22 Foxhole East

crazy_cat_lady

Your kids sound exactly the same as mine f0xh0les. I feel as though I want to get up and be outdoors on such a beautiful day but they are physically trapped in the house by the wifi and their phones. Meh.

f0xh0les

Managed to wrangle DS3 &4 out the door and we were in town for 10.15. Bought school shoes for DS3, the only PE shorts in the right colour, he has a pair of already, so will use those - the logo is white so I might have to sharpie it out. They will be lost in the first term anyway. I know him.
So did a few bits quickly, and bought doughnuts from doughnotts - who do a wickedly decadent range of vegan doughnuts - I think we ended up with a couple of cinnamon swirls, a strawberry milkshake, a snickers, and two avocado pizza shaped wedges. They are 3 for £6 and the kids had holiday money left over that they wanted to spend, so I made up the difference. Will try and seduce dh tonight with a nice coffee, a cinnamon doughnut and the bake off. He is proving hard to seduce at the moment, as he was stressed about his dad, some of the boys are still awake until 1am, he is in pain, and it is just too damn hot!! Still, you can't blame a girl for trying.

Spoke to DS1 about passing down his calculator to DS2 who has lost his, and he admitted he actually has two, neither of which is the one needed for A levels. So they will go down to DS2 & 3, and DS1 can buy the recommended one through the college so it is exactly what is needed. I suppose it is a kind of recycling!
Cleaned out Mr Hamster (the bitey wretch) 's house. I am not sure how good his eyesight is anymore, he tends to launch himself teeth first at me now, and asks questions later (like 'was she trying to put food in my bowl?' ) ouch.

So I think, unless suddenly someone grows out of their school shoes between today and Thursday (it has been done before) then we are pretty sorted.
So as to give myself no pressure at all, I ended up at Mr M's shopping emporium at ys time, and have enough vegan pasties and rolls to do us Thursday and Friday lunchboxes. Yes, nutritionally they are not the best, but they will do for the eldest three, and I spent out on new plastic clicky locky lunchboxes from the weekly food budget last week too. If they want to salad it up, they can raid the fridge, if they want something else, they can live with pasties and sausage rolls until the weekend. Either way, it is no hardship to have a few tucked away in the freezer for emergencies.

Doing masses of laundry while it is so hot, the weather forecast for here is thunder and lightning and heavy heavy showers. So it is still blindingly sunny and the third laundry load is just finished.

All the bathroom fluffy mats have been laundered too. So while I feel like I am not getting much done, things are still ticking along nicely.

Must buy petrol though, less than 1/4 tank left, and I filled up just before school broke up. That is how little I have driven this holiday. Must do better.

crazy_cat_lady

F0xh0les, I love the way you write - it always makes me laugh no matter how rubbish I'm feeling.

f0xh0les

Y'know that thing about shoes? yeah, DS2 was faffing about after supper, so I told him to make sure he knew where his school shoes were and that they still fit - yeah, they fit I wore them earlier - no, those are your trainers, your school, school shoes and he came back with a big cheesey grin, and a nope, they don't fit anymore. At 7pm the night before school. So I sent him back to the shoe rack and he came back with one pair where one was a size 8, and one a size 7.5 and one pair of two size 8s. I despair!!!! Anyway, the 8s fit him, I have no idea what DS1 has done with the other size 7.5 (hardly worn, still has white paper sticker on sole) and the other size 8 (practically brand new). I wonder if one of his friends' mums' is wondering the same.....


DS1 is now refusing to give DS2 his calculator, as he seems to think he will need it tomorrow (all he will do is get his timetable and book lists), and the one he gave DS3 has two broken buttons, not a big deal, unless he needs to use a 7 or 8. Grrrrrr!!! also only found out after 7pm the night before school. On the plus side, everyone now has the right tie - why years 7-9 have one tie (clip on), and 10-11 have a different tie (tieable tie) I have no sodding idea. Anyway, ties have been passed on. DS2 is now in DS1s old (only two weeks worn) school shoes, pencil cases packed. 3 x kids heads shaved in an appealing fashion. Lunches are defrosting, DS1 is asking when he is getting new shoes. I have told him after payday (Friday) but he needs to bring his feet with me shopping or he gets nowt.

I feel like they spend their entire time with their hands out asking me for things, but when I try and get them to come out and get whatever it is they need, they refuse to leave the house and think I can just get it for them.

They are lucky I have not bought a sack and a crate of bricks and suggested we go for a walk by the canal. So normal 'night before term starts' in the house of F0x.

f0xh0les

Oh yeah, and they all start at different times tomorrow, 8.20 and 8.40, then 9.50 and 10.30.

None of which are conducive to my children's life expectancy. Meant in the nicest possible way, of course.

wishingthemortgaheaway

They are back early.....

crazy_cat_lady

I am relieved to know that my ds is not the only child that behaves in that way of 'Oh yes - everything is fine' only for me to find out at the last possible moment that it's not. Coats, shoes, trousers, socks, pants - you name it.
I only found out last week what day he was actually going back to school when I forced him to look through his bag for a letter from the last day of term.
Hope all goes well and you survive tomorrow...

f0xh0les

Well CCL, the letter they sent home at the end of term saying ds3 was going back at 11am was contradicted by the school facebook page which said 9.50. So I took him in at 9.50 and DS1 too as I am not a flippin' taxi service.

Then got a £1.50 L1dl mystery veg box. Bargain!

DS1's hand me down tie has been rejected by DS2 - so I will have to send him in with £3.50 for a new one tomorrow. Also, DS1s calculator for his maths is costing £22 and DS3's is £11. Will pick them up after dropping the kids at school at 9 tomorrow morning. Job done before the weekend. Tomorrow is payday. All are back at school. Monday will see them at school with all the kit they need.

DS1 has 10 kids in his maths class. He is very happy. So far no letters demanding money for clubs.


Still need to do the stock up 'unglamorous' shop - loo rolls, boxes of tissues, pocket tissues, bars of soap, cotton buds etc. I have the strangest urge to clean the house properly before the weekend. Might blitz it all after my boring shopping trip.
Nipped out earlier and the freezer is now full of 5p crumpets, 20p muesli bread, and 11p toastie bread and.... 20p was frivolously wasted on 6 fruit teacakes. I shall frivolously eat one toasted for my breakfast with a morally suspicious cup of coffee. Ended up spending £2.70 on ys bread products. The ys vegan pasties and sausage rolls went down so well I went hunting more ys ones. Sadly they had all been nabbed. Will try again tomorrow.

That should be all my expenses.
In other news, DH is yawning loudly on the sofa and has already got out the ibuprofen gel for his back - looks like my luck is out tonight (woe!).

f0xh0les

I have set up two new savings accounts for 'birthdays & Christmas', and one for 'car insurance'(January). I will chip in money each payday and child benefit day.

I need to start setting up budgets in advance, not just making do with whatever I can scrabble about and sort out when it happens. I can have 5 linked named instant saver accounts with my bank account. I might as well use them.

in_need_of_direction

If I were you, I’d be setting up a running away fund