From debt to freedom...

lucielle

Flowers sound beautiful!  Not baked for ages as I end up eating it and my hips don’t need it. 

L

savingholmes

Glad things are going well.

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Lucielle and SH.

Paid £135 off a debt this morning so that debt is now gone. Only 2 left, one of which only has £400 left to go.

MeandO

Well done on another debt gone HSL2! xx

savingholmes

Getting so close to debt free HSL. That's phenomenal. 

Good luck with the mortgage transfer too.

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you SH and MeandO,

Had quite a challenging week one way and another. I’ve been doing a course for Job 1 for the last year. The last part of assessment was the completion of an essay but it only had a week’s timeframe. It’s years since I’ve written an essay and they were very strict about the word count so has been an editing challenge too. I got it submitted a few hours before the deadline but trying to do that on top of 2 jobs was hard. Went straight from submission to a very busy night at Job 2 so was absolutely shattered by Thursday !  So very glad it’s half term this coming week.

DS1 was 21 this week.  Got to see him for a couple of minutes but only by dint of him coming into Job 2 with his friends. That was tough too.

Saturday was busy on the gardening side. I was able to sow some Gaura ( aptly named “The bride”), antirrhinum “apple blossom” and a flower called “Bells of Ireland”. Most of the sweet peas are now up and the cornflower seedlings have just started to appear. Also got some tomatoes sown. As a I looked around the garden yesterday I spotted 2 rhubarb plants that I grew from seed a couple of years ago. They’ve survived the winter and have started to sprout forth new leaves and stems so will need to get them in the ground ASAP so they can be in permanent positions. Am tempted to plant one at the allotment and one in the garden in the hopes of hedging my bets!
Hoping that I can spend as much time as possible in the garden over half term.

DD4 is revising morning, noon and night at the moment for her forthcoming GCSEs and DD3 is getting stuck into her first OU module. Both are putting in so much effort.

Still waiting for mortgage paperwork to go through 🙄. Not impressed with the legal team for the mortgage company. They seem to have sat on documents for a month or sent reminders to my solicitor for a letter she never received in October and that’s before considering the ex sitting on documents too 😔. Am hoping that the paperwork goes through before the mortgage offer expires at the end of March.

Spendless

Fingers crossed for the mortgage going through before the offer expires. Glad you got your assignment in in time too.

 Can understand it being tough only getting a glimpse of DS1 on his 21st, these sort of things tend to bother Mums more than it occurs to the offspring though! My 2 turned 18 and 21 in the same month, for years I dreamt of taking them somewhere to celebrate it possibly America, but we were in a 3rd lockdown, DS lived 100 miles away in his student digs and I couldn't even see him, by the time it was DD's 18th it was at least the week that you were allowed people in the garden so could do something. This was something I never anticipated. It bothers me far more than it bothers them.  It's not something that I could put in place at a later date because DS got engaged later that year so it's not going to be 'just the 4 of us again' and it'll be some time before we could afford to do something that incorporates everyone. I do jokingly say that 3 days after DS turned 21, the dog turned 2, he got a roast dinner and we paid for him to have a 1hr run-around at a private field (his recall isn't great so his off -lead time is very restricted - again a consequence of his training during a pandemic) and I could do more for his birthday than my son's. . Bare in mind that DS1 presumably knows you work there, even if he doesn't know your shift pattern, if he'd wanted to avoid you he could have gone elsewhere, maybe this was how he'd at least get to catch a glimpse of you.

Has DD3 decided to study through the OU? I know a while back she was thinking of deferring Uni to this year's entry. I can't believe you're up to another one about to leave school this year.  

savingholmes

I can't believe you've managed to fit a course in on top of your hectic life. Well done you. 

Sorry re DS... 

Cherryfudge

I'm another who missed significant birthdays - DD was 17 in America and 21 (I think it was 21) in New Zealand. Her choice to travel and it was hugely important in her development, but it felt 'wrong' not to spend it with her. I'll echo what @Spendless says - your DS1 did make an effort to see you, even if it wasn't what you would have planned. It's painful though, and I think only being parents ourselves makes us realise what parents go through.

Well done for getting the essay in! You must have needed the rest that you didn't get... we don't realise how much mental energy is expounded and that that's not just a figure of speech, it really is energy you spend on an essay.

With regard to the paperwork, when we sold Mum's house, we had some missing emails and it was only DH's detective work that revealed the estate agents had mistyped an email address giving us weeks of delay. So sometimes it pays to follow up as professionals may need an eye kept on their progress.

I hope you have some lovely gardening time in the next week!

Honeysucklelou2

Thank you Spendless, SH and Cherryfudge. I hadn’t thought of the DS situation like that. You’re right, he could have gone elsewhere and does know my shift pattern for that day. Thank you.

Did a tip trip today…the tip is only open Fri-Mon so have to get in when I can. Each trip is less rubbish here so can see I’m making inroads, albeit slowly!

Spent the afternoon on the beach which was bliss. The expanse of blue sky with the green of the cliffs and fields beyond was such a beautiful contrast. The sea was stunning as ever, the spray visible as the waves broke. I went with SO and 6 of our combined children which was wonderful. I scrambled over rocks with SO’s DD looking for starfish while the others drew in the sand or splashed in the pools of water. Just my idea of a perfect afternoon 🙂.

Came home and cooked pasties for everyone and homemade brownies for dessert. I love having a full table at the weekends and being able to cook for what is my usual number of people!!

Hope everyone has had a rejuvenating Sunday.