22 Foxhole East

UncleFeushy

Same I would too

f0xh0les

Will get on with that once the building works are paid for :rotfl:

All ties, shoes, calculators and other spurious nonsense sorted. So normal service will resume on Monday.

f0xh0les

I have just booked to be away for the October half term holiday. Dh has provisional teaching days/times but they will not be finalised until the 16th, which is long after my YHA 1/2 price voucher code runs out. So I have decided I am going to the peak district for 3 days ((Sun - Tues) in a 6 bed room and then to the seaside in Norfolk for 3 days (Wed - Fri) with a 4 bed room. Total cost £94. It is on a credit card. I feel better for doing that.

As soon as I had booked, step-gran rang and I had half an hour of how she had wet the bed again, and couldn't change it, and how she couldn't do these things anymore, she had found someone to clear her gutters, and that her sister is coming to visit her, for two weeks, - they do not get on, and her sister refuses to drive in Ireland - so they are going to be stuck together in that little house in silence with the ticking clock that chimes every quarter hour...... Neither makes allowances for the other. She will still have the carers coming in when her sister is there though. I do not think she is going to be in that house for much longer. I do not care if she has to sell it to pay for her care. Her comfort is more important than some tiny wee house in the middle of nowhere. She will no doubt live to be 100 anyway. But enough of all that. She is well enough to ring me and complain, so she must be alright.

Masses of laundry washed and dried, all the beds changed, all the bedrooms tidied and I got to put some stuff onto the big wall calendar. Must try and look for next year's one, the dates will start to come in soon for 2020. DS4 already has his residential planned and 1/3 paid for.

Found one more book from a favourite author for 50p in a c/s this week, and bought two dresses for £4 each. That was the limit of my frivolous spends.

It has just started chucking it down here, so time for tea and a bit more planning.

I will have some more numbers for you soon

crazy_cat_lady

Enjoy that half term hol.
Something to be looking forward to.

f0xh0les

Happy September!
No numbers yet, as the bank cannot cope with weekends. Pah! 24 hour society my elbow.

Today is a NSD. Lunch was fridge-bottom soup with ys wholemeal baguettes. Then I made peanut cookies and a cherry sponge - you could call it a clafoutis, but I call it o-o-d cherries from a tin with the last bit of s/r flour. I thought it was only fair as I inflicted vegetable soup on them for lunch. I have one portion of pesto pasta, two baked potatoes, a hefty portion of home made coleslaw, and one bowl of veg soup left in the fridge, so if we use all that, and heat some pittas and they can have them with hummus, then that clears 2/3rds of the fridge out. I might make a pizza dough tomorrow, and do home made pizza for tea. Only one will complain about that.

I have a list made ready for tomorrow as it is going to be a moving money around day - will pay off half of ping pong subs, another £50 off school residential next year, £130 odd mortgage overpayment, £130 off cc, and do a cupboard inventory and a menu plan.
I have nearly finished all the laundry, cleaned the washing machine rubber seal, as it is a stupid design and an absolute mould trap. Good bit of bleach sorted a lot of it, and sent through a decalcifying tablet and a hefty dose of white vinegar. Hopefully that will solve the problem. I have never, ever had to bleach my washing machine before.

The first week of September seems to be dry until Friday, so will get on with the deep cleaning and airing of the house while I still have the urge to.

Need to re-arrange orthodontist appointments and make opticians appointments too.

Still volunteering at the food bank. Jolly good fun and nice people.

DS4 was supposed to come home with his after school clubs letters on Friday, but he forgot them, annoyingly he wants to do 3 after school clubs, so another £66 to magic up from somewhere.

f0xh0les

Another Saturday night rolls around, the football is on tv, we are doing quite well - 4 - 0 against Bulgaria. The least said about the cricket the better ( mostly because I do not understand cricket - it is silly). The kids are daft after their first week and 2 days back at school.

Computer restrictions are back in force and there is more than a whiff of dissent in the air. Their behaviour tonight is pretty awful, lots of sniping at each other over the dining table. grrrr. Only another 8 years until the smallest is old enough to move out.

Some rotten swine is helping themselves to the contents of the fridge and the pantry. Went to get some peanuts for the stirfry and there was a scant handful left in the jar. Odd. Just went to get some walnuts to go in the salad, only half a handful left in there. One of my brats is standing in the pantry sticking their hands in the jars and guzzling whatever takes their fancy. It makes meal planning hard when the locusts descend and don't tell you they have eaten everything. Cherry tomatoes are also fair game, it seems. The house was devoid of cereal again - something that did not happen over the holidays - the milk ran out (they are depleting the hot chocolate stores) - the bread ran out (except I had a secret stash in the freezer - ho ho). They just seem to be tired, grumpy and excessively hungry. Normal teenage boys (and teenagers in training) scenario then.

