So close, we can smell mortgage freedom!

savingholmes

Sunshine does make a huge difference!

Fantastic news on the additional work! Good luck fitting it all in!

themadvix

Morning all,

Thanks SH! More work arrived overnight, of course (the age-old 'it never rains but it pours'). Fortunately one bit isn't due until Monday and the other bit should only take an hour (and I'm already halfway through it). I am very grateful for it - it changes my whole outlook and makes me feel like I'm pulling my weight financially round here (and not expecting Mr MV to pay for any luxuries).

Work is the main order of the day, therefore (as it should be), but I'd like to wander down to the allotment (to pull out mare's tail and bindweed if nothing else) and make the blimmin' birthday cards that are stacking up in my inbox (calendar alerts for birthdays).

Evening class was good last night - it felt about the right level for me and there were three of us, so less pressure than when there's just two. 

Dinner tonight will involve cauliflower, I think. Maybe cauli, mac and cheese? We don't have any tomatoes though, which I usually add, per Jamie Oliver.

MS things:
* Clicks done 
* Train tix from H'row to home booked - used Trainpal to split them and earned a £2 off voucher too, so £39 in total. Not too bad, although could be better. Liked the carbon calculator on the app that shows how much carbon my journey uses - need to see the comparison for a car.
* Lots of work!

Gratitudes:
* Work
* Tea (it's not warm here!)
* A good evening class

Have a good day all!

themadvix

Morning all,

It is *so* cold! House is running at about 16 degree and I've brought my fingerless gloves out of hibernation - Mr MV hates them (calls me Steptoe), but needs must! 

I didn't get to the allotment yesterday (because it was cold and I was tired) and we had easy dinner from the freezer. Tonight we'll have spag bol (passata needs using up) and I'll make the parsnip daal and freeze it (before cooked parsnips deteriorate/get eaten) and we'll have cauliflower something tomorrow (I checked and it's in good form still, so that's fine).

The project I'm working on is proving trickier than expected, so the weekend is slowly disappearing. I turned down a cat sitting request for the jubilee bank holiday yesterday and I'm feeling more justified than ever - it'll hopefully be a great chance to relax, see family (after having been to America) and enjoy ourselves, so I am glad I've decided to have it 'off'. Of course, I won't be telling my professional clients that I'm not available - not after being away for 3 weeks, so I'll probably have to do some work, but that's tough! At least I won't have to drag myself out of bed in the mornings to feed cats.

MS things:
* Clicks done (5p on HW!)
* Heating is off, however cold it gets!
* Meals planned to use everything effectively
* Not going anywhere so not spending any money (or using fuel/electricity!)
* Two birthday cards made and ready to send - one is late, but the other is for tomorrow - relieved to have got these out of my inbox!

Gratitudes:
* Playtime with cats - B&W cat was being super whingey this morning and then I realised he wanted to play - lovely playtime and he's now settled down for a nap.
* Homemade jam buns for snack time
* Reasonably good night's sleep

Have a good day y'all!

Baileys_Babe

It is a lot colder here than I would like our house is currently a couple of degrees cooler than yours 😢 I wish I had some Steptoe gloves, I might put them on my (summer) birthday list. OH has just laid the fire he feels the cold more than most due to a medical condition and my parents are visiting this evening so a cosy house is a must as my Dad's pain increases with lower temperatures. 
The fire will make the living room, dining room and office comfortable and take the chill off the rest of the house.

Well done on the food planning, we too have a cauliflower I haven't decided what to do with it yet, ideas welcome.

Having the Jubilee weekend off so you can catch up with family sounds like a good plan.

Mickyh-s

We put the log burner on yesterday as we too were reading 16!

Cheery_Daff

Brrr, ot is indeed chilly, isn't it?? I have a pair of turtledove gloves (I think that's what they're called) - they're ace. Not cheap if you just buy them, but they did a thing where you could send them 2 cashmere jumpers and get 2 pairs of gloves in return. Well worth doing - I picked up a couple of cashmere jumpers in a charity shop for a couple of quid each (took me a while of wandering around looking of course, not instant). Don't know if they're still doing that but worth investigating if so! They're more like wrist warmers, they don't have cut off fingers, but they're cashmere (made from the old jumpers) and super warm. 

Kind of wish I'd kept the second pair rather than giving them away as a present 😂

themadvix

Glad to know it's not just me that's cold! Bailey's Babe, I couldn't cope at that temp - and I consider myself pretty hardy! Glad to hear the fire is going on. Cheery, I have turtledoves too - if I had second pair, I think I'd be trying to fit them over the top right now - my hands are still freezing! I do feel better for some lunch though, and I warmed my hands over the toaster (we had cheese on toast!). It was hard to leave the (now warm) kitchen!

I may pop out for a quick walk shortly - post those two cards and hopefully get the blood circulating. The speed of my work has improved so I'm feeling slightly more positive about getting it all done on time *and* having a weekend!

newgirly

Hi Vix, so sorry I’ve not popped in for ages, hope all is ok with you I’ll have a good read through at the weekend 🙂

themadvix

Morning all,

NG, you don't need to apologise - you have exciting RL stuff going on! 

Made the parsnip dahl without nearly burning the house down last night - 2 portions in freezer (where I found an original portion of it lurking from Christmas too!) and one out for tonight (cauli will have to wait). Have removed half an olive loaf from freezer for Mr MV's lunch and a pork curry (unless it's turkey?) for his dinner tonight. We've eaten rather a lot of pasta this week, so rice will make a nice change!

Watered the seedling this morning (poor things have had the side up on the greenhouse for two nights in row now - they won't need hardening off! All looking good and healthy - may need to pot on my squash and courgettes before I go away if I have time. Friend offered to pot things on, so I may take her up on this (I said no, thinking it would be more work for her, but I think she might have been offering because she'd enjoy it!).

My sister has won a year's supply of oat milk in a competition - it's arriving today... will be entertaining to see how much space that takes up (and whether a couple of cartons will make their way here!). (Had originally dispatched to her old address - can't imagine the response if something like that turned up unexpectedly!! She's managed to change the address fortunately and has made sure it's up to date now on all her comp accounts!)

MS things:
* Eating to plan/eating from freezer - boring but unless we order takeaway, we don't have much choice anyway
* Tests have arrived today - £28 each for supervised LFTs. That's a treat for next Saturday (followed by much popping stuff to people and saying hello before we go away! Mr MV may even book a massage as his neck is really bad - his osteo doesn't work Saturdays and he's not prepared to risk it beforehand, but he's desperate! (Why do I feel this is not the idea of the tests?!))
* Clicks done
* Keeping on top of additional bits of work that keep arriving
* Dinner last night = no oven and tonight will be microwave and IP
* ETA: just requested some bread on Olio - it'll keep us going until we go away and I won't need to go into a shop for it.

Gratitudes:
* Work
* a chat with Dad while getting out for a quick walk last night
* communicative clients 

Have a good day all!

savingholmes

Glad you've got in new work. Hope you manage to resolve the tricky bit so you get more of your weekend back.