My home is a mess

Emm-in-a-pickle

Dibuzz, at least you`re keeping up with pots & laundry, just basic `tick-over` stuff but it is Sunday (? yes!)

I`ve been Outdoorsing....I don`t have a lawn, it`s more a lumpy wild grassy patch with some HUGE tussocks that have a random distribution....I sometimes get Strimmer Man to come and blitz the lot, but that`s a bit too drastic, so I just attack a few at a time of the largest tussocks with garden shears. I feel this looks a bit silly but it does work. Next door`s are out today, so no audience! I set the timer and, very surprised, I cleared a 2 square meter patch in 18 minutes.
Then I needed a change of activity or my hands will hurt, so I have carried a huge pile of last years privet cuttings (over 6ft long mostly) from where they were left to a better spot down the garden where it`s just really wild. Felt like a little ant...
Have to nip to co-op as we`re almost out of milk, then might go back outside.

Emm-in-a-pickle

I`ve weeded my dandelions! I don`t mean I`ve pulled them up, I`ve actually weeded them - I love dandelions, but more vital so do bees, and my bee-hotels (I have 6 now, along the back South-facing wall of the house) are beginning to wake up. So, while there`s nobody in next door to see and call the funny farm, I`ve pulled up loads of nettles and goosegrass and left the dandelions to feed my bee guests. Not that I`m really anti-nettles, I leave a big patch down the garden, but don`t want them near the decking or washing line, `cos they get me!

mothernerd

Love my weekly bus ticket - was £13.50, not £13 but has recently reduced from £18 (trying to encourage more people back onto using the buses).

Yesterday did 2 trips to DS2's with the remaining freezer contents then 3 little (baby rucksack) cs trips. Rested and then a trip to SM at bargain time (5 packs of meat for 80p each).

Cleaned freezer and switched it back on before bed. Went to do another SM run but realised I had left vouchers behind - pulled them out last night when I was checking the receipt, so went to DS2's to bring food back. Will wait a while before going for the rest and will try to clean the fridge (beetroot spill) later.

Planning ahead for the rest of the week. Going to visit exercise class - not to do anything but so it's less strange when I do go back.

Teenage boys - separation is best (DS3 says buy a bigger house, but as the baby he was the one most often getting killed (my ex actually told them it was okay to hit him). If you can swap them out (I know they are too old for playdates but if one goes to a friend's house and the other has a friend at yours).

If you can cope with half a dozen all the same age at once (some mothers seemed to get wary once they got to the tall and gangly stage, even though we had known them all since they were four) it's well worth it (they still liked hanging out together). If they are roaming in a pack, have less food/ less interesting food than anyone else - as long as you feed them they will stick around, if the freezer's looking bare they will phone around till they find out who's mother has just got back from arseda with a car loaded with doughnuts and other disgusting stuff and move on, taking your little darling with them.

Any outside activities are good - skateboarding/cycling/ roller-blading - preferably at a park a good bus ride away (we never had a car but I tried to get through to mothers who did that if they were old enough to get the bus to school they could also organise themselves to get from friend's house and back by walking/bus instead of phoning for mum's taxi).

Otherwise games consoles/tv/computer games or encourage them onto older teenage schedule (DS2 once asked if DS1 and his friends were vampires - they all wore black, slept all day and went out at night). And if you get to take them shopping never let them loose in HMV or similar - if it's wall-to-wall black hooded band sweatshirts, even the red head is invisible. Research has proved that teenagers need more sleep - they are not just being lazy.

No it doesn't necessarily get any better. DS1 had to move back in for a few months before Christmas and threats were made - mainly around bathroom habits (28 and 23 year olds). They can tolerate each other in small doses.

pollypenny

Wasted day today! OH spent ages putting an Ikea chest of drawers together! It looked horrid, so we both spent twice as long dismantling and re-packing the blooming thing.

Another trip to Warrington tomorrow.

Still I had to Hoover the bits and I swept the covered way between the garage and the house.

Emm-in-a-pickle

Mothernerd, that bus ticket sounds like a good deal, and it`s great motivation to get you out of the house to make full use of it.
Pollypenny, I HATE getting any self-assembly stuff - the last thing I bought was one of those garden storage benches, and the faff and hassle of assembling it was out of all proportion to the simplicity of the actual job. DS wanted to `advise` and got in a huff when I pointed out there was a section upside down. Then OH took over, and he starts getting a bit Basil Fawlty, then I got the giggles and he huffed about that....

dibuzz

I like putting things together, don't know why but I always have.
Youngest son has an interview this afternoon, keeping everything crossed for him. He's been messed about by his last 2 employers and did 2 days for someone else who didn't pay him as it was just a trial.
It's right next to the animal rescue as well, I'm half tempted to go with him and have a look round but don't think I'm ready yet.
I've washed some bedding which is drying nicely with extra pegs as it's so windy.
I was lying in bed this morning looking at the Harry Potter wallpaper and thinking I really should do something about it

pollypenny

No problem returning at Ikea today. Home now, feet up in conservatory, looking at garden which needs work!

It never ends!


Hope your son's interview goes well, Dibuzz.

dibuzz

He thought it went ok, I was getting worried when he was still out after 3 and a half hours but he said they did a group thing as well. He just has to wait and see what happens now.

I've done more washing and cleaned the living room so at least there's something to write in my diary for today.

Emm-in-a-pickle

Fingers crossed for your youngest, Dibuzz. Hateful trick that `trial` work and not getting paid. I wonder how much that employer saves on wages in a year - your lad probably wasn`t the first -or last!

I`ve done lots of bitty stuff today, lots of stuff put away, lots of trotting up and down stairs, general tidying, plus a bit more garden tidying. Not a lot....

mcculloch29

Fingers crossed Dibuzz.
It's amazing how many employers use "trials" - particularly franchisees. I once got a Maths student assigned to me who was at a very low skills level according to the results of her assessment. This was odd as people who aren't capable of doing an apprenticeship (in the fast food industry) were usually screened out before this point.
I rang her manager to find out what had gone on with the 'apprentice'.

It turned out she was on trial, not an apprentice; he had set her away on the apprenticeship assessment to ascertain if she had the skills to do the job. (Which wasn't what it was designed for!).