The Simple Bare Necessities feat. Gratitude & Recipes

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

No, I have to say I agree with you wholeheartedly (now) Cheery. I want to get living life with my hubby and BG. But without making rebuttal excuses (because that is what it will sound like) DH is not on the same page, and won't let the property go for X - renovation costs to save us the hassle of doing it, we've another situation that would adversely affect the value of the house on top of taking off these costs, and finally, what that would leave us with (capital wise, if we sold) would possibly leave us too yawning a gap to buy another property - at this stage of our lives. Part of me couldn't give a fig about owning a house ever again - property ownership is extremely overrated in my view, but renting would be OK until retirement (if we ever get to do that), then I don't know how we'd afford to live. if there was a way of guaranteeing a home, when our income drops, I'd rent from hereonin.

Sorry if those seem like excuses - they are not meant to be - as I am trying to consider all options, trying to move us forward. Perhaps I'm better at being able to lock the door, turn away and never look back with regrets, than DH. I've actually only lived in 5 houses permanently in my life (couple of sojourns into student housing, a bedsit and shared housing), and I've never pined to go back to any of them. If I had somewhere safe and warm to go, with DH & BG, I would walk away from this house right now, and never come back. Perhaps my memories are always based on people, not places - dunno.

It's interesting - that I would walk away from this house, leaving most of the 'stuff' behind. Whilst i'd probably come to regret leaving the sofa, bed, chairs etc It does make you think about 'stuff'. Perhaps another session of radical decluttering would help. I shall try to do that again today - yesterday's session helped.

Garlic mushroom pizza and maris piper wedges is on the cards for tea.

We'll grab some fresh air and exercise (hopefully) today. Don't think we need anything from the shops - DH is tasked with getting bits and bobs (milk etc) from mrL.

I forgot to say, I was going to use the 'ripest' avocado in the salad bowl last night, just as an extra topping, when I cut it in two, it was as black as your hat inside, around the stone A waste of food - no-ones fault, you can't see inside an avocado, but a nuisance, never the less.

Right, best get up and at 'em. I've decluttering to get on with

Thanks for popping by, cheering me on, and up, and for making me think. Always appreciated. Always.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Baby Greying gifted me time and spare hands by napping for 25 minutes+. I have been going around like a whirling dervish, and have put stuff away, in the bin, in for recycling and revised the household budget to reflect increased prices in CT & water rates I can see bare patches of floor where toot was, have shrunk a paper pile (slightly) and have 2 bags by the back door to put in the recycling boxes :j

It's effective when you get mad and active isn't it? :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Still, i'll have to vaccum the bedroom now that i can see the floor (and DH always misses to do the skirting board - a mistake with white skirting!). Never mind, I'm making progress :j

Greying X

Fortune_Smiles

Sounds as though you've got your priorities right Greying - people are so much more important than things.

Fortune x

Cheery_Daff

Gosh you've been a veritable whirling dervish this morning! :applause:

Don't apologise lass, these aren't 'excuses' they're *reasons*, and in any situation there are circumstances and compromises and we don't always do what we might do if acting entirely alone. That's just life. I've never been attached to a house either but Mr Cheery has been here nearly 30 years... I'm always given pause for thought when people talk about how hard it is to clear out and sell parents houses after they've died - I grew up in a council house that my mum still lives in - when she dies (hopefully not for a long while yet!) we get 2 weeks to clear everythig and give the keys back. I understand why with the housig situation what it is, but no time for grieving (or, in fact, doing anything other than shoving stuff into bin liners and sorting it elsewhere). Long way off hopefully! :eek:

Sorry, that was unexpectedly gloomy! hope the sun's shining where you are Greying and you have a cheery day we going to visit some friends for tea so wil get a far more thoughtful and wholesome than we would have got at home and pudding too! :j can't wait

hex2

Coming out of lurker mode to say great reference to Howls Moving Castle cheery daff that's one of my top ten favourite books ever.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning :hello:

i have a particularly boingy BG on my lap this morning!

Well, yesterday turned out to be weird AND wonderful - I'll not bother relating the weird, as that was overshadowed big-style by the wonderful. Suffice to say that the weird relates to human behaviour and when I related both cases of 'weirdness' to DH - he unprompted, and voluntarily said, 'that's just weird' - so it ain't just my take on events.

The wonderful - which does deserve recognition, was, of course, the kind support of MSE'rs, and of a neighbour a few doors down. I'd not seen them in a long while, so sent them a cheery little text to let them know that I was thinking of them. They came back with an impromptu invite for BG to a play date for a little while. The offer was for half an hour, plenty of time to look after someone else's little baby - and I gratefully accepted. And guess what I did with my unexpected free time? Yup, you've guessed it, I hoovered the bedroom properly!!!! :rotfl::rotfl:So one room in Greying Towers is tidy and clean(ish ) and purely by chance and the help of others, I achieved it all in one day, which is immensley satisfying It also turned out that BG is comfortable in the company of others, without mumma or dadda hovering, so that was a landmark And they ended up staying for well over an hour in the end

I picked up a couple of items of clothing for BG from charity shops. It would appear that children's clothing sizes is as confused as adults. As both items fit (with room for expansion in all directions ), and yet are completely different age ranges. Still, they fit, will be useful and I spent £4.99 in total. I wouldn't have got one item (from the same shops) new for that price, so I'm happy.

