22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les

Well hello!

I am now 22lbs down since January.  12.10, and it is going at a painfully slow 1lb a week - which I know is the way to do it 'properly' but as I have another 28lbs to go, at one lb a week it is going to take until New Year! - well, Jan 3rd anyway. 

Then I tell myself that when I start to exercise it will come off quicker and to stop whining.

I have found 3 old satiny type  saris that have been knocking about in my fabric stash for ages (one blood red, one sage green, and one o-m-f-g  eye bleedingly awful gold/ black geometric pattern (dh bought it for one of his projects and just squealed when it arrived as it did not look that colour online) . I have decided I am going to use them to make my boys kimono style mid thigh dressing gowns.  I do not care if it is kitsch or camp, they will look absolutely fabulous wafting around the house in the morning, in their boxers and robe, eating cereal and looking louche.

- Oh, the re-purposing of the Pokemon onesie that had developed worrying 'ventilation holes', and was too small for DS4 now anyway, but he loved it, has been turned into a hot water bottle cover, with the face hood at the top and the tail and back stripes on the back, and it looks marvellous, he loves it, he went to bed cuddling it last night - yeah, he wanted a hot water bottle last night as he loves it so much. Yay me!

I made a  mask out of some very pretty Chinese peacock embroidered fabric, that was the lining of a waistcoat that dh was wearing when I first started going out with him. It has been sitting around in the fabric pile for 20 odd years, so I nabbed it, used 2 hairbands for earbands - they are stretchy but fabric coated so very comfortable.  I have not made a mask before as I was using one of those  round stretchy cotton neck scarfy things folded to make 3 layers, but there are so many more people out and about in the last 10 days or so, I do not feel comfortable going about without a mask now.  You just do not know how careful other people are being, so why risk it when you can whip one up on the sofa while watching Belgian detectives?  I also made a little pouch purse to keep my money in, and need another one for my house and car keys as they are always at the bottom of my Penguin Books  tote bag, and I spend entirely too long each outing trying to get my keys back from it.  They will now be contained.

I cannot believe that in 6 days time we will have £20k in the extension fund.  Cash. Somehow I have managed to save over £5,500 since January. This is mind-blowing for me.  I will keep on being ridiculously frugal - I spent less than £40 on last week's food shopping.  We are eating really well, masses of fresh veg, I just hit the supermarket at the right time last week and managed to buy pretty much everything ys.

Right, I still need to pot on my cucumbers, tomatoes, and courgettes today, and hopefully tomorrow I will be the proud recipient of a couple of chilli plants from a friend to pot on and nurture as well. 

Baileys_Babe

Fantastic news about extension savings. 

I wish I was able to sew. 

That's brilliant that you hit the sweet spot for the shopping.

in_need_of_direction

I’m more in awe of the weight loss.  Well done

f0xh0les

The scales were flickering between 12.10 and 12.9 this morning, so I am sticking with 10 and hoping for a full on 9 tomorrow.   I am remembering my diet tricks that work - like finishing each meal with a fruit salad or fruit based pudding.   Blisteringly hot already, veg bought for the day, and the dried / pantry goods for the week - no queue at Mr Aldee.

Going ys shopping tonight  after f/b.   Got 3 beautiful chili plants from friend. They are lovely. My patio doors will be their new home. It is the sunniest spot, so hoping for good things.  Planted out 3 courgettes and 2 tomatoes yesterday, and they survived the night and are loving the sunshine.

f0xh0les

12 stone 9lbs  this morning (smug git emoji) so the fruit salad after every meal seems to have kick started the weight loss again.  Yay!

Slept quite well last night I thought, but was still tired when I got up just before 8.  Had breakfast, did the banking and all the silly little admin jobs, until just after 10, when I decided I needed to be outside for a while so dragged the camp bed (who needs a recliner!) outside and I lay in the shadow of our wall, and I woke at 11.30 with one ankle in sunshine (aaargh!!),  and got up and made lunch.  Feel much better now.  I heated some greek shred (plant based kebab-ish type stuff) and they had it with wraps and salad and pickles (no wrap for me). It was lovely.   Not sure what I am having tonight, but there will be a fruit salad and cream for afters. If it works, I will keep on doing it. 

DH is down to 12.6, so only 7lbs more  for him until he hits his proper end weight goal!! 

My next weight loss target to aim for is 12.7 - as it is half  way down the 12's. 

DH has just set a cup of tea down next to me.  He did not want 'to go to work' today.  He kept his bank holiday Monday sacred. I was lugging boxes across the foodbank warehouse. He is still working in the back room - his meeting must have just finished if he has made the tea.

I have a new book to start, but I will just get sucked into it if I do, and the release dates for the next 2 in the series have been pushed back again.  So maybe I will just bite the bullet, prep supper and spend the next 2 days reading. Sounds like a great plan to while away the time until payday on Friday!

