NST January 2024: This is Sparta!

Flying_By

Well, yesterday was a bit crazy/annoying .... Step-mum still in hospital and on Sunday when my brother and I visited we were told there was Covid on her ward, which meant we had to ring to book any future visits to her, which I did on Monday.  I rocked up yesterday afternoon and was asked to fill in lengthy form about who I am, where I live, contact details and whether I had been in touch with anyone with Covid symptoms, then I garbed up in the usual gear and approached Step mum's ward but was halted by a nurse who told me not only was Stepmum's wound still oozing following her hip surgery a fortnight ago but she was also Covid positive.  Due to having immuno-suppressed relatives I'm afraid I couldn't risk hanging around so delivered her clean laundry, had a brief chat and ran for the hills.  I felt quite upset that someone couldn't have contacted me from the ward to let me know her condition as it would have saved me an hour's round trip and fuel but hey ho, I know they are busy people and I'm tired and feeling grumpy! 

On the plus side, yesterday was an NSD, hurray 

My gratitudes:
1  The most beautiful sunset and cloud formation over the meadows 
2  The dogs' upset tummies seem to have cleared up 
3   A good night's sleep, I even slept through the alarm!

Hope everyone has a good day  xx


 

DawnW

I hope your poor step-mum is better soon @Flying_By

Still stuck on NSD#3 as I did a supermarket shop today. Two supermarkets in fact, Lidl first, then Sainsbugs as I had a voucher. Also paid the milk bill.

Decluttering going ok though. Someone is hopefully picking up some ancient satnavs and an unwanted 2024 calendar this evening (and if they don't someone else is asking), and a large, well loved pan from an expensive brand, which I have used for years but is now too heavy for me, is supposed to be going tomorrow. Good old Freecycle!

Rang my brother this morning, and he sounds fine, so all good.

Long winded shenanigans with banks / building societies this afternoon as I needed to track down the money from a matured account, then move elsewhere, and start another regular saver account. And I find that money from my current account has now been sent to the matured one. Sigh. I suppose it will just reappear, but I will need to check.

It is really cold, and I feel sorry for the birds, so have resupplied the bird table after the naughty visiting squirrel had his fill. But he needs to eat too...

Toni'sfriend

Flying-by - It is frustrating when just a phone call could save you such a lot of bother. I'm afraid it seems to be the way of things these days. Hope MIL is better soon.

Dawn - I'm so glad your brother seems to be a bit better. I think you OH is probably right that part of it is psychological. I am fine when I'm indoors but as soon as I get into the cold (as it is just now) I start to struggle and it really puts me off venturing out. I'm trying just a little bit more every day so maybe a little bit every day will help him as well.

NSD No 8

Just pottering about the house doing little bits and pieces. Planned meals for the rest of the week and where and what we want to do in Edinburgh. It's going to be a very gentle break.

Have a good evening. xxxx

laura_lau

@beanielou thank you! it is nice to hear, as I am tending more and more towards it.

Quick check-in before I switch off the laptop for the day. Today it was not an NSD. Had to finalise some bookings for a trip I have to do in March, it was not great timing as I had to use the credit card, but the prices have started to grow so quickly lately that I couldn't wait until February. 
Today I was busy at work, but managed to find the time to empty the dishwasher and putting all clean stuff away, do a quick tidy up in the living room and have a 30 minutes lunch break, which I particularly enjoyed as the sun was filling the living room and I feel I haven't seen the sun in weeks, so it felt good.

Now I am going to get ready as we are resuming line dancing this evening, first time of the year! Quite looking forward to it. I have already prepared the bags for tomorrow. I will have to leave earlier than usual as I have to be in the office about an hour earlier than normal, as we have a project meeting starting at 9 sharp and I need to prepare the room, and also ensure I allow plenty of time in case there's trouble with transport (especially after what happened yesterday). I will need to force myself to go to bed early tonight, as I hate going to bed too early!

Today I am grateful for 

1. the sun lighting up and warming up my flat for the entire day
2. resuming line dancing
3. having had a bit of a chat with my work crochet club 

f0xh0les

The builder returned at lunchtime! Put in the  missing window and left again. He was here for all of half an hour.  But....one step closer to finishing (2 small jobs to go!).

