Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

Sunday was a nice day - church was online for me but Dh went in as he was on a rota. Lunch was the rest of the chicken chasseur from yesterday, then we went to A and H's, taking his birthday presents with us. J and L came too so we had a good family afternoon relaxing at theirs and going for a local walk.

That's about it: no spending, six 'paper decisions' made, a large bag of gift bags discovered and a  few carrier bags abstracted and added to the bag of shopping bags. Still a million potentials declutterables but not tonight.

Yesterday's baking was 50% successful: the pastries are quite nice, the cake is overcooked and tough! 

Cherryfudge

It's chilly today: we had a hail shower and the heating is on. This is my fault for doing the laundry, which is draped on the airer and hung in doorways, though I might put a few pieces on the line to save the house getting damp.

DH had the first of his new medication this morning: it goes in like an epipen, and so far he's not had any reaction. The nurse was with us for a while to train him and observe for any instant reaction, but we will have to see how it goes over the next three months or so. If all is well, he will move off the stuff he's had for years and onto a fortnightly injection.

He also did all the ironing! DH, not the nurse.

My mental health appointment was cancelled for this afternoon, and I've rearranged for Friday. This is a bit disappointing but I'm mostly relieved as I need a 'down day'. Peace and quiet for a few hours, some cooking for dinner time... nice. I also got lots of sleep last night - seven and a half hours, which is way over my average of around six so I'm sure I'll benefit.

So far today, I've sat in on DH's training, most of which I've forgotten already but I think I've seen enough that we can put it together if one of us isn't sure of something.

I've taken some of the wool fluff out of my pillow (it's sold full to the top and the filling is meant to be removeable for cleaning or to adjust the thickness). I'm hoping that a slightly flatter pillow will at least reduce strain on my neck and poor sleep posture that makes me snore! It would help if I lost weight too, but at the moment I feel I've enough to process without that as well.

I found half a dozen items of clothing and a vase to go to DH's charity shop. I still have too many clothes, but if I can't make the judgements to fix that in one go (it takes emotional energy which switches on and off, so I do it in short bursts), at least I can take a step in the right direction.

Another find: my Nectar card has been missing for a week or so and wasn't with the ones I set aside while we were on holiday. Yesterday it turned up in my purse. Go figure! I've looked through that a few times and there's not much in there as I got a separate card wallet.

Now my choice of things to do is tripping me up: write out the new recipes and add to file? Spend a bit of time listening to my Bible app? Make some progress on the baby blanket even if DGD is now toddling?! I'll let you know what I end up with.

Oh, and the computer programme that cleans files and keeps out nasties has just told me it's due for renewal and would I like to spend money and get some amazing bargain form that expires tonight? Having it has been useful so I feel I need to renew, but is it really due already? I thought it was in the summer. Need to look that one up.

Cherryfudge

The afternoon was spent, in the end, doing very little but enjoying the silence. When I eventually stirred myself, I did the Bible app while I tidied up in the kitchen: I've discovered I listen better if I'm moving about. Then I went and got minimal shopping.

It's too cold to do gardening, in fact I've brought in the houseplants that had been enjoying fresh air, sun and rain. I planted a few pepper seeds that I'd saved just for the sake of it. No sign of the tomatoes sprouting yet, but it's only been a couple of days and I should know better.

This evening I made a vegan curry though we seem to have lost the ginger root I bought so it got ground ginger instead of fresh, chick peas to add protein instead of meat, dried mint instead of fresh, lime juice and sugar instead of tamarind and potatoes instead of rice. It still tasted okay! It's also neatly used up the lemongrass and coconut milk which was the intention.

DH is doing sponsored steps through May and has got his Fitbit equivalent out, but the charger wasn't with it so I searched and found a few useful things, though not the charger. I've also made 30 'paper decisions', though only small quantities of paper have gone.

Spending
Housekeeping £2.83

Cherryfudge

Grand daughter day again. DH took her to the club at a nearby church which was £3 (to cover two weeks as he didn't take any cash last time!) Later he went to meet a former colleague but they both took packed lunches so it wasn't too costly. We didn't have a coffee as we're trying not to spend so much and have coffees for treats rather than regularly. I walked DGD back home but called in to Mr S on the way and ended up buying more than I really needed. DGD was asleep and DH wasn't there to keep an eye on my spending.

DGD has learned to play with dolls all of a sudden, which is funny: feeding a doll is one thing but insisting the poor thing sat in a chair in a state of collapse while DGD does colouring in downright cruelty.  

We had a short walk out on the afternoon - it was a bit less cold and we went round the garden centre - and I was worn out by the time we went home. Mind you, I woke at about 4.15 this morning for a couple of hours (beautiful birdsong, clear pale sky, everything absolutely still) and while I slept again later, I felt the lack of it.

We called in to L!dl for pizzas and salad and I spent £17! This was dinner and apples for DH, then a meal for me and my friends who take it in turns to host Tuesday evenings. We had a nice evening and I stayed awake! I know I didn't make the best shopping decisions but I have pizza and salad left over, and I also found tamarind paste ready for another Malaysian curry.

