Moving on

Sun_Addict

Your new jobs are very different but at least you won’t get bored 😆 How lovely that you were able to use your skills to calm the lady who had the fall. I hope she’s not too shaken. 

Cherryfudge

Sun_Addict said:

Your new jobs are very different but at least you won’t get bored 😆 How lovely that you were able to use your skills to calm the lady who had the fall. I hope she’s not too shaken. 

Aren't they just! But to my surprise it seems to be working - so long as I don't get any more tricky Maths to do.

I think the lady was recovering by the time I left the shop.

This afternoon I went to query the receipt from yesterday but checked the shelves beforehand and could only find one of the prices I thought I should have paid. I've been refunded £1 for that. As there's no evidence of the other prices, I decided there was no way to prove either way: I could have misread them as I was quite tired. Anyway, £1 back is nice (even if £4 overspend has to be accepted).

That little walk also got me daylight and exercise. DH went on a much longer walk and was still out when I got back. I remembered to refill the birdfeeders and finally put up a new one that I got for Christmas. There's still water puddling at one point in the garden and any steps on the lawn are very squelchy, but weather-wise it was a cheerful afternoon, quite mild and light.

This evening the central heating is off as the log burner is lit. We watched the Pottery Throwdown and I was struggling to stay awake. The skirt I'm working on is pressed ready for me to clear enough space for the sewing machine on the little table I rescued from my parents' house. It's a very solid thing, looks about 100 years old and has held my Dad's photographic equipment so there's even a notch cut for cables.

Nothing spent today, refund of £1.

I've to be at the holiday club for nine tomorrow so I need to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight. Five mornings of helping there and three (short) evenings of work: I'm going to wonder what hit me.  

Onebrokelady

I know what you mean about growing a little lawn in your bird feeders😀 I even have the novelty of grass growing on the patio where the chicken run is situated due to spilled food and rain, it does have a plastic roof but it got a leak somewhere 🙄

Cherryfudge

@Onebrokelady, years ago someone drew my attention to a pretty, ferny plant growing where they fed the wild birds. Turns out the birdseed contained hemp, and the plant was a relative of cannab!s!

Cherryfudge

Worn out this evening, which is partly because I got very riled over someone's post. Why do I let myself get drawn in?! Anyway, I deleted the more detailed replies instead of sending them, which is probably just as well.

Other than that: this morning's children's club was fun. I felt a lot more relaxed about it than I did in the autumn. I know some of the children now, and I don't have to do any of the leading or planning. On the way home I got DH's Valentine's card and sewing thread to match the skirt project (completely forgot the other day), and had some of the vegetable chilli for a late lunch. Work this evening was fine, though I nearly let time run away with me, and only just got finished. It's quite tight timing so if I try to do any extra in one area, it has to come off another. I asked whether they have any morning shifts but it seems unlikely, though I've been told I can ask the manager when she returns. I resisted the temptation to call in at the supermarket afterwards for 'bargains' (it's even more of a saving if I don't buy anything), but when I got home I found I still had a key in my pocket. DH kindly drove me back to hand it in!

It's nearly a year since I went off sick, and that's hard. I have no intention of going back, but I miss that job, the team, the clients, the sense of purpose. I suppose my identity was much more bound up in it that I realised, and I took it on as the children were nearly grown up so it was a sort of substitute. Well, now I'll have to find something else. The positive side of it is that I have time and energy for things I like to do.

Cherryfudge

I meant to say I've heard more from D about his recent diagnosis: he's feeling better as the meds kick in. I can't remember what I've said on here, but he has a condition which several in the family have, but we didn't know it was likely to be familial until he was diagnosed. He has it to a greater extent than the rest of us, and it's done more damage, but I'm hopeful that will heal over time.

J and L have been on holiday and she's coming back to a new job. This one is in our town, though she's unlikely to get enough lunch breaks to call in. Nice she's around though, and her new base is even within sight of A and H's house. It also seems to be something that will be less stressful than the job she's leaving, which I suspect has been tough.

Cherryfudge

And while I remember:

Expenditure:
Gift £2.99
Hobbies (sewing thread, which is exempt as haberdashery under Fashion on the Ration coupons) £2.15

(What a nice word 'haberdashery' is. I looked it up just now. In American English, apparently, it's a shop that sells men's clothing, whereas here in the UK, it's bits and bobs for sewing. Originally it was Anglo-French for all sorts of small things that were sold, not as narrow as the modern English. So there we have it. All the bits and bobs, which in turn, Wikipedia tells me, '...originated from carpenters' tool kits containing parts for a drill, with bits used for making holes while bobs are routing or screwdriving drill attachments.'