DS2 is 15 in a fortnight. He does not want anything that is not related to his xbox. He is not getting anything to do with his xbox.

I have caved to the pressure and have bought next year's diary, and stuck a load of dates in it already. In flippin' September! Not exactly rock n' roll is it?

I have decided if I pay £25 to the school payments system on the first of every month, then DS4s residential will be paid off in March. They go in May, so that is fine - just checked the school website and it says they are leaving on a bank holiday. So much for accuracy.

DH toddles off on Monday morning to Manchester, and I shall see him late on Wednesday evening at some point, then he goes off camping with his mates again on Thursday until Sunday, so I can get some stuff done while he is away and move more stuff around again. Listen to the radio as I fall asleep, read until 2am if I so wish, feed the kids sandwiches for their tea (never, ever happens!)

Happily, all peri-menopause symptoms (apart from increasing annoyance at my irritating kids) have bug-gered off. Long may they stay away - it has been nearly 4 weeks without a symptom. I am not missing it at all!
It is half past seven, and I have just put the light on, the nights are drawing in, and I want to start winter proofing the house. There are warmer curtains to be hung, draft excluders to be found, throws and blankets to be redistributed.

Gas and Electric meters read this morning and submitted to the relevant people.
The mortgage repayment I did before the numbers updated has left me with an odd number. It is now £95,970.00 and I am very happy with it. Still on track for £94k max by 1/1/20
The millions of shoes that are needed for school / outside school /sports are already starting to cause a problem where I have them. More thought needed.

f0xh0les

Oh, and the heating is still firmly OFF!

Hazelnutty

Hi Foxholes, I relate on a lot of this! DD's first residential is coming up in the Spring and am already saving up. She is also a voracious cherry tomato stealer and scoffer. Literally punnets at once. We once had tomato plants and I never saw a single one as she swept through them as soon as they were ripe, like a one-child locust swarm.

Getting a new diary is totally cool - you can own that! I am always itching for a new diary around April-May (the new academic year diaries arrive May-June) as I will be getting the odd thing to put in it by then. Even went to a WHS in another town as they had them in stock earlier than the local one! I love having a paper diary and the excuse to use stickers, nice pens etc (I have a bad cultpens habit that I'm trying to break...)

Good luck on the winter-proofing, shoe storage and birthday challenges!

crazy_cat_lady

I suppose that there is significant advantage to the fact that my children don't like the same things as me. No chance of peanuts, walnuts or any tomatoes going missing :rotfl: What does tend to happen though is that they get 'their' food and snacks and have now learned that I don't keep an eye on their stuff so they need to tell me when supplies are running low :rotfl: (mother of the year)
It is my dd's birthday in a fortnight too. She wanted a full length mirror from the Swedish emporium which was just under £20. I feel the pain with Xbox stuff as it sounds scarily like my ds.

f0xh0les

You ARE mother of the year CCL, I make one evening meal and they can eat it or whinge. After all, nobody ever died from missing one meal (in my best 'mum voice'). They have their pocket money and more money notes floating around their bedrooms from easter/christmas/birthday/ having seen old people over summer holidays, than they know what to do with. But hiding in the pantry and robbing stuff like feral squirrels with pockets. I need a child size mousetrap*.
Getting quite excited by the idea of soup. I have all the makings for a red pepper and tomato, a corn chowder, a coconut, chilli and red lentil, and a vegetable soup.

I dropped the lid of the food processor last week. Smash. Dh was lovely and just got on to the internet and spent £7 for a replacement. Who even knew you could buy replacement lids??? It arrived yesterday so lots of raw slaws planned. I do love the L1dl mystery veg box - 5kg for £1.50. It adds a little anarchy to my well ordered meal plans. This week I am planning a toad in't 'ole, a biryani (recommend those biker chaps recipe - one pot, easily tweaked, and always works), a stuffing and roast veg and probably a fridge bottom stew toward the end of the week.

I might throw a falafel meal in there for the night DH comes back. Just to be nice.

I am watching the great north run as the cross country teacher from DS4s school is running. It means a donation of course, but she is lovely. I am in my PJs and drinking coffee on the sofa wishing I could drag my lazy butt around a half marathon.



* humane mousetrap