🌞 Happy Days in our Golden Years 🌞

Fortune_Smiles

Pancakes Galore!

I spent most of yesterday catching up on the business admin and now feel a little more in control of things. I've just one further invoice and a task for Companies House to do.

The shopping came in over budget and I think I'll have to up the budget again. We've not changed our shopping habits - it's just the ever increasing cost of food 🙄

Tuesday's breakfast was roasted nectarines, raspberries and cherries with home-made granola and yoghurt. The fruit was our own which I'd frozen during the season. Lunch was Sweet Chilli Fish Finger Wraps and supper was

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/seafood/prawn-amp-coconut-curry/

.I decided to make quark pancakes for breakfast yesterday as I had a pot of quark in the fridge which was destined for a recipe over the weekend but didn't get used. I followed a recipe on-line which made 16 pancakes. 38 pancakes later the batter was finally used up! We had 7 yesterday with the leftover roasted fruit, 7 this morning with bananas and maple syrup and the rest are in the freezer. They will be useful for times when a quick breakfast is needed but it took ages to fry them all up. Mr F went out for a hike taking sandwiches so I had the remains of the curry for my lunch. He sorted out his own supper as I was getting ready to go to Book Club and I had some fruit before I went because I knew cheese scones would be on offer when I got there 😋

I took 3 books I'd finished to Book Club and 4 bags of green beans to share. The host was also looking for a home for her green beans so I ended up taking 1 of my bags home along with some home-grown cherry tomatoes and 2 cheese scones which Mr F has got his eye on for snacks today.

I went to gym class on Tuesday and kept my food diary up to date so self-care continues. I feel better for the renewed focus already. I have gym class this morning too so I'd better shake a tail feather.

Happy Thursday all

Fortune x

Humdinger1

My grandma had a friend who filled tins with stones, then dressed them as rabbits, wearing robes that ranged from Victorian crinolines to quasi- priestly robes. They are still used as doorstops. I called mine Mrs Colonel Matcham, after a fictional villainess; my mother's is called Zadok, after the high priest. Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx

beanielou

Ooh I love a pancake or two!

Fortune_Smiles

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82093798#Comment_82093798

They sound fab @Humdinger! - I'm a big fan of home and hand made items.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82094229#Comment_82094229

It's over a week since I last posted @beanielou and I still have an enormous bag of pancakes in the freezer. They may take me into the New Year 😂

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Where does the time go, does anyone know 🎵🎵🎵

It's been a busy week but in a good way. Mr F has been off in foreign parts earning money which has left me with additional dog walking and veg watering duties and I've caught up on some more overdue chores.

Health 🧘‍♀️

• I've lost 6lbs since I last posted 🥳 I'm tracking my calories and continuing with my 3 gym classes a week and it seems to be working this time. I'm sure reduced stress levels are making all the difference.
• I invested in a set of smart scales. Our existing scales weigh a little light and I was interested in the additional measurements the smart scales could give me. My numbers are all within a normal range except my BMI which is far too high and my vascular age which is coming up as 3 years older than my actual age 😲 Definitely some improvements to be made there.
• the next small step in my health journey is to get more sleep. Mr F and I are rubbish at going to bed at a reasonable time and I always wake up around 6am even though the alarm doesn't go off until later. If I try to go back to sleep I have weird, disturbing dreams - this morning I dreamed Alan Patridge was flirting with me 😂 but worse than that - I was flirting back 😲. I want to get into the habit of going up the wooden steps to Bedfordshire much earlier.

Wealth 💰

• the business accounts are up to date except for the invoice I need to raise for Mr F's trip this week
• I bought a new laptop for the business as I'm using my personal laptop for work at the moment and it only has 4GB of RAM and Wind0w$ 10. It's really struggling with multi-tasking.
• the veg patch has delivered green beans, leeks, courgettes, salad leaves and cucumbers this week. Mr F and I picked the first of the blackberries and damsons this morning and it looks like we'll have some edible greengages and plums soon. The first fruit to ripen was accelerated by the presence of plum moth caterpillar so I'm hoping the later fruit will be caterpillar free
• meals have been mainly salads and baked potatoes in Mr F's absence although I did manage a Creamy Salmon, Leek & Potato Traybake on one of the cooler days to use up some of the remaining new potatoes from the veg patch. Supper last night was a Courgette, Lentil & Ricotta Layer Bake with green beans, leeks and peas.
• I finished printing off my copy of the evidence for the Hearing so I just need to cross-reference the key evidence now so it's easy to refer to on the day.

