Moving on

Cherryfudge

Alas no sesame seeds! Though the recipe included instructions on making it so if any find their way in, it would be fun to try.

Cherryfudge

So tired! The weekend has been very full and I can see a reasonably busy week ahead so I am treasuring my sleep. It makes a big difference in my mood right now.

This morning I was helping with the little ones at church. When I'm not leading, I like to see how others do the job and today seemed to involve a lot of 'Hairy McLary' stories! We decided months ago that the really important thing was to give the children time to find their feet, play and socialise, so activities and snacks come later. The story this week was about the wise man building his house on the rock ('And the rain came tumbling down!'). I hadn't thought of the old song for years, but I was singing it to DGD yesterday, which isn't too much of a co-incidence when you think how the weather has been. They made origami houses as an activity, which was a very simple 'make' but took a lot of adult input. They were so proud of them, though!

Afterwards we drove over to J and L's for dinner - spaghetti bolognese as 'Dad's choice' for Father's Day, followed by lemon sorbet. We sat out in the garden at first as it was sunny and quite warm and we admired the patio and raised beds they've just made, until a big grey cloud rolled up and sent us indoors. Afterwards we went for a walk near a local village: fields and wooded places alongside the Tees, which was flowing fast and sparkling over chocolate-coloured depths. Lots of ground elder in flower (it's not my enemy in the wild), scent of elder blossom and fields of flowering broad beans. We were out about an hour and I was dozing in the car on the way home and again when I went for a lie-down. DH called me as we were going to an evening thing at church, and woke me up! I've stayed awake since but I'll be early to bed tonight. And it's raining again, but at least it was nice while we were out: the walk was beautiful.

Cherryfudge

I'm on a keeping busy type of morning: first task was to see if I could change my phone appointment for a real life one which (kudos to our GP practice) was easily done and I'm actually seeing a GP on Wednesday morning. I feel that if I need medical care, the sooner the better. I've remembered to cancel the phone appointment so someone else can have it.

DH took the car in for its MOT and while waiting for them to ring us, had a phone call from work to say he was supposed to be in this morning. That's thrown him as he doesn't normally do a Monday, and had missed it on the schedule, but he threw things together and was out within minutes. This means cancelling his volunteering this afternoon (work couldn't give him annual leave) and he has just texted to say the car passed its MOT.  

I've put some laundry in the machine and handwashed a couple of soft toys found in the loft so DGD can play with them when she visits. Next tasks are making marmalade (from a tin, nothing particularly inventive) and feeding/watering the houseplants before an early lunch. Then the plan is to do the Monday clean at church with an hour break to meet with the person who's installing the debt advice centre software on my laptop. I had the choice of my own or a centre laptop, but my own is less faff and should have plenty of capacity as I don't have Age of Empires on this one! At five it's time for my paid job so actually it's a pretty full day.

liselle

Do you not have a Hand Wash programme on your machine Cherry? I was loath to use mine at first, especially for a precious cashmere sweater, but then I read that washing by hand can actually stretch a knitted garment.I now use the programme for everything except bedding and towels.It’s a very quick programme too!

Cherryfudge

I think the nearest I have to handwash is delicates, which takes a while, @liselle. Also the machine was already in use!

JGB1955

I'm impressed by all this commitment to washing.  There are just the 2 of us. We do 2 machine washes every week - one for sheets and/or towels, the other for the rest of our clothes.  Everything goes in at 40 degrees.  The only thing that gets washed by hand are my bras!  Guess we're dirty bu****s!  Haven't died yet.....

Cherryfudge

It takes two washes to do all our bedding/towels/teatowels, @JGB1955, so we won't catch up with you! I do wash quite a lot by hand, out of choice, to reduce wear and tear on particular pieces or if I think the colour might run. Sheets and towels are 60 degrees and the rest is 30 degrees.

I must admit to a feeling of satisfaction when I see a line full of washing!

