Moving on

Sun_Addict

I have a terrible concentration span and often start one job then get distracted, abandon it and start something else. So I can emphasise with you on that front. As much as I love reading I prefer books with short chapters. I find I’m better at getting things done if I do stuff in bite sized chunks. 

Cherryfudge

redofromstart said:

If I am really stuck I use the cardboard base of the pizza box (cut down) to serve it on. You can always cover it in foil if you need it to be warm/pretty.

I like that idea too, thanks. In fact it could have the added advantage of showing which pizza is which! (One vegan that looks like meat, two vegetarian, one chicken).

Cherryfudge

Sun_Addict said:

I have a terrible concentration span and often start one job then get distracted, abandon it and start something else. So I can emphasise with you on that front. As much as I love reading I prefer books with short chapters. I find I’m better at getting things done if I do stuff in bite sized chunks. 

Wow @Sun_Addict, you always seem to achieve a colossal amount! You must have some tenacity to get there is small steps.

Cherryfudge

Some of the things have been done... I started by making the living room nice, including taking down a conglomeration of cards from as far back as Valentine's. That and my birthday and Mothering Sunday all come too close for one set of cards to be 'finished' before the next is due. I then pulled out the little sofa that fits in the bay window and cleaned behind that, following up with the window sill and windows. All fresh and sparkly now, with fairy lights and houseplants along the sill. J has offered a Swiss Cheese plant on the family WhatsApp and I've said I'm interested if no one else is. It's looking very sorry for itself and I like a challenge!  

The lounge is not immaculate but it's quite nice. There's just the remaining ironing to take to the spare room from there.

Our main meal was chip shop chips with some fish from the freezer, and DH has been breaking up a bit more of the path and putting the in-progress dining chair back together.

After dinner we had another onslaught on the supermarket - I am fairly sure I've over-catered but I do like feeding people! Again, this will be spilt between entertaining and housekeeping, and in some ways we'll probably do quite well out of that in terms of fresh ingredients to use up during the week. I've made the bulger wheat salad and moved the jams out of the fridge. I'm not part way through sorting through the salad drawers to make space: spare peppers are chopped up and frozen, which reduced bulk, and I think most of the rest will go in one drawer so I can make the pesto pasta and cool it before bed, and that can sit in there and not need anything but to be remembered in the afternoon.

Needless to say I gave up on making desserts and bought a couple. It's all soft drinks too (lots of drivers) so I've got coke and soda as well as sparkling drinks we already had in.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping/entertainment £47.48 plus whatever DH spent on more soy sauce when he kindly got me a replacement for an unopened one found at the back of the cupboard that turned out to have a best before date of 2010!  

Oh, and whatever the chips came to: £2 or £3 I think.

Karonher

Just delurking to say that Oaknorth have a good interest rate on their ISA. I will be going with them this year.

Cherryfudge

The late night update!

A little more fridge space gained by freezing some courgettes, which is good anyway because I probably won't have time to cook them before they go bitter. I was going to freeze some red cabbage too but the freezer says it's had enough and isn't taking any more tonight, so the cabbage is back in the fridge. I'm just cooling a bowl of pesto pasta before that takes the remaining fridge room. It's a good job I like cooking!

I have a list for tomorrow that starts with taking the mushrooms in from outside! I realised the big punnet wouldn't go in the fridge but doesn't need to because outside is close on fridge temperature and for fresh vegetables I'm happy to go over 5 degrees overnight - and the daylight in the morning will help them make whatever vitamin it is they make. D, I think. So when the family has eaten down the fridge contents, the mushrooms will go in ready to make chasseur with some chicken from the freezer.

I've also found a discount for the gardens near where we intend to go tomorrow, but I'm havering over a two-for-one at £9 or an annual pass at £15 each and because it's late at night I really don't know for sure... I think the £9 sounds cheaper, doesn't it? And we may not go in the gardens at all, as it's Easter weekend and they might be either crowded or rained on.

Cherryfudge

Karonher said:

Just delurking to say that Oaknorth have a good interest rate on their ISA. I will be going with them this year.

Welcome to the thread and thanks for the recommendation. Today has been too busy to look at ISAs, but I will look Oaknorth up as soon as the dust settles.

Cherryfudge

I'm here to celebrate an excellent day and space in the fridge!

We spent the morning dashing round finishing preparations for having the family over. DH nipped to the car boot sale but I didn't even attempt it as a) too much I still wanted to do and b) I do tend to spend money. L offered to give us a lift to the place we were all gathering, and when they arrived, J dropped off the plant that needs to be rescued. DH isn't very happy about yet another plant so I've said I'll see if I can rescue it then hand it back. It's not something I'd have chosen so it's the challenge that interests me - and I think it's possible I'm reacting a bit to carelessly touching it. It's known to be toxic and I've had skin reactions to plants before.

Anyway, the weather was the best this year and we met up with the other two cars' worth of people after some adventures looking for parking. L decided to drop us in the car park then search the town for spaces, but as he left us, someone pulled out and he went straight into a space. D and E, by contrast, had a fifteen minute walk.

We sat outside at the café and despite my best intentions to have something small, I ordered a very nice 'Buddha Bowl' and a coffee. We sat around a bit and chatted. Most people had by this time decided on season tickets for the gardens so I got a year-pass for us too (£30). We realised we could use it as a free-in-future meeting place for the clan, as well as somewhere we could take visitors and perhaps take the little girls. Lots of meandering and standing chatting in the sun has been done.

A, H and the girls went home for an hour while the rest of us wandered into town at the end of the afternoon looking for antique shops. Much to the dog's delight, we found a little shop that just sells things for dogs. They were closing up as we went past but the person inside spotted the dog straining to get in and let us come and buy some dog treats. Then we drove home.

We had a bit of a wait till everyone had reassembled, but that was okay because it gave people time to talk and have a drink. When little N arrived the toy box came out but D and L immediately commandeered the blocks to make a sort of arch with a car to drive into it. Good job N had other things to play with! L helped me with setting out the food and A helped me with the pizzas and everyone tucked in, and one way or another the amount of food was about right, though there was very little that D liked so I think he had two slices of pizza and some pudding. Memo to self: if we do this again, get him a pepperoni pizza! Actually, by next year I think we would be ready for five pizzas not four as baby F might then be joining in.

I offloaded some salad to J and E so we aren't left with too much apart from parsley (why is it sold in big bunches and what am I supposed to do with the rest?) and cream. There's some hummus and salad, but not overwhelmingly so.

On a less positive note, I had a text from my friend to say her elderly relative has passed away.

So, my spending for the day is around £30 (entertainment) but probably the same again has gone on eating out. There's enough left over from the evening to supplement a few meals (DH was delighted with his vegan pizza and still has half left) - and if I don't get to bed soon, I'll suffer for it as the clocks are going forward tonight.

Sun_Addict

Sounds like you had a lovely day. Hopefully you eventually got to bed and had a good sleep. 

Sorry to hear about your friend’s relative. 

Cherryfudge

Good morning all and happy Easter! DH has already gone to a last-minute choir rehearsal - they are singing in the service this morning - and the sun is shining.

I need to bestir myself and get to church - I'm not missing Easter morning even if it is loud! Other than that, I have some chicken defrosting to make a chasseur for later and I hope to get round to repotting this Swiss cheese plant and sowing some seeds. The pepper seedlings are doing beautifully but all the corianders died off, so I'll start a new batch of those, and hopefully the rhubarb seeds too. We don't have any guests booked in for a while now so windowsills can be safely covered in seedlings!