NST Jolly Joyful July

mothernerd

ditty1234 said:

mothernerd said:

Hugs ditty. When DS2 collapsed in his student house, I was very glad that some of his housemates came back and found him and called the ambulance. They also took it in turns staying at the hospital overnight with him after I had to leave (I spent the first night in Manchester as I had missed any connecting buses when I got back to Piccadilly Gardens, no luck at Shude Hill (weekday so no night buses) and 5 minutes too late for the last train from Victoria. DS2 has always wanted me there as early as possible and to stay as late as possible whenever he's been in hospital but it must be dreadful, having to let them go off in the ambulance alone.

Yes it is horrendous, he could not even talk when he left. And it took 4 guys to get him down the stairs, they're doing all of the checking out now. I'm very lucky I have a car, it must have been horrible to spend the whole night on the train/station. Is he generally ok now? Yes I really wanted to go to the hospital just to support in particular as he cant talk - hope to god that comes back!

Yes, that was a few years back. He ended up on a ward and they said they were just for assessment, he'd either be discharged or moved onto another ward. So each day they came and did tests, then decided he needed another blood transfusion, so he did 5 days on the ward that was only for assessments.

However there's always someone worse off than you. A middle aged man came in accompanied by an elderly woman. I think he must have been unconscious because I didn't hear him speak - he had collapsed in the street. I wasn't eavesdropping, it was just a very loud conversation and the bed was almost directly facing DS2's. The old lady was asking could she stay the night because the man who had collapsed was her carer.

DS2 had a couple of complaints whilst he was at university. He developed cellulitis - very rare, related to necrotisng fasciitis but affects your blood. He also developed heel spurs (took 8 years for a diagnosis on that one). Standing and walking are difficult and wet conditions make it worse. DS2 worked weekends in a local bar throughout his early university years so was constantly standing and if you've ever worked a busy bar it can get very wet underfoot. he would sometimes have 3 big meals a day at weekends and then fill a large bag from my fridge and cupboards to take back with him.

The two illnesses meant that he missed quite a lot and had to repeat each year twice. This meant that on the third and final year he had no funding at all. He also left his regular job because his manager had fixed him up with a pub in the same chain, near to university, which then fell through. He no longer came home at weekends and wasn't eating properly. It's also the source of my previous debt (not just him, getting three boys through their education and then the perils of rented accommodation). DS1 and his then gf were woken by the cat one morning - all the run off from the surrounding fields was discharged into their garden and the cottage had a foot of water throughout the downstairs. They lost a lot of clothing and textbooks and both of them moved in with me (landlady had at first offered to pay for the damaged items but then backtracked).

DS2 is currently under investigation for Mediterranean Familial Fever and we're trying to work out where the Mediterranean comes in with a mainly Scots and Irish heritage - his dad has come up with it being the Spanish Armada. Lots of the ship foundered in the north and Scotland would have been the nearest landmass for any survivors.

ditty1234

HI Mothernerd, that is quite a string of events, must have been very worrying. Flooding is terrifying. And disasters of all kinds happen usually when you don't want them. I hope your ds2 finds out whats going on. 

mothernerd

Okay, I seem not to have quite broken my budgets. Have trawled through my notebooks, this thread, online accounts and receipts and pieced it all together.

Food originally I allowed 400 pounds for food. It looked as though a takeaway might become a regular weekly event (there are hm versions in the freezer). It's mum's money and this is something she used to do with her partner. She's also been ill and not eating a lot, so anything she wants to eat is fine by me. So I allowed 300 for food and 100 for takeaways.
I have spent 296.95/ 300 of the food budget and 58.30/ 100 on takeaways, so the remainder of the takeaway money will be used for anything we need this week.

DIY 100 and Miscellaneous 100
I thought I had done a large online order and had to split the order between these two categories, taking both near to the limit. My online receipts tells me this was on the 27th June, so last month's expenditure
Miscellaneous 95.84/ 100 (washer repair and small online spends, plus my puzzle book) and DIY 42.50/ 100 (probably because my visit to town with the large list keeps getting put off).
In addition, mum's cousin brought her a sealant gun and I found the other two skewers when tidying (thought I had bought enough) so list is reducing

Travel 7.00/ 35.00 again because trips to home/ town have not happened - was allowing for one a week

I have mainly stuck to the once a week shop. Perhaps when mum is eating better I can start stretching that to every 10 days or so but I also want to stock up on soups for winter - looking at what we have been using and increasing/ running down stock levels. 
NSDs 19 but I am going to deduct 5 so 14. The online spends are usually on the same day as a big shop day and in little clusters (make up a list as I go along and then order items on a food shop day). However I know I did two trips to the corner shop and there were times when I ordered in anticipation of it being a food shop day or a trip to town day which then did not happen.

Decluttering 1610/ 2021

Monthly/ 3 Month/ 6 Month goals. 
The month hasn't gone the way I thought it would. I walked on the canal bank on the 4th. I went to town on the 7th but only did some of my errands and never got as far as my house. Reading back through this thread, problems with ankles/ knees etc have persisted as has mum's illness (she was really ill on the 10th). So I've written a little plan for this week and going forward (introduce mum to the changes). I also restarted some embroidery (making up) but had too stop when it got dark.

