NST October The Turtles Go Outward Bound

mothernerd

On Monday I managed to split the polytunnel frame (old one) in two. Yesterday I moved the 2 pieces to nest with one another and then taped the bars in pairs so I have a half sized frame (1.5 m x 2 m) which will be okay for painting under when it rains. The ripped cover will cover it with a bit left over (will decide how to use that bit later).  Mum had another melt down and to be honest she has a point - I have been finding it hard to make space for doing anything, there is an awful lot to do and each day I've done what I can without injuring myself permanently.

So I decided on a change in tactics and am going for putting things away (for now - building of raised beds etc will happen at some point but not this week), condensing things (various ground sheets/ covers squashed down and rolled to fit in bags for life). The two small cabinets went inside the rectangle of the poly- frame with a tarpaulin over them (my painting station), several large kits went in the shed (will need a full reorganisation in there later), any veg still growing and in appropriate containers (self-draining - many of the things that had been inside the polytunnel were in buckets) have been weeded, watered where necessary and moved onto the borders (will keep the weeds down until I can start building). One large table has been moved back from the side of the house back into the yard. Washing was dried outside. Plants have been moved into proper containers as they have become available (when whatever was growing in them has been harvested). Two large black bags of stuff went in the bin (one was stuff that was collected last week as I worked my way round the yard). Parts of the yard got swept as I cleared space (overnight rain undid some of that work).

Today I cleared a pathway the length of my room and moved all the windowsill plants outside. They have been de-greenflyed, harvested were possible and when the window and windowsill have been cleaned 2 chilli plants, one green bell pepper and two red plants will go back to continue growing. They will fit on the windowsill not the windowsill, additional ledge and drawers on both side of the window. Rain stopped play on several occasions. Sewed and watched tv during this afternoon's downpour but continued to move things in and out of the room in advert breaks. Cooked brisket with cubed root veg, onions , leeks and celery and added Mediterranean roast veg for the last half hour.

Want to do a reshuffle in my room but it will mean more heavy lifting (not terribly heavy but repeated armfuls of books etc wears you out quickly - need to get to grips with an e-reader thing and start downloading stuff). As expected we (Greater Manchester) have been forced into tier 3 restrictions with Boris and friends stomping off like stroppy children. Don't think I will be seeing DS1 or DS2 before April next year, can't go back in my own house (again) and just so tired. I am making progress but fighting to keep going. I need to take a step back, let myself adjust to the new reality and find some positives in the situation (can wear dresses that are now growing a second tier of holes and cardigan that is more like a bed jacket. Think about what I need and make my own little space (amongst everyone else's cast offs and stored items).

Grateful for my haircut (trimmed it again last week - nothing longer than a finger width), good food, heavy rain meaning I could take a break without feeling guilty, good books and fun games.

f0xh0les

NSD 12 but an odd day today.. I am dead grumpy.  Made massive pans of tomato and red lentil soup, and a vegetable (with soup mix) soup.   Blitzed my ys basil and made a pesto pasta for lunch and hauled a ys pizza from the freezer. Spent hours cleaning the kitchen and taking down a shelving unit but it still looks carp.  Work in progress.

DH is not coping well with teaching from the house, very needy students, masses of emails, and not having his 10 minute walk home to decompress and leave it all behind.  It is like he is on call 24/7. He is living in his office.  So I made them homemade chips and chip shop curry sauce and veggie chicken strips for supper .  It went down very well. So did the apple crumble and cream. They are spoilt.

The soups are made for their lunch tomorrow because I am at work - I feel guilty about this, which is ridiculous. I only see them at mealtimes, they are all perfectly happy occupying themselves in their bedrooms or playing with one of their brothers.

