The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

Pooky

Helloo all

I think most of my stuff is new now - I've had 2nd/3rd/4th hand stuff all my life but as we've been able to afford it we've now moved to newer stuff that will last for years. All my clothes seem to be CS or Bootfair bargains though. A friend gave me a big bag of clothes this morning - she's been doing SW and has lost loads of weight - she keeps passing me stuff which I'm very grateful for but I can only use maybe 2 or 3 things out of a black sack full of stuff - she has a different life style to me and I have no need for fancy dresses, posh tops, dressy trousers and suits.....one of the dresses in todays pile was £70 from n ext....it's still got the price on. I remember her telling me she'd brought it - tried it on at home and it was to big so she brought the smaller size....seems she forgot to take this one back....I just stood there gob smacked when I saw it in the bag. It's not a dress I'll ever wear so it will get sold on - I have no qualms in selling stuff she's given me - if she doesn't care about the money, I will!!!

fuddle

Dun*lm trip counts as me time Monnagran and so does making beautiful guest beds. Enjoy making your new home a home

Rough day today. It started with being awoken at 6.30am asking if I can cover care. I said yes (stupidly) jumped up and went on out. The lady was an amputee and oh so much fun. I moved on up to my normal lady to find her speech slurred, mouth drooping and drooling. I got her sat down and called the ambulance crew. My job is so draining when things don't go to plan. Trying to cheer up a little at the moment. My facial skin feels tired - never a good sign!

DH is tinkering with my car as I type. If my car doesn't work (which it does, it's just got a dodgy ticker at present) then I don't earn and because I am on zero hours contract if I don't work for even a short amount of time I could be decommissioned and therefore lose my job. So yeah a car in need is a car desperately needed to stay on the road. Definitely pressure.

OS? Not really today. We're having sausages and baked beans.

greenbee

Quick Q for the gardeners (Mrs LW/HWKs, GQ etc) on the thread. I have a plum tree (Victoria by the looks of things). It needs major pruning over the next few years (as does the apple) as it has been let grow too tall for the fruit to be accessible. This year a lot of the fruit is buggy or has shrivelled on the tree - there is still masses of useable stuff. I know it is the wrong time to prune it, but there are lots of dead branches in there. Is it OK to clear those out now?

kezlou

Hi everyone, got back late Tuesday evening.
Such a lovely relaxing weekend, will catch with you all soon x

greenbee

Tallu wrote: »

Bit of a long shot, but does anyone have any OS style tips for beating tiredness?

I slept through my alarm today making me inexcusably late for work, I will get a warning if it happens again feeling a bit hopeless really!

Who knew teasmaids were £70! :eek:

I've been to the doctors previously for feeling constantly a couple of years ago - don't think there's much they can do really as it's such a common complaint and often not a lot actually wrong.

Anyway - any suggestions for waking up feeling refreshed would be gratefully received, I'm sure some of you with big families have some excellent ideas!

Go to bed earlier... you need to get yourself into a good sleep routine. No screen time for a couple of hours before bed, maybe a warm bath. But if you have to be up before 8am tomorrow you should be offline by now...

whiteguineapig

this isn't medical advice tallu , i am taking a tub of iron tablets from tesco and feeling more perky (this is my 2nd tub so i will stop after this one) i have taken it in the past so i know its ok for me
maybe you could get a doctors check if you'r feeling tired for too long, there may be an underlying cause

FairyPrincessk

Tallu the best advice is always to get more sleep if you need it. I need around 9 hours, and needed more before I hit 30. It can take you awhile to catch up on a deficit, so give yourself a few months to feel better if you start a new sleep regime.

As for OS advice, my magazines and books recommend:

-a hot bath before bed
-wearing bedsocks or using a hot water bottle
-making sure to wind down and relax before bed (no screen time)
-invigorating stretches in the morning
-brisk exercise at some point during the day
-national cocoa (this was a wartime tip to "add pep in your step" and help you take an interest in things) I've never found an info about what was in it, buy my guess is that it may have been a malted cocoa containing B and or D vitamins. The adverts say to "ask for it at work."
-Cod Liver Oil
-Eating your leafy greens (see B vitamins above and the Iron one of the posters above mentioned).

Of course, if you think there may be an underlying cause it won't hurt to see your doctor to rule it out. Lots of medical issues can cause tiredness and many of them are relatively easy to treat, so don't suffer in silence!

Nargleblast

Yes, no playing on computers, phones,or any other gadgets before bedtime. In fact don't have any electronic stuff in the bedroom. TV is a big no-no, and if you want to read in bed read a proper, dead-tree-format book. It has been proved that blue light from phones and other gadgets interfere with the sleep mechanism in the brain. Regular bedtime and regular getting up times are essential, and no caffeine drinks in the evenings.

kezlou

morning all!

aw poor animals, have to say the weather has most definitely changed.

Staying in the moors was amazing, so relaxing and peaceful.
Ignored the inlaws and did not rise to the bait. Instead OH and his older sister stopped it in its tracks, so i didn't have to say a bad word.

Had young children following me everywhere including two teenagers was so funny. Inlaws weren't impressed because the two babbas aged 4 and 18 months ignored them and came running to me and demanded cuddles.

Gorgeous barn conversion, surrounded by farms, our hosts were amazing and were very friendly. Ours was about 2 meters from the farm house half way down the valley, woke up the most amazing sites including looking up at a window and seeing a sheep staring back at you. Spent our evenings playing with the youngsters in front of a wood stove drawing, reading stories and playing. No tv, no internet, no signal just absolute heaven.

OH's older sister friends visited and thought i was amazing as i kept four under fives and a hyper 10 yr old and two teenagers constantly amused. DS2 had a a meltdown in one place, but no one batted an eyelid. Just felt so nice being around people with no preconceptions.

Very old style living for a week but it was lovely, so jealous OH grew up there.

Plan for today more uniform checking and see if the blackberries have ripened funally

savingqueen

Hello everyone

Hope things are a little less stressful now Jazee and your DH gets some well earned time off.

Monna - sounds like you are getting your new pad more cozy,

PIC - well done with the cat rehoming.

Nutty - big congrats on the manager's post - well deserved and a late honeymoon sounds just the thing too. You are going from strength to strength and brilliant to hear!

Had a couple of goods days myself. 2 days ago went on a lovely ramble through our favourite woods and managed to find a route we had missed before. DS10 wanted to pick blackberries (as did I) but I knew we would hold up DS7 and DH so promised to take DS10 this weekend on our own. DS10 compensated by picking them as we walked along and stuffing them in his mouth finally covered in purple and saying he had a tummy ache!

Yesterday we had another long awaited family day out courtesy of Mister Teehees to a safari park. Was a cheap day out all considered but still needed to find petrol money and ice cream money so couldn't be going all the time. We were all absolutely thrilled to see a lion sidle right past our car, his face nearly touching the driver's window (I was driving). We also got very close to several bears which also thrilled us and scared us a little too as they can damage cars. We have yet to have a monkey on our car and the very last drive through we did I tried to call a monkey over and it suddenly leapt on the windscreen, climbed over the bonnet, leapt off and repeated.

DH has taken the boys out for a run around and game of footie, seems yesterday hadn't worn them out quite enough. I have a multitude of tasks to do and trying to get those which are most awkward done whilst they are all out. Going to finish sorting out the big cupboard in boys room and going to mop everywhere next. A girl has to stop for tea breaks though - think there's an OS law about that?

..... off to re-fill my mug