NST June 2023 Flotsam and Jetsam

Shrewbie

That beach looks beautiful @ldee2111

Thank you @grandmanerd the relationship with alcohol thing has been a huge one for me this year. 

I have barely spent any money this weekend - yesterday was even an NSD  - unheard of for a saturday! so hopefully that will do a bit towards rebalancing the spenny May that I had. 

I’ve had such a lovely, chilled weekend. Bf is away and I haven’t met up with any friends, but I’ve had some lovely random interactions with the general public which have made me smile. I’ve read a lot, cooked and pottered about. Did a meal plan and batch cooked an arrabiata pasta sauce for the week, “egg cups” to have for breakfast, a loaf of bread and a banana and walnut cake. Bf will be back from uk later this evening.

Grateful for the magnolia and jasmine flowering, for interesting podcasts and books, for not needing much to be happy.

ldee2111

Sunday sweeps done - this is a weekly sweep of our underspends in transport, food and leisure budgets into accounts called ‘other trips’ and ‘mortgage overpayments’. Quite a good sweep this week thanks to OH working from home a couple of days saving us train costs. £14 a day for OH to travel to work! I suppose it’s better than the £24 he used to pay when work was a bit further away! 

Saneberries order delivered this afternoon. Unfortunately not enough nectar points for money off this week’s shop but should get a couple of £s off next week’s. 

Didn’t manage a walk today but I did vacuum every room in our hot house while listening to my audiobook. That counts as exercise and a wee bit of self care, doesn’t it?! 

I also made a cleaning plan to kick my backside into gear… will see how it goes. I tried to find quick plan online but they mostly seemed to be for people who have nothing else on in their day - who has time to clean the toilet, the bath tub, the shower, to disinfect surfaces and the shower curtain, to shake out the bath mat, to change the towels, and check the toiletries on a Tuesday?! 🤣 To be honest, I did end up using one of the plans but stripped it back just a tad (shared the plan below). 🤣

Grateful for quality time with family and friends, for the beautiful nature that surrounds the caravan site, for seeing the ducks and their ducklings and the swans and their signets swimming around the loch, and for the sweet tweeting from the birds in the trees.  

The WEEKLY cleaning plan:

Caveats: 

*25 minute time limit on each day

*will tweak plan as I go

*added optional cleaning if I have time and energy! 

We have a smallish house so most of this should be achievable. 

DAILY

make beds in the morning 

load and empty dishwasher

do one load of laundry & put away

clean kitchen counters in the evening

clean kitchen floors in the evening (optional)

MONDAY (bathrooms) - 25 minutes 

clean toilets & sinks

clean shower & bathtub

wipe floors 

organise & declutter where needed (optional)

TUESDAY (living room) - 25 minutes 

dust & wipe tables

vacuum & mop floors 

organise & declutter where needed (optional)

WEDNESDAY (kitchen)

clean gas hob & wipe out oven & grill 

clean counters & sink

vacuum & mop floors

wipe down cupboards & extractor fan (optional)

THURSDAY (bedrooms)

dust and clean surfaces 

vacuum & mop floors

organise & declutter where needed (optional)

FRIDAY (doorway & stairs)

dust & vacuum floors & surfaces 

dust light fixtures in all rooms 

clean windows & blinds in all rooms 

WEEKEND (outdoors)

sweep back and front door steps

cut grass, clean out weeds & sweep patio 

clean out & wash car

Tonight I’ve emptied the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen counters… too hot for mopping floors especially after vacuuming the house!

Starlight_at_Sea

Baking sounds lovely Shrewbie! 
Thanks for the thought-provoking challenge GrandmaNerd, lots really resonates. 

15 NSDs - might be challenging, have plotted out quite a few social events in this month, but am planning on minimal spends above the budget. We'll see! 

Little Bit Better. Lots of life is a bit challenging just now and I am definitely 'stuck' in a bit of a less than ideal situation. Am making big steps to make it a bit better through the flat purchase later this month 🤞 but I could also reframe my day to day view of things and cherish what I do have in this extra contact time with my folks.

Opportunities. hmm. I need to project ahead for summer around this, that's a fairly big frog I've been avoiding. overall a bit more planning on both the money making and money saving front.

Timetable for health - this is a great idea. It worked well last few weeks to start plotting in the things I needed to do first, and trying to fit work and caring responsibilities around them, wherever feasible. It's clearly not always possible, but even if it worked out sometimes it would be great. 
Self-care - sleep and hydration are not bad things for me to focus on here, mothernerds DS3 must have been watching me - I'd like to do a bit more of both. 

Always take time/enjoy the moment. Am doing the 30 data wild challenge - sort of - am just trying to get outside and notice nature a bit more. It's not necessarily wild-wild, just outside! I realise I can't take for granted the ability to stride up hills or walk across bumpy pebbles, and I want to do a bit more of that while I can.

OMgosh! second half of the year. I will post thoughts on that by the mid-point of the month

Mealplan and everything plan. For me meal planning is as much about being clear where I will be each day as anything else, the two are very interconnected! I do need a summery alternative to my home made soup for lunch staple diet! 

