Getting shot of the mortgage sooner than 2049!

smetf

Exciting news about the conservatory, and sounds like a good day! Ones like that are always appreciated! 
S

Baileys_Babe

I love that the children were excited to see Red, a shame he wasn't able to take them home, at least he was able to take the bikes and make it easier for you.

If it was me I would contact Tesco and explain disappointed you are with the charge in the hope that as a goodwill gesture it is refunded. 

Bluegreen143

Hello diary!

Such a busy/stressful week at work, especially yesterday, when I had to go into the office to top it all off! (Ooops £5.40 spent on food while there…).

BUT I don’t work on Fridays, happy days 🙌🏼 my manager has asked this week (twice!) if I’m sure I don’t want to increase to five days. Erm, very sure 🤣 I really would love to keep to my current hours even when Bambi goes to school as we don’t need the extra money and then I’d have a housework/errand day while they were at school on Fridays, plus it helps cover holidays when I’m already off one of the days. But I have a sneaking suspicion that when it comes to renewing my contract in a year’s time there will be pressure to increase my hours. Bambi still has 2.5 years before starting school if we defer her school entry, which I intend to do, so we’ll see.

Plan for today
Need to get Monkey off to school, got a Tesco order coming 9-10am, want to do something outdoors with Bambi and bake with her, get housework done and then after school we have one of Monkey’s school friends coming with his mum for a playdate. 

🔘 Usual daily chores - tidying, kitchen, laundry, feed pets 
🔘 Clean bathrooms & cat tray 
🔘 Bake some sweet treat for the playdate 
🔘 Hoover everywhere (made more difficult by MIL borrowing our hand held hoover - I’ve got a big heavy one in a cupboard I can lug about though 😆)
🔘 Work on sewing the cushion cover I’m making for the IKEA chair 
🔘 Do some Gaelic revision as my classes have finished so I need to remember to learn on my own for now… and write up those conversation prompts for dinner!!

Bluegreen143

Was having some interesting discussions with friends this week which touch on MSE-related themes (although the conversation started on what makes a peaceful, happy home/family life).

One thing a few of us agreed on was there seems to be a huge epidemic, everywhere we look, of stressed out unhappy families striving to keep up with the Joneses and inadvertently putting their focus on that rather than a happy family, a fulfilling marriage or taking time to do the things they love. 

I have a lot of rather well-off “mum friends” who mainly have much more high flying careers than me, huge homes in excellent school areas and a very high dual income. These are lovely women who want the best for their kids yet in many cases they are perplexed by the disharmony in their homes and dismayed by the fact their lives are a sheer grind of commute, work, childcare, housework, collapse into bed exhausted. They value having a spotless house, brand new cars and foreign holidays yet don’t see the connection between their exhaustion and the juggling they need to do to achieve this lifestyle. 

I don’t pretend to be the type of person who strives for a perfect home or to keep up with the joneses. I must admit that I don’t try to do my utmost in everything I do and very much believe in “good enough is good enough”. I have been known countless times to sack off housework to go see friends, have a drink with my husband or just read a book. My husband is the same and has turned down promotions several times in the last few years because he wants to have time with us and time for his hobbies. 

My children aren’t in educational activities and we don’t go on expensive day trips every weekend as many of my friends do. We don’t buy designer clothes for them and our “child budget” isn’t very high. But they have good food in their bellies, a warm bed, clean clothes. shelves full of books and art supplies, a room full of toys and a garden to explore. Most of all they have two parents who have lots of free time to spend with them, and who are happy and relaxed and have time for themselves too. My house is small but we don’t have to spend much time cleaning and maintaining it. My car is old but we don’t have to work overtime to pay car payments. 

I’d like to think as a society we are coming to an awareness that the buy-it-now lifestyle isn’t sustainable, not just for the planet but for our communities and family lives. But then I think about all the people I know who will spend a fortune buying green/plastic free products but wouldn’t dream of just going without. 

And of course I don’t always live up to my own ideals. I’d like to do some sort of “buy less” challenge - money isn’t so tight now but because I am thinking more of the environment and also fed up to the back teeth of consumerism and advertising. Need to ponder what this will look like.

themadvix

Hey Bluegreen, what you’re adding totally resonates! I’m doing a buy nothing new in 2022 challenge - it’s run by Jen Gale who writes about Sustainable-ish living. She has two boys and first did a buy nothing new year when they were about your kids’ ages. I wonder if that might be of interest? (You make your own rules and there’s no such thing as failure). We have a very supportive Facebook group but if you don’t do Facebook you can sign up for her emails too. There’s a good video intro of her Zoom call about it on YouTube - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pUxTfRguvAc. 

