Moving on

Cherryfudge

Another rainy day, though less consistently than yesterday. I didn't get drenched while out, but at one point the rain fell thickly, straight down, without a breath of wind so the cloud must just have emptied itself over where I was.

I went to help at the debt advice centre in the morning but we didn't have many people come. Afterwards we had a meeting, then I went to the supermarket so I didn't get home till mid-afternoon. I did, however, pick up a bag of apples at the market for £1 - they looked beautiful, too - and found some supermarket bargains (chicken, chicken liver and sausages). The sausages are divided up and frozen now, but then I ran out of freezer space so the rest is in the fridge. This turned out to be not my best idea, as DH bought himself Southern friend chicken and is planning to have the same tomorrow while I'm at work - so I need to make something that will sit in the fridge and prolong the edibility of what I bought.

Work was another three hours: I am sure I'm speeding up as I wasn't struggling to get it done.

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £13.10

Cherryfudge

It may be grey skies, but it isn't rainy and I have most of the day 'off' - i.e. things to do at home. I also need to post a birthday card and organise something for the leader who's stepping down... and while I'm at it, give some thought to what to do for the children's work on Sunday.

Meanwhile at home - the fridge is overdue a clean out, which should help inform what I make with the chicken I bought. I've also offered to bake towards a lunch after a funeral tomorrow. I didn't know the person so I'm not going, but the death was a tragic accident and there will be a lot of people there, so helping out in a slight way feels like the best I can do.

In cooking terms, I will probably run out of time or energy before I do all possible projects. Another batch of the braised cabbage rice would be lovely and use up some veg. There's half an avocado which I only like with tuna, so maybe that will be lunch and I can do the cabbage thing for tea? Then there's the 'whatever I make with the chicken' and perhaps cakes to help use up the eggs?

Cherryfudge

Lunch was tuna and avocado, so that's two fewer pots in the fridge, and I've also thrown out the remains of a bottle of Prosecco that was opened a while ago and 'didn't taste right' - so had been sitting there getting worse for ages. Also gone is the remains of the whey left over from when I turned the last of the goat's milk into ricotta. It might have been all right for the scones but I didn't want to risk it when making for other people and I'm not going to use that much for my own purposes.

I had an inspiration for the eggs and have pickled them, thus also using remnants of two bottles of pickling vinegar and some out of date peppercorns. This makes a bit of space in the oils and vinegars department, which also turned up another bottle of the garlic-infused olive oil that DH is so keen on - and which I replaced last week.

I noticed L!dl has a discount on mushrooms on the app, so if I have time I will start a chasseur in the Instant Pot, and that can use up the small amount of wine left from the weekend's sausage casserole. Most urgent, though, is to find a suitable birthday card and get it posted.

Cherryfudge

I found a card in my stash, so nothing spent there, but 2 x 1st class post (DH sent a letter) is £2.70 now.

I then got the shopping and made the added scones but they weren't cooled enough to butter them before I had to go to work so I texted DH with instructions. They weren't very inspiring, which I put down to not having added salt or mustard, but part way to work I realised I'd completely missed out the margarine! I texted Dh again, and also the lady who's sorting out the catering, and DH brought them home again!

I had three hours at work, which I'm grateful for: one of the managers is more likely than the other to give me longer shifts and the shift I had today normally takes two hours but she said if I could find jobs needing to be done, I could do three hours. I immediately thought of the old fashioned radiators in one room and suggested that. I almost regretted it later as it was a real hands and knees job and took a while - plus a spider landed on me, but at least I'm not as scared of them as I used to be. I packed up with about twenty minutes to go, but to my great surprise, by the time I had everything put away I only had two minutes, which isn't long enough to get back to base. In fact the manager was coming to make sure I was all right!

When I got home, I had some of the erroneous scones for tea but before I could get too settled in, got myself out again and bought a few more groceries, so we now have cheese scones with margarine, salt and mustard. They taste a lot better than the originals, but will soon be cooled down enough to pack away and be delivered tomorrow.

I treated us to pastries from L!dl but forgot to switch my app over to the evening discount so I've paid full price.

