22 Foxhole East

kerri_gt

Thrifty if you're in the market for new lycra check out a site called Tikiboo, they have some fab stuff. I discovered them in 2016..warning though,  one purchase is not enough  on a serious note, they're a small (ish, growing fast ) business that is local to me, the team are lovely and work very hard and even better, listen to customer feedback and what their customers want.

f0xh0les

Today could not get funnier!  Managed to get all 3 uniform wearers out of the house before 9.15.  Town was deserted,  managed to get 2 pairs of school trainers, one pair of plimsoles, and 3 pairs of school shoes in Deich  Mann's shop and then a decent pair of trainers for DS3  in Sp0rts D1rect (I hate that shop so much) so just over £100 spent, my budget is shot (had to grab back from the chair fund) but everyone has shoes and can now shut up.  

I still need to buy socks for them all except the smallest who will inherit all DS3s socks as he is still only a size 3.

Went to H&B and hoovered up all the red sticker bargains.  The kids spent their money in there on chocolate and we went to the doughnut shop and they have decided to smother everything in fondant icing. The kids ate one when they got home and were weaving about the place muttering about sugar overload.   They only go every 2 months or so.  I refuse to take them any more frequently as I worry they will slip into a diabetic coma every time they eat one.

Still had a bit of chest pain this morning.  Much less though,  still had it before lunch, but miraculously I have been cured by one of DH's carrot and courgette fritters with chili sauce and rocket for lunch.   No pain left at all. Such a relief.

I told DH that the shop of Lush-iousness have started to do the Snowcake perfume again. So there would be no excuse,  no hunting around for another almond scented perfume in December, that was the one I wanted and it was £20. The end.

I am not difficult to buy for, I just like the thing I said I wanted, but nobody listens to me.

So a box came today - he ran off upstairs with it and wrapped it in paper and came down singing happy birthday,  I said it was his sister's birthday today not mine, he said I deserve a present more than she does, and it was a 'thank you for my chairs ' present,

Anyway, I am smelling like marzipan and loving it.  He made me a cup of tea as well -what a lucky girl I am!

M-i-L was on the phone while we were out, bullying dh into ringing his sister on her birthday, but he can't call now as X is on the phone to her and then Uncle X is ringing, but  s-i-l lives alone in a strange country, and has no lover, or children, and is all alone,  but don't ring after 1 as she is having 15 people over for a bbq around the pool and  is going out tonight, and has something on tomorrow as well, did I mention she is all alone?.    Yeah, she really has a different lifestyle to us, the poor thing.  We aren't even allowed one person in the house or  garden yet.  Let's all get our violins out for the poor love.

Oh, and  did I mention she was off in the South of France with friends a fortnight ago, but it is ok as she is being responsible. 

Everyone knows the virus respects that kind of thing, as long as you are swanning around doing whatever the hell you want to do, you are safe.  The poor thing being all alone and all....   I love it when I get home to a man in an almost murderous rage . Wonder if I will be able to push my kids' buttons like she does?   On second thoughts, why would I even want to?

apple_muncher

Glad you are recovered, and smelling of marzipan!

f0xh0les

Took DS1 out after lunch on the c/s crawl (like a pub crawl, but you go home with  more clothes than you left with) got him 3 new college shirts, got DS3 a 5 book series he will love, and a mad flowery shirt,  and DS4 a pair of mountain Wh0reh0use walking shoes and a pair of @sics running shoes for when he loses his new trainers (sadly a regular occurance). So all in all  a good day, with a lot accomplished and  a lot bought for the money spent.  Once I do the food shopping on Monday, then the ys top up haul later on that evening, I can transfer all the available money into the armchair fund and get on with clearing that. 

So it is limbo time again in the House of Foxholes, until Monday food shop, and Friday payday.

The mortgage will be around the £90,500  mark in September,  so I might just throw some money at that next month, as I quite fancy getting into the 80's  asap.  Headbands and leg warmers, pirates, Prince Charming,  and eyeliner!

Baileys_Babe

Rara skirt

f0xh0les

Top two floors cleaned and tidied to within an inch of its' life.

2km run managed - was alone so thought just in case the chest pain started again I should not be too far from home.  All went well, no pain, pollen was awful though.  More anti-histi's needed tomorrow.  Better a  2km run than a No km run.

Sunday's measurements!  I have lost half an inch off my back, another inch off my waist and nothing at all off my behind.  So down to 33 / 36 / 41 .  But the inch a week loss off the waist, even while only losing a lb a week or less is pleasing.  I bought a diet tea from Halland &Borrett and will drink a cup of it a night for a fortnight to boost the diet efforts.  It would help if dh would stop making puddings! Bad man.  Anyway, all going in the right direction for sub 12 stone by the end of the month.

This afternoon will be finishing off making boxes from the 1kea cardboard,  hoicking out a saved box of bubble wrap for a friend doing ebay sales for charity, and cleaning as much of the ground floor  as is humanly possible in a day.

It is not rock and roll,  but it is a good deal easier if I can keep on top of it each week. It is taking less time each week anyway.

f0xh0les

I realised at 6am I had not turned on the washing machine, so my kit was still dirty, so got out of bed and washed it all, then used (shhhh!  t..h..e    d..r..y..e..r) and waited for dh to come and run with me,  and he did not get downstairs until after 9.30, and was dressed and ready to go to his work building to pick up his bits and bobs.  He said he was feeling awful.   So my run did not happen, and I am at work tomorrow so it won't happen then either.  So how on earth did I wake up being 12.0  ????   On track for sub 12 by Monday.

I will make sure that we run on Friday together.  Tomorrow I am hauling boxes around the place, so we will call it 'weights day'. 

