Make Do, Mend & Minimise in 2025 (and 2024)

YorksLass

The spare bedroom (aka The Room of Doom) has been emptied, has had a deep clean and is now set up as a home office for DS.  He's had a chat with his employers and they're happy for him to return to work but only on the basis of working from home.  To return to full duties his GP will need to provide a letter to say he's fit to drive again, essential as his job involves a lot of driving between Yorkshire and Scotland.

Yesterday DH had an appointment with an oncologist to get the results of his recent lung biopsy and yes, he does have lung cancer.  The good news was that it's a slow growing one, the bad news is that because of his age and heart issues there's not much they can do other than offer pain relief and maybe one or two courses of gentle radiotherapy sometime further down the line.  So that's that for 3 months until his next review.

Today I have a grocery delivery coming (only one acceptable sub) and it's quite a big order as I need to replace cupboard stocks that I've been using up,  It's a long time since the pantry has been so empty!  Very little for the freezer that's still rammed.

On the Mending front DH's raincoat has two loose buttons that need re-attaching - I'll get that done today once I've put the shopping away.

Last night we Minimised some Xmas after dinner mints and the box went to recycling.

Cherryfudge

I'm sorry to hear your news, @YorksLass, hold onto the fact it's a slow-growing cancer and there are things that can be done to make your DH more comfortable should he need it. They don't seem in a big hurry to start interventions, so as much as possible I imagine the next three months are for you two to get on with the precious everyday things.

Very well done on clearing the Room of Doom too - an achievement many of us only dream of. It's great your son can work from home and I hope he gets the all-clear to drive soon.

However did you manage to make Christmas after dinner mints last so long?

I can't think of any making do that's happening right now, though I might stick the odds and ends of bread in the freezer to make a bread pudding at some point.

Mending: I think I've already reported spending too long repairing a pair of DH's socks.

Minimise: a pair of my socks jettisoned to textile recycling!

YorksLass

Thanks @Cherryfudge - It is what it is and we can't do anything about it so we're just taking each day as it comes.  Tbh, we both had a fair idea of what we'd be told so it didn't come as any surprise, although it was good to find out it was slow growing and pain relief is there as and when it's needed.

As for the secret of the Xmas after dinner mints, that's easy - neither DH nor DS has a sweet tooth and rarely eat chocolates and I've re-trained myself to only have such things as a treat now and again.  After being diagnosed as T2 diabetic in 2019 it's taken me 3 years to shift the dratted excess weight and I've no intention of putting it back on!     Bonus - no medication, back to pre-diabetic blood sugar levels, I can now wear clothes that didn't fit before and I definitely feel healthier.  What's not to like?

Grocery delivery has been and everything's put away.  Just under half of this month's grocery budget has been Minimised to pay for it but there's lots there to make meals from, plus there were things like soap powder etc that don't need replacing often.  The only other Minimise today was a small parcel that came through our letterbox in error this morning and should have been delivered to our upstairs neighbour.  Up and down two flights of stairs - free exercise!     

Have mended DH's raincoat by re-attaching the loose buttons.

Today's Make Do is a salad for tea - not really salad weather is it, but there's some fridge bits that I can use to fill up the plate and I'll add a few oven chips to make it more appealing.  

London_1

sorry to here you news honey but slow growing give you more time.my sis in law was diagnosed almost two years ago and had a big op at Guys hospital but sadly they missed a very tiny bit and its returned and she will find out tomorrow what they can do for her. she had a bad bout of pneumonia just before christmas and her health isn't great but she is taking a day at a tim as she said at 77 they will keep her pain free at least. Its a awful disease and 1 in three people have the likelihood of contacting it I have had it twice in the past 35 years and I'm still around.Last time was in 2007 and the NHS were amazing and kept me going so chin up chicken and PMA as my Dr said,Positive Mental Attitude. To me every day I get out of bed is a bonus .a lot slower now than I was 20 odd years ago but I still get out of bed and think yes that another day here

Make Do : herby chicken with mash and peas for dinner tonight from the freezer

Mend : another couple of squares knitted plus a quick stitch put into one of my favourite tee shirts as the seam was working loose, Its very old , (about 10 years)but so well washed its very soft cotton and a pink and white striped one that I've always felt cheerful in so its my happy tee shirt and I fell very comfortable in it ,even though its a bit too big and both my DDs say Oh Mum why have you still got that old one.but I like it and its my choice

Minimised Used up some more stuff from the freezer and yesterday my grandson helped me declutter stuff to the CsSplus a bag for life  of tinned stuff to the food bank as I had far too many tins to get through and someone may be grateful for them 

Onwards and upwards chums 

JackieO xx

YorksLass

Thanks @London_1 - Yes, we're also thankful every morning when we can get out of bed, put our feet on the floor and toddle around at our own pace!  I can still do most of the things I could do when I was younger, it just takes a little longer but that's OK.  DH 's thoughts on his diagnosis is that, at nearly 83, he's had a good life and if he can be pain-free for whatever's left he'll be content.  And so will I.

