NST January 2024: This is Sparta!

weenancyinAmerica

Maybe this will be NSD7- Yesterday started out that way but had to stop and get batteries, toilet paper, and spider spray. Found two black widow spiders on Saturday so need to spray a couple of areas. Tomorrow is trash day and will have three bins out as I have filled them already - yard waste, recycling, and regular trash. They are full to overflowing. 

Otherwise, I have been getting ready for the Book Sale on Friday. We have more books to sell than most libraries have in their collection. Hoping we get a lot of books out to happy people. And raise some money in the process. We aren't too worried about the money part as the library has gotten two big grants ($150,000 and $100,000 in the last couple of months). This money is in our Friends account and they request it as needed. We have been holding book sales for 60 years now and paying for things like the Sumer and Winter Reading Programs. We will be having our big anniversary party later this year.

I also have been reading - checked fourteen books out so far this year, and read 8 of them. Hope to have a couple more finished in the next few days. Read in between cluttering bouts and working on the computer. 

Been out pouring more vinegar on the weeds this morning. It does kill them off but it takes a few days to work. But trying to clear the patio area. Can't use it where I want to grow anything later though. After having a large dog in the yard for two years and not much being done out there, several of the weeds are huge - several feet tall. Now the dog is happy in her new home, I can tackle the yard with help. The local Mormon missionaries have to do service work each week and asked if they could help. They came last Saturday and did about a third of the cleanup already. I am determined to have a veggie garden this year even if it isn't very large. I used to grow vegetables out there. I am going to try a couple of fruit trees also. After all, our Friends group is paying for gardening classes all year at our Library - I should make use of them.

Hope everyone is staying warm and dry.

Thrifty_Taylor

@laura_lau I love choosing a new book too! It's exciting, deciding which one to pick 😃

Whoop whoop @f0xh0les, happy snagging 🎉

Good luck with the garden @weenancyinAmerica, make best use of your helpers, & enjoy pottering in your cleared garden.

Well my day started out ok, cleared our driveway of snow. No school buses, so DS3 had a day off & his prelims postponed for another time. DH had a hospital appointment, another regular patient gave him a lift, so luckily he didn't have to wait for his potentially no-show bus. I drove the long way to work. Shoulders very tense when I arrived! Handed over 2 bags of sewing to the lady who owns the shop I use for my drop off point, good of her to offer to collect them 😃

Work was going fine, until DS1 messaged from HK to say he was really ill. I've been feeling so anxious all day about it. Phoned DH, who hadn't seen the messages I'd forwarded to him, to ask him to book some accommodation for DS, when he got back from town. I couldn't relax until I knew it was sorted. 

The roads weren't too bad on the way home, but snow was blowing across the road at times! DH was looking for accommodation when I got home, eventually we managed to find one for the dates needed, & in the area closest to DS's current location. DS had been sick, & starting to feel a little better. Hoping that a bed, so he can finally sleep, a shower & some proper food will make him feel better again. So difficult for us here, when he's the other side of the world...

Unpicked & replaced a zip after tea. Did a Meet the Maker post on my business page & lots of people have liked it, some new people have followed my page since I advertised on a local clothes selling page.

Grateful for DS3 being able to contact us, getting accommodation sorted out for him from tomorrow, people giving DH a lift & me arriving at & from work safely 

grandmanerd

Interesting evening. Got a phone call from my cousin but the phone cut out before she'd told me her news - another family member is in hospital with a bowel blockage (she already has MS and Altzheimer's and has previously had cancer). Charged the phone (thought I was doing well but it wasn't flashing red when I'd checked it. When it charged I turned it back on and I had a voice mail. Thought it was from my cousin so phoned it and it was my ex s-i-l (newly widowed).

We talked for ages. She went to the USA for the funeral and to sort her husband's affairs. Her husband's  family are rather strange (to say the least). He was a reformed drug user, his mother is an alcoholic (extremely bad and weird with it) and prefers his ex gf to my friend. Whilst she was there his family took charge of his phone and tried to pretend she didn't exist - they're selling his car and his truck and his mother is trying to claim any money going. Dubious characters from his former life turned up. The favoured ex gf told her "We were just like Bonnie and Clyde, I used to love it when he knocked people down, it gave me such a thrill". She stood up and repeated it during the funeral service too.

At the funeral her husband's boss approached my friend and told her there is life insurance with his job and she should get it not his mother - he will get HR to contact her. Luckily she had a friend with her (a defence lawyer but she knew people to call for inheritance/ communal  property advice (my friend had paid $1000 towards the truck they're trying to sell).  They were packing what they could of her husband's effects when her friend decided they should leave. 'Family and friends' were gathering on the porch and the situation was becoming extremely threatening. They took a suitcase each and went out the back way. She needs to go back to the USA  (she has a lot of friends there) but will not stay at his mother's house again.

I asked her how she was and she's basically at the zombie stage, going through the motions in her daily life but just reeling from the accumulated deaths. My mother (her ex-m-i-l) died 2  years ago and in the past 18 months she's lost both parents, a couple of aunties, one younger relative who  was ill and now her husband.  Luckily her younger brother is executor of her father's estate which has become rather complicated (a badly worded will) and her twin sister isn't speaking to any of them.

