NST April 2019 - Spring Forward

sashanut

Hi all :j

Simplicity - think about the simple pleasures in your life which you really appreciate, friendship, family, cake. Focus on those this month as much as you can (maybe not too much cake though). Up & out at the woolly festival, simple pleasures of talking to people who 'get' what you're interested in.

Persevere - I know that trying to reach your goal can sometimes seem never ending but try to remember that each time you waste money/time it can take you further away from what you really want for the long term. Definitely some cash spent today but hopefully not wasted. DH commented that the main room is looking much better - all the carp that covered the massive sideboard is gone, & aim to keep it that way.

Reduce - I wouldn't be me if I wasn't asking you to reduce. Think about what you really need and what will be left at the end, is there a better way to consume. Meals were made from stock, other than lunch out at the festival. No food shopping done for a week or so. Have discovered that as our tea bags are so strong, we can reduce them to a single bag per pot, as long as we leave it to mash for 5 minutes. 50% less teabags used & less wastage. When we get through those, we have loose tea we can use instead of the bags.


Invest - in yourself, your family, your home - the things that really matter to you. Got out paint we already had to invest in making the kitchen look a little better, also the sunroom got some v expensive paint a while back heavily reduced so that will hopefully be nice.

New - new month, new beginning. Don't look back at past mistakes and failures, there is nothing that can be done about them, learn from them and move on. Rarely look back - & when/if I do it's as if that stuff happened to someone else, which of course I was then.

Grab - take life by the horns. Do something which takes you outside of your comfort zone at least once this month. Done.

NSDs: still 7/15

NO spending in coffee shops, work canteens, vending machines. If you do it needs to be planned in advance and budgeted for. Never go in coffee shops, no canteen, don't use vending machines either. But I still waste money! Planned eating out at festival, it was good value.

Go turtles!

dolly84

apple - I thought it would be hot in Texas, hope you took a jumper.


chocolatelover - when DD was little she had a lot of chest, ear and eye infections, not as many as your DS but still a lot, one night she had been coughing for 4 hours non-stop so we took her to A&E, when she got outside in the fresh air the coughing stopped interestingly and the first thing the doctor did was look in her throat and said 'there is your problem'. She had massive and I mean massive tonsils. Anyway after a few referrals they said they would take them out but I opted to leave them as they are a major part of your immune system. I started giving her a teaspoon of good honey everyday from then on and focussed on her diet more, the infections lesssened and she grew into her tonsils.


sashanut - glad you enjoyed your festival. We use loose leaf tea now and finding a strainer on the high street was impossible, I tried for ages and ended up buying one on ebay so proper tea is not in fashion at all.


mothernerd - if you get referred to a Podiatrist you can get prescription insoles, might be worth looking into.


Plan for today is loft, loft and more loft.

Shrewbie

Hello everyone sorry I've been awol for a few days but end of term was manic - needed to complete all my student evaluations (60+) but now done and I feel good.
Off to a pretty town called Cuenca outside Madrid today for a couple of days so really looking forward to that. The weekend was very spendy, just need to make sure I don't go too crazy for the next couple of days.
Enjoy the week turtles!
NSD 6/15

SpekySquarehead

Spendy weekend means I'm stuck on 6. Plus I need to go to the SM tonight, so that won't change any time soon!

f0xh0les

NSD 6 done and dusted! Lazy weekend, not much achieved but feel rested and relaxed.
****Blasphemy/Heresy Alert****

Introduced DS1 and 2 to The Life of Brian, following on from Holy Grail last month. Now they know why Wodger the wobber is so funny.

I have £180 worth of after school club requests between 2 kids. It will take me up to the end of term in July, but still, nearly £200? eek! Will suck it up and find the money somewhere. I am still a slave to the school run - DS1 has study sessions for his upcoming exams 3 days this week and one day next, so we can't go away, and DH is away next weekend. So DS 3&4 are off to football club every afternoon (£1 for 90 minutes of football coaching each) so it is a total bargain. I am going to walk around the park in circles while the boys play football. Hooray for headphones.

