'supporting each other through really tough times'

monnagran

Hi.

I've been thinking about Fuddle on and off today. I bet she is feeling shell-shocked at the moment.

We had THE Christening on Sunday and it was lovely. The Rev did her stuff and Mia looked gorgeous and behaved beautifully, smiling happily all the way through. Her autistic half brother 'helped' by very, very carefully pouring the water into the font and we have a lovely photo of him and the Rev peering into the font to see if there was enough water in it. It was a wonderful family occasion.

Back to so-called normality now and working up to Easter. I'm busy knitting little chicks ready to have Creme Eggs stuffed into their tummies. I make them for all the people who come into the Drop-in on Sunday nights. They are always amazed and last year one great big tattooed, scary looking chap was in tears as he stroked his little chick gently. He said, "No-one has ever given me anything like this, I will keep it for ever." It takes so little to make them happy.

I have also had my tax code for the year and my pension increase. WOWEE! It's all of £2.15 a week. I am determined to spend it in riotous living. Join me Mar?

x

jpscloud

*Gasp* such irresponsible frivolity monnagran! Mind you, you have to get your riotous living while you can these days. I'm gutted that my "extra" is swallowed up because of the pension, but hopefully I'll be glad of that later. I am 50 this year and have very little in the way of any pension from previous jobs, I was always too poorly paid to pay into schemes.

I'll have to be a riotous pensioner - I rather like the idea

This year at work we're collecting Easter eggs to give to food banks. We don't get to see people's faces when they get them, but I like to think our donations will be received like your big scary man

Glad the christening went well, sounds like a lovely memorable occasion.

I've also been thinking of fuddle and remembering my first days of full time work... always felt like I'd been put down by a tornado when I got home! Hope she'll have the energy to post and let us know.

mardatha

Well we could afford half a fish supper each - or a whole one between us. But by the time you eat your half and post it up here my half will be cold... hmmm.

7_week_wonder

Evening folks,

We have lots of snow here at the moment. Mardatha it must be much worse for you up in the hills.

Monnagran, I'm glad the christening went well - I trust the cakes received raptuous praise!

Fuddle - hope you have two minutes at some point during the week to let us know how things are going.

And big thanks to everyone who encouraged me to give my pal a wee card and pressie to say I was thinking about her on her mum's birthday. I saw her briefly today to hand the card etc over - and have just had a lovely text from her: she really appreciated the thought.

Just waiting for a pal to arrive so I can pick his brains about whether I should apply for a job I've seen. Scary stuff this being a grown-up!

Cheapskate

Hello to the newbies :wave: dodgy hugs to those in need, sorry have just skimmed over the last couple of days, so prob missed something!

fuddle - hope your first day went well and you're recovered!

Our budget will start to bite over the next week or two - TC down by £25 a week as I've given up my job, obviously money's also down by my salary, too, DS SM discount ended now he's left, DS doesn't get paid in the new job for at least another month, so no board from him - freezer surprise teas, here we come! :rotfl: I think we'll be down about £250-300 a month from April, so it's a good job the freezer and pantry are well stocked to give me chance to meal plan and budget better. Just renewed our house insurance - original firm wanted us to pay over £500 this year, up from about £190, no bl**dy chance! :eek::mad: Best I could find online, after a week's intensive research, was £235., so think premiums are going up, unless we're considered to be a dodgy area?

Easter's being simplified this year, not that we really got OTT anyway. Am making some little choc eggs - got my mum's ancient egg moulds, decent cooking choc been lurking since Christmas, orange oil in the pantry and a few nuts I can cover in chocolate to go inside. I've bought (book peeps £5) a fantastic cookery book for the littlies. I'm also going back to church this week, Lenten lunch after mass has a simple, old-fashioned appeal to me right now - have missed my little church the last few years!

A xo

fuddle

So pleased to read the christening went super monnagran.

Thank you everyone for the well wishes

Great to know about the persona tax allowance thingy increase.

I am indeed shell shocked. I have been busy all day. I've enjoyed it but by gosh what a long shift with only 30 minutes in between. Still, I really enjoyed it. I'm nursing a sore back and knees right now and heading upto bed in a minute. I kept making mistakes about what colour apron to wear for what but I fit in well.

The girls loved breakfast club (mam it was like a cafe!) and afterschool club (mam they let us on the iPads and were baking tomorrow!) so seems my kiddies are managing just fine with a working mam. It's better they're older but there is a teeny bit of guilt in not being there for 3 hours if their day. But we have had a nice chat this evening and nice cuddles. I'm looking forward to the weekend with them as opposed to dreading it.

So all in all really good.

Peanut2013

Fuddle: So glad it went well

Mrs_Veg_Plot

Monnogram the christening sounds fab, how did the cakes go down?

Pleased to hear Fuddels first day went well.

Had pork chops tonight with spuds and made some BBQ beans with some canallinin? sp and butter beans that I had soaked and pre cooked at the weekend. I fried a pepper and an onion added the cold beans with a dollop of BBQ and tomato sauce and a ladle full of water fom the boiling potatoes. Cheap and cheerful meal.

savingqueen

Glad it went well fuddle.

I have had a busy day too. Woke up at 5.30 (had set alarm for 6.15 anyway but even so) and woke kids up extra early to set off for school breakfast club. Then a brisk walk partly uphill to the station to catch train/tubes into London for a course - my first speech therapy course for 20 years - all part of the BIG plan. Brill course but fast paced and hard work on lots of levels - stuff like being videoed and then replaying in front of group to analyse your speech. Not for the faint hearted!

My 2 lovely friends did the after school childcare, one collected kids from school, the other fed and watered them at her house. Very appreciative of their help. Got in after 7pm with kids to have to sort out our dinner and prepare for tomorrow etc.(day 2 of course, only 2 days) DS8 needed a costume for tomorrow of all things but luckily an easy one so scraped items together. Am absolutely shattered and off to sleep v soon.

take care everyone -will catch up properly on Weds no doubt, hugs to all in the meantime

sq:)

savingqueen

kezlou wrote: »

hello all,
been a having a few crazy, scary heart attack making / breaking days.

I somehow agreed to do a story of our lives for a conference on Friday and my god was i scared. It involved speaking out about special needs, asd, dylexia, hyper mobility etc and how it affects our lives and how this group i am a part of has helped us. My nerves were so bad, i don't really remember everything i said as i was so nervous. Afterwards i had a lot of people coming up to me and saying how good my speech was. One woman who was at the table next to mine literally grabbed hold my hand as i was about to sit down and said you did really well you should be proud. She was really nice and we added each other on fb and she's part of TPS. I've never met this woman before so i was complete and utter shock about how supportive she was.

well done kezlou on speaking at the conference - very brave talking about issues close to your heart in front of so many people. You can feel very proud of yourself sharing in that way. :T

want to reply to more of you but need to sleep so night night all
sq:)