Debt and Caring

WelshmansDaughter

It has come to this. I am officially eating my childhood comfort food of sugar bread. 
This is on top of a drip feed of junk food so perhaps it is a good thing I have found a new exercise love. Now just to borrow some children twice a week 🤣🤣🤣
Sister act goes home tomorrow. Which is great. I love the nephew but I don't want to live with him🤯
Need to go and remove Sherlock holmes audio from dad's room in the vain hope that he has gone to sleep. Fridays are always a bit of a tradeoff, aunt looks after dad but doesn't understand the meaning of the word calm so poor dad ends up unregulated. Then takes an age to get to sleep (which I am in charge of).
Have not been paid for 3 weeks of work and won't be til next week which does upset my schemes somewhat. Or fairytales as they are probably more accurately referred to. 
In other words the gas bill has come in at 800 euro!?!?! And food spending has reached crazy heights. So it will be eat out of the freezer/cupboards/grass for as long as I can stretch it out. Also have to use up all the stuff sister act bought and hasn't finished. Major inventory to be done tomorrow. Pray for me. Or better yet, pray for a pantry so I can organize the d**n kitchen 

savingholmes

Test patient sounds interesting even if not available. Have you done that before?

WelshmansDaughter

And silence reigned over the land...
Sister act has departed for the land of the sporran. I have removed all trace of them from the house 🤣🤣🤣
No not really just the serial killer blackout blind taped to the bedroom window. Hello condensation!
Been up to the post office to deposit cash which is not ideal as I had only planned on one deposit. It's in the supermarket so I bought milk, bananas and kitchen towel as our supplies for the week. Swizz supermarket were charging 1.49 for 2 rolls and 1.59 for 4 💩 
Had a nosy in the bookshop and saw things that I would have gotten but last night I was practicing with a drawing tablet and programme and realized that I could use it to practice effects without waste or buying stuff I can't really afford.

SH I was my sister's fake patient for four years. They had a book with scenarios so I had to pretend to be various sick people. It's not a job for the anxious.

The plans for today:
inventory the cupboards and make some sort of meal plan
Organise fridge
Organise freezers

Pay house insurance
Start job application practice
Clean away all child related evidence

WelshmansDaughter

I have officially paid for care. The seal has been broken 🤣🤣🤣
Teacup and I were both knackered today. I couldn't push the the wheelchair to take dad out so I decided to text our evening carer to see if he could come for a couple of hours. 
€30 for 2 hours. 

Most other things got done except for organizing the food storage. 
Paid 207 for 6 months of house insurance 🤯

Cherryfudge

It's always a good idea to have a back up care plan, if only (worst case scenario) because we ourselves are human and sometimes that means we can't do something, in which case a trained and experienced source of back up is just what's needed.

Equally important, of course, to care for the carer, be that you or the employee. Okay, I'll let you tidy my soap box away.

What a good idea to use IT to try out art effects - you will have an Etsy shop before you know it! I've not tried anything very technical but the art effects programmes I've played with are a lot of fun and if you know more about them than I do, you could create some wonderful stuff (clutter-free, too).

WelshmansDaughter

I might need to borrow that soap box Cherry, don't tidy it away just yet! I'll stand on it looking into a mirror and lecture myself.
The art is not so technical, if anyone is interested it is a free programme called inkscape. I'm using a cheap drawing tablet (it was 35 euro when I bought it) called one by wacom.

Poor dad got the short end of my temper last night. I was just nodding off when he woke up. It breaks my heart when he says things like I'm useless and I got grumpy. The memories of sleepless nights are still too fresh and at 3am all I was thinking was not another bloody day wasted. 
Which is not perspective thinking but who does that at 3am?! 🤣🤣🤣
I am quite tempted to go back to sleep. 
No money things to sort out today, waiting for pay on Wednesday? Bless her she is a tad scattered and we are now at 4 weeks, hope she doesn't get a shock at paying it all out in one go. 
The money for the carer yesterday was scrounged from around the house as I'd already transferred the money for my UK bills. Including a fiver from heavys pocket 🤣🤣🤣

Cherryfudge

I might have a look at that programme: I wonder if I could add it to my Kindle? I only just discovered last night - after owning this particular Kindle for a few years - that I can add an SD card. (Blushes). I have more books than I can read and loads of apps and just ran out of space despite storing what I can on the cloud. Not sure I should be allowed an SD card because I'll only fill it, but graphics take space...

