22 Foxhole East

greenbee

It's not usable, which is why it needs to go. It needs too many new bits to make it viable. At least the tip will be able to recycle the materials (glass and aluminium mostly).

f0xh0les

I am knackered.

Took kids to school, came home quickly to have a cup of coffee with DH before he went off to work. Then started on the top floor bedrooms, cleaning and hoovering, then the middle floor bedrooms, cleaned the bathroom and washed the floor, turfed out the airing cupboard, found 4 spare single duvets and no spare doubles. They need to go. Where are the spare doubles??? much weirdness.

Aired the whole house, lovely sunny day here, so top floor windows still all open.

Tidied the living room and hoovered, did all the recycling and put the bins out.

Made a sandwich, a hot drink, sat down, and now I am knackered.

I made the rookie mistake of sitting down. I should have known better.

Oh well, it is half past one, only an hour and a half until picking up 3 of them, so might get myself out of the house or I may fall asleep.

Much less sneezing today. No coughing at all. All I need to do is win a competition and the day will have been deemed a success.

Checked the 8>2SH0P card and vouchers from RM survey- there is just over £30 in there for Xmas and I have £20 in V-Opinions account too I can cashout. So budget for Xmas so far £50 with no real cost to me. Wonder what I will do with it?

Right, can't sit here any longer, or I really will fall asleep. Will go and walk about on the precinct a bit to keep awake. Bit of fresh air might do me some good.

Dobbibill

Well f0xh0les what a lovely diary.

In between doing this, that and the other since Saturday I have been absolutely hooked. Now that I'm fully up to date a huge well done on all the OPs along with the rest of the juggling you do with the 4 DSs and let's not forget your OH which has had me chuckling all the way through the diary at the 'time the weekend starts' even on one post as early as Thurs mid-day or 3pm or something like that.

I am now subscribed and will following your updates.

Dobbi

f0xh0les

:hello:Welcome onboard Dobbi, I'll put the kettle on.:coffee::coffee::coffee: It's a bit early for anything stronger:beer: but I have just picked up YS Pimms pushpop lollies from MrT's :whistle: ahem. It is incase DH gets a sore throat. Medicinal. Honest. :whistle::whistle:: nothing to see here. Move along now..

Had to go shopping as the house was bare.

DS2 (muppet) failed to make porridge in the microwave yesterday. We could not figure out how it happened, but this morning there was a revelation...
The YS golden syrup porridge pack has two columns of instructions, going:

1 open pack............................................................. 4 microwave bowl for 2 minutes
2 fill pack with milk ................................................. 5 stir
3 pour into bowl ..................................................... 6 eat


The twit read 1, 4, 2, 5, 3, 6. He actually microwaved an empty bowl for 2 minutes and wondered why his porridge was not cooked. I despair. I am a rubbish mother. I have not prepared my 14 year old (on Thursday) child for life. It is all my fault. Shoot me now.

This morning, he read the instructions in the right order and laughed his own socks off at his daftness. :T Hopefully lesson learned.

Except I had to drive around the block as he left his food tech yeast behind. Which is kind of important as they are making doughballs. I mean, DOUGHBALLS????? What on earth is that supposed to prepare them for? weekend job at Pizza Expre55? Ridiculous. at least a batch of rolls surely? but doughballs. !!!!!!!!:mad:
It can only be time constraints - I am telling myself it must only be a time issue for getting 30 kids balls in ovens and out and eaten.

Today is OFSTED at the academy!! Well Mr Twit headmaster. At least he did what I said., but then he called a whole school assembly yesterday and told the kids that if the school got a bad report it was all down to them and their attitude to education. Someone is deflecting!

Yr 9 began a chant along the lines of 'you can't blame us for your bad teaching' :mad:'.
We have sadly been at a school before where OFSTED reported the kids were capable but the teaching was inadequate.

Will wait with interest to see if the 'special lessons' the teachers told the kids they would be getting today, will give the school a 'good' rating. To actually tell the kids they would be given a 'special lesson' because they were being inspected!!! :mad::( What kind of message does that give the kids?

I will not apologise for wanting to help with my kids education. Education is not confined to the classroom. To try and keep parents at arms length because they think they are the only people qualified to teach is doing the parents, and the kids, a dis-service (sp?). I know that taking my kids to Cheddar Gorge caves, the Giant's Causeway, and Stonehenge has made it easier for my boys to engage with some of the stuff they are taught in class. I am also aware (and DS1 and DS2 are becoming more aware each term) that they have been to places some of the other kids have not been.
But then again I have the guilt of never having taken my kids away on a bucket and spade holiday for two weeks in the sun.

I will do something about this, in the next year or two. But I don't see the point in taking a 6 yr old to see the pyramids, when they might not appreciate it all until they are a bit older. Unless you were going anyway.

Right, on the list for today is ~ Inventory, menu plan, food shop, clearing a bit more carpet in (echo-y voice)the back rooooooom and making a pile for the tip. We had two explosions in the kitchen last night - one spice mix and one bread flour. So it smells lovely, but needs a wash.

f0xh0les

I have cleared about a 1/4 of the back room. :j

Sadly the carpet in there is just as ugly as the living room one. Probably because it is the same as the living room one. Urgh.