Tea was garlic mushroom pizza and wedges. I nearly caved in and used the oven chips that I had bought for Sunday's tea, but persevered and made wedges - and as it happened, in the end, they had plenty of time to cook, and were slightly overdone - not burnt, but quite brown, rather than golden. I used 2 punnets of the YS'd mushrooms that I had bought, so 90p worth of chestnut mushrooms went on the top, but it tasted good - you really knew you were eating mushroom pizza, so why not? Picture here;



Tea tonight will be some sort of curry. I think I was thinking of sweet potato jalfrezi earlier on in the week - I have sweet potatoes anyway. There WILL be a side of sprouts to accompany, that I can guarantee :rotfl: Oh, and mrW must read my diary, as I see that they had only managed to YS their sprouts to 75p (from £1) yesterday - glad I went to m&$ on Thursday It's clearly more beneficial for our mrW's to feed a local biodigester with 'waste' stock, rather than have customers buy it at affordable prices

Looks like we may have another sunny day, so I plan to enjoy it. We have to go up the high street later, for an appointment, so hopefully, the sun willl still be shining and we can get to top up our vitamin D!

Yesterday I was grateful for;

communication apps

kindness

the gift of time x 2

Thanks for popping by, reading, supporting and joining in. Appreciated. Always.

Greying X

apple_muncher

So glad bg was happy without you around - that is such a relief! May there be many such occasions in the future.

maddiemay

So pleased that BG enjoyed their playdate and that you achieved so much while they were out.

The pizza looks so delicious, since I have been GF I have only attempted HM pizza a couple of times and not very succesfully, need to try again at some point, but for us Mr T's GF one has been quite good, nice to eat hot and cold which is a bonus, it comes with just sauce and cheese and then gets loaded after a bottom of fridge trawl usually:D

rtandon27

:j So glad you have such lovely neighbours GP! I'm sure BG is a lovely little bundle & a joy to have round for baby cuddles.:D

As always pizza & wedges look mouthwateringly yummy! (...and dare I say again all feels right with the world!;)) Chestnut mushrooms are my favourite - mmmmmmm

OH made us a cook once, eat twice meal last night which averaged to 40p a serving & used up pasta & xmas cheese from the stores! I've also discovered that sweetheart cabbage is super yummy! (and comparable in price to a regular round one) - Dare I brag that the 'old dog' is slowly learning new tricks and produced a veggie meal!:T Will wonders never cease!;)

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Evening :j

apple muncher and maddiemay - thank you. I was pleased that BG is 'self-sufficient' enough to do without us for a little while - not too sure Daddy coped as well mind.......... :rotfl: And I thought the serendipity of it marvellous... unless my neighbour a few doors along reads this, in which case, 'Hello Sweetie :wave:, and THANKS! '

rtandon27 wrote: »

Dare I brag that the 'old dog' is slowly learning new tricks and produced a veggie meal!:T Will wonders never cease!;)

Brag away sweetie, brag away! Sweetheart cabbage - is that the pointy green one?

Well, we've had a full-on day today. Not achieved too much, but kept busy so..... I dislike Greying Town on a Saturday afternoon, I dislike it even more pushing a baby around the place... I shan't moan....... i promised myself I wouldn't moan.........We finished off our sojourn onto the high street with a walk around a municipal space. Breathed in (deeply) the scent of the remaining flowering hyacinths, got cheered by the vivid yellowness of the daffs and listened to the wonderful birdsong. We battled our way up to the highest spot and were totally alone for...... 3 seconds, and then I kid you not, the world and his wife decided that they too wanted to be up there....... It seems to happen alot - why is that? I could understand if folks were milling around and arriving and leaving, but to be desserted one minute and then squashed in like sardines the next - what is that all about?

I bought bananas and tinned tomatoes. I battled over to a charity shop, hoping that a top for BG, I had seen yesterday would still be there - it was not. Note to self, don't dither, buy things when you see them, especially if they are fairly priced......

Tea this evening was curry. It was a little bit more 'made up' than I anticipated, but to be honest, if I had had to make something from a recipe, I think we would have been eating sardines on toast - I'm shattered (all this wielding of a hoover I expect, it's bad for you I tell ya, bad for ya! :rotfl:). As it was, I came up with some dhal out of the freezer, along with a small portion of black-eye bean curry. I made up a chickpea curry, using a paste of onion, garlic and ginger, some left over carrot puree, a tin of tomatoes, some zanzibar spice, some cooked chickpeas and some frozen coriander. Served up with basmati rice, it looked a little like this;



I've had a hargen darse icecream (white chocolate and almond) for dessert - 4 for £1 from h3ron. Think I'll stick with me mAgnums in future...........

Today I am grateful for these 3 things;

beautiful sunshine

DH accomplishing jobs here and there - helps to knock them off the list

Bees, blooms and birdsong

Ta for popping in, reading and commenting. Appreciated. Greatly. By me. Thank you.

Greying X