NST - Stupendous Sextilis

thriftylass

Hello,

today shall be another SFD and gym day (prob swim). Found an ancient tub of HM soup in the freezer (not sure what it is) and took it for lunch as I again didn't make any lunch prep last night. Ended up taking DD on the cycle path behind the house and watch the last episode of a programme with DH after the chores. Even let DS play with play doh while I was out. Used to love it myself but now as a parent I loath it. Goes everywhere. Kids love it though.

Today I'm grateful for:

-the rain watering my plants
-DH taking over cooking last night so I could speak to my friend
-both my parents health improving (mum was prediabetic - averted by diet change, dad has COPD which is now a bit better due to a medicine change and his Lyme disease cleared completely)
-my kids actually speaking to my parents via Skype rather than being shy or crazily noisy

Toni'sfriend

I'm sitting here in the living room surrounded bu the contents of the kitchen cupboards waiting for the gas man. Our bedroom is full of things that should be in the bathroom. He's just phoned to say that he'll be here between 10.00 am and noon and he has a partner so it won't take long. All this disruption for ten minutes. Still better safe than sorry.
Achieved a bit yesterday. The ironing mountain has disappeared but will be replaced by another one later when the washing dries. I'll do some cooking after I get access to the gas. Busy day ahead after he's been,
Grateful for:
Some activity on the building front. Boss man has promised that all the scaffolding will be removed by Friday (not holding my breath though). Perhaps the children who don't actually live here will find somewhere else to play.
Housing officer arranging to get rubbish removed from side of building and doing something about the ongoing litter problem. Not quite sure how she's going to manage that but at least she's going to try. I filled up another bin bag yesterday.
It being only just over three weeks until I go on holiday. Three blissful weeks on the Northumbrian coast.

f0xh0les

greent wrote: »

More spends today at Tesc0, including a calculator for DS2 for school (if anyone needs a scientific calculator, Tesco have the Casio FX83GT Plus for just £5.50 )

You and me both!

I got the one with the solar backup for DS1 who has managed to lose his free one from his last secondary school (they gave them starter kits with all the stuff they would need) but he starts his GCSE maths so I had to get him one.

crazy_cat_lady

Hi all :wave:
Busy couple of days and unfortunately I'm not sleeping well again. I don't feel stressed about going back to work but results day is looming. As a result I'm not getting much done during the day because I feel rough. I had a lovely night out with bestie on Sunday and have spent most of the past couple of days with her as the kids play pretty well together...
Gratitudes:
DS sleeping at bestie's house tonight so a couple of unexpected hours to myself as dd is out with friends and dh is at work
The cleaner (I'm in love with how much better the house looks and feels)
Not having to get up for work tomorrow

greent

NSD today - thankfully (although it appears I STILL have a heap of stuff to get for back to school )

Using up - HG potatoes in potato salad tonight. Breakfasts this week = abandoned granola (OH bought a big bag of it and stopped eating it) with hotel-freebie-honey and A1di greek yog Also used up an old part bottle of drain de-gunker on DD's bathroom sink and the boys' bathroom sink - clearer running drains and one less bottle of stuff under my kitchen sink

Thankfulness:
* Smalls enjoying simple pleasures of board games and card games
* Avoiding spending any more money today!
* Cup of tea in bed this morning - delivered by OH before he went off for a few days
* Getting a small amount of tidying done in DS2 and DS3's rooms (so hard in the hols!!)
* 2 lots of washing line dried

mothernerd

Despite not sleeping on Sunday night and having done a lot at mum's yesterday, I got another burst of energy (or desperation - really need things in place before Beloved gets back) I did more work in the evening/early morning.

I went with the old pile everything up in the bath technique - had to do this when the boys were young as there are narrow spaces and turns at the top of the stairs, so as much as possible had to be moved out of the way so that pieces of furniture could be moved between rooms.

Two sets of drawers moved from my room to their's (a lot more complicated than that sentence implies as nearly every square foot of floor had to cleared and the debris sorted into clothes/ things to keep/ rubbish and recycling then swept). Third clothes rail assembled and put on top.

Then cleared my bed (semi-sorted into bags of stationery, embroidery, general sewing and card-making/crafts) took everything back out of the bath, ran a hot bath, ate and crawled into bed at 3.15am.

Quite happy with progress but slightly worried that evrything that is precious to me (other than living things and clothes) is packed into approximately 12 large bags for life. I did take the precaution of making sure that anything essential (money/ phone/ spectacles/ medicines/ hankie/ pens and notebooks) went into one special bag.

Want to reposition the bed and bedside drawers (would like the kitchen table in here so that I have a work surface but it's too big - could squeeze it in but might have to crawl into bed from the bottom ) and then go through the bags one by one. This process might need a shortcut or two as I want to make sure I have stuff I need for crafts tomorrow ready first.

Slept well, dozed from 7am to 11am, at mum's just after noon. DS3 is going to a wedding reception so may wait for him to leave and put the bags in his room - gives me a lot more room for bed moving rather than stopping and starting and shuffling things around as I go.

thrifty I meant to answer your query about moving v extending but you seem to have covered most of the basics. Yes extending is generally seen as the cheaper option. Economically I would say number one is satisfaction/ longevity of current employment prospectives and the presence of alternatives (or good transport links which widen the field). Then all the social things - schools, doctors, activities, merits of current location.

If you can hang on till March (you said it's long term thinking) there is a scheme (similar to free wills month) which allows you to consult an architect in return for a donation to charity (think Shelter organises it). A professional might come up with ideas you wouldn't. It is also worth looking at the 'tiny homes' site to see how much they pack in.

Today I am grateful for sunshine (loads of washing dried), for being able to relax and for feeling that I am getting somewhere (must keep taking the lovely vitamin D tablets).

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for discovering a cafe with gf/df cakes for dd, for visiting Durham cathedral and seeing the HP sites, for the massive lego replica of the building, for the day staying dry, for tesc0 having what I needed, for time with big sis, for dd and BIL happily playing with and sorting lego, for a chat with dh.

thriftylass

Thanks, mothernerd. Tiny home, used to watch a programme about it i think. Will look into it. Thanks

crazy_cat_lady

I didn't know you were in Durham apple - glad you're enjoying it. I don't go there much any more unless I'm getting a train, but went to college there many moons ago.

Toni'sfriend

for visiting Durham cathedral

Durham is one of my favourite places. I love the cathedral, castle, river walks - just about everything really. We haven't been for a few years and I was thinking I might surprise C for his birthday next year by spending a few days there.
Gas safety check finished successfully (did take ten minutes) and everything back where it should be. Quite a productive day really. C is out with his friend today so I have lots of householdy plan.
Today I'm grateful for:
The return of the workmen who are plastering or painting or something
C hoovering the whole house for me
A really lovely dinner using cheap sea bass, roasted tomatoes and steamed veg (cheap and it was healthy)