I had a spend a couple of evenings ago that I don't think has been recorded. I order eye drops online as it's cheaper - about six months' supply at once. It had gone up a couple of pounds to £27. Then I noticed that the last time I had a delivery was May, not November, and I had no memory of it. However, it was just before my holiday so I wondered if it had arrived while we were away and been lost - but then found I have two lots of eye drops from it in the drawer where I keep spares. I've still no memory of it so I hope that's just down to proximity to going away. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed at the time.

I really need some sleep soon - will try to get all expenditure together first.

Expenditure:
Postage £2.70
Housekeeping £19.67

Cherryfudge

I slept in this morning - it was needed after yesterday.

A small amount of control has been grappled back from the too-much-to-cook/eat fiasco of recent days. A decent batch of scones has gone to the funeral lunch (I'm not going as I didn't know the person) and the duff lot is in a tin here for me to nibble my way through. The chicken is in the Instant Pot along with the last of Sunday's wine and all the etceteras that go to make up a chicken chasseur. DH commented how much he likes the smell but I don't think I fancy chicken so I might cook the rest of the mushrooms to have with the sauce. There were about seven bits of chicken in that pack: not all portion sized but should combine to make a few meals. I even used some of the stock that was made the other day but there's more than enough to do a braised cabbage and rice.

DH has been out for a walk and this afternoon is planning to continue getting the old paint off a door frame. He's waiting for the garage to let him know our new tires have come (MOT advisory): it will be around £200 he thinks. The car has been a trooper and cost us very little but eventually these things need to have money spent.

Cherryfudge

It's been a bit chilly for July - 14 degrees, and similar forecast for tomorrow. It's funny how the sun seems to have been absent for too long when it's only been a few days. However, I got washing done and dried, so it's not that bad. Good in fact.

I had my mushroom chasseur and a doughnut from yesterday evening's supermarket trip, then for tea it was 'failure' cheese scones with pickle, which was very nice. I hope to get through them before my cholesterol catches up with me. I thought I was getting away with the flour content but I can hear in my voice that it's affected my throat - my fault entirely.

I've finally transferred this month's money to the Christmas Saver account - it's been sitting in current for two weeks.

Work was only two hours, but to be fair there was very little to do so I found some odd corners to clean. This evening I've had a long soak in the bath and finished my book (Penny Plain by O Douglas, set around 1919/1920).

Nothing spent by me today. I think DH said the tires came to around £160. He's also researching house insurance as the renewal quote is for about £60 more than we paid last time.

Cherryfudge

I woke up out of sorts, having been dreaming - but I think I'm over it now. We thought about going to a car boot sale but one of them is rained off officially and the other looked like being cold and damp (13 degrees!), so we stayed in and DH has done further paint stripping.

I've been wrestling with getting access to a site with activities to use with the little ones tomorrow, but suddenly thought to check my spam for verification codes and there they all were, so I'm signed in and have the beginnings of the activity to build on. I've also been tasked with organising a card for the person I'm succeeding as group leader. Buying a thank you card is not the problem - finding a way to incorporate the hand prints of 10 tiny children, now: there's a challenge. I spent ages finding out how to get Word Art to bend the text into the shape I had in mind. I used to be able to do this but now it's worse than going into a supermarket where they've changed where they hide everything.

I finally got there, with the thought of printing a nice piece of card with our own message and turning it into a book with a separate page for each child's handprint. The next big challenge is to get each child to comply, while not getting paint anywhere they shouldn't and keeping it all secret from the person concerned while tracking down 14 members of the team - there are still four or five I'm not expecting to see and don't know where they live.

The rain has paused so I'm off out to find card without overthinking or overspending.  

Cherryfudge

I found reasonably cheap 'card' in the form of art paper and have (after a bit of a learning curve) created the thank you card and finished the lesson prep. I now have a bag of cotton wool sheep, a cotton wool wolf and a peg doll shepherd as well as a script and a sheep picture for them to colour. We will act out the shepherd guarding the sheep and scaring the wolf away from the lego-brick sheep pen.  

The other learning curve of the day has been the battle of the printer, which I ended up uninstalling and reinstalling, after which it decided it didn't like the card, but I told it in no uncertain terms it had to try again and finally it worked.

