couldn't provide paperwork for me regarding the PPI as they were unable to locate the paperwork. I've been trying ever since to get it, and still nothing. So now it's time to get a bit more pushy about it.

And so another day goes, eh? :cool:

Triggles

Oh my! Two posts in two days! I'm humming along, eh?:D

I've been thinking about gardening this morning. We have a dog (well, he's still technically a puppy) that likes to dig up things in the garden. We're not quite certain how to stop this behaviour, but in the meantime we'd like to grow some veg. This brings up a dilemma. How to grow veg without the dog digging it up? My solution?? A small windowsill garden!

Our kitchen windowsill gets plenty of sun, is fairly well sized, and right above the sink, so easy to water the plants. :cool: I cannot decide what plants would be best though, as I don't know that much about gardening. Probably some type of lettuce that replenishes itself so I can keep picking it and using it. But I'm not sure what else to grow... what would lend itself well to a windowsill garden? I may have to do some browsing on the gardening section to see what I can find.

We did have our name on an allotment and actually were offered one last year. Unfortunately, after much discussion, DH & I decided it would be unfair of us to take an allotment when we couldn't dedicate a decent amount of time to it and utilise it properly when there were others waiting for one that could use it well. So we turned it down and took our name off the list.

With DS2 going to preschool this autumn (I still haven't decided on 5 days/week or part time, still leaning towards part time) and then reception the next year, I am hoping by autumn of 2013 I will be able to devote more time to gardening while the boys are in school. So probably about 6 months prior to that I will put our names back on the list for an allotment (the list in our area seems to move pretty quickly for some reason). I can spend the time between now and then learning more about gardening and growing plants/veg in our windowsill (and hopefully in a section of our back garden once we've resolved the dog's digging habit).

My parents always had a huge garden plot with tons of veg growing, and I've always wanted to be able to do the same. I think it's economical (if you're careful and don't fall into the "buy everything going" trap) to grow your own veg, and it just tastes so good!! There's that lovely feeling of satisfaction as well. :cool:

So... I'm on the lookout for:
- what veg I can grow on the windowsill
- what pots I'll need and what I have available that I can use without spending money on it
And then I need to figure out how much I can fit on the windowsill! :rotfl: