Keeping up appearances.......

HappyNow

Well done on yesterday HB. I have to confess that my porridge is the Oatso Simple Golden Syrup one. It's gorgeous and sooo easy!

DAY 17 of Fab Feb

• Wasted 80p on sweeties . No other spends
• YNAB up to date and balanced
• No alcohol
• Breakfast - porridge. Snack - yogurt and tinned peaches. Lunch - salad and bread. Snack - yogurt and nuts. Tea - vegetable curry and rice. Snack - 100 grams of sweets!!! glass of fresh orange juice. Apple
• Three glasses of water
• No cleaning whatsoever.
• About ten hours sleep after rubbish the night before
• No Candy Crush

Honey_Bear

Morning Happy Now.

My porridge is made by OH so it's super-simple! He's brilliant at roasts, porridge, omelettes and doing the washing up after I cook. I suspect you're short of time in the mornings, so OSS seems a brilliant breakfast to me. I had to laugh at your sweetie indulgence; you sound very similar in your bad habits to me: 'Just one or two won't hurt,' and we're abslutely right, one or two wouldn't!

1. Spendy at the pet food place and vet. Can't be helped.
2. SS up to date.
3. AF.
4. Breakfast; porridge, fridge-clearing leftovers lunch, freezer-clearing fish pie.
5. Dried peach (not as nice as it should have been and I've got the rest of the packet to munch my way through: *bleargh*), sultanas, apricots, onion, baked red pepper with tomato, brocolli, peas. 8: go me!
6. Only 2 mugs fruit tea. I clearly don't like it as much as I thought I did. I'll have to think about that.
7. Tidying, tidying, tidying. I have a nasty habit of using my office as a dumping ground and not clearing up after I've finished doing something in there as well. It took quite a while to tame the place to state where I can actually see a bit of clear workspace. = Lots of flying.
8. Went to bed at 11.00 so not that brilliant for me.
9. Some Spider, when I was trying to solve some problems, and certainly each time I came across something that threw me slightly. It's obviously my Go To place when I'm discombobulated which I hadn't realised.

Happy Now, I'm finding this daily reflection process as I make each entry in your diary really, really helpful, so thank you so much for setting such straightfoward Fab Feb ideas.

HappyNow

Vet, Honey Bear? Nothing wrong I hope. Well done on the eight fruit and veg

So yesterday was Day 18. I can't remember the details but I managed everything except the Flying.

Day 19 - today.

• No spends at all, been working from home so haven't left the house.
• YNAB all present and correct
• No alcohol - did have a BB which felt like alcohol but wasn't
• Breakfast - Go Ahead (ran out of milk for porridge). Snack - yogurt and nuts. Lunch - leftover roast potatoes and baked beans. Snack - one biscuit. Tea - vegetable chilli, a Pear. Snack - fresh orange juice.
• Three glasses of water, but ran out of time (it was that BB that did it) so I've only just drunk the last one and will probably need to go to the loo during the night.
• Zero cleaning yet again (did empty the dishwasher and sort the laundry)
• Rubbish night's sleep, kept waking up but did manage to stay in bed
• One session of Candy Crush. Alright, alright, TWO. And I passed two levels. Yay!

Honey_Bear

We have an elderly dog that has the canine equivalent of multiple sclerosis as well as a multitude of other problems. Her MS is advancing but as long as she can enjoy life I want her to have as good a quality as she can, with as little carpet scrubbing for me as possible, for which drugs are required.

1. NSD, and about time too.
2. SS up to date.
3. AF. BB is my guilt-free pleasure, and it appears to be working for you, too. I'm so pleased!
4. Breakfast; porridge, fridge-clearing leftovers lunch, fridge-clearing fish pie leftovers for supper after seeing Wild.
5. Dried peach, sultanas, apricots, onion, baked red pepper with tomato, beetroot, mushrooms. 8 again! (I'm impressing myself.)
6. Only 2 mugs fruit tea again.
7. I spent three hours sorting, tidying and clearing things up. I'm astonished at how long it takes to get on top of the chaos. I've been Flying for 32 months and I'm still not 'there.' Mind you, it took decades for the chaos to get this bad, so I suppose it will take a while to deal with it.
8. In bed, on the laptop. Does that count, do you think?
9. Some Spider, when I was figuring out how to tackle the next stages of the project I am working on. Very happy with my progress, so the Spider served it's purpose.

Honey_Bear

I hope Miss Happy and you are having a lovely weekend together, and it provides you with a mid-month boost.


The dog had a dreadful night, which may or may not be as a result of the new medication. I've had a chat with the vet and have a plan.

1. Took OH to the station to drop him off for a couple of days away doing blokey things, and stopped off to get some BB, dog food and a pizza for tomorrow night when he comes home. I could, technically, defrost the pizza dough in the freezer but *meh* he won't be here until much later to eat it cold anyway so I may just as well have an easy night, foodwise. So, spendy but not self-indulgent silly spending.
2. SS not yet up to date.
3. AF. I don't always get the urge to have a BB when he's not here. In the olden days I'd started having a glass of wine with my pasta when he wasn't and that sometimes led on to finishing the bottle.
4. Breakfast; porridge, beans on cheese on toast, pasta with goat's cheese.
5. Apple, apricots, baked red pepper with tomato. Only 4; just as well that I go overboard sometimes.
6. Only 2 mugs of fruit tea again.
7. Just the basics tidying away surface clutter; at least 15 minutes, probably more like an hour.
8. As OH was away I stayed up watching old stuff on The Tube of U. Very, very late.
9. No spider, and with retrospect I should have stopped and thought through something. Never mind; at least I know Spider actually stops me from making mistakes sometimes - I've never actually seen the upside of it that clearly before.