It was wet out, but dried up enough for DH to get a bit of a walk after spending hours getting old paint off the kitchen door frame. The varnish underneath is still the colour of treacle but he seems to have more talent for treacle removal than I ever had. It's a dark portal for the moment, but we are working towards white gloss.

Expenditure: 
I don't really know what category the art paper goes under as most of it will end up being used by me, but it was bought to make something to give, so it's going under 'gifts': I also bought a pack of cheap sponges so I can have a painted surface for the children to rub their hands on for making hand prints. I don't really 'approve' as it's single use plastic, but hey ho. £3.58
Housekeeping (fish and chips for dinner) about £7?

Cherryfudge

I got to bed around two this morning, when I was finally satisfied I was ready for today. Needless to say, I've dozed this afternoon! However, the morning with the children went quite well: I met a new team member who seems very on the ball (rather awesomely so... memo to self, do not be afraid of team ) and the other helper this morning was someone I've known for years. It all went quite well apart from a fun aspect that turned out too noisy for one boy and reduced him to tears. I knew he has a problem with noise so I caught his mum later and told her what had happened so at least she could make sense of the situation. Other than that, I thought I might have scared some of the children with the story as the shepherd has to chase away a wolf, but they coped. I made sure the wolf disappeared out of sight, but later one of the children was looking under the table for it so I gave it him as one of the helpers had some of the children acting out the story with puppets, while at the other end of the room, the other helper was reading the story of the lost sheep to some others. So I definitely had the A team helping today.  

Some of the other team members turned up to sign the card for the leader who's stepping down, so I've had a chance for a chat, the first since they got to know I'm the new team leader. I'm getting a little bit of a feeling for individual concerns (rotas, for some reason! Nothing new under the sun. ) but they are a nice bunch. And it's not exactly a full time job!

Back home (through the rain), DH had more of the chicken chasseur while I had pasta pesto as I'm still not wanting chicken. He has another meal or so of it still in the fridge but is still keen. In the afternoon I lazed around while DH went to the evening thing at church (brought forward because of the football), then the rain stopped and we had a walk, bumping into DS1 on his way to a mate's to watch the match. Town was a bit edgy with people getting ready (as in, drinking) for the football. Not so good, I worry about the ensuing violence and fear in some of their homes.  

After that I spent a long time on Duolingo and managed to scrape my way into staying in the Diamond League - just. I did take a break to watch the end of the match - these footballers do make the last minutes count, don't they?! And there's me not really a follower.

Nothing spent today. DH is working tomorrow and I have voluntary work at lunchtime and paid in the evening.

Cherryfudge

Another late night last night - about 1.30 I think. Can't even remember why, but it's been a very full day and I'm ready for sleep!

In the morning I had a bit of a lie in then did some Duolingo and washed three lots of laundry on the promise of a warm day, and it did warm up. About 21 degrees I think, with some sun before lunch. I also cleaned the bathroom, then had an early lunch and went to do the church cleaning. I've got into the swing of what needs to be done on a Monday and got through it quite quickly but I also tackled an area of hoovering that doesn't usually get done, so I didn't leave till going on for four. I had a quick trip to Sains as the app had offers on DH's oranges and tuna in olive oil, and I also got some cartons of smoothies as I was getting thirsty. That set me up for a while: once I got home I grabbed a uniform shirt off the line, ate two digestive biscuits and a square of Bournville, drank a glass of water and shoved some rice crackers in my bag. So much for meal planning! I had two and half hours at work, which included finding a very old checklist in an empty room. Most of it didn't mean anything to me, but one of the names was my son - his department has moved and he's been through various posts since that was relevant, but I sent him a photo for old time's sake.

The sky went very dark around tea time, but there was only a smattering of rain (it's been raining this evening). I got home without getting too wet and made myself a big bowl of tuna pasta to make up for unplanned eating earlier. Now I've had a bath with Epsom salts in, and it's nearly time for bed.

I'm over 20,000 steps, so just think how much I'm saving in gym  membership!

Expenditure:
Housekeeping £9.07