Progress not Perfection

Sun_Addict

Happy Friday eve. This week has flown by!

WFH today just eating my lunch (homemade roast butternut squash and red pepper soup).

Took the dog on the park and did some litter picking which proved to be lucrative as I found £3.20 on the grass. Getting paid for it now 😆 Have also just done a 20 minutes live kettlebell session. Just got a yoga session and live Zumba to do after work and that's my daily exercise done.

Household task is giving the bathroom a good clean IF I can get in it for any length of time as DD is off work today and Mr SA starts showering and packing away the day anytime from around 3pm onwards. 

Tonight's dinner is enchiladas using up the final portion of ragu and a carrot wrap from freezer stocks. It will also use up some leftover passata. 

Money wise today is a NSD and I did a couple of surveys this morning. Getting very close to being able to cash out YG and Opinium. 

jwil

Nice find with the litterpicking cash!

PennysIntoPounds

Whoohoo to the £3.20

Willowtree222

Hope you're OK. Missed your daily posts x

IzzyBee

Hi SA another one missing your posts hope everything is alright I know you have a lot on your plate 

beanielou

Hope all is well with you and yours. 

Sun_Addict

Afternoon all.

Everything is fine, I do appreciate you for asking 😊

Friday I was just so busy with work and although I finished early I couldn't face any more computer screens that day. Plus all I did was go to work and stopped off in Lid! on the way back, not an interesting day by any means and I didn't want to bore the pants off anyone. I often feel all I do is go to work, go to Lid!, clean up after Mr SA, cook and do a shed load of steps. 

Yesterday was super busy. Did a live Salsacise class first thing, still not sure whether I like this class, I love the music but the steps are very repetitive, no different routine to each song like Zumba, just a continuous "from the top" repetition of the same moves over and over again. 

After that dropped off yet another bag of coffee pods for recycling at the local shop followed by a trip to the big Mr T with the soft plastics recycling and pick up of a paper and a few bits. Then we continued on to the big retail park to the dog's vets to pick up her prescription of skin allergy tablets - £78.24!!!!! They did say I now have an open prescription for another 2 months so can order the next lot online, if she still needs them. I felt she needed another dose as she's been scratching a fair bit and her skin looks a bit red. The last dose of tablets worked wonders so we will see. 

We needed some compost so compared prices in BnQ vs BnM. BnQ £13 for 100 litres own brand and BnM £15 for 150 litres branded. BnM won. Also picked up a hand held steamer for £20 while I was in there as I've been after one for a while. It was fun and games trying to get 3 x 50 litre bags of compost on Mr SA's scooter but we managed it in the end. 

In the afternoon did a big garden tidy up as the weather was so nice and warm. It looks so much better now. Mr SA made a start of emptying the pond ready to clean out before the newts and frogs return to spawn. Well he sat poking the pond with his walking stick while the pond pump pumped out the water! The amount of rubbish in the bottom of the pond is unbelievable!

Tidied up the greenhouse and a few geraniums have made it through the winter. Also repotted the surviving sweet peas. Very pleased to see my orange tree has sprouted loads of mini oranges during the winter. Now we have the compost I can make a start on planting seeds. 

I was absolutely shattered after that so had a shower and painted my nails before making a start on the evening meal.

Today we took the dog on the park and I gave the bathroom a good clean. I tested out the hand held steamer and it did a good job on the grouting and tiles. The only thing I would say about the steamer is it would be no good if you have arthritic hands as you have to hold the button down while you steam and hold the steamer itself in your hand. Fortunately I don't have any such problems so it was fine for me. It didn't give off masses of steam so you don't need to open a window. 

Mr SA wanted to sort out his wardrobe but as this involved him laying on the bed watching TV and me sorting out his wardrobe I decided not to bother. 

In money saving news today was a NSD, I've checked the finances and paid the balance off the CC including the holiday balance.

I've been giving my nails a rest from gel polish the past few weeks and have bought a set of 4 varnishes, basecoat and topcoat that give a gel effect for less than £10 more than the cost of a gel manicure. Pleased to report that last week's home manicure lasted a full week before starting to look as though it need re-doing. I'm quite hard on nail varnish as I use the keyboard all day for work and it wears off the ends. This brand has lasted really well and kept its shine and is the closest looking to gel I've come across. I still plan to have proper gel varnish for my holiday as I don't want to be worried about it chipping or having to take varnish away with me. I'll need to book soon as according to a recent FB post my local salon is booked up until the beginning of April. 

In the spirit of other beauty money saving, last year I bought a home eyebrow dye kit but was too scared to give it a try. However, I've done the patch test today so provided nothing flares up I will be giving that a go on Tuesday. 

Anyway, I'm off to make a batch of spiced carrot and lentil soup for work lunches and start to prep tonight's dinner which is butternut squash and chestnut lasagne, trying a new recipe I cut out of an Asd@ magazine I picked up before Christmas. I'm going to tweak the recipe a bit (as always) and use dairy free milk, swap out the cheese in the sauce for wholegrain mustard and use a bit of half fat grated cheese sprinkled on top. Also leave out the butter in the sauce as I always use sauce flour so only need milk and the mustard to make the sauce. I've had a pack of chestnuts since before Christmas so that will use them up anyway.

After that I plan to do a yoga session before getting in the bath with a face mask, candles, magazine and relaxing music.

Willowtree222

Glad you're OK. 

Sounds like a very busy weekend!

The relaxing bath sounds lovely. I'm going to have one of them before DD returns from her dad's. 

badmemory

That lasagne sounds interesting.  I need to "road-test" some chestnuts I bought last month that were less than half the price of merchant gourmet.  I usually use cheese sauce now rather than bechamel, but I am trying to remember what the other (3rd) alternative was suggested in the recipe I used. 

RelievedSheff

We should have made a start tidying the garden up on Saturday really but the lure of the pub was too strong 🤣🤣🤣

Definitely not garden weather today 🙄