Progress on the garden is going well (apparently tomorrow will still be fine but then we get a break). Side fence containers in place and only a little digging left (some done today). Also did a bit more work on cutting up roots and a tree stump. Mum's cousin has cut the shrubbery at the front down to ground level. Made a dinner with the last 2 pieces of chicken from the freezer. Asked mum if it was okay to move some of the edging stones to near the gate (they will be being used around the front 'garden'). They are very heavy and moved them one at a time on one of the dolly trucks - will do 2 or 3 a day (not planning on laying more than 3 a day either).

Gratitudes
lovely food
enjoying watching Get Even which is not at all how I expected it to be (and very pleased with myself for recognising Bolton School)
Making progress, a little bit at a time

apple_muncher

Hugs, ditty x

Thrifty_Taylor

Sending hugs ditty to you & your son. I know how you feel seeing him go off in the ambulance, I was the same when hubby was taken to the airport to be taken by helicopter to ICU in Aberdeen in April. He was away 2 weeks altogether, but thankfully we were able to speak on the phone each day, which helped him & us.

NSD#14
Suggested a 3 mile walk this morning, as after a 5 mile one I'm quite tired for the rest of the day & quite hot today too. Altered a suit jacket, then used the remaining empty coal bags to fill with bonfire debris. Pleased that's it all bagged up now. Weeded round the fruit bushes, discovered lots of ripe blackcurrants, so picked & prepped those. Enough for a crumble tomorrow night. Washed up then sewed some hair scrunchies for birthday presents to be posted today. Quite achy then, so glad of a warm bath with my book.

Grateful for a phonecall from uncle in law (haven't spoken to him in years, but send cards, letters, etc, so was a nice surprise), ripe blackcurrants, good books, warm bath

mothernerd

Monday 26th July 2021

Getting there slowly

Small steps every day add up to big things
Small progress is still progress
Celebrate your small wins

Start by doing one push up
Start by drinking 1 glass of water
Start by paying towards one debt
Start by reading one page
Start by making one sale
Start by deleting one old contact
Start by walking one lap
Start by attending one event
Start by writing one paragraph
Start today
Repeat tomorrow

Be present. Not perfect

Kindness is lending them some of your strength instead not reminding them of their weakness

The man who moves a mountain begins by moving small stones Confucius

Don't worry about what people think. They don't do it very often

ditty1234

Thrifty_Taylor said:

Sending hugs ditty to you & your son. I know how you feel seeing him go off in the ambulance, I was the same when hubby was taken to the airport to be taken by helicopter to ICU in Aberdeen in April. He was away 2 weeks altogether, but thankfully we were able to speak on the phone each day, which helped him & us.

Thanks Thrifty and everybody else just hanging in there, I ant believe sending somebody off in a helicopter, an ambulance is bad enough. 
Just about to get started on the work I came up here to do - empty his uni house and a bit of cleaning. 

Buffythedebtslayer

ditty1234 said:

Thrifty_Taylor said:

Sending hugs ditty to you & your son. I know how you feel seeing him go off in the ambulance, I was the same when hubby was taken to the airport to be taken by helicopter to ICU in Aberdeen in April. He was away 2 weeks altogether, but thankfully we were able to speak on the phone each day, which helped him & us.

Thanks Thrifty and everybody else just hanging in there, I ant believe sending somebody off in a helicopter, an ambulance is bad enough. 
Just about to get started on the work I came up here to do - empty his uni house and a bit of cleaning. 

Logged on to see if there was news. Still sending you love. Hope the work is a distraction. XX 

Toni'sfriend

Hope he's Ok, Ditty. xxx

Calling14

Aww Ditty how awful, hope you have some good news soon. Wishing your son a speedy recovery and try not to worry.

Thanks Mothernerd for all your quotes, laughing my head off at some.   As I haven't been here since Thursday taken a fair bit of reading in work time but horrible atmosphere here today. When they treat site manager as dirt worked here for 20 years I am totally disgusted with my bosses. It was his last day today. Still yet to give me an idea of when my redundancy will happen so hid in my own office.

Hectic weekend Grandkids and dd2 from Canada, plus another kid appeared at 8.30am Saturday morning, she had played with gd night before but hounded her dad to take her to mine for another play. Well whats one more kid wasn't for long and felt sorry for the dad who had nagging by little girl from 6am. Reckon he was desperate by 8 o clock  to get rid to turn up on my doorstep then hehe.

Spent Thursday - hairdressers and got a salad to take home.

Friday - day off wasted, ended up food shopping and more food shopping.

Sat - why kids wake up at 6.20 am grrr, busy day cooking,  garden chilling, playing games, windy beach walk in afternoon and did BBQ night. NSD yeh

Sunday- Kids sent home, cleaned house to exhausted state. Then went to watch a singer in a pub garden with a friend, first gig and me time all weekend. Heaven. Spendy day few drinks, low spend as driving.

Today - Spendy day dd1 birthday Weds so ordered pressies online and veg shop at lunchtime.

Glad it is getting cooler, sweat rashes here as well Mothernerd.

Hopefully quiet night and will get a walk in and get half  garden furniture in garage before thunderstorm hits tomorrow. Will pop and see neighbour as her doggy has been given 2 month max to live with cancer.  So sad at least not a young dog.