NST December A - Z

ldee2111

Kerry_Woman said:

NSD 2 today.  Coped ok today as it is my Mum's 4th anniversary of her death.  Did go into work, which helped as it kept me busy. Lit a candle in flat this evening.  Had a lovely relaxing bath. Also did a tiny bit of housework this evening.   

Hugs Kerry_woman 🕯 

cuddlymarm

Hi guys
Not a very exciting day. I was at work at 10 30 so put washing in ready to turn on when I got home, got a birthday card ready to post for great nephew. Transferred money to his mum.
DS2 knocked a tooth and had to go to the emergency dentist yesterday so did stodge for tea. Not a normal combination but had tuna pasta for tea, then home made rice pud with sultanas. Soft and comfort food.
We’re watching one Xmas film a night up to sprout day. Muppets xmas carol tonight 😂 big grown ups that we are.
I’m back to wearing my mask at work. Second nature by now and not as uncomfortable as in a heatwave.

Anyway I’m grateful for only doing 4 hours today, for comfort food and for snuggles with grand dog.
Keep warm and well guys
Night night.

mothernerd

Various items to bins, quick walk round to check there was nothing to get in the window cleaner's way, two bags of sheets to my house (now packed away in one cube shelf) also found a gift bag for grandpuppy's present, a colouring book I bought for d-i-l and a pattern I thought had been accidentally thrown away.

Many bags to the bins, and old x box onto the skip pile (+3 moved from the yard to the skip pile), full bag for cs, pulled cube shelves away from the chimney breast and swept out everything that had fallen behind it. More items identified for food bank, 1 load of washing done, 2 more loads washed but not dry, next load lined up (and maybe 2 more easily gathered). Some contents whittled down so eg one cube box contains stuff that was spread across 3 cubes. Fan taken outside, cover removed and all dust and chinchilla hair brushed off. Still on NSD 1 but basic spending on travel and food.

Cancelled my place on the CBT course - would have helped enormously but stress of doing teams overwhelmed me. I have asked to be put on the online (writing only) course instead. May put mum's trees up over the weekend - gets more things out of this room.

Grateful for yummy food (especially the ice lolly, cooked meat, cheese triangles and yoghurt from the fridge and freezer), making progress (all rubbish and recycling needs to be out this weekend and they need to take a look at their possessions), good books to read, libraries and librarians.

f0xh0les

Our old (Ex)-B0x 360 has been reimagined as a dvd player. 

It is all it is used for, the trade in value is about £7, so it is a dvd player. Saves having to buy a dvd player.

mothernerd

f0xh0les said:

Our old (Ex)-B0x 360 has been reimagined as a dvd player. 

It is all it is used for, the trade in value is about £7, so it is a dvd player. Saves having to buy a dvd player.

Ours is a crystal x box - mine actually. I bought a silver PS2 and a crystal x box on the same day. got home (took DS1 to carry them home) and was setting up the PS2 and DS2 came in the room, saw the x box and took it to his room. We hadn't had one before then, I've never played on it and it went back and forth to uni with DS2. At some point, I think he lost one of the connecting bits but I've no idea what. Beloved brought a newer working model with her (as well as the wi) and this has been sitting in a bag on the cube shelves for perhaps 4 or 5 years.

There's a defunct printer at the bottom of one of the wardrobes as well. We're having a skip and all the junk is going. Need to get tough on stuff now, spent far too long on getting rid of rubbish and recycling - they need to look at what they have and decide what can go. Not forcing them to get rid of things (don't have any energy to waste) but this is unsustainable - the house is hazardous because of too much jammed in.

I have been dropping hints about the house next door. I hadn't heard the dog barking and picking up on something I overheard the neighbours say, I asked DS3 and Beloved and the man has died The house was rented and is in a terrible state. He was a chain smoker and did no housework, he let the weeds turn into trees and let the dog(s) use the yard as their toilet. 

I am setting DS3 and Beloved on the road to buying their own home. Either buying a hovel and doing renovations gradually or them buying mine and me starting afresh and adding adaptations. When I was looking I once saw a house that could only be viewed from the front door, half the stairs and most of the floorboards were missing. My buying priorities were price (extremely low) and not having to rip out the previous occupant's 'improvements - a scullery kitchen that only had a boiling copper and a stone sink with cold water was my ideal.

f0xh0les

We looked at houses with 'missing' bits of the floors and ceilings  too.  Mostly  they had been converted to 'grow houses' and lumps were knocked out all over the place for ducting. 

Are you going to keep an eye on the local auction sites to see if  it appears?  They don't always put a sign up.  It is always good if you have neighbours you like.   Better if you are related to them

mothernerd

Saturday 4th December 2021
 
Avoid perfection
Things will go wrong, have a back up plan, think on your feet, sit down and take a deep breath. When I was 10 yo we moved house, on the 22nd December (very bad idea). On the day (a Friday) I had to collect my brother (middle child) and take him to mum's cousin to be fed (they lived in a house on the row that was back to back with our new house). Baby brother came in the furniture van with mum and dad.

When they arrived at the new house, the previous owners had taken all the lightbulbs. Mum brought baby brother to her cousin's and borrowed two spare lightbulbs (in those days young turtles, all the shops closed at 5pm and no-one opened on Sundays). It was already dark when mum picked up baby brother from school at 3.30 pm. The removal men did an excellent job of getting the furniture in and the priority was to assemble the beds and make them up. It was way after bedtime.