Anyway, I am a proper grumpy-knickers today, but worried about DH, I keep being blamed for things not being where they think they have put them, and then I spend ages trying to find X, and then they wander in and say 'found it!'  and expect me to do a seal impression and give them a flappy flipper round of applause and balance a ball on my nose.  Honk!  because really it was not left where they thought they had left it, and I just wasted over half an hour trying to find it thinking I must have moved it...

and breathe......  I think I need tomorrow away from them all.  -  Oh! and I still have £50+ left of the food budget and only tomorrow to spend it.  I think I may just come in under budget!!!   My  CC bill is only £65 this month as well.

Bluegreen143

Thanks for the commiserations all. No luck getting the keys back from Tesco - will call police lost property tomorrow.

Did have a £7 spend yesterday on a parenting kindle book + presents from Tesco but another NSD today which I think is 4/8 now.

Today I’m grateful for a lovely dinner (pulled pork baguettes, pork from the freezer, with salad and HM chips) and a dry morning which meant I could take Bambi (my 22mo) to the park to meet a friend with her little one. Grateful this is still allowed here as I’m aware I can’t take for granted that will continue. 

facethemusic

Wednesday- still NSD 10, but today's spends have been planned for ages and are safety related so worth the loss of a NSD. 
Managed to go riding, have unpacked some more boxes, swapped rounds the contents of 2 kitchen cupboards- amazing how quickly it becomes obvious where items "should" live!  
My to do list is no shorter- tomorrow I MUST deal with some change of address paperwork. 

[Deleted User]

Wow, you've all been busy!! I'm so impressed with how motivated and determined you all are! 🙌 Hugs for all who need them- I know that there are a lot of difficult things going on for lots of people at the moment 😔 Hope you're all okay...
Yesterday I bagged an NSD and an alcohol free day! I got paid so put almost all of it into our debt payoff/savings fund and told dh that from this payday onwards we are absolutely sticking to our budgets 😉 He's pretty good normally but as he does the shopping (I work from home, he doesn't - it makes more sense for him to go to the shop 😉) he frequently comes home with stuff we don't need 🙈 he's on strict orders now that we have to agree the list before he goes and he has to stick to it! 😉 
I've got loads to do today - work is going to be crazy for another couple of weeks at least but I'm just going to put my head down and get on with it! 

f0xh0les

Morning! Early check in, just in case the day gets away from me.  At the f/b until late afternoon.  Doing my bit. Wearing my freshly dyed top and jeans, and they look great!   Hooray for Thursdays.

f0xh0les

@Bluegreen143  have you looked on your local fakebook community group for your area?

There are keys every week posted on ours.  - You didn't post a letter did you? eek!

DrCarrie

Mornign Turtles, I am super proud of myself this morining, coming back from my girlfiends this morning - usually I would buy a coffee and maybe soemhting to eat. I didn't. This is quite extraordinary. Such a commuter habit that is soooo expensive. Soi I missed a bullet there, would easity have been over a fiver. We had a lovely evening. 
Here's to a NSD today please. 

apple_muncher

Had a lovely little chat with a lovely little old lady outside liddle at 8.30 this morning! She was having trouble shoving her trolley back into the line of trolleys, so I offered to help her and get her money back. Then she showed me her shopping bag full of their 20p reductions - she'd filled it for £2. Then she told me how she'd found a £1 coin in the trolley, so the shopping only cost her £1. Then she showed me her bagful again. It was a wonderful few minutes!!! And I made sure that I scoped out the bargains bit too - I got 9 items x 20p each. Smug face was on!

Shrewbie

Hello all!

I have been awol. trying to adjust to working more hours. (20 as opposed to 8 per week!) I can’t really complain as I’m hardly at the computer all day, but I seem to be getting lots of headaches for some reason which means my motivation is sapped. I probably need my eyes tested. 

Nevertheless I been doing ok on budgets - I’m on NSD 12 and food budget is way under this week/ so going to have takeaway pizza tonight - its only €6 so sod it. 

Feeling the turtle love - I have just caught up on posts and really do feel grateful to be a part of this thread!