NST January 2022: Janus

beanielou

mothernerd~~am in awe of what you are managing.

crazy_cat_lady

Planned spend day today - Friday is grocery shopping day. Spent £57-50 between Aldee and Mr S and it should be enough for the week ahead. Planned to make burgers and coleslaw, ham and pease pudding soup and slow cooked pork. It will be plenty enough for me and dd (unfortunately ds refuses to eat anything I make at all - not great for my self esteem) with plenty of leftovers to freeze. Which will be really useful because I'm still more than 3 weeks from payday and money is looking a bit tight now. Already.

f0xh0les

crazy_cat_lady said:

 It will be plenty enough for me and dd (unfortunately ds refuses to eat anything I make at all - not great for my self esteem)

Sometimes we have to accept that although we love them, they make no sense, and you will never ever understand what goes on in their tiny fluffy brains.   My DS1 has spent years loudly refusing to eat X or Y or Z, but since having to cook his own food at Uni, is now at least trying things.

It seems he does not hate bananas, absolutely loves anything that tastes of coconut, and aubergine is his new fave thing EVER, he is very apologetic about his bratish behaviour for YEARS  - but Toast is still anathema to him.  Still, there is time yet.

apple_muncher

Hugs, mothernerd. Hope you are able to get some rest.

32b3in2013

Good evening all

two planned spend days for me yesterdays and today.  Both days were supposed to be celebrating a friend’s birthday.  Did that yesterday which was nice,  but something I ate at the restaurant we all ended up in last night didn’t agree with me so I didn’t go out today other than to get a Diet Coke.  As today was a low spend,  but not a no spend day, I also ordered some vitamins to kart a few months.  So I am still on  NSD 3/16+

I have sold 4 items on Vinted over the past few days too.

today I am grateful for
the programmes I had recorded to watch later so I did not have to deal with daytime TV!

Diet coke
Lots of new series’ starting on the to due to the new year 

have a great weekend everyone

32b3

mothernerd

Got to mum's early though didn't get the sleep I wanted. Milk woman was early but still 2 doors away (only stopped milk delivery for one week, so if I'd missed them, they might have left 2 more pints. So bottles returned, paid the money mum owed, thanked them for all the help and said I will pass their details onto whoever gets the bungalow.

Wrote most of the letter to go with my hip review, had a shower, made a bit of space, set the washer going, texted mummy of twins to say I was already at the bungalow and was about to climb into bed to have another couple of hours sleep when DS2 phoned. kept telling me how I need to get rid of stuff, keep my favourite activities but pare them back - most of all he seems to want me to have nice garden furniture. I actually had to stop him so I could put my dress back on, which was good because m-o-t appeared shortly afterwards.

So we've dealt with most of mum's clothes including some for her to wear on her big day and a few bits for someone who wants a memory bear (originally a blue fluffy sweatshirt and a pair of herringbone patterned trousers but later we found a bright red sweatshirt with the logo of the tap dance troupe mum used to belong to which I thought would make a nice feature). I laughed when we got to the third cupboard and m-o-t said "Oh look, your mum's 'best' coat". I said are you sure it's mum's best coat we still have 2 suitcases under the bed to go through. Sure enough there were many many 'best' coats (hands up everyone who's ever had a camel coat) and best jackets and everything in the second case still had the tags.

We've also emptied most of the drawers and cupboards in the front room - there is one set of framed photos to go through but m-o-t  brought it up out of the cupboard. The Registrar phoned and I've ordered and paid for 6 copies of the death certificate (she thought that was a lot but there are at least 3 insurance policies, one of which will be a nightmare and insurance companies do drag their feet). No luck with the funeral director, they must also be rushed off their feet, but even the 24 hour line wasn't being staffed. However the Registrar has sent the paperwork they need to collect mum so we will appear on their radar. 

I ate from the freezer and cupboards (fishfingers and mushy peas), m-o-t had brought a can of soup of all things (to the home of the soupery). We reviewed the list of people still to be contacted and I'll send notes to most of them and let them call me back (the ones in France and Australia will not be attending but I'm hoping to fend off problems with next year's Christmas cards). My ruling apple is that we're still in the post Christmas period and Father C is letting all the elves have a well deserved rest and they will not be shot. Or if we take the traditional approach, Christmas doesn't end until February 1st (I think it's Michaelmas to Candlemas)

Mummy of twins will take on the most difficult notification or the remaining ones. A dear friend of mum's from church, she's 18 months older than mum and not at all well. I think I've been afraid to phone her in case I made her worse when she's on her own, so m-o-t will go round to her house and deal with any resulting fallout (I remember doing the rounds after my grandma died and it was one old woman after another crying all over me).

