NST: February 2023 Freedom

facethemusic

As my only spend today was a medical requirement I'm claiming my 1st NSD today. My shoulder is very much a problem but I have a magic lady with deadly fingers who makes it slightly better every time I see her! 
Too windy to ride but I'm at 17000 steps so that will have to do for exercise. 
I've spent 10 minutes walking round the house and have filled a bag with recycling- proper decluttering will probably not start until the weekend but it's a start and gets rid of some bits that should never have been left lying around! 
I have 2 candles burning so I might even reduce the candle stash by the end of the month. 
Hope everyone feeling 😷🤒🤢🤮🤧 recovers quickly. 

Thrifty_Taylor

@f0xh0les yes, the roof is still attached 😃 thankfully!
Sending hugs to @beanielou & the poorly/injured people.

I've had a great first day of Feb. Got up & did yoga, completed 2 Norwegian practice exercises, made a pasta concoction to feed me lunch for the next 3 days, then DH caught the bus for his hospital appointment & I rushed round feeding all the cats & the garden birds. Work went ok, made my little 5 year old laugh, who I was with this morning, then an older one this afternoon. It was the teacher's birthday, so lots of pupils brought in different cakes for her. I was so stuffed from my pasta dinner (& secretary gave me a chocolate rice cake), that I had no room left! So brought my 2 buns home (+ the secretary's 2). I had one after tea & the others were eaten by DH & 2DSs. Stopped at the post office, so passport paperwork is now on its way, filled the car up, will hopefully last all month, then as it was still quite light, I walked 2.75 miles, followed by 100 skips. The 50 forwards were a lot easier than the 50 backwards!! Watched C4tchphr4se with DS1, he only just beat me 🤣, then did a quick hand sewing job & prepped some trousers to shorten tomorrow night. Feeling quite tired, but content with achievements.

Grateful for lighter nights, eating well today, laughter

grandmanerd

I'm feeling better but oh so weary - pain is no longer stabby but aching everywhere (and not had any pain pills for 2 days as my stomach felt sore and didn't want to  make things any worse). Ventured out this afternoon - 3 books returned to the library, a large back of assorted donations to nearest charity shop and they also took the 2 phones and cradles from mum's (wasn;t sure if we still had somewhere to plug them in - we don't), pottered round W's (no purchase), spent £14 on a small food shop  (planned shop was too far for me) and then went across to the market to see if the man had batteries for my pinsentry machine and got him to change them for me. Came in, got myself upstairs and fell asleep at 7 pm. 

Laptop had refused to charge the night before (felt really cut off with that and no pinsentry machine and the phone needed charging once again). Have found out, by trial and error, that the second socket on the electric bar doesn't work (have changed the one I use since I came back from DS1's as I couldn't reach across to  plug into the one  on the drawers next to my bed).

Grateful for my 'walk' (felt good even though it was tough and bits of me complained a lot), for sorting lots of bits on my list, for easy food and my bed. 

Dfw38

Thanks for the info @f0xh0les! They are absolutely huge and the side effects are not nice 🙄 got q blood test in April and hopefully I  can get off the blooming things or at least have  a lower dosage.

f0xh0les

Well I was surprised it could be 80% wasted by a simple cup of tea!  

Shrewbie

Morning turtles and newbie turtles!! Hope you feel better very soon @ldee2111

Reporting NSD 1 and a good start to the month. Bf and I are on rations (only until tomorrow, so things are not too desperate) but this is the first week for ages where we’ve been firm with ourselves and used up what we have in and not done loads of top up shops, so I think that’s a result. 

Im also grateful for the lighter evenings, and for coffee, although l really didn’t know that about iron, thanks f0xh0les!! 

Must get my plan together for Feb. 

f0xh0les

Ha ha!   Everyone is going to be taking their iron tablets before bed now.

Dfw38

That figure is absolutely shocking Foxholes! Unfortunately I have to take 2 a day, I always take the evening one before bed and the morning one about 10.30 because I have found if I take them too early it makes me queasy. Think I will steer clear of coffee and tea for a while. 

f0xh0les

Just for 4 hours! You don't have to give up entirely, just plan around your cuppas.

grandmanerd

With my positive head on, over the last week I've trawled through my online diaries and found details on more expenditure to be claimed from mum's estate - if I'd been to mum's and had no bus ticket, it must have been a taxi day and I put in a lot more detail on the bedding plants I bought to cheer the beds and pots up before putting the bungalow up for sale. I've also deleted over 4,000 emails (now sub 500 and a lot of those are monthly DDs and quarterly bills). I've unsubscribed from somewhere between a dozen and 20 sites so won't get all those clogging up the box.

Yesterday I nibbled on broccoli and raw mushrooms, my small shop avoided more expensive options and I ticked off a lot of minor tasks and got 3 pieces of technology working again (and I know which socket on the extension bar does not work).

Use ups of toiletries, cleaning products and stored food are going well - I may have to buy some this month and the shower and glass cleaners are doing a great job on the doors and door frames using a sponge/ scrubby double sided pad in 5 minute bursts. I need to work on using up some products mum liked that I rarely think about - packet rice, pasta and sauce and jars of sauce. One or two a week aren't going to kill me and I can add extra veg and tinned pulses. Target is 23 food use ups this month. I'm also aiming for  23 books to be read monthly (I frequently read myself to sleep).

Looking ahead

*   Decided my plans for re-using the bricks from the old wall were unrealistic - I need to give in and pay someone to take all the mess away + a couple of bits of broken furniture and spare drawers. Need to use my limited energy on other things.

*   A couple more final bits of the bungalow sale set in motion, about 3 more estate things to do and 1 or 2 big decisions (with brother).

*    First stages (research and planning) on moving DS3 and Beloved out (the Monday appointment has added an autism diagnosis onto her panoply of woes - apparently her mother had her tested for special needs but not autism).

*    The probate on the boys' dad's estate is proceeding (DWP investigation concluded?) - need to speak to DS2 as only had info via DS3. Thorny issue of the vinyl to deal with - it needs to move somewhere less visible/ intrusive 

*     DS1 has suggested me buying a property close to them. I think they were alarmed by how much I had deteriorated between mum's funeral (January 2022) and December (2022). Lots of pros and cons to weigh up. I know that keeping an eye on their dad over the last 10 years (monthly visits) and continuing to trek to North Wales and back (more weekends than not for the past 5 years plus overnight hospital calls) has taken a lot out of the eldest 2, so I don't want them worrying about me needing support and being 2 hours away by public transport. I also know many people have regretted upping sticks in later life and knowing no-one in their new area. I have a list.

Have a good day turtles - I was awake for several hours in the night and now I'm drifting off.