Returning to MFW, my elusive unicorn!

coldcazzie

coldcazzie said:

Getting these sorted is my task for today.

So this really didn't happen. I've put it off until at least Wednesday - benefit of looking at this early means plenty of time to put it off if needs be... and I definitely needed to as I had a pretty bad and quite sudden MH downwards spiral which has taken me the best part of 2 days to recover from (and I even recognised what was happening and took myself off for some proactive intervention before it got too bad).

I have, in the aftermath, managed to shake off a layer of procrastination and registered for an online learning platform and signed up for some CPD which I have been dithering over for 6 months. So I suppose that's good. I also have an interview tomorrow with a potential client.

I am planning to go shopping on the way home, to Lidl instead of the usual Aldi, which should be "fun" (in an "unknown shop, where the hecc is everything" kinda way haha).

Viking_mfw

coldcazzie said:

Aside from anything else, mentally tagging things as being on the way OUT of the house rather than on the way IN is very freeing! (Not least cuz we've just had to bring in a load of new clothes for Medium Small who has grown another 2 inches, and now no longer fits in the clothes he was bought in the Spring he is now entirely in men's clothing sizes. £50 on 4 pairs of pants )

I agree with the freeing feeling. It's quite addictive too  

Feel your pain on the clothing front. DS1 keeps shooting up the ages. DH says he was 6 ft tall before he went to 2ndary school and I am beginning to believe him!

coldcazzie

Viking_mfw said:

coldcazzie said:

Aside from anything else, mentally tagging things as being on the way OUT of the house rather than on the way IN is very freeing! (Not least cuz we've just had to bring in a load of new clothes for Medium Small who has grown another 2 inches, and now no longer fits in the clothes he was bought in the Spring he is now entirely in men's clothing sizes. £50 on 4 pairs of pants )

I agree with the freeing feeling. It's quite addictive too  

Feel your pain on the clothing front. DS1 keeps shooting up the ages. DH says he was 6 ft tall before he went to 2ndary school and I am beginning to believe him!

You're not wrong - I have to hold myself back sometimes from getting rid of everything including the clothes on the children's backs and everything we love! "you don't need this, right?" "mum, that's my bed..." I have a big pile of kids clothes that have been outgrown that need putting up for sale; but that's another thing I've been mega procrastinating over. Making ebay listings is so darn tedious.

Yes, my Manwife had a similar experience. Came back after the summer hols looking round at everyone like "did you shrink??" I will measure Medium Small to see what height he is now. The 30w 32l trousers fit him perfectly, but they didn't seem to have any that were 30w 34l so I hope he starts to go out as well as up soon! I am so glad we don't have to buy school uniform as well. I have strong childhood memories of a friend's older brother going to high school and his mum lamenting the fact that he needed to have school trousers specially tailored because they didn't make them in his size  

coldcazzie

Urgh. I've been "upgraded" onto the new Fb. I don't like it. Although dark mode is nice...

In other news, did 2 CPD modules last night, and created myself a learning journey list that I want to complete. Cracking on with the next one this morning. The weather has scuppered my original plans for today, but tomorrow seems less wet.

Money shuffle complete this morning. Rest of the week should be smooth. Also, I have a confession. I bought a garden shredder and an extendable hedge trimmer in Lidl yesterday...

coldcazzie

It's FriYaY! Pilates this morning felt really good. Heated some homemade stuffed potato skins from the freezer up for my brunch, so I am now going to eat those alongside doing some more CPD. Manwife and Small Small have gone out to do the top-up shop to tide us over until Monday. Planning to batch cook some chilli this aft and put several family sized portions in the freezer.

All the bills have now gone out except for one. Anticipating a TT of £20.47 and an additional payment of £150 into the house savings account. Annoyingly most of that will then have to pay for the hedge trimmer and shredder. We definitely need them - our garden is so big that it gets out of control really quick and it's hard to keep on top of it without appropriate tools - but still. I've still got some bits for sale on fb so I'm going to divert the funds from those into the house account to make up for the unexpected purchase.

I am almost at the threshold for my next payout on Prolific - there is a submission that's worth £2.33 that has been awaiting approval for almost a week now! Grr! The surveys have been very thin on the ground the last couple of weeks. I wonder if that is the time of year more than anything and they'll perk up again in September? I keep meaning to sign up to some other sites too, but haven't yet as I was considering having a separate email specifically for surveys etc. Has anyone else done that or do you use your usual email address?

coldcazzie

I've just had to nip round to Asda because Manwife forgot sour cream... and I've come back with 10 tea towels. I blame you for this @South_coast I've been thinking about new tea towels ever since you bought yours!

coldcazzie

Batch cooking went swimmingly!

2kg of 5% beef mince from L1dl at £4.99 each. 3 and a half red peppers, half a bag of onions, chopped tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato puree, half a bottle of red wine plus some stock/spices and I reckon it has probably come to about £18 all told? Filled my 6.5L slow cooker to the top. We ate some tonight with jacket potatoes, and I've put 5 family sized portions in the freezer, so approx £3 per family meal, and I don't have to make chilli again this year! I also baked some extra potatoes, ended up with 6 uneaten ones.... add a pack of spring onions, a tub of creme fraiche, a pack of bacon and half a block of cheddar and there's now 12 stuffed potato skins in the freezer which will do me 3-4 lunches over the next month. Combined with the good pilates session this morning means today feels good and productive.

(We'll just ignore the fact that I still haven't sorted the car/home insurance yet!) 

South_coast

coldcazzie said:

I've just had to nip round to Asda because Manwife forgot sour cream... and I've come back with 10 tea towels. I blame you for this @South_coast I've been thinking about new tea towels ever since you bought yours!

Sorry! *not sorry*

You won't regret it though 😀😀😀

Grogged

First it was loo roll, now tea towels...
Will these shortages never end?
😆

coldcazzie

I'm afraid I have some sad news.

During the night a fox got into our chicken coop and we are now down to just 2 chickens, one of whom is very lethargic.

Rest in peace Freida and Betty (they are the two in your profile picture @Grogged ) and Pickle and Mango. Keep fingers crossed Mary makes it, because chickens don't do so well by themselves.

So the end to my lovely day yesterday was not falling asleep before midnight, but instead involved several hours of me cleaning and then gluing wounds back together. Plus not much sleep, and an unexpected trip to a vets across town just now for some antibiotics in case Mary doesn't perk up by tomorrow lunch.

I've not looked at the invoice yet but hopefully there's enough in the pets pot to cover it.

I need a nap 😴😴😴