M-o-t brought me home in time for the school pick up along with 2 bags of clothes, one large box of bric a brac including 2 electrical items and a box of books (precise specifications of the YMCA  manageress) which are in my trolley and will be delivered tomorrow , weather permitting (I will shrink if I get doused in more rain, sleet. hail or puddles). I'm sure she would have taken me to dropped me at the shop but would have become entangled in the evil one way system (all the side streets are one way, alternating direction)

I came straight upstairs when I got in (back needed stretching and dekinking and it was a long way off more painkillers.) DS1 messaged for a report on progress (I think he got a bit more than he bargained for). I said I wasn't cross, just tired  (and unsure of what stage I'm up to with everyone). Also having a side chat with DS3 who was trying to con me into emptying whatever is in the bottom of the stock pot. 

Messaged my niece to see if she or my brother want/ need anything from the bungalow, specifically does my brother need the hospital bed or the recliner chair. They're welcome to anything they want but I need to know - she thinks the recliner would be great but he will need to ponder, mull it over, process it before coming to a decision. I asked if he needed any household item, but mindful that she and a friend cleared out loads from his house when he was in hospital.

I've suggested a walk through might be useful, I could unlock the doors and wait at the bottom of the yard. Or if she came and took pictures of what I've done at the garden, it might encourage him to make the move. She'll probably get back to me on Sunday (she's busy tonight and tomorrow and has also pulled a muscle in her side) but we'll chat soon.

So I have a date with a chocolate log  (bb 14th November the box of biscuits was destined for the Christmas cupboard, the cake was for at the time but mum disappeared them both). Then going to read a sleep. No plans for tomorrow. I've done what I needed to, more than I expected to . I may do a quiet job next, packaging up photos for various family members.

Grateful for chocolate cake, possible videos of mum tap dancing (she'll be frowning, concentrating on remembering her steps) if they can be converted, and the support of this forum.

abundant1972

Good Evening folks 🌒

Busy day at work today and came home feeling totally wiped out. I didn't sleep well last night - having strange dreams where I felt I was having to problem solve things and fit things into categories. That will teach we to read an astrology book before bed trying to decode my chart haha! 

Today I am grateful for: 
1) Friendly staff on the wards that made me feel valued
2) Encouragement from colleagues with exercises and techniques
3) The snow!!! We only had a bit and was mostly slush by the time I escaped but I love it 

Today = NSD number 5 (so proud I have managed every day this week!)

I think I am detoxing from sugar and maybe that's why I feel flat and energy-depleted. Swapping to fruit but missing the quick fixes and treats from over Christmas. Had my first cupboard search of 'what can I eat that's nice' tonight haha - came up blank. Had a bit of toast lol. f0xh0les - tell him he doesn't know what he's missing haha!!! That's one of my number 1 comfort foods haha. 

Good night all x

apple_muncher

32b3, if all you bought was the coke (which was medicinal) and the vitamins, then I'd say those all count as medical spends and you can claim an NSD 😀.

Mothernerd, well done you. Hope you get a rest today. We ordered 10 copies of my dad's death certificate as some companies wanted an original in the post!!!.

DrCarrie

I am very impressed with the number of NSD's people have! I am still stuck on 2. But I have just done a meal plan and a shopping list. This in theory should help right? 

For some reason, it was a very tough week at work, but I am making sure I move my body before I start the day, a return to a regime that had been eroded and eroded. Lockdown, professionall thing stress. I made myself the most delicious dinner last night. Grateful for that, and getting through the week, and having an early night with knowing i don't have to be at the computer by 9. 

f0xh0les

I know about the soupery, and your mum 'disappearing' things, but was she a squirrel in other ways mothernerd?

I know my step gran has money hidden in her 'best winter coat' and money in one of her oldest handbags at the back of the wardboard, and money hidden in the built in cupboard at the end of the bath, and money under the piece of carpet in the hoover cupboard, and in the fake baked bean tin in her soupery, and, and,  and,  and,  and so on and so forth.   She really is one of those people you hear about on the news, when their family drop in a suitcase full of clothes after they die, and it turns out they had a quarter of a million  pounds in the coat pockets, but was living on cheese and crackers and salt and vinegar crisps.  She justifies it by saying when my granddad died (over £30 years ago) they only had a joint bank account, and the bank put a stop on it  until after the will was read, and she was left very, very short, until it was all sorted out (my family did not even ask if she needed anything), and so she wants enough money in the house in cash to pay to bury her, outright,  and any other related expenses until the house can be sold.   There is no telling her otherwise.  

She has stopped telling me where it all is, and now just taps her nose and says throw nothing away, and give nothing away until you have looked in all the pockets!  Oh, and be sure to look on the top shelves under the wallpaper, and lift the carpet edges.   It amuses her to do it.  It makes her feel clever.   mad old bat.