Sunny Sunday

 

Good evening everyone. Its been a rather nice weekend weather wise which has been great for getting through all the laundry that needed doing.  I've even washed and dries a few winter things and packed them away for later in the year.

This weekend we have been focusing hard on a mammoth declutter. DH took a full car load of rubbish bags to the local tip in the afternoon.

One of this we tackled was the incredible pile of shoes we seem to have amassed over the past few years. One of my hoarding issues is saying "it'll fit someone else eventually".

And while that's usually true with shoes all of my children have quite different likes and dislikes so it wasn't really working.

I tipped every shoe I could find in the house into a huge pile on the living room rug and gathered the family around it for a mammoth trying on session. 

A good 80% of shoes have either been donated or thrown away.

Not a bad use of a Sunday I think.

X x X

Thrifty Thursday

 

 Good Morning to you all.

Yesterday surprisingly went without a hitch and Miss D now is restocked on her medication. Fingers crossed we don't have the same problem next time we order it in. I will make sure we order it in good time though just in case.

I mentioned our dog in the last post and realised afterwards that I didn't pay the dog tax by adding a photo of him. Optimus Ween is 5 months old and a miniature dachsund (who thinks he's a Rottweiler!)

Today everyone has been popped into school and I've run some errands in town. I've been a big fan of the Poundland Perks app lately, some of the offers have been rather good. Today they has Skinny rice crispy bars for 75p (usually £1). The children all love them and they are a safe food for Mr G so I picked up 4 boxes. I will probably get another 4 in the next few days before the offer finishes. I also grabbed a reduced prawn pasta salad for just 50p which will make for a very tasty lunch. 

Today's homeschooling is our next episode of Victoria and at Miss D's requested she wants to learn more about what happens in order to elect a new Pope. I will be watching the funeral on Saturday with any of the children who wish to join me. It's quite a big event that should only happen very rarely during their lifetimes so I hope they take a moment to watch a little bit. 

Will any of my lovely readers be watching too? 

X x X 

Hello Strangers

 

 Hello old friends.

The world is a mile a minute at the moment and I find myself enjoying being part of it less and less each day.

Looking at my posts I haven't posted since last September! If you'd of asked me I'd of said a month or two had passed by, but I'd never of guessed a good 7 months had almost passed me by. Utter lunacy.

Lots has changed in that time for us a family. I can't remember what I've written about and what I haven't so I guess this is me starting over. 

Today 4 of the 5 children returned to school after the Easter half term. Miss D, aged 12 is now officially home educated so she stays home with me. It wasn't out original plan but it's the way things have progressed so we are making the best of it.

Once the school children were all dropped off, Miss D and I walked the dog to the pharmacy to collect Miss D's medication or as she likes to tell everyone "We're going to buy some drugs today!" 

I put the prescription in on the NHS app over half term and had a text telling me the it was ready to collect on Thursday. They was no rush to get it and I didn't want to play the game of 'when are you open over Easter' so I left it till today.  When we arrived it was of course not there. "Did you get a text?" I was asked by a very harassed pharmacy worker. I said yes and showed her the text on my phone. She humphed and went to check their system. There's no record of the prescription being requested and they don't have any stock of what Miss D needed. The all knowing system says there is a production issue with that particular medication and it might not be available with any reliability at the moment. The pharmacy has however tried to order it anyway and I'm to check back tomorrow to see if it arrived. If the medication doesn't arrive tomorrow then we have to go back to the Dr and ask them to change Miss Ds prescription to an alternative that the pharmacy can get in. I have a horrible feeling I know where this is going, don't you?

I asked the pharmacist if she had a list of similar medicines that are currently avaliable to help the dr make a choice but they don't offer that for some reason or another. I have a feeling I know where that information is also going to lead 🙈.

To cheer ourselves up after all this news we had a sneaky peek in the charity shop beside the pharmacy. I found a book by the Yorkshire Sheperdess I hadn't read yet. As it was only £2 I treated myself. 

Once home we completed Miss D's lessons for the day. She has chosen to learn about Queen Victoria so we are watching an episode of Victoria on Netflix each day and then picking things out of the episode to look into deeper. Today we learned about Ada Lovelace, which in turn led to a small delve into her father Byron and then some of his most famous poems.  

