Yet more financial faux pas and many other disasterous decisions

stripes

Kids = Grey hair and wrinkles and I'm only at the toddler stage!

Wordsmith

moo2moo wrote: »

Why are things with kids always so complicated?

Because you are doing the very best you can to give them a great start in life.

moo2moo

Wordsmith wrote: »

Because you are doing the very best you can to give them a great start in life.

Aw shucks *blushes* you make me sound like a big softie.

moo2moo

Washing on the line. All components of project Mouse Bum knitted... am avoiding the sewing up.... I hate that bit. 3kg of delicious smelling damsons simmering away to form what has to be the laziest chutney recipe to date. Going to wash up and vaguely tidy the kitchen whilst it burbles away.

Wordsmith

moo2moo wrote: »

Aw shucks *blushes* you make me sound like a big softie.

And that would be because ...

moo2moo

14 very sticky jars of fab smelling chutney are in need of labels, one t-shirt completely wrecked in the chutney making process. Ingenious though it was doubling the qunatities was not the greatest idea I've ever had. The pan could barely cope and even when vastly reduced stiring caused some quite spectacular eruptions to occur. They'll make great Christmas prezzies though. Total cost a little under a fiver for the batch, mostly because of the volume of spices involved. Haven't taken the four hours of gas into account. That would probably double the cost.

Postie came and went. No sign of any wool. Spotted a soggy looking package under project landie. Humph. Obviously dumped there without a note earlier in the week. Fortunately it was v. well packaged so the contents arrived unscathed. Postie redeemed himself by delivering a shiny envelope containing an early family birthday gift from one of the great aunts. Its generous enough to cover birthday gifts for the four of us and Christmas gifts for everyone on my shopping list and a few more things besides. Will be spending the evening writing a suitably grovelling thank you letter on the poshest of posh stationary.

OH is rather cheesed off. Having asked for tomorrow off in order to depart for the Landie show in daylight his boss has instead decreed he can work the late shift which means finishing early evening.... because that way his boss gets to go to the football. The merchant banker then went on to suggest that I drop DD1 off at OHs work to enable them to head off from there despite this being in completely the wrong direction. No wonder OH gets cheesed off with things at work.

Need to find enough space in the kitchen to soak Christmas cake fruit overnight and then sort out stuff for tomorrows market. Off to source something for dinner first though.

beanielou

Yah for great aunts :j

moo2moo

Market stuff duly boxed and labelled. Both DDs slobbing on sofa. You wouldn't think that DD1 had packing to do or homework or an awful lot of screwed up clothing to deposit in the laundry basket in order to have clean uniform for school on Monday.

Christmas cake fruit is soaking in sherry. Used up everything in the cupboard thanks to Mr T having sold out of sensibly priced dried fruit. May well investigate Lidl when we pass it later today. Still have a bucket of damsons to do something with so will be sourcing a suitable recipe for that although not one with cinammon since I've run out again.

Further plans for today involve dispatching OH and DD1 at the earliest opportunity beforestarting on the list of things DD2 wants to do over the weekend which involves everything from bike rides to watching Harry Potter #3.

moo2moo

The girlie weekend starts here. DD1 and OH have just departed. Its blowing a hoolie outdoors, the windows and doors keep slamming and so DD2 and I are holed up indoors making damson jam.... a heck of a lot of damson jam..... after that we'll lob Christmas cake mix in the mixer and then slob in front of the goggle box with a large tub of ice cream.

Had a go at cable knitting earlier. Didn't go particularly well so I pulled it back and had another go but not before whipping out my trusty calculator to figure out why I seemed to have fewer stitches than the instructions implied. Unearthed a typo and tried again only to find another error in the pattern. Third time lucky. Rather glad its on chunky needles because it makes playing hunt the balls up far easier.

Todays market was dire. Very few customers. Fortunately those who were there were clearly affluent and I shifted five jars which is better than I expected. Does mean I need to make more marmalade though because people seem to buy that in preference to anything else. On the bright side at least I'm figuring out what does sell and I can use the stuff that doesn't shift for christmas gifts to generate a bit of cupboard space.

moo2moo

and so like the best of all best laid plans ours went slightly awry.

Someone snook into the kitchen and stole several hours from our day. One minute it was 3pm and fruit was gently simmering away. The next it was 7:30pm and the Christmas cakes had only just made it to the oven... where they will reside for four and three quarter sodding hours. No chance of an early night for me. Obviously I have a swanky oven with an inbuilt self termination function but the one and only time I used that it blew the fuse and plunged the house into darkness allowing the freezers to defrost for quite some time before anyone twigged what had happened. Waking up to a toddler complaining that the telly doesn't work and theres a big puddle in the kitchen is not one of lifes greatest experiences. It ranks up there alongside the gauntlet performed at bedtime where one sneaks into the childrens room to tuck them in trying v. hard not to wake them by swearing out loud as one traverses the assault course of pointy Barbie feet and an assortment of Lego bricks made worse by the presence of laminate flooring which makes a heck of a noise.

On the bright side by morning we'll have two Christmas cakes and a dozen jars of Damson Jam with a hint of vanilla. Only another dozen Christmas cakes to go, althoug it is without a doubt my favourite raw cake mix.

Wind seems to be getting worse with every passing hour so I doubt I'd get much sleep anyway. It would be nice to have the option though. Its not even like I can curl up with a good book because OH liberated the Kindle from its customary position as the cats favourite sleeping place.

Still debating what to do tomorrow. DD2 fancies a bike ride with picnic but I've a feeling its going to be far too windy for that to be a pleasant experience. May persuade her that a trip to the car boot is a better idea. Its that or Marrow Chutney as the fridge is full of them. A jam jar shortage is imminent.