From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

Cheery_Daff

I too have vowed our next house will NOT be a project (although I also vowed that we are NEVER MOVING AGAIN as the last process was so traumatic 😂 But I realise we probably won't live out our days out here in the wilds, although plenty of people do, of course)

What a shame about your posh pasta!

greenbee

I'll just point out that this house was not supposed to be a project...

kayannie

Greying_Pilgrim said:

Oh Cheery you do make me larf 🤣  Did the moo cows leave you any useful deposits for the rhubarb??  At least this house has proved to me that if we EVER move again (unlikely), I don't want any type of project.  DIY just no longer interests me, and we don't have a posse of tame tradespeople on hand to help us out - most of our time in the last few years of home ownership has been spent waiting for quotes or getting ripped off 😕

So tea was a success - even if I do say so myself - but it was clutched from the teeth of disaster.  I decided to do 'feta pasta salad' as it is so hot.  And I remembered I had a bag of beetroot lentil fusilli pasta, from MrAl in the cupboard which I thought might work well.  I also had some plain (cooked) pasta in the freezer, as LG is sniffy about beetroot.  Well, I cooked the pasta - what a waste of time.  The beetroot colouring washed off immediately 😕 and then the pasta proceeded to disintegrate without cooking, so I ended up with slightly crunchy sludge.  Whilst I appreciate the pasta was made from lentils - and we like lentils - this tasted of nowt.  Dear reader, I confess, I binned it all 😔and started again with the last of the MrL spirali, which is what LG was having.

I had quick pickled some diced red onion, added diced red pepper, the handful of cherry tomatoes from the MrL box, quartered, black olives and the cooked, cooled pasta, and then folded in a dressing of oil, white wine vinegar, garlic, miso paste, tahini, honey and dried parsley, oregano and basil.  I then diced up some feta (just the MrS stamford st), and gently combined.  I topped with toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds and some slices of nectarine (which was out of the MrL green box and had ripened to perfection).  LG now likes feta (hurrah!), and I was amazed that they lapped up their tea - as I'd not really exposed them to 'dressings' much before.  But, clean plates all round - YAY!  I'm still annoyed at myself for throwing away food, but honestly, that pasta was dire.  I shall not buy it again.  But I am pleased that I used up things from the MrL box - we've pretty well used up most of it now.  I used one of the (2) oranges in the fruit cake, (which was yummy), but unfortunately I noticed the other orange had gone down with citrus mould, so I had to chuck it.  But the mandarins/satsumas have been lovely.  They taste like the mandarins (in juice) used to taste when back in the days of my childhood, Sunday tea - particularly when the grandparents visited - used to be D3l m0nt3 tinned mandarins with cream....... we thought it sooooo sophisticated 🤣 But these little oranges have that lovely piquant but fruity taste - took me straight back.  

Today I am grateful that I've a full line of washing dried, we're one step closer to LG being ready for school's return in September (although I'm still determined to enjoy the holiday time we've left), and that a hodge-podge made for a nice tea 😁🤣

We're very blessed and we are in a better place than we were a year ago - I do realise that, even if I do appear to be moaning on occasion........ 😉😕  Ta for popping by.

Greying X

I bought a bag of the same beetroot pasta from MrAl about 6 months ago but it is still in my cupboard unopened. I think now that I should just throw it out without trying it!  
KA

Greying_Pilgrim

kayannie said:

I bought a bag of the same beetroot pasta from MrAl about 6 months ago but it is still in my cupboard unopened. I think now that I should just throw it out without trying it!  
KA

All I would advise, based on my own experience, is don't leave it to cook until you're depending on what's made from it.  The only other pasta I've used that has been made from other grains, is some chickpea pasta (napol1na brand I think) I got from H3r0n - and that cooked fine, and tasted 'ok' (not earth shattering, but not dire either).  And in terms of coloured pasta - I think i have only made the normal 'tricolore' pasta, which whilst has 'faded' in cooking, is still green, red and 'white' when cooked - particularly if quickly cooled.  But I expected the beetroot powder to have been incorporated into the lentil 'dough' before extrusion, so thought I would end up perhaps with 'pale pink' pasta.  Not a bit of it, the water went into the pot and the beetroot colour all washed off - the pasta went back to being much more the palest orange (like wholewheat pasta in fact), and then the twists started to disintegrate, before it was cooked.  

My pasta was well in date (2026), and I seem to think I paid, either 99p or £1.09 for it - I seem to think the price has gone up now.  I bought it with the intention of making salad with it - because of it's colour, but the way it washed off, it was as though the colour had been 'spray-painted' on.  Far better to cook conventional pasta and then run cooked beetroot through it! Which is one thing I might have done, had LG not been eating this particular meal.

greenbee - I get the impression that your homes are absolutely wonderful when you've finished 'not a project'-ing them 😁

Oh Cheery - I remember the fandango you and Mr Cheery went through to get this property - you've breathed new life into it though, brought it back into being.  

Cool start to the morning with us. At least I slept the night through.  

Mmmm, I've just opened the window - someone must be doing some early-morning cake baking, ooooooh, smells luverly 😋

Nothing special on the agenda today I don't think.  More clothes washing.  as it's set to be dry I think.  

Right, going in search of a cup of coffee.  

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Morning MFW'rs

Yesterday was pants.

