Tales from The Shire

Karmacat

Fortune, what a perfect few days, from your trip that just happened, to the lovely present that was there as you got back, to the plans that are unrolling right now. Have a wonderful time.

rtandon27

:xmastree::xmassmile Merry Christmas Fortune & Mr Fortune! :xmassmile :xmastree:
:xmassign:

doingitanyway

I hope the Fortunes had a lovely Christmas

Fortune_Smiles

beanielou wrote: »

Have a lovely time.

Thank you Beanie. We have had a wonderful Christmas. Hope yours went well too.

greent wrote: »

Ooh - what lovely gifts from the farmer! :T

He's been very generous Greent.

Karmacat wrote: »

Fortune, what a perfect few days, from your trip that just happened, to the lovely present that was there as you got back, to the plans that are unrolling right now. Have a wonderful time.

We have had a great Christmas this year Karma. Full of goodwill. Hope yours was similar.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

rtandon27 wrote: »

:xmastree::xmassmile Merry Christmas Fortune & Mr Fortune! :xmassmile :xmastree:
:xmassign:

Thank you RT - I hope you and yours had a merrry time

doingitanyway wrote: »

I hope the Fortunes had a lovely Christmas

We did indeed DIA - hope you did too.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

in_need_of_direction wrote: »

I love how you assume your readers have plans!

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Come and sit in the 'unplanned' corner wif me, inod - but dunna sit too close - you, know what 'unplanning' unravelled for me a few years ago......... :rotfl::snow_laug


Hope you and yours have a wonderful, celebratory time, Fortune, and that 2019 has lots of fun and adventures in store for you.


Greying X

Plans, goals - they're all just dreams with deadlines. Hope all yours come true in the New Year.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

What a fabulous Christmas. We had a lovely time but are now both exhausted. Our last guests left yesterday and, although I'm missing having a house full, I'm very grateful for the rest.

I've spent the day balancing the books and menu planning to use up all the leftovers. Mr F has been out with Farmer Giles and his tractor replacing the fence in the bottom field. All the new posts are in now so we need to remove the old ones and re-attach the fencing wire. In return for Farmer Giles's help we have let his Tups into the top field. It's been so mild that the grass is still growing so it made sense to have them again. None of them are coughing

I hadn't intended to shop between now and the New Year but it made sense to get a few things in so we could make good use of the Christmas leftovers. A delivery is coming tomorrow and I've managed to shave off about £20 from this week's grocery budget and won't have to shop next week at all :T

Lunch today was leftover pate with leftover baguettes. Supper will be leftover curry. We may be able to survive on leftovers for the rest of the Winter :rotfl:

My mind is turning to next year's goals so I'm going to read through my diary entries for this year and post a review of progress.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

2018 was definitely a roller coaster year for us. I was dogged by ill health but am pleasantly surprised at how much we achieved despite this.

Make and Save Pennies

• make mortgage over payments

We made our first over payment in May and have totalled £3908.56 this year :j

• generate income from annex

We cleared, cleaned and furnished the annex and Lodger friend
moved in in June.

• bolster emergency fund

We have doubled our emergency fund.

• finish Help to Buy ISA contributions

The last payment went through in March.

• complete outbuilding renovation

The barn had been partially renovated by the end of 2017 but this year we completed the cladding and roofing, put in drainage and electricity, sealed and tiled the floor and fitted a hoist.

• furnish our new home

A couple of big tasks were completed; we replaced two electric showers and overhauled the heating system. Plus a number of smaller jobs and purchases got ticked off the list.

Stay Well

• eat less move more

I almost completed the Coach to 5K programme just missing the final two runs because of an injury. The injury is still not entirely healed but I've started going to yoga classes to improve my strength and flexibility. I'm hoping I might be able to start running again in the Spring. I gave up added sugar in November and lost 6lbs so will definitely be trying that again once all the Christmas leftovers have been decluttered :rotfl:

• have a few treats and things to look forward to

We've been planning in adventures more regularly and have found a few annual/regular events that we want to attend.

• see friends and family regularly

Lots of visitors have come to see us over the year. We also got FDawg settled with overnight stays in the kennel which meant we had our first night away from home this Christmas.

Have Fun

• explore the area

We know more about the local area now and what's available. Plenty more to see though

• find out what's on

I am following events and locations on FB so get notifications now if anything is going on locally.

• have a plan for the weekends Mr F is home

We've been much better at doing this although the plan has often been to work in the garden or just catch up on sleep :rotfl:

The end of the year went better than the beginning but overall I'm very happy with our progress and looking forward to new goals in 2019.

Fortune x

beanielou

What an amazing year you have had
LOts & lots to celebrate.
Here is to an awesome 2019 too.

greent

What a great year - other than the injury and illness, of course! x

Hopefully 2019 will be even better