Just do it! Jettison things that no longer serve. I saw this quote the other day and it resonated with a proportion of the 'clutter' in my life. Not all of it, but lots of it represents unmade decisions or not acknowledging changed lives! I don't want this to flood into the new house, so some decisions to get on and make about things. 

beanielou

I grieve for my ever declining mobility & lack of ability to be able to do things.
Sad but true.
I find it hard.
I do sometimes wonder how my life became this.
I grieve for the person I was & the fact that people no longer see me but just a disabled person & the fact that people think I am thick because I am disabled.

apple_muncher

Oh beanie, have some hugs. As we write my mum's eulogy and plan a celebration of her life, it has struck me just how much travelling she did and how many different facets she had to her life. The mum of the last 7 years, with dementia taking hold, is not the mum of the previous 84 years.

Today I am grateful for a quiet day, for completing more needlefelting scenes, for finishing a good book and having the next one all ready and waiting.

beanielou

apple_muncher said:

Oh beanie, have some hugs. As we write my mum's eulogy and plan a celebration of her life, it has struck me just how much travelling she did and how many different facets she had to her life. The mum of the last 7 years, with dementia taking hold, is not the mum of the previous 84 years.

Today I am grateful for a quiet day, for completing more needlefelting scenes, for finishing a good book and having the next one all ready and waiting.

Big hugs for you too  xx

Thrifty_Taylor

Sending hugs to you all, I think you're all beautiful inside & out. We are a fantastic team, here for each other come rain or come shine. Thank you to each & every one of you for all that you do x

NSD#1
Another dry day (though overcast). Woke DS1 up for work, then I went back to bed & slept til 10.30! A quick breakfast then a 3 mile walk. Read my book & ate my dinner, then finished cutting out the memory bear I'd started the other day. Got directions for collecting the pond plants, so put the chicken in the oven & off I went. Gave the lady s box of m4ltesers, she was chuffed 😊 put some if the plants in our pond, saved some for a friend who's away this weekend. Roasted some veg, made lemon couscous & had that with DS1 & GF. They went to work, I washed the dishes, then had a nap fir half an hour. Sewed the bear together then had a soak in the bath. In service day for us tomorrow, only 3.5 weeks til we break up for summer 😃

Grateful for plant/choc swap, a tasty tea, getting things done, DS2 doing a small job for me to help out

Starlight_at_Sea

Hugs Beanie, I feel so lucky to have you paddling along with us and sharing your wisdom. I'm sorry you don't always get that feedback in real life 🐢 

Starlight_at_Sea

NSD 2 for me. Just back from a night away with an old friend - grateful we have found a rhythm that means we can enjoy time together as it's a precious friendship but not always an easy one. 

This was the much rearranged trip using the deposit that the hotel prompted me they were holding a couple of months ago, so I contributed that and topped it up with £15 towards a (small) bar bill, and my friend paid for our extra-long massages and dinner. I also got lunch and paid for a carwash for her yesterday as she did all of the driving so DD could use my car for something. 

Grateful that our various lodgers movements meant my friend and I could stay at my house on Friday night, and both have a bed rather than the sofa bed! And also on Monday DD and I can stay there, but one of us, likely me because of timings, will be on the sofa bed. I'm appreciating the extra money towards the house costs from having a third temporary lodger at the moment, and she is welcome to stay longer, but  I think I will try to keep a empty bedroom there for us in the future as it is a bit tiring all this bed changing! 

DD has had a good sort out of her possessions both here and at her dad's. We passed on two bags of clothes to my friend for her daughter, so that was a timely visit! And we have been to the charity shop with a few bags of DDs stuff, a bag of books I cleared out as ones I will never read again (and ziffit aren't taking), and a couple of random recent purchases mum made that can't be returned. So that felt productive! 

I also had time while at my house for an early morning walk with my friend who lives nearby, that was good for the soul and the step count. And sorted out two under bed storage boxes full of towels for the flat, so those have come back with me and added to the huge pile of boxes in transit to the flat that is currently stored at my folks. 

These came from the wardrobe in 🇺🇦D's room, and represents quite a big step forward in facing the decluttering demons. I now know what's in the remaining box and shelves in the wardrobe that hold my things, and most of it can be sorted out quite straightforwardly. I think there are also a few boxes under her bed with the never ending supply of power leads to go with things in them... a project for June I think! x

grandmanerd

Monday 5th June 2023

Monday Pep Talk
Make people feel good this week but don't forget you are someone too. Give yourself reasons to smile and FEEL GOOD. Give yourself kindness and understanding. You deserve it.

(couldn't go round telling people to go round being a shark, biting people and reminding everyone else that they're a shark, could I).

Affirmations for pushing through
(from LEMONADEBRAIN,com)
I love myself enough to push through
That finish line could be just around the next bend in the road
Keep going
Don't stop
I  deserve the BEST life I can live
I deserve a healthy body
The best things in life come to me
I want to stand on the top of this mountain
The best view is atop the hardest climb
My mind will give up before my body ever will
I've got this
I can conquer any challenge
I am strong and fearless (I'm weak and wobbly but I'll just keep going and rest when I need to)
I have everything I need to succeed

I'm going to stop there. I'm not keen on affirmations. We had a friend who would stand in front of the mirror each day and tell herself she was 'getting better and better in every way@ but I just felt silly. Some of these are okay (they were getting wilder, I'm not planning on world domination) but I'd still whisper them quietly. My fall back when things are desperate is "I will not cry. I will not feel sorry for myself".

Monday Motivation
Look at you being kind of awake and stuff.
You are  reading words and probably aren't even stabbing anyone, right now.
You deserve a coffee, you magnificent little sunbeam
(Nanea Hoffman)

An old favourite
Whatever you're doing today, do it with the confidence of a four year old in a Batman T-shirt