Happiness 😁

• I attended a workshop on sewing pattern hacking which included some really great tips on fitting. It's one of the most useful workshops I've attended so far and has opened up a whole new seam (pun intended 😂) of sewing adventures
• I've deliberately focussed more on myself this week and made the most of Mr F's absence: staying on for coffee with the girls after gym class, having an afternoon off in the heat to watch a film, etc. I feel much more relaxed and resilient as a result.

It doesn't seem as though this drought will ever break but winter is coming 🐉 A skein of geese flew over the house this morning escaping the coming, freezing Arctic weather and the number of swallows sitting on our electricity line each morning is increasing as they ready for their end of summer migration. We do so need some rain here now. Field fires are breaking out regularly in the area and you can smell the smoke in the air. Our pasture is dust and straw and our little laburnum tree (which you may remember from the picture I posted in spring) has lost all it's leaves due to heat stress.

Wishing you all rain where it's needed.

Fortune x

greent

Ooh - was it Hume scales, FS? - I've been considering a scales upgrade (5 st 7.5lb down and I have no idea of body comp and other markers) but dont know anyone who has any fancy ones 😃

Fortune_Smiles

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82104579#Comment_82104579

It's this one @greent. Ridiculously expensive but I have some health issues that need addressing and these additional markers will be really helpful for me. I paid full price but did have some vouchers to put against the cost. I notice B00t$ have a 15% off code at the moment.

You use these with an app which doesn't cost anything extra. I think there are additional app capabilities that you do pay extra for. You get weight, BMI, visceral fat, lean mass, bone mass, body water percentage, basal metabolic rate (how many calories you burn at rest), metabolic age (compared with population norms), standing heart rate, vascular age (compared with population norms) and nerve health score.

These can't be used if you have a pacemaker or any other internal medical device as they send a low electrical current through the body.

I've only had mine a few days and I've found it really useful for my goals already. It's also given me some reassurance - I'm actually a lot healthier than I thought I was. Although I've plenty of room for improvement.

Well done on your amazing weight loss! That's an incredible achievement - you should be very proud of that.

Fortune x

Fortune_Smiles

Know your onions…

I have had a lovely, leisurely weekend of sewing. For the first time, I altered a pattern significantly to fit me - not just taking hems up! The sewing pattern hacking workshop gave me the confidence to do it. I started on a tunic dress that drops straight down from the shoulders. Not an easy fit for an hourglass/apple shaped person 😂 I made a toile out of an old duvet cover to see what the fit was like then altered the pattern by dropping the bust line 2 inches, grading out to a size up from the armsyce to the dart and grading out to another two sizes up from the waist to the hip. The fit is perfect! 🥳 Unfortunately, I didn't have enough fabric to pattern place particularly well and I didn't realise that there are subtle vertical lines in the pattern which are now off centre. But, I'm going to finish the dress and see whether anyone thinks it's noticeable or whether it's just me and my OCD who can see the flaws.

We had a few spots of rain earier - literally a few spots 🙄 But it was enough to galvanise Mr F into action and he has harvested all the onions and laid them out to dry in the barn We've had a good harvest so won't have to buy onions for a while. 🧅🧅🧅

There was leftover Layer Bake for lunch yesterday and we had Hearty Pasta Soup for supper and for lunch today. Tonight's supper was Sticky Sausage and Potato Traybake to use up the last of the veg patch new potatoes and with green beans instead of red pepper. I picked some plums yesterday - half of which were clean 🥳 Mr F got very excited that this meant a crumble was in the offing so I made one for breakfast this morning - plum, apple and blackberry 😋 Despite this, I have managed to stay within my calorie allowance for the day.

It's been so much cooler the last couple of days which is lovely but the temperature plummeted last night. I was so chilly in bed I put the electric blanket on - for an hour 😲 My body has obviously got used to living in a tropical zone 😂 I did manage to go to bed at a reasonable time though and the cooler temperature meant for a good night's sleep.

Hope everyone's had a good weekend.

Fortune x

edinburgher

@greent - my most recent scales upgrade was to Renpho ones - they seemed to be well regarded online by folk using GLP-1s. No doubt less fancy than FS ones, but a less terrifying £24 or so!

greent

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82105124#Comment_82105124

Thanks, Ed - I'll have a look. (How's it going being off the GLP-1s?)