Cleaned and cleared more of the house,  and I now have a bag of rags, a bag of clothes, and a bag of tat ready for the charity shop.  Hoovered and cleared the living room, spent hours cleaning the p0xy kitchen, so made a dozen scones to use up the baking marg (from start of December) and I had a free, sad pineapple, so now I have an upside down cake Ta-Dah! and a cleaner kitchen than previously.  There is no radiator in my kitchen.  It is Arctic in there.

DS3 needed a new coat, so my planned NSD just went out the window. £65 later.... .   Hopefully that is it for a while, at least I scored a free school blazer via a work colleague to replace DS4s ripped  one. 

abundant1972

Good evening 🌘

Mixed day today. Have been doing a lot of releasing work energetically this last week, and BAM - today - hit by feeling full of a cold/flu. Could be just that time of year I know but I'm seeing it as a positive sign that I am clearing. So lots of self care today, and a nice walk in the fresh air to the park, and a liberal application of vicks haha! 

Of course this has meant no spending whoop!!! Just did some credit card shuffling and budget balancing. 

Today I am grateful for:

1) Inspirational people 
2) My Oracle cards
3) Content creators on YT

Today = NSD number 5

Have a nice evening folks x 

Flying_By

@abundant1972 Hope you manage to shift the bug really soon, so annoying how they can creep up on you from nowhere.  Make sure you look after yourself and don't overdo things.  Well done on your NSD and your shuffling and balancing!

grandmanerd

Wrapping paper and ribbons put away in a drawer - the hard part  was  moving assorted empty boxes and one half full one out of the way first. A bag of embroidery threads and patterns put away,  some material and some random bits (crafty/ fabric).  Brought a suitcase back up with me. When i came back from DS1's on Boxing day I brought the things I most needed upstairs with me, put things that needed washing in the pile and left the rest. Not a lot in it so added the book, laptop and notebook I'd taken down with me plus more drinks and brought it back up.

Not doing great with NSDs mostly because the wifi is a bit erratic.  I've  ordered the towels I needed but had to try 3 different sites to do so. I'm nearly out of drinks and will add a small amount of food to it. I'm going to  order cans because I'm struggling to open the bottles and fed up off having to ask them to do it for me (and waiting hours for them to wake up). Cans should make it easier to ration myself as I want to cut back again (the bubbles seem to help with the sore throat. I want to do another order that is mainly boring domestic stuff (spare shower curtain, face flannels, tea towels etc so hoping the wifi co-operates or if I have to lose more NSDs (don't care  really, I need it all, I can't put it off forever and one SM has a load of end of line stock at half price (might even be able to roll grocery and odd items into one order).

Grateful for getting things done, DS3 remembering the bins,  continuing to bag up stuff to leave the house (did consider taking the books back to the library today as  the air had warmed up a  bit).

Starlight_at_Sea

Keep going @grandmanerd sorry to hear your WiFi erratic, I interpret NSD as a tool to prevent drip drip drip spending that I am prone too - I'm sure you'll find a way to reconcile actual NSDs  
It was a NSD for me, only cos I didn't leave the house. Work has been very very busy today, I barely stopped. I have done 1 and 3/4 of 4 stressful things I set out to achieve today, and am only just stopping. There are deadlines linked so I will need to complete another 1 1/4 early tomorrow, but I am calling time on tonight. 
Any MSE activity in the margins? um... had notification the discount card linked to work is on its way to me. Curled up with a hot water bottle instead of putting heating on as I was only one at home today. Didn't go out for lunch with friend as time against me. Used up some l/o lentil spag bol and shared with lodger as she is also up against deadlines today, it was yummy and company was welcome. Noticed I can complete the final part of the balance transfer jigsaw but haven't actually done it yet! Realised I can move some furniture around at this house to give our H4🇺🇦 guest the extra storage she needs without buying anything, and that doing so will be a prompt to a bit more decluttering on my part. In my ambitions I got this done today, but clearly am nowhere near. Never mind! Night all  

ldee2111

A potato and an onion spoiled my NSD today. Staying on NSD 5 (or might be 6). 

OH is a man on a mission - he gave me 3 polo shirts for the charity bag! New year, new OH who declutters stuff!

Grateful today for lunch at Mum’s, for chat with Mum, for Mum collecting DS from school, for Mum in general, for OH helping to make dinner, for today just being a good day without stress.