I think the oven is on the way out.  It will not light - I have been trying on and off for 3 hours and it is not having it.

So I am going to inventorize and meal plan again with more emphasis on stove top cooking just in case it decides it is just a large metal storage box rather than a useful piece of baking equipment.  I should be able to replace it next week if it comes to that.   Another unexpected expense!  I only have about £5 in the budget for the rest of the month but plenty of food in, and half a tank of petrol - I do not think I have filled up my car more than 3 times since February. So I will just have to see what happens and make do.

South_coast

The half a tank of petrol could help with lighting the oven 😀 

Disclaimer: South_coast is not suggesting blowing up a Leicestershire street - just being flippant!

f0xh0les

12.0 again this morning!   Went out for a run this morning, I waited for 2 hours for dh to get up, but he didn't, so I took myself off for a quick 2km before my mojo deserted me.  Lovely hot bath when I got home,  Cleaned and tidied the ground floor again. Glued a lot of bottoms of my cardboard boxes ready for the C word.

So of course DS2 is being the world's biggest twit. He is 16 in one month. He acts like a 4 yr old. Enough about that.

Went to the c/s and found nothing, but knew they were having a delivery of fresh stock that afternoon.

Had leftover stew that DS3 made for lunch and a sandwich.   Cleaned the kitchen again. Hunted PE kits, kit bags, then remembered they have to go to school in their PE kit and stay in it all day.  No kit bags needed. All the stuff for pencil cases, then got an email saying they all needed their own 'purple pen' for marking their work- what the flip is the matter with green or red?  But no it has to be purple, so I need to go shopping for purple pens and protractors and rulers (I swear they must just eat them) tomorrow.  Found all the school blazers and ties and wet weather coats. Then walked back down to the hospice c/s and found 2 big wall mirrors (one £20, one £15) and walked them home one by one in the pouring rain. One is on the wall in the living room above the fireplace. Big golden coloured thing it is. It looks most posh.  The other one is a big wooden one.

Watched a friendly football match on tv, then ds4 made supper supervised by dh (red spaghetti), and I made 8 stuffed apples, an apple pie (DS4 suddenly does not like stuffed apples - news to me! ) and a pavlova base and  10 meringue nests.  There is enough pasta left over to feed most of us again tomorrow, so it will be an easy day cooking-wise.

Hopefully I will get the curtain rail up in the back room and then measured so  I can go and see if any of the very nice curtains in the c/s will fit the patio doors - all the sizes are in inches and I could not figure it out in my head.

Limbo time for the finances.  Dh was paid yesterday, but with the BH weekend, I do not think anything will come into my bank until Tuesday 2nd.  So head down, food from the cupboards, and any curtains (£5 a pair!) will have to go on the credit card until the money comes in and the bills go out.

f0xh0les

I put my heating on for an hour this afternoon. It is rainy and cold here. But it worked!  The house is now warm.  I put the loft hatch door back closed (it was that hot a fortnight ago we needed to vent the heat from the top floor out the roof) and the house warmed up nicely.   It may well be socks and jumpers weather from now on though, in August!  

Who knows what the rest of this year will bring?  I do not think it has read the rules properly.  It is certainly not listening to the government guidelines. I need to get on with getting a new roof just in case we end up snowed in!

We are still in lockdown over here.  Nobody allowed in the house or garden. Residents only in the house.

But it is fine for my kids to go back to school.  The infection level just will not go down here.  I am just glad there is nobody in the house that is ill, or elderly, or infirm, and that their grandparents and relatives are not in the country.  They are low risk.

The diet is going well. baked apple and coffee for breakfast. Cup soup and baked apple for lunch. DH is making a curry for tea tonight. I had an 0reo biscuit with a cup of tea at 4pm.  Just the one. It was horrible! 

Spent nearly £9 on school stationary and protractors this morning.  They should not need anything else now.  I still need to buy lunchbox drinks and sandwich fillers, but that should be it.  I can always knock up a few pasties or pies for them.  I am getting increasingly nervous and anxious about this return to school.  Which is daft. There is nothing I can do about it.  They are all fit and healthy with no underlying health conditions. I am going to monitor them closely.  I suppose it would be different if I did not like them, but I do.

3 of the kids have not noticed the new-to-us mirror in the living room. It is amazing what they do not notice!

I got some kiwi berries ys on Thursday, so made a LeShire Mess with meringue, vanilla yogurt, 3 elderly kiwis from the fruit bowl, and the punnet of kiwi berries. The kids were utterly weirded out by them. They taste just like kiwi, but are berries (about the size of a gooseberry) and not at all hairy.   Anyway they ate the lot.  Job done. More stuff out of the fridge.

It is totally 'Stew' weather here.  I wonder if that is Summer over with now?  Autumn does not officially start until 22 September (Equinox) so maybe it is just going to be early this year.  The light is changing and the nights are drawing in apace.  I never managed to grow a cucumber, and only managed one really decent courgette, although I did get lots of flowers.  Maybe I shall fare better with my pumpkin plant.  Also has lots of flowers, but nothing else.  I fear my plants are all shooting blanks.  They are pretty looking though, and I did manage to pick about 10 red tomatoes the other day.

Having said that, the queues around the block for the drive through McD0nalds for the last week have been monstrous.. It makes me sad to think that is what people are feeding themselves on, it makes me even sadder when you see someone taking a car full of kids to sit in the queue for 20 minutes.

I know I am in the minority,  but I hate them with a passion.  They make so much mess, well, their clients who buy their food make so much mess.  We are 3 miles from the closest one to us, and yet I still pick up their branded rubbish from the street outside my house because the customers throw their rubbish all over the place once they have finished (or worse - part finished ) eating.   They just dump it out the window.  I am not lovin' it.