I never sorted out Saturday's late shop, but it's too late tonight to do it now.

Cherryfudge

This morning's holiday club was fun - again - and we had a pasta lunch with pancakes for pudding. It's really nice that they finish with a meal, and it was all cooked from scratch.

Part way through, I had to duck out for a phone call: it was a friend whose father is very elderly and needing care. She has carers in and due to her own situation can only offer a certain amount of help. I knew one of the carers had left recently and her Dad needs more help at the moment, not less, so she was asking me if I'd consider working for them. I told her I couldn't decide on the spot. She's a nice person and I don't think working for her would be an issue. I could do with more work, and it would go some way to fulfilling my need to be doing something where I feel I have 'significance' - but is it right for me? I'm really not sure. I certainly couldn't do all the hours they need covered.

DH texted me to see if I wanted to go out for coffee after holiday club and I had a large hot chocolate. However, having been fine throughout the club, tiredness hit me and I could hardly hold a conversation. When we got home, I slept for an hour and I've been more awake but very woozy since!

We had pancakes for tea - no surprises there, as it's Shrove Tuesday. Pancakes make ne feel mediaeval, having grown up with stories of monks finishing up the rich food before Lent. Probably time to re-read Brother Cadfael.  

DH has been trying to sort out the calendar: we have to juggle where adult offspring are so Auntie can see the baby when she visits, and somehow managed to clash with their visit to H's parents so it all had to be taken to bits and put together again. DH has also booked leave late in March with the idea of us going somewhere, but I'm working on one of those days. He doesn't want to go up to Scotland this time - or was it me said it would be better to go later in the year when the weather has warmed up? I'm confused and so is he! It would be nice to go somewhere sunny but my brain shut down at the thought of any more change so I've not been much help.

All this is clarifying that I need to be careful of working mornings (I don't sleep well beforehand and am exhausted after, and those are both long-term patterns) and can do physical work but pay for it in aches and tiredness despite feeling I'm acclimatising to the cleaning job and like going there.

On a completely different note, The peppers I planted about three weeks ago have come through and today I planted a few coriander seeds. I need to get a system going for successional sowing for coriander as we use it often enough for it to be an 'investment'. There are other things to plant and I don't have a greenhouse so I planned to use a bedroom windowsill as a plant nursery, but it's already full of houseplants. The idea was to get some of those wire racks you can use to increase cupboard space so that seedlings can stack but still get light. However, there were none to be found when I went shopping so I need to start thinking of an alternative.

Expenditure:
Entertainment £7.06
Housekeeping £1.86

Cherryfudge

How's this for an inexplicable change? I am not falling asleep this afternoon. There's nowt as queer as folk.

I ended up as the Adult in Charge of 12 youngsters this morning but thankfully I had two young lads as helpers, and I wasn't overall in charge of anything. They were happy to lead games and one even called the kids to pay attention when I couldn't make myself heard. What's also nice is that the kids have got to know me and are developing confidence in me - and so am I .

I got some shopping on the way home including a large chicken that was being marked down just as I was choosing between chicken fillets and which is currently cooking with potatoes and odds and ends of veg from the fridge. Chicken and ham pie can happen another day, it's slow cooked chook today.

It's really mild and grey so I spent a few minutes tidying the garden once the chicken was sorted, as my group from church is coming tonight and I don't want them to walk into stray twigs in the dark. The next job is tidying the lounge and I really am not inclined, but I need to bestir myself.

Expenditure so far:
Housekeeping: £15.44

Cherryfudge

The chicken didn't cook in time for dinner (probably my fault for overloading the slow cooker) but I managed to get the house presentable before the guests came, and the chicken just stayed cooking all evening while DH got mackerel for a quick tea and I was grateful for the very mild weather as it meant I could throw a window open to get rid of the fish smell!

The group went well though we were low on numbers - but sometimes that's better because everyone is a bigger part of a smaller group.

So we have a reasonably presentable house for now, and lots of chicken and accompaniments in the fridge, which is a satisfying way to end the day.