NST - Amazing Aperire

Eager_Elephant

Crikey the leader better post her goals:

Aim – will aim for 16.

Plan – redid our budgets on 1st Mar but have just rejigged the bills budget. Our rent has reduced by £4.11pm and our council tax went up by £3pm!!

Rest – need to definitely do this. Today was not a day to rest as I have been rushing about.

Invite – need to arrange some meet ups. Seeing my work colleague next week, she is feeling much more normal since her op.

Love – last weekend I planted loads of bulbs that we got reduced last year in our hedge border so next year they are going to look super fab. Need to finish clearing weeds and plant the rest. Need to also sort the garden out, DH needs to get mowing as the grass is very long. Plus have the allotment to keep on top of – more flower beds are being dug so will get these planted up as well.

Eager_Elephant

I have been spending today - had a cut and blow dry and my hair looks fab - think I had about 5- 6 inches taken off:eek:
Cost £40 (£34 for haircut and £6 tip) - think this is a bargain as last had a trim about a year ago!!

Also popped to a jumble sale - spent £1 on old cuddly toys for the dogs (they love ripping them apart) and £1 on 2 t-shirts, PJ bottoms (look brand new) and a John Rocha pink scarf (didn't realise until I got home that it is brand new and still has tags on). God I love jumble sales, glad spring is here as jumble season has now started.

On the decluttering front I have a bag ready for charity, while I was putting DS' clothes away (he brought all his dirty washing back from Uni) I told him to get rid of some clothes which he has not worn for ages and he did. I will take the bag with me to work on Monday.
Will just count the bag as 1 item.

apple_muncher

My April aims are the stipulated 16 NSDs plus strengthening my shoulders instead of always trying to protect them, and doing something about my aching hands and toes.

The month is pretty much planned out. We can't plan too far ahead as I may need to go to mum's at fairly short notice, but April seems planned for the first 2 weeks in that regard. As regards debt/mortgage payment, I have reverted to the 'pay over what is left at the end of the month' way. Not one that NSK would let me get away with! But if we need to pay an unexpected bill for mum, I prefer to have it there rather than withdraw it from savings. I am lucky as I find that leaving money in my account doesn't mean I spend more - phew!

Rest - am attempting to simplify my life - eat better, exercise intelligently, sleep well. I foresee several pyjama days during the Easter hols... Or at least not having to set an alarm.

Invite - am in the process of arranging a few playdates for dd and I'm off to mum's to help out big sis for 8 days. Dh and dd will join me for 4 of them and big sis will get a break back home. Other than people living close by, I am arranging no meet-ups as I'd rather spend the time with dd before going away again.

Love the garden - yep, it has been neglected since last summer when dad died and it got forgotten. It's not big, but still needs some tlc. It almost got some today, but the rain pelted down.


Today I am grateful for dd's dance teacher making a special effort to get her a gf/df choc bar, for mum chums to chat to whilst our dds dance away, for a frugal ch shop visit, for finding a pair of black linen trousers for work for £3, for c0sta points paying for a rare treat, for being inside when the rain arrived, for the tulips starting to bloom, for making lemon muffins, for time with ddand dh, for having plenty.

misstara

A - will aim for 16 NSDs
P - have done the budget for this month. It's quite tight so really need to stick to it!
R - will do my best
I - parents are up this weekend so spending time with them and my gran. I've got a meal out planned with the girls later on this month plus a cinema trip next week.
L - this is the first time we've ever had a garden so lots of plans, well OH does anyway. I'm mostly leaving him to it!

First NSD today and I went for a run this morning. I'm aiming to go for a run/to the gym 3 times a week.

mothernerd

NSD #1 in the bag. A quiet day that turned out rather well.

Yesterday I actually managed to start catching up. Couldn't sleep properly (because I needed an early start) so posted on here early. Set the alarm but took a taxi to the doctor's. Chose to see the nasty doctor because lovely doctor had 9 people in his queue (our system is if you get there before 10.30am, you will be seen, as long as you are prepared to wait - always so grateful when I read about people having to wait 2 - 3 weeks for an appointment). Was waiting an hour but had taken a book to read and sorted all the recipts and other bits that were cluttering up my pockets (+ condensed 3 shopping/ to do lists into one).

Apologised profusely in case I was wasting the doctor's time. No infection (clean bill of health all round). Luckily the doctor had a med student with him (2 for the price of one - she got to ask me questions and examine me first) so he was pretending to be a nice doctor, very smiley and polite. He also had the results of Thursday's blood tests' so I was able to cancel next week's appointment. Had a bacon barm cake from the friends shop as the bus had just left.

Caught the bus to the bus station, checked out trimmings for mum's curtains, bought a few samples so she could pick, got the flowers for her carer and picked up a ys sandwich for 50p. half an hour at home to eat sandwich, pack bag with drinks and snacks and arrange the flowers (wrappped wet cotton wool around the cut stems and tied a plastic bag round as not sure how late the carer was working - think mum's is her first stop).