I'm very pleased with how DS's home office has turned out and the next task is to sort through various photo albums that were stored in there.  Some of them were from my parents' house and I don't know half of the people in the photos so maybe they can be the first ones to go.  Not many family members left to ask either.  I'm thinking if I can do one album every other day or so then it shouldn't take too long.

Have also found a local charity that distributes unwanted furniture to families in need so have sent a collection request for a single bed that was in the spare bedroom and is now surplus to requirements.  Hopefully that will be another item gone by the weekend.

weenancyinAmerica

@YorrksLass - sorry to hear about the diagnosis, but being able to make it mostly pain-free will be a blessing. To me, that would be wonderful - my doctors can't seem to get together to figure out how to do that. I have half a closet of family pictures. Going to rope my two sisters into helping go through the pictures to see which ones we can put online for the other relatives to see. And then pawn, pass along, what is left to the nephews (particularly the history buff with three children). My one sister thinks we should just put together a picture book for each of the grandparents and their families and plus one for our childhood and growing up and let it go at that. Since each of our grandparents came from since disparate backgrounds, this would probably be the best way to go. I still have several thousand slide of my uncles to go through and dispose of. It seems like a never-ending task. Good luck on your sort out.

Cherryfudge

It's surprising how much space photo albums take up. I moved a lot of pictures out of albums and stored them in labelled envelopes, saving lots of space. It's sometimes better for the photos as those see-through covers they used to have on the individual pages of albums can affect the colour of the prints.

Some more to report here:
Make do: turned a wodge of scrap paper into a notepad. It will eventually make it into recycling but in the meantime I've saved the cost of a notebook and given myself a place to write things down.

Mend: the lining of DH's summer coat has ripped so I sewed it up straight away. I'm still blinking in surprise that it didn't even make it to the mending pile (though I notice some summer trousers of mine have been there all winter).

Minimise: I've started to hack back the ground elder in the back lawn - it's too wet to mow but apparently if I remove the leaves, the root growth will be less vigorous and I'll  have less of a battle in the longer term. I've also removed another 21 plantains today and 20 yesterday from the little lawn - about 200 still to go, though some are very small. Good job the lawns have a house in between so the two invasions can't meet up!

weenancyinAmerica

Photographs in the old black paper albums are in much better shape than those in albums with magnetic pages. Magnetic pages really damage the photographs. If you are having a problem removing them for safety, it helps to heat up the pages with a hair dryer. I know a lot of people who have lost photographs to album damage and water damage (especially those kept in garages and basements).  It can be heartbreaking.

London_1

Make do : Chicken Provencal from freezer for dinner tonight, made a week or so ago when I batched cooked lots of chicken 

Mend : knitted a couple more squares for the charity blanket

Minimised : lots of OOD stuff from my baking cupboard , and I mean really OOD from the back of the cupboard ,being only 5'3" often meant that mainly the stuff at the front got used more than the back and not being particularly steady when climbing on a stool meant a lot of stuff got shoved to the back. Cream of tartar which I think I'd only used a few times then forgot about was dated 2011, ! ! !  

JackieO xx

YorksLass

I had a busy day yesterday so didn't really seem to get much done in the MMM department, but all the bags and boxes destined for the CS have finally gone so I'm counting that as a big win.

Other things I did were collect new bathroom scales that I'd ordered, changed our bedding and collected repeat prescription meds for DH and myself.  For some reason or other, one of DH's meds wasn't on his repeat script - although it has been before - so I have to re-order that separately.  Sigh.

DH and DS shared a large pack of kippers for tea - I don't like them so instead I defrosted a 1-portion tub of bolognaise sauce that I had with tagliatelle.

Today's efforts:

Minimise: Have recycled the cardboard box the scales were in.  Sheets washed so laundry basket doesn't look quite as bad now.

Make Do: Tea tonight is slow cooked belly pork strips that we'll have with baby potatoes and a mix of cauliflower and broccoli.  The strips seem to be quite lean so whether there'll be any dripping or not remains to be seen.  I do hope so.     Have also used the cooling oven to dry out some crusts to make breadcrumbs, baked a new loaf and defrosted some breakfast muffins for tomorrow morning.

Mend: Nothing but knitting continues and the sunshine yellow sweater will soon be ready for sewing up.  Not my favourite job and I'm already itching to start on the next batch of yarn but I WILL make myself do the sewing up first!