Moving on

Cherryfudge

1. Order meds.
2. Wash hair.
3. Enter receipts.
4. I still have bulbs to pot up.
5. Laundry - in progress.
6. Sort stocking fillers into separate carriers so the spare bed is revealed. Last night I remembered something I thought D would like and found one for £3.30, so I've ordered that.
7. I have a pattern for a knitted snowman that DDiL asked for so I hope to start that. Shouldn't take long once I've printed the pattern as I have loads of white yarn in stash.
8. I would like to say I'll tidy the dining room table, but who am I kidding?
9. The Christmas cake hasn't been fed - yet - but isn't clamouring for more.
10. Re: Sunday rota: WhatsApp the parents' group to see if any of them would consider helping out.
11. I have my new top to try on and make a decision on.
12. Still waiting to hear from D about Christmas dinner and A about N's birthday list.

1.30 update:
Fish and chips eaten.
Medication ordered.
Laundry on the line (but there are now clouds).

Cherryfudge

I washed my hair and did some Christmas shopping in the afternoon. Medication is ordered and the first row of the snowman knitted - twice, and undone again. It's six stitches on circular needles so I need to be awake to work out how that looks in real life. The video tutorial I found has a generous cast on where it's easy to make the ends meet, but six stitches is miniscule. I noticed the pattern says to divide the stitches - presumably by pulling a loop of the needle cable through between the halves of the row? - and that's as far as I've got. I'll have another look when I don't need sleep.

Apart from various stocking fillers, I treated myself to some craft paper, honey and chocolate while out, and peanuts for the wild birds. I've made a start in sorting presents into bags. I'm not going to attempt to work through the receipts at this hour.

The washing got more dry than wet, the bed is remade and other items are on the airer. I've cried off doing Christmas decorations till tomorrow when I've got the Christingle out of the way.

Anyway, the list is whittled down a bit, so that's progress.

Cherryfudge

Christingle is safely out of the way - nothing caught fire that wasn't supposed to but of course, having watched the video back, I can see I need to stand still better.   

My new phone cover and screen protector have come so those are now in use (red so I can find it and it looks cosy in cold weather).

It's mild and windy here so I ought to brave going out and planting a few bulbs. The irises that have been sitting in a bag for ages have now soaked overnight and I think I'm just going to plonk them in the front garden, perhaps in a pot so they can be moved to benefit from the sun. There's a pot of irises already and two clumps in the soil but the ones in the ground are mostly enthusiasm and very little in the way of flowers. It's not light enough. I'm excited in case I might have some of the very lovely tawny ones that I've seen at the Walled Garden where I got them, but these are random so it's pot luck.

Oops, thought I posted this earlier! All bulbs are now planted: there's one iris in a sunnier bit of the open ground and everything else, including the other irises, are divided up: two pots with Yellow Cheerfulness daffodils, Orange Monarch Crocuses, Snowdrops (Galanthus Elwesii) and an iris each, and one pot that's just Pheasant's Eye Narcissus. I had to throw away a squishy daffodil bulbs but I think the rest are mostly okay and some are going strong. Of course I should have planted them earlier but better late than never. It's nice to have had a few minutes of gardening (and watched a blackbird bathing in the birdbath I made from a giant plant saucer) while the light lasted).

Cherryfudge

Our Christmas tree is now up: red and gold this year. I'd forgotten that when I packed the decs up last year, we invested in a lot of stackable lidded boxes and labelled them according to contents and colours. That's made life so much easier this time around! I've thrown out a set of lights that somehow didn't make it into the packing and had stopped working but there were plenty of others to choose from - all together but mostly individually boxed and none tangled.  All the tinsel and decorations were easy, too.

(Everywhere has gold lights this year. I do like 'warm white' but these are definitely gold. We found our warmest white set to be vaguely on trend! However a set of multi-coloured lights found in the box reminded me of my childhood in the seventies: I think all lights were coloured then. I remember my Sunday School teacher's tree had colourful lantern-shaped lights: I was still at primary school so they must have been the height of desirability in my eyes for me to have remembered them now)!

I'm already resisting the urge to go outside and see how my pots of newly-planted bulbs are doing.  I know full well there will be nothing new to see, so I suppose it's just anticipation. I need to remember how exciting it is to grow things and make plans to sow seeds again for spring.

It's mild out but very windy tonight. I got some photos of the 'long night moon' rising over our trees. The new phone camera coped really well which is a source of delight. Now I'm hoping for more chances to take pictures of the aurora as mine were barely visible.