So, exercise, bargain football, free tuition, getting organised.

mothernerd

dolly the doctor said he wanted me to see the podiatrist but nothing has come through so far. This has now been going on since mid December and it's getting worse. I have twice sprained my ankle in the past so I know to rest and strap it up as soon as I notice it aching. My foot is actually improving, I can move it more and flex it - perhaps there were two injuries and the more familiar one masked the other.

But a few weeks ago I could walk to the infirmary with the walker and now I'm trying to work out how to get down stairs some days. Just so fed up with it, I need to walk, I need to get moving. (sorry if this sounds moany, I am clinging on to not feeling sorry for myself and resisting curling into a ball and crying - mum is okay, she's already got a potential replacement carer lined up:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

F0xh0les I can also recommend Blues Brothers (original not the remake), Escape from L.A./ New York (let them know that Snake Plisskin didn't come from a video game) and the works of Kevin Smith (may need to be a little older for that but Dogma is absolutely superb and Jay and Silent Bob are addictive). Honourable mentions for From Dusk Till Dawn, George Romero's original Dawn of the Dead series (more game tie-ins) and I eventually reconciled myself to the Die Hard series (borrowed not bought).

I used to buy box sets of older tv shows (we had a rubbish telly that did better with dvds) starting with Red Dwarf and Blackadder (I know Dave has them now) but also Drop the Dead Donkey, Coupling (pre- Dr Who/ Sherlock Steven Moffat who also did the children's show Press Gang). Good value because it's stuff they will watch over and over, become word perfect, take boxes of the stuff to uni and convert all their friends (and maybe it'll become a movement - sorry strayed into Alice's Restaurant there, we'll do music another day).

DS2 also likes Will Farrell so I've endured most of those at one time or another (along with many 'gross out' movies, plus 'girly' films he thinks will make me wear high heels and make-up, good luck with that one son).

apple_muncher

Dolly - we do have warm clothes with us, as it was cold and misty and grim when we left England! But we didn't expect to really need them here... The motel/hotel isn't designed for cooler climes, so a cool night outside has an impact - esp at 5am... Dd has a warm blanket folded over on her, so she sleeps well unless it moves off. I've let dh have the othe one, as he feels the cold a lot. Me? I just put my jama trousers on and make sure there are no gaps for draughts! And, to balance out the chillier weather, we have had nights with just the sheet on, and the hottest day here so far this year.


Today is our last day and we shall be pottering. We climbed Enchanted Rock again yesterday plus another 3+ miles walking, so need to do less today. We're meeting a friend (of MIL) for lunch, so should get an honest lowdown on mil's state of health, then off to see mil for the last time this visit. Then pack.

greent

chocolatelover - hope they get to the bottom of things with your DS and that he's better soon x


NSD - still 5. Spent Sat, Sun and tonight is a meal out for DS1's bday (budgetted) Also had to pay for (another!!!!) WM repair today.... sigh...... (but as DS1 brought home 4!!!!! loads of dirty washing with hom (DD just a small carrier bagful) it ios much needed!!)

Simplicity - student children are home for 3 weeks and it's DS1's bday today Cake will be eaten!

Perseverance - small cashout on tcb converted to Tesc0 voucher and equivalent (rounded up) transferred to hol fund. More sorting done in DS1's room today and another bin full donated/ recycled/ thrown.

Reduce - Recycled/ donated as much as poss from DS1's room (some bits are sadly just landfill...) Wrapping paper and envelopes from DS1's bday recycled (and a couple of the games were pre-owned) Stamps saved for charity collection at work. Only purchases have been food/ drink and a couple of (friendly-ish) cleaning type products

Invest - Courgette and tomato seedlings are popping up in numbers! :T

apple_muncher

Happy birthday to ds1,greent. Is it really just a year since he was preparing for exams, with no real idea of what to do afterwards?

greent

apple_muncher wrote: »

Happy birthday to ds1,greent. Is it really just a year since he was preparing for exams, with no real idea of what to do afterwards?

I know, apple - time has flown! (and thank you for the bday wishes ) He's now revising (well, not today!) for his end-of-first-year-at-uni exams. He's still unsure as to what he's going to do post-degree, though - current options are grad medicine or research. Something along those lines, anyway
x