Cleared out the pantry, moved the 2 pushbikes in there (don't even ask!) and hoovered up all the onion skins (we buy onions in sacks, and the skins fall through the orange nylon mesh) and put up one of the spare metal storage unit shelves in there. Not all 5 levels, just 2, but it adds a bit more space . Hoovered it all and now all labels are face outwards, found a few packets of things that had fallen down, I fear I may end up making a lot of pink cakes (found the pink food colouring bottle). Also swapped a big bookcase I have been using for shoe storage for a much smaller one, and moved all the 'not currently in use' football boots to a box and up on a shelf with the sizes written on the outside. I think I now have every size from 1 up to 4 1/2. At least I am now in adult sizes, even if DS4 is only in size 1. So that is another 2 feet of space made.

Still need milk and cornflour, and I think I am done with the shopping for this week. Very low spend. Good old pantry, how I love thee.

In a total quandry about the bookcase, mdf etc, I should offer on freecycle/ local free stuff page, but it is so tempting just to be rid of it down the tip.
I just want a house that looks like a house.
No I don't, I don't want a house that looks like everyone else's house. I am just panicking as DH says m-i-l says they will be here on 15th and my house is still a jumbled tangled lived in mess and I feel judged. So I will just have to pull on my Eleanor Roosevelt pants and not allow myself to feel inferior - after all, nobody needs to hoover my beds before getting into them!

kerri_gt

f0xh0les wrote: »

In a total quandry about the bookcase, mdf etc, I should offer on freecycle/ local free stuff page, but it is so tempting just to be rid of it down the tip.

Stick it out the front on a dry day with a sign saying 'free please take me' and it will prob go. Or leave it by the 'wood' collection skip at the tip - someone will probably take it home with them.

f0xh0les

All the other ones went out the front with a ' take me! take me!' sign. They all disappeared.

Just got the fear that as soon as I get rid of it, suddenly I will need another one. Which is ridiculous. I cannot be hanging on to furniture which might come in handy in one or two moves time. That is what 1KEA is for. I need to be ruthless.

I also need to find a decent vegan baked cheese(less) cake recipe and decide on toppings. That is DS2s birthday cake of choice. I vaguely remember a recipe with swedish glace ice cream and silken tofu very popular about 15 years ago. No doubt will find it in 2 seconds on the web.

Then DH's birthday is 5 days later, and a cake will be needed, he does not want one, but he shall have to suck it up. The kids will be upset if he does not have a cake, so it might be an apple crumble cake.

Then DS1's birthday is 12 days later and another cheese(less) cake will be required. He wants a cheese themed meal with cheese and biscuits and a cheesecake. This from the kid who will not eat cheese on a pizza. Aaargh!!

My kids make no sense what-so-ever!

kerri_gt

Bella Italia do a lemon cheesecake that I believe is made with cashew nuts. It was a little more bitter than a normal cheesecake because of the nuts but I bet you could tweak it to sweeten if necessary.

Or would it work substituting cream cheese with the vegan cream cheese alternative for an easy life?

f0xh0les

DS2 wants a baked chilled one, rather than a no-bake chilled sweetened soft cheese one.

They just do it to make sure I can. I am a victim of my own success.

There is a whole GBBO vegan alternative world out there.

I will blitz silken/medium soft Tofu with swedish glace icecream on a biscuit base and bake. It is one of those recipes that is a failsafe, and has been about in vegan cafes for at least 15 years, but has been forgotten/ fallen out of fashion, again. Probably due for a revival.

Might do a smooth peanut butter one with chocolate glaze, or maybe just a vanilla one with a blueberry topping. Or just sod it and do both. I mean between 6 it does not last long. I quite happily allow the kids to have cake for breakfast the day after the birthday, so it is not hanging around looking at me while they are at school. I mean the poor things have to wait 5 days until the next birthday cake.

DS1 will want a soaked cashew blitzed vanilla extravaganza. with strawberries + fizzy snakes.

f0xh0les

Masses of laundry washed and on the line. Another load waiting for those two to dry.

Sorted the Christmas Cupboard.
Wrapped 2 presents for DS2 and 1 present for DS1. Now have no wrapping paper, 2 fb00k messages that things are coming from m-i-l and will need wrapping.
Not here yet and it is his birthday tomorrow. Will have another hunt round for more wrapping paper but don't think I have any. The laptop needs wrapping too. Got out all the cards and have found 3 his brothers can give him.

Also found some vegan pontefract cakes in a sweetie shop and they are gorgeous.
Have not had any for years and years and years. Takes you right back to childhood. Wish there were vegan licorice allsorts. Shame. This will do for now though!

No after school clubs tonight. Thank goodness. Even though the latest I am back is 4.50, I still enjoy the one day a week there are no clubs. So I will be home by 3.30 and supper will not be in a rush, or a kerfuffle, just a nice leisurely cooking experience.

Tomorrow is parents evening for DS1. So I will gaze into my crystal ball and predict.
1. He is a chatterbox.
2. He is not doing enough work.
3. He aces all the tests he remembers to revise for.
4. He needs to take everything more seriously,
5 He is lovely but annoying to teach.

That is about it. Every year. I could write the script.
Still, have to turn up to play the game don't I?

DS2 is not impressed it is on his birthday

Getting excited about end of month payday on Friday, and being able to get down to £101,999.99 in the first week of October....Hopefully... Maybe....... Fingers crossed