In the morning, mum did her best to heat milk for our cornflakes over an open fire. It was a Baxi Bermuda but you can't hold a pan over the fire with the door shut. 'Uncle W' arrived with our turkey (It wasn't going to fit over the fire). He went back home and brought us a camping stove (just for one pan but faster than a fire). The gas board could disconnect our cooker at the old house but could not guarantee to connect it at the new house before Christmas. The young man who did the disconnection felt so sorry for mum that he gave her his home phone number to use if needed.

Sometimes there's a good reason why things are cheap or certain slots are available. Super low price on a holiday in the sun (did you check if it was hurricane/ monsoon season). I made the mistake of letting my husband go and book a date for fitting our new carpet (we'd already picked the carpet and had the front room and stairs measured. he came back absolutely delighted with himself - they had lots of availability. between Christmas and New Year. I'd spent a month getting the house clean and tidy with a four month old and a toddler underfoot, bought and wrapped all the presents, sorted the food and it was my time to relax - except I had to spend boxing Day moving all the front room furniture into the kitchen, rendering both rooms virtually unusable and then move it all back again before New Year. 

The year I was pregnant with DS3 my then husband outdid his usual standards of incompetence. We were having work done and the furniture had to be piled up in the kitchen (I couldn't move the couch by myself). We had to take the door knob off to wrangle the couch through. Then he went off to work (for a fortnight, 300 miles way), without putting the door handle back. I had trained both boys not to shut the door (or be locked in the front room). All went well until my mid-week antenatal appointment when mum came to mind the boys. She decided it was cold and the boys only got as far as 'No grandma, don't shut the !' before she locked them in. Ds1's sturdy plastic fireman's helmet came in very handy. when i came back I had to go round to the back door, let myself in and use the biggest screwdriver as a replacement spindle to release them. 

Planning and Preparation

I specifically mentioned sickness in the challenge. The NHS website has a list of 10 common ailments that are easy to treat at home (but that take up a lot of doctors time). Having painkillers including calpol for young ones, antacids, cheap lemonade to rehydrate children who have been sick (plus help for the other end, both too much and inability to perform) plus tweezers for splinters and plasters and cream for cuts and bruises can ease a lot of discomfort and misery.

I used to put away bits of food in the freezer - a large packet of cooked meat (sorry vegans) would be split into smaller quantities and frozen - it's easy to put together a spectacular looking party platter by pulling small quantities of different food which only need defrosting. One year it was very late when I got round to doing a defrost, clean and restock of the freezer. I didn't have much money so I did the defrost and clean, put the freezer back on again the following morning and after finishing work at 7 pm, went to the SM and bought all the French sticks and buns reduced to 5p, filled the freezer and then added special bits as we used up the bread. sausages and many other things can be made in advance and frozen in small amounts. So can hm or bought quiches and pies (ready cut into slices/ quarters). You can get perfect cuts on cakes or sandwiches by slicing when they are still part frozen (my 21st birthday party).

I don't have an advent calendar so I'm just opening cupboard doors and eating whatever's in them.

What do Santa's little helpers learn at school - The Elfabet

The Grinch never hated Christmas. He hated people, which is fair

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

mothernerd said:

Saturday 4th December 2021
 
Avoid perfection

I don't have an advent calendar so I'm just opening cupboard doors and eating whatever's in them.

What do Santa's little helpers learn at school - The Elfabet

The Grinch never hated Christmas. He hated people, which is fair

Thanks mothernerd for all your posts; especially love the above.  

I had a very busy day yesterday, woke up at 6am and had a quick walk then did some of my PT job.  Then had a 2.5 hour teams meeting for self employment job.  Then went to the office for 3 hour training session at FT job.  Colleague said what idiot booked training for a Friday afternoon - i confessed that it was me Got home via morries for petrol and treats then went to my book group festive evening of fun!  We all took food, some of the more organised (or retired) members made food but my contribution was mice pies and mints so i bought both of those.  Had a lovely eve and got home after midnight!

My online order of trainers for DD2 got cancelled but i managed to find an alternative.  Need to do some shopping today and thinking will have to go to a nearby big shopping centre (my idea of h*ll). Better get on with something useful.....

love Deni

Kerry_Woman

Many thanks for the hugs.  Much appreciated.
Yesterday and today have been spend days.  Yesterday was a low spend day, got weekly bus pass, tv mag and a greeting card. Today was a big spend day.  Did the food shop today, but had to buy a few branded items, eg tomatoe sauce and almond milk as the shop did not their own brand of items in.  That put the food shop up to at least by £7.  I buy certain items in bulk for the month at the beginning of the month, eg the milk and butter. I did buy the Christmas cake yesterday at my favourite shop, so crossed that off the list of food items that I need to get - used some of the money that I got from selling the old mobile phone.  Went to a local event, never spent money there and brought my own refreshments from home.  Made donations to two charities. Also posted the Christmas cards that I wrote. 
Grateful for:
Dealing with 4 frogs.
Buying an robin ornament from a local cs.  I had already brought 2 of these ornaments a couple of years ago from my favourite shop.
Having an chilled out evening after having a busy day.

Deni_debt-free_dreamer

Evening 
felt very tired today, due to late night last night and consumption of wine! 
Nevertheless, have managed to do some of my self employment work and some ironing.  Set off to go to the shops but lots of water on the roads and  a tree down blocking half the road so gave up and drove home.  Lost NSD as took pity on DD1 who has gone to a wedding reception and couldn't afford to put any money in the congrats card so gave her a tenner.  Stepmum phoned so listened to her talking non stop for an hour before i was able to go and rescue my tea and listen to the last hour of Liza T on R2. Going for a shower and to watch Netflix
Gratitudes - nice text chat with friend; warm house; being able to have a quiet day
Love Deni