Cherryfudge

The plants got fed and the marmalade got made, the church cleaning was basics only as I had to fit in the time to have the software set up, then leave before the admin lady so she could lock up. I'm getting better at cutting corners and I had the opportunity again later in my paid job as I had two areas to cover, and only two hours (I think the normal allocated time is five hours between two people). Essentials only, then.

Between jobs, I called in at the shops for fruit and tuna, and also some custard tarts to ensure I had a bit of protein before work. DH cooked me some salmon when I got in, so I've eaten well.

It's been showery today but I'm pleased to say it's warmed up! Back in the mid teens now but I think it was more earlier.

My sister and her daughter are back in the UK and have asked if they can stop here overnight on Wednesday. DH and I both have things to attend on Wednesday evening but I'm sure she'll understand if we can't be there all the time.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £10.42 plus DH's Asda spend.
Car (MOT) £50ish.

Cherryfudge

DH had to be in work for an hour and a half to make up for not going in first thing yesterday. When he came home he cleared the gutters - though since we got the big ladder and he worked on them last time, we've not had the big waterfalls we used to get on wet days. I washed the bedding from the spare room: DH was using that bed when his back was painful and my sister will be borrowing the room tomorrow. For our main meal, I made this curry for the first time - with a slight variation in that I substituted chick peas for eggs which DH doesn't like. He declared it a 'keeper'. We also watched the penultimate episode of The Piano. It's been brilliant so please no one tell me who won! We hope to watch that in a couple of days' time.

We decided to go out for coffees, which turned into a bit of an explore. Firstly we went to an old hall nearby where we'd been before, but some time ago. Once we'd parked we walked towards the entrance and a chap sitting by a sort of stall at the roadside started to question us about where we were going. He was fielding people who were trying to get into the gardens for free so we explained we had been before and had then been able just to go in the café which is what we came to do today. He let us go on, and when we arrived, the café was packed so we said we'd wait and the member of staff on the entrance desk did her best to sell us some sort of entry to the grounds. She had a good argument for buying a season ticket which I would probably have bought had it not been that DH pointed out we almost never go back to places where we have an annual pass. She kept talking to us - she was pleasant enough but unfortunately had a very harsh voice, and the building was crowded and dark, so we were both feeling rather edgy. Eventually a table came free so we escaped to it. Then the waitress, who admittedly seemed to be working on her own, just never came to clear the table from the debris left by the previous people, or take our order, so in the end we left and decided it really wasn't our sort of place. (And they didn't do cappuccino...)

DH remembered a café further down the road so we went there, and it was an altogether more positive experience. We stayed quite a while (I got my cappuccino) and had a good chat, then wandered round the shop and looked at the art on the walls before setting off home. By the time we arrived, I just had time to fling on my uniform before haring off to work.

I only had two hours' work again today but it was an easy one and I would probably have been short of things to do for three hours.

Expenditure
Entertainment £6.67.

Cherryfudge

This morning's GP appointment was fairly positive: Unwelcome Lump disappeared a couple of days ago and she couldn't find anything but is referring me for a mammogram just in case. Underlying muscle makes these things less than straightforward, but she took time and trouble and also checked a mole that I can't see properly and which she says is okay.

I had a wander round the shops in case they were suddenly full of interesting second hand books, but didn't buy any, then found a likely-looking one thanks to a mention on this forum (£1.49 on Kindle) but at present I can't make my account work. I'm giving it time in case the site was busy, but a few things have been slow on first opening since I had my laptop security tightened up the other day.

I went into L1dl for some juice, rye crackers and oatcakes and came out with not only those but also a watermelon, and stilton and cinnamon buns from !celand. I've had to throw out some kale as I never took up Laura's good advice on freezing it. Last week and weekend were all too busy so I am not very pleased with myself over that.

It's lovely out today but I really need to push on with tidying as I've no real idea when my sister will arrive and the house is looking 'lived in'. At least the guest bed is made and the floor vacuumed in there. Still to do: bathroom, kitchen, hoovering. Anything else is a bonus.