make do and mend for tougher times

fuddle

Just took delivery of DD's bed base from freecycle. DH's work driver has picked it up in the van for us. Chuffed to bits. If I had bought a new base, a cheap one, it would not have been as good quality as this second hand one. For her birthday she would like a pink bedroom. She's had green and yellow monkey bedroom since we moved here. I'm going to sort it for her as her gift. Others have bought her duvet cover, wall stickers and MIL has managed to pick up a little table and chair for me to paint.

Personal question coming up..... bathing/showering. I've always had a bath or shower at night. I was wondering if it would be ok to get a wash down instead i.e. a basin full of water and wash every other night? My kids too. It would save a lot of water/gas charges. Is it seen as dirty though. I remember my grandma and grandad only ever had a bath on a Sunday night. They weren't dirty and didn't smell.

elona

DD arrives home for weekend and have been pacing myself rather than dashing about in the heat.

French bread is in breadmaker and leek and potato soup just needs blended and heated later. Thinking of chicken and veg pasta and dds have baked a sponge and some fairy cakes.

Spare bed is made up, kitchen tidied and bathrooms cleaned and three loads of washing are outside to dry. Still need to load dishwasher and do quick hoover and pop down to shop (baking used up nearly all the eggs).

Fuddle

You sound like a fantastic mum to me and the very opposite of a flake.:A

Mardatha

Wish I could thank you twice.

smiley

You don't come across as immature or naive or whatever the best word is for what you fear.

How come all the nicest, kindest and most thoughtful people are the ones who worry about falling short in some way? Ooops think answered my own question!!!

Hug to all

Going to drag "Henry" round the kitchen (vacuum not some exotic practice

Possession

fuddle wrote: »

Just took delivery of DD's bed base from freecycle. DH's work driver has picked it up in the van for us. Chuffed to bits. If I had bought a new base, a cheap one, it would not have been as good quality as this second hand one. For her birthday she would like a pink bedroom. She's had green and yellow monkey bedroom since we moved here. I'm going to sort it for her as her gift. Others have bought her duvet cover, wall stickers and MIL has managed to pick up a little table and chair for me to paint.

Personal question coming up..... bathing/showering. I've always had a bath or shower at night. I was wondering if it would be ok to get a wash down instead i.e. a basin full of water and wash every other night? My kids too. It would save a lot of water/gas charges. Is it seen as dirty though. I remember my grandma and grandad only ever had a bath on a Sunday night. They weren't dirty and didn't smell.

Fuddle does she like Disney Princess? As we probably have numerous items DD doesn't want anymore as she thinks such things are 'babyish'. Very willing to send them on.

fuddle

I PM'd you

kidcat

smileyt - I am still known for the phrase " I havent decided what I want to do when I grow up!" the others have all said it so much better than I, but I would say that when I imagine you the word immature has never even entered my head


Back from GP and now have steroids to take and a letter to take to have an xray next week - when the pills dont work!! Yes thats what he said - when the pills dont work.

Not sure where abouts you are fuddle but we have tonnes of pink paint if you fancy a tub?

prepareathome

Smileyt - like fuddle said we love you just as you are. Please don't compare yourself to others, you are a unique wonderful person. This friend might seem to have everything and look cool and glamourous to you, but do your really want her life? We are bombarded daily on how we should look like, have, think, be and yet its all outside trappings and can all disappear in a heartbeat. I think we all know someone whom we look at and think ' oh how I wish I could be more like them' and we then look at ourselves and see nothing but faults - to fat, thin, tall, short, wrong car, no car, wrong home, wrong clothes oh list can go on and on yet at the end of the day again these are just what is on the outside and its what is on the inside the real you that counts. You don't remember people because they had the big house up the road or the fancy car ( well fleetingly maybe) but you remember someone who was kind and nice far more often. You sound a wonderful person. What is wrong with loving your dog and not being maternal ( what a horrible world it would be if we all the same urg). As to not feeling as if you are grown up enough, we need more people who are not grown up enough in the world, there are far to many so called ' grown ups' out there and look at he state of the world. If there was more 'childishness' around maybe there would be more laughter and happiness to be found.

Life has kicked a lot of the childishness out of me I know and I became one of the serious baffoons but in a way my bad health is helping me actually reclaim this, yes I can be a spoilt child sometimes but also can capture for a short while the joy of the world in the simplest things like watching the birds come and feed in the garden, a beautiful flower opening. My dogs of course give me moments when I am just enjoying the pure pleasure of them and the love they give me. I look at you and think how I would love to be like you and that is the truth. I have been surrounded by responsibilities since I was 5 years old. I love my children and grandchildren and would do anything for them but sometimes I just wish I only had to worry about myself and the dogs and hubby and the rest of the family would just leave me alone to be me.

So you stay the way you are, don't 'grow'up stay true to yourself.......

I know all serious again, I cannot help it, sorry......

grandma247

Fuddle I used to have a wash down in the bath (large baby bath) when we were camping and in the bath at home when the boiler went. I took a bucket of hot water upstairs. Filled a plastic jug with mixed hot and cold, got a sponge well soaped and used the jug to keep wetting the sponge till I was soaped all over then just emptied the soapy water out of the jug and kept filling with warm water and pouring it over till rinsed. easy.

You could also buy one of those pressure garden sprays and rig it up in the bath. We did this in a caravan. you just fill it with warm water and pump it up and spray a little to get wet, soap all over then spray off.

savingqueen

Personal question coming up..... bathing/showering. I've always had a bath or shower at night. I was wondering if it would be ok to get a wash down instead i.e. a basin full of water and wash every other night? My kids too. It would save a lot of water/gas charges. Is it seen as dirty though. I remember my grandma and grandad only ever had a bath on a Sunday night. They weren't dirty and didn't smell.[/QUOTE]

Fuddle:

I used to have a bath/shower every day out of habit but last couple of years with us needing to cut costs further to keep afloat, started to only have a bath/shower every other day (or even third day) and a good wash down the other days. In really hot weather though I'll have 2/3 showers a day if I need them (well did before our shower broke). Same for DH and kids aged 5 & 8. Sometimes in warm weather I'll have what I call a slosh bath - I fill up bath just a tiny bit, get in and slosh the water all over me with a flannel.

Cutting down on baths/showers also means I use less products like bubble bath, body lotion etc.

kidcat

Fuddle - just a thought but you can buy solar powered camping shower things ( I swear it was kittie who mentioned it) that you hang in the garden to heat up during the day. I planned to buy one ages ago for washing up but then forgot about them. If you could rig it up in your bath/shower it would save the cost of heating the water and limit the amount of water available reducing water costs too.

fuddle

Oh brilliant kidcat. I'm lucky that when the sun shines it's in the garden from morning to night. I'm going to go look them up now