My brother isn't doing well with his cancer treatment, in his first week he seems to be as  bad as she was at week 3 (she's getting all this via her daughters). My brother keeps asking them how she was at this stage of her treatment (she's been cancer free for several years). She thinks he should contact her directly but  we both know he won't. She's also worried that he is too thin and much less healthy than she was when she had treatment.

We  are going to meet at some point (she offered to take me to  my appointments, saying it was no trouble). During the phone call my phone ran out of money and she called me back. When we finally stopped talking my phone was  flashing red so it went back on charge. I still need to phone my cousin back. I tried to top up  my phone but my back declined the card (!!!!!! is going on and why do they do it at the worst possible time).

Woke up this morning and my 'adventure' to my appointment has turned into highly hazardous - the world outside my window is white - about 3" of snow judging by the tops of the bins and parked cars. It will have to be taxis, the rest of my task list will be abandoned (need to find other ways to get some of it done)  and I need to  rethink my outfit. The cold is already pulling on my chest and making me reluctant to get out from under the covers (floors fell ice  cold)

Good news - I found my purse. I may have to abandon basic black. The purse is similar in size and shape to the battery on one of the laptops and there are  half a dozen other things within easy reach that could be mistaken for it. The keys for my grandma's house arrived in the post so  I  might be able  to make some progress on that front. 

Grateful for being able to take a supportive role in other people's disasters (if I had to roll with the punches I'd never get up again - I might just decide the floor was a nice place to lie down for a while), keys arriving, finding my purse (thought I was going to have to borrow cash from  DS3 - must go back to keeping emergency cash in one of the drawers).

Be careful out there turtles.

beanielou

Love this. 

beanielou

I have taken a baby step action today. 

Emailed my GP and asked for another injection in my shoulder & to ask for an increase in my anti depressant medication. 

Thrifty. I hope your DS is ok.  

FrugalAspirations

Writing this entry in the middle of the day as once again unlikely to have time this evening! Today has not been an NSD for me – weekly playgroup and coffee on the way took a little bite out. Have also had to buy a new dustpan and brush, because somehow the previous one got broken. OTOH, I’ve no plans to leave the house other than to do the school run tomorrow!

Have got a couple of my monthly tasks on the go rn, including setting the washing machine in its cleaning cycle and descaling the kettle, using white vinegar and lemons respectively. Have done other boring but necessary things like change the cat litter, hang out washing, give the bathroom sink a quick wipe down. Just about to start the washing up (roll on summer, by which time we should have a dishwasher!)

Grateful for:

1) getting £25 cut off our monthly energy DD

2) Hey Duggee

3) Am*zn, so I don’t have to go out to get said dustpan and brush.

ladybird1106

Not been on for a couple of days but managed 2 nsd.
Pondering what to do with regards to holidays this year. Christmas presents to adult children was a weekend away. However due to the needs of the youngest, holidays tend to be structured around them. Considering doing 2 separate holidays which will stretch the budget but not my patience as I try to make sure everyone's needs are met. Going to cost it up and see if it's doable.
Grateful for
1. Ear infection is improving 
2. That we didn't get much snow
3. The sun shining 
Love 🐞

abundant1972

Good evening 🌘

Back after a week of being really poorly. After my last post - my cold blossomed into full on flu / fevers / chest infection / hacking cough which I'm only just shaking off. Started to eat juice and soup a few days back, but appetite still really poor. I'd been working really hard on doing loads of releasing work to make way for new positive things, was being consistent with my eating, gym and posting here - and then I get derailed - just as my new course started and my PT sessions. Now I feel so weak, run down and disillusioned with zero motivation to do anything. 

I know it's the perfectionist in me wanting to throw it all out the window because I don't have a perfect track record now for January when I should just learn to roll with the punches and get back on track as and when, bit by bit.   So here I am... starting with my check ins but feeling thoroughly fed up and sorry for myself. So what better way to counteract that with some gratitude to widen my narrow focus and look at what I do have instead of what I 'lost' through a week of being ill... 

Today I am grateful for:

1) I am still able to walk, breathe, feed myself and function
2) I have a roof over my head, running water and food to live on
3) I am safe, without threat of war on my doorstep or fear of losing those I love

Today = NSD number 9

Nice to be back. Tomorrow I will be less moany haha x 

apple_muncher

Hope your house move goes smoothly DrCarrie ♥️

DawnW

Spendy day today. I bought a new to us leather sofa. Also had a tradesman in to quote to renew the ensuite shower room in our loft conversion. It was put in during the 1980s way before we bought the house, and is in dire need of replacing, as well as being grotty, leaks in the pipework have been affecting the first floor bathroom and blown the plaster. The joys of old houses. All budgeted and saved for however - we knew it would need doing.

In other news, I sold a chair, almost immediately I put it on FB marketplace. I suspect I should probably have asked more for it, but the nice young couple who came to pick it up were really pleased with it, so all good   It was too big for the space available.  A bag of old table linen (that I found in the trunk that I want to sell) is also going in the morning, but still no takers for the other pieces of furniture that I have advertised. Lots of clicks and saves, but no buyers yet.

Grateful today for a trustworthy tradesman (we have known him for years), and getting rid of a large armchair really quickly!