22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les

Sunday afternoon already.
Yesterday was good, DS3 & 4 toddled off to ping pong, I went to Mr M's and did the lunchbox shop, so that is all taken care of. I have come to the conclusion that the amount of food in the house, is in direct correlation to how much food they eat. They can decimate any amount of food in a week. We have no ice lollies left, no chocolate covered rice cake bars, no crisps, no jubblies, no ice cubes, no biscuits, and not quite enough fruit spritzer cans for DS3 the fussy swine, as DS1 is off school for the summer and is only getting out of bed to grab handfuls of snacky nonsense and going back to bed to eat it.

So, went out after doing the food inventory, and I found some ys pear and elderflower fizz cans, half price from Her0n, so really really cheap, and some more biscuits in the hope that they will see me through until 12.00 on Friday when DS2 is released from institutionalization for summer. DS3 & 4 are off on Thursday. There will be blood.
Did a bit of a money jiggle, moved £250 from my second savings account (slush fund) because I keep having to pay out money for unexpected expenses, and so I am a bit anxious about running out.

Still have £200 to pay off DS4s residential by next Easter. Will try and pay off £10 a week when the CTC comes in. DS1 has still not managed to get his butt down the stairs and come clothes shopping with me. Time is running out!
I bit the bullet and have made an appt with the Dr to see if I am peri-menopausal - I have about 95% of the symptoms, and quite a few of them can relate to a thryroid problem. The insomnia is getting to me though, I am not upset about it, it is simply a fact I am wide awake, but if it is hormonal, then there is no point lying looking at the ceiling, and DH does not appreciate me waking him up in the middle of the night for a chat (the swine), so I came downstairs at half past midnight and lay on the living room sofa with the tv radio on, and annoyed the hamster until 3.30 when I went back to bed (DH had not noticed I had left).
So DH took DS3 & 4 down to kiddie parkrun this morning on their bikes (downhill there, uphill back) DS4 got his PB, a minute and a half faster than last week(?), made a falafel feast for lunch, made ys rhubarb into a crumble, and as the oven was on threw in a batch of scones at the same time. I am having a bit of a problem with the fridge freezer - DH bought one too small, it is only about 5 foot tall, and there are 6 of us! - he said it looked bigger online and was surprised when they delivered it, but did not want to look stupid in front of the delivery men, so I have struggled on with this too small bit of kit for the last 4 years. In warm weather, when drinks are in the fridge and there are sauces and dressings all over the place, it is so difficult to find a place for things. I might have to pick up a cheap second hand fridge somewhere until I can have the kitchen done and get a big old cupboard fridge freezer (then I will need to buy a step to reach the top shelf).

So, plenty has been done this week, I cannot complain, The blue IKE4 Kallax unit that has been moved around in just about every room of the house, and made the base of DS4s bed until I found a £50 bedframe on the Way of Fair, is up again, and in the back room. This will herald the start of the sorting out of the back room. It does not work, and it needs sorting, so that is my next task.
This next week includes a Yr6 evening leavers' assembly, a trip to Alton Towers for DS2, volunteering, and dragging DS1 by the scruff of his neck to a clothes store and making him try stuff on.

I have enough bread related products in the freezer to do all lunchboxes, a pile of tat in the pantry to fill it out, sandwich fillers aplenty in the fridge, and a meal plan made for the week, the only thing I really need is to buy, is fruit for the fruitbowl and a bag of sugar. Not bad for a shopping list.

Hope you are enjoying the sunshine, it all looks very jolly but my poor DS3 got burnt to a crisp at school, and I am having to threaten them to within an inch of their lives to make them put factor 50 on. Whoever makes a sunblock that does not sting the eyes, or make you look like a badly painted ghost, is going to make a fortune. They would then probably ruin it all by making it smell of lynx sport though!

dangers

Boots do a special face cream in factor 30 which doesn’t sting. Only in small tubes though, so quite expensive.