A friend/acquaintance had promised something that would have been superhelpful - as much for LG as for me.  In previous times, I have begun to see them as something of a 'fairweather' friend to me, as they as a "oh dahhharling, we simply, must do lunch next time you're in town, call me."  And then inevitably, you are coming to town, you call, as they have said they have 'absolutely nothing on at all for the next 6 months'.... except for the exact day and time you pick....... then all of a sudden they are meeting the Ambassador, or getting their paddle board re-aligned, or taking their bonsai to be dusted..........  I've got used to it, and no longer mention when I am in town, or mention it after - and just read the 'oh, but you should have called, we could have had lunch', messages that follow......

But they offered something in the holiday time that involved LG, might have been a bit of an adventure, and would just have been nice - and very low/no cost, for all, to do.  The offer was open-ended, as they had "absolutely nothing on at all for the next 6 months...".  Thankfully, I hadn't mentioned anything to LG about it (they would have been thrilled), as - true to form - when I enquired about actually taking them up on the offer, naturally there was suddenly a problem, and they had a gazinty million reasons why it would be an issue (all issues that were known, planned and in the diary, so why make an open-ended offer to accommodate 'strangers' - strangers who would not be welcome at those known, planned events?).

I don't know what it was about yesterday, but it utterly floored me.  I am so, so glad I didn't even mention an inkling about it to LG.  They would have been so excited, and would have gone on and on about the event, only to have the rug pulled from under them.  Perhaps there are echoes of my own childhood.  Perhaps adults today are just being like they always have been, promising the earth and not delivering.  I've got used to the adults in our wider family not being of much help - practically, financially, emotionally or whatever.  DH and I are 'on our own' raising LG, and this became clear from the very start - partially because of the age of grandparents etc, partially because of ill-health, partially because other siblings are more favoured, as have been their offspring - which is all normal family dynamics.  We'd found a gaggle of people who were good 'chosen family', and could be/have been kind to LG as they have grown - and I do think kindness is important for young children, and I suppose I had hoped that these adults would stick around and be good adult influences for LG - as heck knows, me and DH get things wrong, and shouldn't be the only influence LG is exposed to.  Teachers are a bit of a mixed bag tbh, one or two have been lovely, several have been.........................

So, feeling  very down in the dumps myself, and with LG asking again and again, "what are we going to do today mum?" I set out for a local historic ruin.  We'd not been there before, and I knew it was a wide open space to pootle/run around/spend time out of the house - and have things to see plus LG has previously asked to go there.  We'd been there 5 minutes, and LG asked "can we go home now mum?".

Today has got to be better.  Right?

At least the stifling heat build up has broken.  Yesterday's washing dried well.  I think I have a load that could go on today to bring me closer to being caught up.

How do you handle disappointment?  I don't know why I feel so affected by yesterday's scenario, perhaps something has triggered somewhere.  Is the modern way to buy your way out of disappointment?  Or perhaps 'buy your way out of your child's disappointment'.  I get that experiencing disappointment is necessary, to learn how to handle it - heck, I have had enough disappointments to make me Ninja grade (you'd have thought) at handling it.  But that clearly isn't true, and this latest disappointment - which involves my child - hurts like heck.  It hurts like heck possibly because it involves my child.  

I'm sad and didn't expect to be here at this point in the summer holidays.

Greying X

themadvix

So sorry to read about this Greying. I think you know now that that ‘friend’ is not worth any more effort. It is really unpleasant to be let down like that. I’m sure you’re feeling it because it was an affront (albeit unknown to them) to LG. Some people are just too self-centred.

No wise words except to say that today is a new day! And maybe a bit of Elsa’s wisdom is needed here. 

Hope you find something cheerful to do today.

rtandon27

Greying my luv, you've done am excellent dissection of what went wrong and why it upset you...
...now, take a deep breath in and another one out and let go of it all!
Others are not responsible for our own states of being - hold them at arms length and let them be who they are.
xoxox - sending virtual support from afar

beanielou

Say or do what you want to me but never slight my child. My mother cub will be out & roaring. 

Cheery_Daff

Oh Greying, what a shame. Big hugs for you all (((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))) I don't know how you handle disappointment, other than to just have a little cry and take a deep breath and move on. 

For what it's worth, I think it sounds like LG is having a lovely holiday. I think YOU feel like more is needed, but they are just pootling through having a nice time. No child is satisfied with everything all the time - I look back on my own childhood with mostly fondness, but I can still also remember whining and moaning that I was bored at points, or that I wanted to do something else. All adults are like this too I reckon! (For example overall I had a lovely day yesterday, but I still snapped at Mr Cheery in the morning because he got me out of bed for no reason, and was annoyed with someone who asked me to move my car)

So take a deep breath, remember YOU ARE DOING A GOOD JOB. Parenting is hard, I've heard It doesn't have to be perfect. 

Please don't get to the end of LG's holidays feeling regret, feeling 'not enough'. 

Now, what is in store for today? Can you do a little picnic in a local park, or something that isn't a 'big ticket' thing? xxx

badmemory

Well I think LG has actually done more "stuff" than his friends who went on lovely foreign holidays & sat on a beach eating ice creams.  When LG is 30 you will still be wondering if you should have done whatever when they were 7 or should you have ......  It is neverending thankfully & is what makes us good parents.  I count myself in this even though most of the time I have very serious doubts & mine is in his 40s.