Money is short in the budget this week, now I have bought all the food we need until June.  All outgoings are accounted for, but after that, I have £24 in my purse and about  a £10 buffer in the bank.   Roll on payday!

Baileys_Babe

Congratulations on the weight loss.

f0xh0les

Still 12.8 today.  Lovely soup for lunch for me, the fridge looks fab, we had watermelon with lime and mint for after lunch and it was really nice.  Lots of broccoli and peppers in the fridge, masses of mushrooms and all sorts of nice things.  Cant get the youngest 2 to eat peppers- they equate peppers to poison so act like they are dying if so much as a slice comes on to their plates. I mean you can't miss a bright yellow slice of pepper, I do not try and hide them, but peppers do exist and they have to get over themselves.

Blimey it is hot here today. It has been hot for days now. The laundry loves it, I do not - oh! I have some flowers on my new-to-me chilli pepper plants!!!  and some on my peas, and one of the (3) pumpkin seeds that did nothing for, oh, 6 - 8 weeks, has suddenly grown in the middle of my now beetroot pot. Oh well, the beet will be over by the time it is producing. Good job it is one of my bigger pots.  It was a surprise to see it come up though!  Just shows that you never can tell what is going on under the soil.

DH's scan for today was cancelled  by phone just before 5pm yesterday, so he has to drive 20 miles to another hospital and has an appointment on the 9th instead.  I want this to be over, as he is grumpy as all hell when he is in pain.  It is not getting any better on its own. He is getting grumpier by the day!

Today is DH's payday, but because the 30th is on the weekend, no money will hit my account until Monday.  He has bought himself a set of rollers for his bike, so he can ride it indoors or something. As you do. Personally I think it would have been cheaper to buy a flippin' exercise bike - he has announced he plans to set it up in our  bedroom (aaarrrrggghhhh!!!)

So Monday I will be able to tell you my new figures. But until then I am mostly clueless, except that I have £0 on the cc, about £14 left in my bank account, £5 in  my purse, and I am wearing a pair of shorts that I was too fat to get into last Summer, but are now very comfortable, even cross-legged on the sofa.  Hurrah!

Step-Gran is ramping up the emotional blackmail, I suppose it gives her something to do, but I am not going to drop everything and go over there because she is lonely, and she really  should not ask me to.  Apparently she can tell over the phone I am not contagious, and her need is greater.  I should be immune to this nonsense by now.  But it winds me up, every single time.

f0xh0les

Waiting on the bank updating its figures is no fun.   Getting all the sheets and bedding dry on the line, however, is marvellous!!!

Noticed this morning my books-to-be-read pile is now about 2 feet high! I am steaming through them, and have even naughtily bought a few more  (secondhand) since lockdown to fill in the gaps  if one was missing from the series.  I am not buying anymore until the charity shops are open again.  I am writing a list if there is one I want.  I am making a birthday list.

The house is hoovered and all the beds stripped, remade, and the laundry pile was horrific - I did the mattress toppers as well - sweaty teenage boys spending 22 hours lying on their beds (or at least it seems like that) = bleugh!!!! Anyway, they are now sparkly clean and smelling lovely - the mattress toppers, no idea about the teenagers.  I only seem to see them when it is feeding time at the zoo.  Anyway, the house is clean and 90% of it is tidy,  The washing machine hates me, but is soldiering on, manfully. I have books to read, volunteering that takes me out of the house twice a week, and vegetables in the fridge.

I stupidly went out to Her0n and blew £14 on icecreams - I had to take out a pot of soup and a pack of pittas from the freezer to ram it all in there. It was 79p, but usually retails for at least £3.99, so I went a bit wild, but there is lots in there and between that and ice poles, the kids are very happy campers.  Plus, there are 3 flavours  hitherto unknown to us, so they also contain 'novelty value'. Because the world will end if my kids eat the same thing twice in 48 hours, or some such nonsense.

In other news, my fruitbowl nectarines are very boring and I am going to have to turn them into something else.

I have only gone and got mulberries on my mulberry bush!  They just appeared in the last 24 hours. Will keep you updated.

So apart from that, nothing much to report really.  I am bored out of my head, so I am disappearing into my book pile.

DS3 & 4 are not going to be going back to school for any worthwhile length of time until September, I am resigned to it.

DS1 is not doing his homework - he just says he is going to do it, and then goes all silent and passive resistancy.

DS2 says he is doing his homework, but as it is all online, I am having to trust him.

He is utterly bemused at being the one who is doing the work while DS1 is not.  Role reversal.  or possible Demonic possession.

Baileys_Babe

I've never eaten a mulberry or even seen one IRL regular updates would be appreciated

apple_muncher

BB - you go round the mulberry bush on a cold and frosty morning. No idea either about the fruit. Off to ask mr gooogle...