Met mum outside the library, went in to see the film, showed her the trimmings (she likes the ribbon I picked 1 row of sewing instead of 3,yippee), we both got a voucher for a free go on a shopmobility scooter and then I took her, the flowers and the yardstick to the taxi place.

Came home and set the alarm again for a little nap. DS1 came for his parcels and mentioned the planned (before Christmas) meal with mum and her partner (will see how mum feels about this - postponed because we were both ill). Repacked the bag, filled the membership form in and went to film club (very good Icelandic tragi-comedy called Rams). Came home and did my best to put pay 2 bills or get them on DD.

Read through the challenge rules again and decided resting was my priority for today. DS3 and Beloved stayed in bed for a long while so rounded up takeaway rubbish (2 pizza boxes, 6 bags from when DS3 was alone - grabbed them last week but not got round to squashing them small, several more bags of sweet wrappers and assorted packaging from under the sofa and in the corners and 37 bottles and cans rinsed and put in the recycling).

Watched several TED talks - went via pinterest as I was thinning my email box. First thing I found when I started to tidy was the little notebook I have been searching for. Successfully did the DD I tried to do last night, other site down for maintenance so will have to try when they finish, checked bank account and sent meter readings. I can also phone the roofer on Monday.

More washing put out and line dried. This evening I have put hooks on two doors and both rucksacks are hanging up instead of being on the floor. The first thing I found. Dressing gowns and coat have been hung up - I have floor. Lots of odd bits of paper into the paper sack - many more to go. More furniture shuffling needed but made a good start. Thrown away a pen and 2 cardboard boxes (firm sent them the wrong noodles, new ones have arrived and they can keep the wrong ones so put about 3 doz bowls/ packets of noodles in the cupboard to get empty boxes).

Today I am grateful for a forget-me-not growing outside the back gate, for a visit from DS1, for seeing a bee and for getting things done.

Jo_Blogs

Good morning everyone

Hope everyone has a super blessed day

greent

Yesterday OH and I felt too rough to visit a smkt, so will do that today. Full of a cold, but head is way less fogged up today than yesterday, so can hopefully tackle some much needed housework today (need to make bread rolls and iron uniforms and work clothes at a minimum - and clear kitchen)

The 2 smalls had a party yesterday which didn't finish until 8pm, so we weren't home until 8.30. Brought 4 party bags home with us, each containing a large slice of cake and a bag of sweets - extras will be eaten by DS1 (the mum of the party was my cousin - her 2 are similar ages to my small 2) Was nice to see family and I spent most of the party talking to her husband about life plans - both agreeing we want to help our children out and family is important and about plans for FI/RE and how we might achieve this. Agreed we need to meet up for family bbqs in Summer - hopefully this will happen, rather than it all ending up as talk..

Couple more tiny fleabay sales yesterday - all helps with money and decluttering.

Decluttering - mins game style (day 1, 1 item working to day 30, 30 items) = 465 items for the month, I think. Won't achieve this! I am working towards 2017 items in 2017, though (running total in sig) - equates to 5.5 items a day. I'll look to hopefully achieve somewhere around 150 items for April, to roughly keep in line with that (fingers crossed the annual Easter break full tidying/ sorting of children's bedrooms reveals some items to go!) but will list mine out at the end, as otherwise I'll be confusing myself with multiple lists over different challenges

Thankfulness for yesterday (shall post today's later):
* seeing family that I don't see often enough
* having a good chat with family and seeing that we're on a similar path (although there's has more money involved)
* lovely party cake and extra to bring home
* for being able to spend a day not doing much
* for children occupying themselves when we felt rough
* for a lunch of HM seeded wholemeal bread toasted with perfectly poached eggs - simple yet tasty and wholesome

Today looks like it might be bright and dry (unlike wet yesterday) - time to sort some washing!
x

Eager_Elephant

It's Daffodil Sunday today so here is some daffodils for everyone:



In Victorian times, on the first Sunday in April people picked daffodils from their gardens and took them to hospitals to give to the sick.

Hope everyone has a Super Sunday!!

crazy_cat_lady

For all I hate gardening I do love daffodils. Particularly the ones like in your picture EE - my dd calls them 'egg daffodils' because they're orange in the middle and white(ish) on the outside.
Bagged my first nsd yesterday and I'm hoping for another one today. However, I do have my afternoon tea date with my mam and my sister. It's my birthday present from my sister but I will try and chip in - we shall see what happens.
I'm definitely up for decluttering one item a day as well - there's just far too much stuff in general in my house. I will do 2 today as I didn't do anything yesterday.

f0xh0les

Oh Heck, just organised all my thoughts and wrote a lengthy tome, the connection dropped and it is all gone. Pox.