22 Foxhole East

f0xh0les

This morning was cancelled due to lack of interest.  Got up as usual at 7, did the meter readings (eek!!), had breakfast and coffee with DS3, slept really badly because of night-time prowlers on the landing and ds1 scrabbling about plugging and unplugging things at ridiculous o'clock in the morning - his bedroom is above ours. All in all I probably managed about an hour of uninterrupted sleep without somebody getting up to go to the loo, DS4s tooth came out at quarter past midnight (????) etc.  

So I stayed up to watch Andrew Marr and then went back to bed  10 til 12, I was a total mess by then.  The washing machine was on.  So technically I was doing the laundry with my eyes closed.  Uh-huh, nods wisely, gods forbid I am not doing something at all times.  

We are still about to start Thursday's schoolwork.  I will wait until lunchtime and then tie him to a chair.  

Yesterday I made another plum and walnut soda bread and a kind of a 'fruit and nut yogurt sprinkle mix' soda bread.  Full of different coloured raisins and cranberries and flaked almonds and pumpkin seeds.   Rubbish for with soup, but lovely with a cup of tea, or toasted, or spread with a jar of date and walnut butter which we got for Xmas - the walnut butter is pretty boring - it tastes healthy - but it works  quite well with the bread.

DH is making his famous semolina pudding halwa today - it has the texture of couscous but is sweet and full of dried fruit and cinnamon and almonds. Nothing like what you used to get at school. 

Nothing is going to get dried on the line today, it is no degrees outside. I object to hard and crackly laundry on the line.

crazy_cat_lady

I have just caught up on your diary and am in complete and utter solidarity about the futility and frustration of unmotivated kids (my ds) and trying to also work from home. And bearing in mind I am actually a teacher so I should know what I'm doing. I have had more than a few days recently when I've swung from utter rage to crying unconsolably. 
Also very relieved to be normal in terms of lockdown frustration and struggling to be #gratefulfornetflix etc. It does all just get a bit much sometimes.
Hang on in there f0xh0les - I admire you more than you know and I think you're amazing.

f0xh0les

Today seems to be quite fun so far.  Got up and it started snowing, figured if it is going to be like this for the next 3 days then I should do the shopping on the way to work at 8am rather than on the way home from work at 7pm.  The freezer is  still full, and we did not need much other than breakfast cereal, milk,  salad stuff, wraps, and fresh veg.  Spent £1 in Her0n, £14 in Mr T's, £6 in Herr L and £5 in Herr A.   Going to be a cheap week! 

So I tootled off to work,  was chatting to old man volunteer #2 who said his tv had died in the middle of the rugby yesterday and he didn't know what he was going to do.  He asked me if Curry$ was open or where was the best place to get one, and I could not help him with that, but did offer him one of ours that the kids use for their idiot boxes until he gets sorted.   It is only little 24" so I dropped it round to him on the way back round and it is the same size as his tv.  The only tv in his house!

Brought his one home with me and we have spent just under £5 on some capacitors, and hopefully will be able to fix it and get it back to him.   While he was at it, DH swapped out the power board from the big tv we picked up in Autumn for free as broken, with the £16 Fleabay power board and it ............works perfectly!  Another bit saved from landfill and £16 for a 38" LCD TV.

Rang Step-Gran - Gaslighting nutjob that she is -  She has had her jab last Friday (didn't bother to tell me)  thought she might be ill, turns out she was not ill, just hungry, yada yada yada.  She thought she might be ill, but wasn't, isn't it terrible?  I am not pandering to her victim complex today. I am just too tired for it. She was very annoyed the nurse did not sit with her for 20 minutes after her jab but went on to someone else's house to jab them.   Nothing is ever good enough for the woman!  Second jab due in April.

So I have done my duty, done my good turn for the day, and had a sausage sandwich.  It is snowing, I will not have to shop again for the rest of the week, DS1 has a commendation for his attitude to his work (WT ever-loving F??) and has been entered into a competition, his EPQ deadline has been extended til Friday,  and  DS3  has also got a commendation and may win something as well (?????)  so maybe my ranting has actually finally sunk into their tiny squishy brains.  Either that or everyone else is even worse than my kids

Soups this week will include Borscht, Celeriac, Miso Noodle, and a fridge bottom (leftover unloved veg )soup.