Is your Dad able to do anything even slightly useful? Could he be the one who polishes the family shoes (or at least has a soft cloth to buff them up) though if your house is like ours, people live in trainers and slippers. Does he have a grab stick to retrieve hard-to-reach items? Could he check your adding up, or tell you stories of his childhood to record or write down for the grandchildren? Could he write them a letter of memories for when they are older? It must be very hard for him to feel useless, but hard for you to keep hearing it as well.

Your employer is ringing alarm bells: four weeks without pay just isn't right. Is it time for a tactful word about her cash flow?

And talking of going back to sleep, I went back to bed for two hours after work yesterday, slept soundly and felt the benefit!

WelshmansDaughter

Definitely not Cherry it is a graphics programme and requires processing power to run it. My laptop struggles with some of the features. Not sure what apps are available for a kindle.

4 weeks sounds worse than it is, I get paid weekly generally. But middle child has been quite sick with tonsils and home from school and so our schedule has been all over the place. At my end as well to be fair. We don't really have a conventional employment which has to be said works for me as much as it does for her. At least if she has the money I can't spend it 

I did go back to bed this morning after I ate breakfast. Gave myself the stern parent talking to and it worked enough for part of my brain to go to sleep which took care of the irritability anyway. Teacup was in a fabulous mood today so she has looked after dad all day and hasn't upset him. Wonders will never cease.

Dad is blind Cherry so he cannot do anything that requires visual interpretation. Some of the activities we do
We have an audio photo album that I got his sister to put together which we use for reminiscence. We also do Welsh language practice with youtube videos, walking practice, planning activities (where I tell him what we want to plan and he makes suggestions). He does get very nervous though and doesn't engage with anything unfamiliar at the moment but hopefully once he gets back to a routine after his sleep deprived months that will change. although I have to admit I am guilty of trying to find activities that don't require my involvement which is not the best caring practice. Looking after dad is what I want to do and I don't want to do it at the same time. 

There is a great article about Michael Rosen's new book in the observer today which is very much how I feel. Although he doesn't mention donuts as a coping strategy <side eye>

doingitanyway

WelshmansDaughter said:

I have officially paid for care. The seal has been broken 🤣🤣🤣
Teacup and I were both knackered today. I couldn't push the the wheelchair to take dad out so I decided to text our evening carer to see if he could come for a couple of hours. 
€30 for 2 hours. 

It is good that you are thinking like this. Good self care.

WelshmansDaughter

DIA yay you're back! Will be over to see what you've been up to.

I am sitting down eating second breakfast and catching myself up on the morning. 
I wrote down the instructions for the carer. Realized as I was writing them down that it was missing stuff so it's now the First Draft. 
He is in there helping dad get up now. Bless him he isn't in the best of health himself it seems. And he forgets stuff 🤦‍♀️ Hoping that is down to having a lot to remember. 

Cleaned up the rubbish from around Heavy's seating area. He has so much that it is easier to bring the recycling bin to the window and throw them out that way. Picked up various bits and pieces from around the sitting room, sadly can't blame all the half empty food containers on my nephew 🤣🤣🤣 

Emptied out the old pond to remove a less than alive something. It will be diverted to a woodland area on my way to work. Nothing like dead animal disposal to liven up the commute.

Making a few notes on what to do in the sitting room. Need a tarp then I can chuck stuff out in the front garden, keep it respectable while I get everything ready for the tip. 


Working 3 extra hours this week, need to remember to eat.