Bluegreen143

@themadvix that looks brilliant! Thank you, I’ll check it out. 

I know I will buy new things from time to time but I’d like to start being really intentional about whether we need it and whether it needs to be new or can be second hand.

themadvix

That’s exactly what the challenge is about! Enjoy!

Bluegreen143

Re yesterday’s lists:

✔️  Usual daily chores - tidying, kitchen, laundry, feed pets 
✔️  Clean bathrooms & cat tray 
✔️  Bake some sweet treat for the playdate 
✔️  Hoover everywhere (made more difficult by MIL borrowing our hand held hoover - I’ve got a big heavy one in a cupboard I can lug about though 😆)
🔘 Work on sewing the cushion cover I’m making for the IKEA chair 
🔘 Do some Gaelic revision as my classes have finished so I need to remember to learn on my own for now… and write up those conversation prompts for dinner!!

Today Red needs to help his mum all day (she’s just moved into sheltered housing from a house so has sooooo much unpacking and decluttering required due to the substantial downsize involved) so I asked my mum if she fancied taking the kids all day (rather than me be stuck at home with them) and she agreed! Hardly anyone has ever babysat Bambi due to her being very clingy to me (first 16 months she was breastfed and wouldn’t take a bottle and didn’t sleep so nobody wanted her 🤣) and then the lockdowns etc. But Bambi has been asking to visit Nana and Papa so this is her first full day with a relative ever! Though she does go to nursery so not first day away from me of course. The next step is we are desperate for my folks to take them both for a night as they only take Monkey atm. We’ve never had a night away from Bambi yet and she’s 3!

Red is driving the kids over now and going straight to MIL’s, and my folks will take the kids home again - not sure when but hoping for 4-5ish 🤣 I have a PT session at 11 and my friend who I go with is picking me up, the rest of the day I intend to mainly be sorting and decluttering the cupboard of doom in the kids’ room and the playroom and may move to outdoor toys if I have time! They have way too much stuff just now as both have their birthdays in Dec and our families buy them far too much.

Bluegreen143

What a successful day today!! Though I barely saw the children 😬😭

⭐️ Red left to take the children to my mum’s at 9am then went to MIL’s to help her. I spent 1hr 45 mins pulling everything out of cupboard of doom and starting charity shop and tip bags

⭐️ Friend #1 came to pick me up for the gym (as Red had the car) and we did our PT session together. She then treated me to lunch out (just a cafe panini type thing, nothing extravagant, I’ll get it next time!) 

⭐️ Friend #1 wanted to keep chatting but I wanted to finish cupboard of doom and playroom clear out so invited her back to have a cup of tea and chat while I worked. But actually she was incredibly helpful and after just over an hour and a half working together we had finished! She also took the charity shop bags (2x black bin liners full) to donate for me - soooo kind of her! I also had a full black bag to bin so you can imagine how clear the cupboard is now 😆

⭐️ Once she was gone I spent a fun hour sorting and rotating all the kids’ books then ran a bath.

⭐️ Was about to sink into very well deserved bath when Red returned home with a car full of crap from his mum’s (mainly toys as she had a spare room dedicated to the grandchildren in her old place but has moved to a one bedroom flat) so had to then sort out all that too! 

⭐️ Bathed, got ready, had oven pizza and left to walk to the theatre to meet friend #2 for the ballet (45 minute brisk walk from mine so saved £££ on a taxi and got in extra exercise and outdoor time). Missed seeing the kids as mum hadn’t brought them back before I left 😭 but from her pics it seemed they had an amazing time. 

⭐️ Ballet tickets already paid for months ago, but it cost £22ish for my two rounds of drinks (started with a prosecco at the theatre then we went to a bar after) and £9 for taxi home as I don’t feel comfortable walking back late at night here. Was a lovely night though. Friend #2 and I try to get to the ballet together a couple of times a year but this is the first time since I had Bambi I think (because of breastfeeding to start but the pandemic mainly - we had tickets to a musical last month but that got cancelled). 

themadvix

Sounds like an excellent day😁