make do and mend for tougher times

Popperwell

Morning All,
Spent most of the night dozing or blogging...

Well today if everything defrosts as it should the main meal will be a kind casserole in the SC(Again)Turkey mince, Bacon, Vegetables and potatoes...(I'll boil the vegetables slightly)and brown the mince then put in the SC.

I probably could do it quickly on a hob but I'm not in a hurry...

I think a few hours at slow heat will be ok but it allows me to eat when I feel ready. It's quite a small portion so I don't need to cook more and freeze what I doing as the mince is already frozen in the freezer.

I have some other chicken items in the fridge/freezer to make some varied meals(the other day diced chicken)yesterday drumsticks and chicken breast and belly pork.

grandma247

Rosanna that was a lovely post. Your brother sounds amazing, what a clever man.

Would it be possible to give your gift plus £25.00 plus a book about personal finance such as ones Martin has written or recommends?

GreyQueen

OMG VJsMum, what a mess. Is the OH's passport lost-lost or lost-in-the-house lost IYSWIM? I guess that might be unanswerable............

Fuddle, don't you dare call yourself a flake. You come across as a lovely caring person who has had some troubles in her life, and who is rising above them with courage, dignity and humour. And you're a great Mum to your girls and don't you forget it.

I was a semi-feral youngster and very willful and the ultimate incitement was to tell me I couldn't do anything.........then I'd have to go and do it, on general principles, of course. Even if I hadn't intended to do it in the first place. I was living 50 miles away from home at 16 and 400 miles away at 18 and mostly incommunicado with my parents apart from a weekly exchange of letters. You grow and learn. Sometimes it's scary but when you get past that fright, and realise that you coped, you grow in confidence and maturity.

I'm concerned about this business with the coin meters for fuel. I lived in bedsits with these things 30 years ago and didn't know they still existed. Does this gentleman have any contact with the learning disabilities team in the local social serives department? It is horrible to think that a vulnerable person might be being exploited, which is often all too common, unfortunately. I occasionally deal with the LD team as part of my job and have found them very kind and caring, although some clients have taken grave exception to every single member of staff assigned to help them, and have effectively exhausted all the options by telling a succession of workers to leave them alone.

Perhaps Shelter/ CAB/ Age Concern/ one of the housing support charities might be able to assist if the LD Team aren't any good for the gentleman?

Pooky commiserations on the death of your freezer. Having an appliance die is never a good thing, but losing your food adds insult to injury.

Another sunny day here, such a shame I have to go and earn my living when I could be grubbling in the dirt on my lottie, hunting for gastropds in the long grass. They may be keeping a low profile since my mass slaughter and the hot dry weather, but I bet there are still plenty around........and I shall get to them later, oh yes indeedy.

Have a good day, everyone. GQ x

grandma247

Rosanna I just had a quick look at the books. Maybe you could get all three, they are not that expensive. You could put a note in explaining you are worried about the way the economy is affecting people so thought it would be a good idea to give their marriage a head start in being able to cope if things get worse.

fuddle

prepareathome wrote: »

You are not a flake fuddle, you are a very caring mum. You feel deep down ( I think) you have let your children down by losing your home and so you are now going overboard to make it up to them ( again I think) without even realising it. You feel you must do this or that with them all the time as you have to make up for being a bad mum when you are no such thing.

Kids don't care where they live so long as they are with people they love and are fed and have toys to play with and someone to cuddle they are happy. Home can be a tent in a field or a mansion to them its all the same when they are young.

This is what I think is at the root of many of your anxieties - shoot me down if you feel I am wrong its 2am and this just came into my head but you calling yourself a flake has been bothering me since you posted it hours ago I hate to see you put yourself down so much - you feel you let your children down when you didn't. You and your husband are human and you made mistakes, totally human thing to do, but you have learnt from them and you are still giving your children a wonderful life but in a different way from before and they will be all the happier because of it.

Give yourself permission to stand down, to let them play in the garden without you feeling you must be there with them to show them how much you love them and without words telling them you know you were a bad mummy but you will spend the rest of your life making it up to them.

You are a wonderful mum:A

Morning pops, GQ and grandma morning everyone to follow.

pah I haven't thought about it quite like you know but it would make sense, especially as the panic attacks and deepened anxiety (always been anxious re: families safety but not so it takes over my life) only started since the whole sorry financial mess. I do feel guilty about the girls losing their home and do try to make sure they have nice bedrooms to call their own. There's guilt having worked full-time when eldest was a baby till 4 and there's also a determination to not be a mother like my mam. I do believe I'm scared because of my upbringing. I have two very happy, bright, imaginative and kind little girls (who have blips like any other kid and leave me tearing my hair out! :rotfl: ) and deep down I am doing a damn good job. Thank pah, you are a sweet heart and will think carefully about what I call myself especially as it's had you up at 2am thinking about it :eek:

I am going to just let them get on with it today. It's a relief to wake up and not have to go anywhere or do anything. I may take them over the park later with the ball to shoot some basket ball hoops I have found an interesting craft project of dragging cooked spaghetti in paint and pulling it round paper. They can do that and going to sit them on the lawn with paint and the trough for the fairy garden. We're going to the fairy dell at the weekend, it's wooded area not too far from us so ties in with the fairy garden beautifully. While they are having their independent fun I shall be working the house :A lol

Olympics. I'm actually really looking forward to it, especially the opening ceremony. I'm pleased I'm no where near it mind but will be glued to my TV. I'd like to feel proud of where I'm from for a change. There's the money making flip side of course. DH told me that Fatter Christmas was said to be in Harrods yesterday opening the Christmas store early, in the hope that they will cash in on Olympic tourists. Where he's got it from I don't know but if it is true it makes my blood boil..... anyway, nice thoughts. If it inspires children to do well in sport then only a good thing huh? Bradley Wiggins is a legend in our house at the moment and my girls have really progressed with their cycling. Grass roots

grandma247

GQ I will try to find out if there is one in his town. He does have a friendly policeman talk to him sometimes since he was targeted by a lowlife who took all of his money for several months. We did not know about it because his excuses for not coming to see us were plausible.

My husband does not really get on with him so it has been left to me to entertain him and help if asked with things he can't do. He comes during the day and just sees dh for a couple of hours before he has to catch the bus. Unfortunately it was a disfunctional family and the focus was mostly on this brother but there were other serious problems the family had to deal with and it left its mark on dh. Both parents are long dead. We lost them in the early years of our marriage.

grandma247

Ds3 did some lovely pictures with marbles a few years ago. You need trays, marbles, paint, dishes and paper. Put paper in the trays, paint in the dishes and a marble in each dish. Get the marble covered in paint and drop it on the paper. Pick up the tray and roll the marble about. Use different colours to get a lovely effect.

Blowing paint through straws also makes good picture.

kidcat

Fuddle - when we bought this place I always imagined it would feel different and couldnt understand for ages why it just felt the same and then I realised that it really did not matter to the kids whether we owned, rented or squatted. To them and to me home was wherever we were together. (Obviously the boys had issues with the change itself)
Sometimes kids need to just be, not entertained or given stuff to do, just time to entertain themselves its a skill that is actually really important to learn and the younger the better, take some time just to sit relax and watch today.

I am avoiding the olympics, for me all I can see it the money wasted that could have helped so many, if we doing ok as a country then fine but its a little like seeing friends who wont buy new school shoes for kids when the kids have outgrown them as they cant afford them, but then go to Florida for three weeks every year. It seems wrong.

I attended a brilliant meeting last night which was a talk given by a private psychologist, well I say talk, not many turned up so instead he asked about our situation then gave advice, he knows our area well as he worked closely with them until recently. So he was able to advise me on what to do next which was so helpful, he has also given me his number and email and told me to contact him if I need further pointers

Went shopping with DD17 yesterday as I really needed new jeans and underwear. Ended up spending what I consider a huge amount of money as DD ended up with some tops and I picked DD6 up some bits too. I had budgetted for it but still it felt wrong to spend it when it came to me. Am struggling with jeans though, really I would like another pair but cannot for the life of me find ones that do not hang down the hips, I just want proper fitting plain jeans and I cannot find them anywhere its most bizarre.

Weather has cooled here considerably which is a relief I had begun to think we would need to dig out the pool which is a nightmare with DS about.

sammy_kaye18

Well Im back and piddled off to report Still no luck :mad: I have gotten hold of my local MP, ripped the house apart looking for the receipt and even asked them to look in the other account I paid into that day incase it had gone in there by accident. Still no luck.......

I had a letter seeking possession this morning from some other numpty in the offices despite me talking already to my housing officer and I know shes on holiday this week. We are both paid next week so told OH to pay this months rent but I am going to still keep chasing it up as £390 is a lot of bl**dy money when you dont have it.

Luckily I have had a few things sell on ebay - that have totalled £120 so that eases some of it! Ive already withdrawn £100 into my account and will keep the £20 as back up money I think.

So I have £587 - £100 = £487 - 360(owen pays) = £127 for me to find.

needless to say I am very glad there is no birthdays this month!

Popperwell

Kidcat,
How good to see more support is coming your way(almost as though it had to be)good to see that as the turn out was not as good as it could've been he did not just dsappear.

Sweets are a luxury and I look at the price think is it worth it. But the other day i treated myself to three bars of Cadbury's chocolate on offer as sweets often are in a local newsagents attached to the post office...£1 for the three and I treated myself to some sweets on my last trip to the supermarket...all the stuff you shouldn't but it will last me quite some time. The kind of kid's sweets you used to buy when going to school , many moons ago.

So I have some white chocolate buttons, marshmallows, fizzy mix, mini jelly beans, white chocolate buttons with hundreds and thousands on them, fizzy space belts. Tesco's seem to have switched one ingredient and have moved from Beef gelatin to Pork which personally I am happier over. Whenever they use gelatin they nearly always go for Beef.

I haven't had sherbet in years(more like decades)so I found a Barratt Dib Dab and a Sherbet Fountain, a couple of tubes of Fruit Salad Chews.