My DH has also found a good cream on ama*on which I believe is called altruist. That’s good as well and it’s reasonably priced.

f0xh0les

We get through a hell of a quantity of it, in this weather we have to apply pretty much every hour or burn. So no make up for me! And the itchy eyes of hayfever mean mascara might as well be directly applied to the cheekbones. So it is big bottles, and the kids totally destroy their clothes with it. White school shirts do not give up their sun cream easily. My car even has kiddie handprints on the paintwork which won't come out due to the residue. Because they play sports and have hayfever, they end up sweaty and rubbing their eyes and then screaming with streaming eyes. Then the idea of reapplying it again an hour later does not go down well. It gets quite fraught, until one of them ends up with a lobster patch and then they become sensible again.

I suppose I could always get a non stingy one for their face and neck, and a normal cheapy one to hose the rest of them down with,oh the trauma of red haired children!

***Just read on the website from the manufacturer to keep away from eyes as it does sting.

PurpleFairy26

f0xh0les wrote: »

We get through a hell of a quantity of it, in this weather we have to apply pretty much every hour or burn. So no make up for me! And the itchy eyes of hayfever mean mascara might as well be directly applied to the cheekbones. So it is big bottles, and the kids totally destroy their clothes with it. White school shirts do not give up their sun cream easily. My car even has kiddie handprints on the paintwork which won't come out due to the residue. Because they play sports and have hayfever, they end up sweaty and rubbing their eyes and then screaming with streaming eyes. Then the idea of reapplying it again an hour later does not go down well. It gets quite fraught, until one of them ends up with a lobster patch and then they become sensible again.

I suppose I could always get a non stingy one for their face and neck, and a normal cheapy one to hose the rest of them down with,oh the trauma of red haired children!

***Just read on the website from the manufacturer to keep away from eyes as it does sting.

Have you tried P 20 suncream. Not cheapest but can get it in b and m if lucky. Not the continuous spray aerosol type one just normal spray or lotion. Works wonders and don't have to reapply by the hour. Tested by a milk bottle here and worked. First one I've found that does.

cannugec5

P20 is available on prescription if you have a particular condition that requires it - in Scotland anyway, where all scripts are free...

greenbee

cannugec5 wrote: »

P20 is available on prescription if you have a particular condition that requires it - in Scotland anyway, where all scripts are free...

I'm not sure whether having red hair will count

wishingthemortgaheaway

P20 is great they do a factor 50 one as well. But I've stopped using it on my face because no matter how hard I try, I always seem to get the taste of it in my mouth and it's beyond grim.

There's a b00ts factor 50 swim/water one - white bottle, blue spray cap that kept us all milk bottle white in last year's super summer, Which was fine on faces.

Wish.

f0xh0les

But none of them work unless the little people use them. I can grease them up at 8am, and send them in with a bottle in their bags, and they do not use any more until I pick them up at 4.30 after athletics or football. Once DS3 takes his glasses off he looks like a red raccoon.

It looks like clothes shopping for DS1 is on the cards today - at least if I get him a few pairs of trousers and T's, then I will know his size and what he likes, and then can hit the charity shops. His kit list is 4 pairs of trousers, 3 pairs of tracksuit bottoms, 4 pairs of shorts etc .... he doesn't even have that many clothes at home! They will all be reused for college (except the trackie bottoms) anyway.

apple_muncher

Have the in-laws descended on you yet? I'm guessing not, as I'm sure you'd have mentioned them... Wishing you lots of strength and patience...

f0xh0les

We are meeting up with them (and their extended family and various on-hangers) at the weekend, so that they can show off their son and grandchildren. Then they are coming over here next week (while DH is at work - joy!) for an undisclosed amount of time, arriving on an as yet undisclosed day, and they have decided to find accommodation about a 20-25 minute drive away, possibly, that they have not yet booked.
I am actually quite relaxed about the whole thing. By now I have usually cleaned the house to within an inch of its life, been stressed about what I am going to feed them and their made up food allergies (it becomes 'avoidances' or 'occasionally allowed' if it is something they want to eat). So far I have done nothing. There needs to be some hard core cleaning before they come, but I am not driving myself nuts over them this time. I am still planning on going off to my volunteering session while they are here, I have a dr apointment, and I am hoping for a few days of torrential downpours. Step-gran will no doubt fall just before they get here, but that is traditional (and also unsubstantiated). There are a whole raft of undercurrents and power dynamics and nonsense that I am not stressing about just now. I simply no longer care.