HappyNow

Little Miss H is home and her boyfriend has come up with her so I'm struggling to fill in my diary much. It is still a secret. I felt obliged to spend a couple of hours cleaning both Friday and yesterday morning, so the house is looking good! Her boyfriend is lovely (he looked after her so wonderfully when she was ill) and is here until Tuesday, she will be here until Friday.


Fab Feb wise, I can't remember Friday but yesterday was a bit of a struggle. Only managed three portions of F & V and ONE glass of water, which is rubbish. Still no alcohol though and LOTTTTS of cleaning. Spent a fortune at Tesco over the last couple of days because not only do I have the two visitors, but also some friends of Master H decided to crash here on Friday night and stay all day Saturday, eating their way through the fridge from top to bottom . I'm sure he does the same at theirs though so fair is fair! I seemed to be waving my debit card about all over the place, but everything is recorded on YNAB and nothing was wasty. Well apart from possibly a new blue tit nesting box and some more wild bird food but they only totalled £11 and I love to see and hear them around the place.


Sorry to hear about your dog's bad night HB, I hope last night was better for her.

Honey_Bear

I'm seriously impressed with your Secret Squirrel abilities! Having read from the start I knew the diary was under wraps to begin with, but keeping it private all this time is an amazing achievement. I didn't expect you to post at all this weekend to be honest.

How wonderful to have both Miss Happy and Master Happy around with the people that make them happiest. It sounds great to have a proper house-full, and of course they're eating you out of house and home! A well-stocked fridge is a must. You do, of course, realise don't you, that they don't notice the difference all that flying makes?!

Nest boxes count as one of the essentials in my world, as is the food for the blue tits. We've got a charm of goldfinches we're seeing through the winter and the cost of that is the price of most people's summer holiday. I don't begrudge them a penny of it, although the neighbour who offered to contribute and asked how much would help, blanched when I suggested a donation of £20. She's absolutely loaded and is now avoiding me which is a bit sad as we've been really chummy for over 20 years. Hey ho. I'll need to make calming overtures to her and remember that to rich people £20 is a huge amount of money, and the price of friendship. Lesson learned.

Mrs Dog (for that is her name) is struggling. I need to get the carpet scrubber out today. I'm sad because I know she's in he last chance saloon and although when I take on my dogs I know I won't have them very long, this one has got under my skin. Still, she's here for now and if she will take the drug, can tolerate it and it works, we've got her for a little bit longer.

1. NSD at last.
2. SS not yet up to date.
3. AF. (How irritating are all those acronyms?!)
4. Dried fruit, goat's cheese and pesto sandwich, sardines on toast, pizza.
5. Apricots, dried peach (bleurgh), baked red pepper with tomato, beetroot juice.
6. Only 2 mugs of fruit tea again.
7. Just the basics tidying away surface clutter; at least 15 minutes, probably more like an hour. And I clean the microwave out almost every time I use it because dog food stuff keeps boiling over in it.
8. In bed by 11.15, which isn't bad for a Saturday.
9. Very little spider, but lesson learned from my non-spider day. When I repeated the project with the things I should have done, it worked brilliantly in comparison. I also noticed something about the psychology of playing it. Each time I launch it, it starts off easily enough and then gets progressively harder. I never want to end a session on a losing game so the result is that the longer I play, the less I'm likely to quit. In future, after, say, 15 minutes, I think I'll relaunch it and see if that makes the session easier to end.

Honey_Bear

1. Another NSD.
2. SS not yet up to date.
3. AF.
4. Boiled egg and soldiers, lamb curry.
5. Tomatoes and beetroot juice. Must do better.
6. Only 2 mugs of fruit tea again.
7. An hour washing carpets.
8. In bed by 11.15, which isn't bad for a Sunday.
9. No spider.



I really hope your weekend was fab with your family around you.

HappyNow

Just a quick drive-by while I have the house to myself, which won't last long. Thought I really should nip on here to growl at HB for only managing two portions of F & V on Sunday!


My own Fab Feb is still going well although there are a couple of areas where I am a bit rubbish. Firstly, another bag of those pesky black and white mints jumped out at me as I was walking past the sweetie shop yesterday. They are no more .


Secondly, I stayed up until midnight last night doing online spelling tests with Little Miss! Wot a pair of geeks! (although true geeks would have got better scores than we did!!)


Off work for the next three days. Today is a lunch for my sister's birthday - our parents are paying but I will buy some drinks. Non-alcoholic for me of course! I will try and avoid a pudding, but.........:D. Then tomorrow and Thursday are Little Miss's interviews and I will drive her to both because I worry she will be too stressed to drive safely. Over-protective mum

Honey_Bear

Mints, mints, mints and you're growling at me!

1. NSD again. Things are looking up.
2. Still not updated the SS from the other day. Must do better.
3. AF. I was working really hard physically yesterday and by 6.00pm I was hot and tired. I treated myself to two BBs and packets of crisps and amazingly, it felt really great!
4. Porridge, cold pizza, cheese and onion flan.
5. Sultanas, beetroot juice, onions, sweet potato and peas.
6. Four mugs of fruit tea.
7. A full day's Flying - a friend of OH's was supposed to be coming to stay and I wanted it to look good for him. I think I've become rather worringly houseproud. The friend has cancelled late this morning.
8. In bed by 10.45, which was 45 minutes later than I wanted it to be. OH wanted to watch the last episode of Bluestone 42, so we did. Cracking TV and I can't understand why nobody ever mentions it. The good news is, there is going to be a second series.
9. Some Spider but nowhere near as much as usual and only when I needed a break.

Have a great time during your time off with your family.