Suppers will be a (not)chicken curry and rice, (not) prawn and salad wraps-, 1/4lbers and oven chips, tofu and chinese leaf stirfry,  bbq jackfruit, a shepherds pie, and a garlic broccoli chinese.  All from stores, no purchases necessary.

£70 left in the budget.   Famous last words anyone?

kerri_gt

I think you should get a commedation for your patience and having a semblance of sanity remaining.  Well done to DS1 and DS3. Do you think it will spur DS2 & 4 into competition and thus action.  
You've just made me feel bad for sending our old TV to the tip. It stopped working when our neighbours got hit by lightning which thud toasted half our electrics. Insurance company refused to pay up, said it was a coincidence and down to our 1960s electrics and not the lightning 🙄 Now I wonder if it could've been saved. That said given the power actually blew our broadband box and phone point apart which were next to it, I think it was prob well cooked. 🌩

f0xh0les

I would say it was toasted.  That kind of catastrophic power event would have melted and fried everything.

I do really enjoy getting dh to spend literally 3 minutes to bring these things back to life.  That is number 3 we have saved now. Will keep my eyes open when the local giving sites reopen. 

greenbee

I'm with @kerri_gt on you deserving a commendation. Or a medal. Or a knighthood...
I've also got a question for you - I've found some oat cream lurking in the back of the fridge. BBE July... Given that I haven't opened it, do you think it will be OK? And is there anything interesting I can do with it?    I think I got it for when my mum was due to be staying (she has to limit dairy, and given her coffee habit has switched to oat milk - just at the point where I have had to switch back to dairy as I'm supposed to be low carb), although have no idea what my plans for it were ...

kerri_gt

Greenbee you've just trumped the OOD yoghurt I used last week that was dated 19th Nov 2020. 
I also agree on the Knighthood, and pethaps the naming of some very important landmark or institution too. Perhaps the renaming of a small city even 🤔 

f0xh0les

Only one way to tell if it is still ok, and that is to open it and taste it!  I remember using an oat cream thing to make a really lovely garlic mushroom sauce for tagliatelle.   Was surprised it turned out so well.   If you are limiting carbs, then it would work well over  tender broccoli stems.

greenbee

f0xh0les said:

Only one way to tell if it is still ok, and that is to open it and taste it!  I remember using an oat cream thing to make a really lovely garlic mushroom sauce for tagliatelle.   Was surprised it turned out so well.   If you are limiting carbs, then it would work well over  tender broccoli stems.

Thanks! I have garlic and mushrooms. And am currently rebelling against the low carb by very slowly using up the carbs in the house. This week I have defrosted a loaf of bread. So next week I may use this as an excuse to reduce the pasta by a handful or two. My excuse is that I don’t want to waste food and it’s cold! I’m still eating a lot fewer carbs than most people.

snuff2pay

Ok, let's imagine that your child needs an operation. The surgeon can't do it so she sends you home with a scalpel, some cotton wool and chloroform and a link to a YouTube clip. Your child is reluctant to engage with what is to come, for perfectly understandable reasons. You are anxious that you don't know what you are doing, and are concerned that throughout the country other parents are skilfully managing to distinguish between veins and arteries whilst being mindful of the potential problem of scar tissue . ( Spoiler alert; they've really not). The surgeon would love to be able to help but the reality is that a few emails is insufficient to guide you through the process but they are under immense pressure from their employers to demonstrate that the situation is manageable and that their patients are doing do much better that others. And, in a few months time, they suspect that they are going to have to assess the results of this process and award prizes which they are going to have to evidence and justify. Welcome to home learning 2021. If your kids are still talking to you ( albeit intermittently and only when they want something)  if you shower and brush your teeth, if you have not yet sunk to doing your kids work yourself ( if you do stop. Teachers can tell and we really can't be arsed marking it) you are winning. The kids will be fine. They don't need to know as much stuff as we did; they have smartphones. Their life chances will not be affected if they get a level 5 rather than a level 7, mainly because employers have no idea what the difference is. Get them to bake cakes, talk to and help elderly  neighbours,  be silly, stop worrying about being judged, stop judging others, accept that sometimes things are tough, be interesting, understand that there isn't 'one science' and evidence needs to be questioned, realise we will get through it and accept that things don't always go our way and think about how we will come through this better.