Dinner was chicken chasseur with enough left over to feed DH tomorrow. I confess I threw out some raspberries as they'd gone over, and I'm not very happy about that (my fault). However we do have a bit of freezer space again and need to enlarge that this week for Christmas foods.

WhiteBunny

Gosh, you sound busy 😀. Great idea re stackable boxes for Xmas decs. Mine have been pushed into the random bag for life year after year although I do always take care with the lights and put them in a zipped food bag.

Cherryfudge

WhiteBunny said:

Gosh, you sound busy 😀. Great idea re stackable boxes for Xmas decs. Mine have been pushed into the random bag for life year after year although I do always take care with the lights and put them in a zipped food bag.

I got the idea from my super-organised daughter-in-law. Her loft is a simple stack of labelled boxes, arranged so you can see the labels. I am in awe but despite having seen the evidence, my brain can't take in that such order is a thing.  Nevertheless, I continue to plod onwards in my aims of not bringing so much in, using up what I already have and sometimes even identifying things of which I can let go.

Today, DH is working and I have a shift at five. In the meantime there are lots of bits to be getting on with.

• Clean inside the windows. When did they get so grubby? 
• I've just cleaned out the bread bin.
• Wash towels
• Ironing and putting away
• Shop for a particular book for someone's Christmas
• Meal plan using freezer stuff if I can
• Do grocery shopping
• Do a bit more knitted snowman
• Write some cards (one of my real avoid-at-all-costs jobs)
• Don't tidy the dining room table - I love an easy win.

There will be more: I'll update at some point.

Cherryfudge

The list is now halved:

• Windows - not done
• Bread bin - done - also fridge
• Towels - done
• Ironing - not done
• Book - done
• Meal plan - not done
• groceries - done
• knitting - done
• Cards - not done
• Table - see above.

ladybird1106

I do love a list. 

Love 🐞

Cherryfudge

We've had a busy day looking after the girls. They've both come down with some sort of cold-like lurgy and were quiet and lethargic so a lot of Moana was watched and a lot of sleep happened (and I dozed off too, but DH kept watch  ).

I had three hours at work afterwards, then went to L1dl for drinks to take to tomorrow's event. I'd forgotten to put in a carrier bag but someone had dropped one in the entrance and there was no one around to claim it, so I did. £9.84 spent in total, of which £5.63 was for tomorrow and the rest was housekeeping. I need to be aware that I spend on reduced bakery goods but it's only 20% off which isn't worth the opportunity cost of getting slimmer/healthier and not wasting money.

I also bought a 3-pack of plain white socks to make an Olaf with N but she wasn't well enough so I have that fun item to come. 

I finished the basic knitting for the snowman last night but I'm not going to do any more now as I'm going to look after the girls again tomorrow and first I need some sleep.

Cherryfudge

Another day of babysitting. DH dropped me off in the morning and DGD1 was running round full of life so she went to nursery, leaving me with little F, who's still miserable, though I think she picked up as the day went on. However, N was unwell at nursery and was sent home, so I had two lethargic girls for much of the afternoon.

I did manage to take F out in the pram so she got fresh air and sleep before lunch. She slept quite soon so I had the leisure to look round a furnishing shop I don't often go to where I fell for a couple of Christmas ornaments reduced to 90p each and bought two as 'tags' for the girls' stockings. After that, a very dark cloud appeared where dazzling low sun had been, so I headed for the supermarket in case it rained. I got various coupon offers though a very good one on baked beans had sold out. I also got wine and sweets for gifts.

I took plenty of food to last me all day but still bought hot drinks sachets while I was out.

It looks as though H has the lurgy as well, so it's seeming less likely that DH and I can avoid it. Better make sure I have all the usual remedies in.

DH picked me up in the car when work finished so I had a bit of time to relax and get changed before going out to the Wednesday church group Christmas get-together. It was a really good evening: lots of laughter and nice food. I took some soft drinks but brought some of them back and as I've forgotten to buy milk, I've been drinking raspberry and pear spritz this evening.

I just remembered that although A suggested a birthday gift for N, I'd forgotten to order it. Long story short: I've had to compromise as the exact thing is no longer available and it may not arrive in time but at least it's coming - and now I've realised I don't have a specific Christmas present for her as her birthday comes first and I'd been thinking about that! So I will be shopping locally tomorrow.

And a nuisance thing: the warmer weather seems to have brought out midges and I have a chain of swollen bites from my foot up my ankle and they itch!

Time for bed.

Expenditure:
Gifts £7.55 + £21ish.
Housekeeping £7.13