Spending:
Housekeeping £25.89 plus whatever DH spent for his lunch.
Entertainment £3

Cherryfudge

My day off got very slow so I went to the market then spent quite a while wandering round charity shops, not buying anything. I think my 'saying no' muscles have had enough practice now... I was quite tempted by a nice chunky mug but I don't need it and I do need more space in the larder where the mugs live.

The saying no muscles didn't work quite as well in the market as I got biscuits, marmalade and stock cubes.

I also got some supermarket things.

This evening J and L dropped the dog off with us till they get back from holiday, so I have company and better exercise for a week. J and L are both due to run the Leeds Marathon soon and the dog trains with them so she will wear me out before I wear her out. 

I had a good evening with my fortnightly church group but now I need to wind down and get some sleep.

Spending:
e-book £2.99
Housekeeping £3.50 (market) + ?

WelshmansDaughter

Nothing like a dog staring at you to get you motivated to exercise 🤣🤣🤣

Cherryfudge

WelshmansDaughter said:

Nothing like a dog staring at you to get you motivated to exercise 🤣🤣🤣

It worked! We did a couple of miles round the field margins at lunchtime, heard the larks singing and watched a light plane playing with the sky: I used to watch a stunt plane that did similar acrobatics near our house when I was a child, so that was a happy moment. Other than that I've not got a tremendous amount of energy so I'm just working through the papers by the computer and checking off any receipts against the expenditure notebook. Oh, and reading diaries on here. I thought I slept well last night but I could fall asleep right now.

Cherryfudge

A little while after my earlier post, I had a phone call from my manager with an update on occupational health. Apparently they can't do anything 'extra' (when I was off sick with a broken arm I got to chat with someone about work adjustments which was quite useful) so it will now be between my manager and me. She's looked into trauma counselling and the employer doesn't provide anything else, so I explained about my meetings with the mental health nurse and that there may be a way to get tailored information to support reasonable
accommodations.

I'm thinking she and I are on the same lines: it's going to be hard to get me back in because the accommodations needed could be too hard. I did tell her my basic two, though, and that I'll let her know if I find out more via the mental health nurse. I also said I'd like to be considered for relief work if I don't make it back to contracted hours: that way I could maintain my contact with the people I've supported for so long but limit my shifts to things I can cope with. On a positive note, she liked that idea (it must have cost them a small fortune to train me and it would be useful for them to have my insider knowledge without starting from scratch) and she also suggested I could go for a handyperson/gardener post they are advertising. If it were just gardening, I would love it, and the handiness doesn't sound too difficult as I can do a lot of basic jobs, but the difficulty is that they want a driver, which I'm not. I do know from previous experience that if I can prove a job doesn't actually need one of the things in the job description, I have a chance of being considered (I got a secretarial job that way: I didn't have the typing qualification but I could prove my typing speed and proofreading skills).

This was supposed to be my week off from the cleaning team but DH's team is short staffed this week so I said I'd help him. We walked down only to find both the main areas were in use this evening and tomorrow, so I think we'll be going back on Saturday afternoon. That may be a good thing actually, as it will be fresh for Sunday. It was noisy walking through town as the fair starts this evening and even before it had really warmed up, the sound levels were high. We can generally hear some of it from our house, in another part of town.

Dh did tea tonight - tuna pasta from stores so I have no spending to report.

WelshmansDaughter

Sounds like a bit to think about on the job front

Cherryfudge

WelshmansDaughter said:

Sounds like a bit to think about on the job front

Definitely. It occurred to me this morning that I could also ring the union to work out my rights (I'm off sick because of things to do with work, which has to have some impact). A bit of me says 'just walk back in' but I know I'm still not as stable as I'd like to be and small things feel like setbacks. If anything happened to reinforce those, I could be in a worse situation than I was back in February.

I'm wondering about going in briefly this afternoon to check my emails. I discussed with the manager that I need to do this and get some contact details so she said I could use an office that gets very little through traffic.

This morning was a session with the mental health nurse. We discussed the initial autism questionnaire and it's showing about 50% tendencies towards autism, which is what an online questionnaire showed. That's not as high as I'd thought (must have added it up wrongly before) but she's still given me a login for the very detailed assessment that should give me an idea of what adjustments (at work, home etc.) could be helpful. I've now got a referral to community mental health (not sure how long this will take) and there's a disability adviser from the DWP who will ring me to discuss things I could request for work. I'm not sure whether I need this as my work is accommodating and keen to be politically correct (:) ) but I thought I might as well take her up on the offer because I don't want to miss something that might be of use.

I went on to do a bit of the cleaning at church, but most of it is still waiting for tomorrow. There's a light drizzle but I decided the new wildflower planting down the side of church needed TLC as its very sheltered, so I did that too. Hundreds of tiny seedlings are coming through.

It's been a slightly fragile morning - clouds of change on the horizon, I think - and I really wanted to go for a coffee but talked myself into caramel cream meringues and a couple of boxes of cappuccinos instead.

Now I need to take the dog for a walk.