One of things I've most enjoyed about home education is being able to let Miss D lead our studies according to her interests. It's led us to some interesting conversations and research.

After the lessons, Miss D read aloud to me from our current reading book for a chapter, then completed today's tasks on her Dulingo app. This has brought us up to lunch time and I'm blogging while my instant noodles cool off. 

This afternoons plans will be sort out dinner plans for this evening and read a little of my  new book.  Hopefully everyone will be having a good first day back at school.

X x X

Mondays adventures

Today has been spent quietly getting on with things. The weather is grey and drizzly so I don't feel like having adventures outdoors today.

After the school run I popped to the community pantry. I was pretty happy with my little shop there and it wasn't to heavy to carry home either.  

I will try and show how I used the bits and pieces up over the week. 

 

I've also started a new knitting project. A friend of mine sadly lost her mother late last year, she has been sorting out the family home and several crafty things have kindly past my way.

One of them is this box of tapestry yarns. Each skein is approx 15 feet of yarn and the colours are a lovely autumnal feeling mixture. I've cast on 130 stitches on some size 10 needles and I'm attempted a very simple stripy hat. Each skein lasts about 2 and a bit rows of the hat so I think it should make quite a nice effect once it's finished. 

My only concern is whether who it will fit once it's finished 🤣 with 7 differently sized heads in the household I'm sure it will fit someone though!

X X x

 

Recovery Monday

 

Sorry I've been AWOL. The first bug of the school year hit me hard. Most of the weekend has been spend sitting under blankets and feeling sorry for myself.

Today however I am feeling much better!

On Saturday we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary by watching a film together on the TV and sharing a chocolate orange. We know how to live eh?

Today's grey and wet weather has made me think of winter and the obviously looming Christmas. I found the cutest patten for little knitted stockings HERE. 

I'm planning to fill each one with a chocolate lolly and a candy cane each. I think the children would like them as a stocking stuffer. 

It's a nice activity to do on a soggy afternoon if nothing else.

X X X 

Wednesday wanderings

 

Yesterday ended up running away with me. I was planning for a quiet day because I seem to have a bit of a cold starting. It's not a bad one by any stretch, more of a nuscience than anything.

I'm the morning I did the school run with out much excitement to report. On the way home I popped into Home Bargains as usual to grab some Fairy liquid as they have bottles for £1 again. I like to keep one by the sink and at least 1 in the cupboard ready to replace it. I use a squirm of Fairy and a squirm of bleach to clean almost everything these days. 

I was very happy to find the pumpkin spice coffee I absolutely love was finally in stock. I will try and stock up on a box each visit for a while. They are my little me time treat once I've put the little ones to bed and I've finally stopped mumming for the evening.

In the afternoon I had a message from my Dad inviting me out for a coffee. My mum is away at the moment for a few days at a quilting retreat. I think he wanted a little company. While we were in town I picked up 2 bunches of Gladioli reduced to 70p each in Tesco. Both had barely a single flower out so reducing them seemed a very silly idea to me. I've just looked at them this morning and 4 or 5 flowers have started to bloom overnight. I've mixed the two colours and put half in the living room. The other half I gave to DD1 to put in the girls bedroom room. 

We had a lovely coffee and tea cake in town. Dad's treat which was very kind of him. 

Look at the size of those tea cakes! I'm glad I skipped lunch.

After our coffee treat it was time to collect the children from school. My dad joined me so he knew where each of the children's class rooms are this year. My parents are always willing to walk the children home from school if I'm having an emergency or a schedule clash. 

The children were of course thrilled to see Grandad waiting in the playground and I don't think a single one of them spoke me for most the way home 🤣

X X X 

Lots in Lidls

 

 I know people are complaining about the cost of food for a while but why is no one complaining about the weight of food! 🤣

Honestly my arms are so weak after the years of buggies and trikes that I've quite forgotten how to carry shopping bags any more!

I quite like Lidls because their app often gives me a free bakery item when I shop there. Today I picked a nice chocolate brownie to be my lunch.

I was planning on making hot dogs with half the sausages but the burger rolls were reduced cheaper than finger rolls so we are now having sausage and egg baps. 

Tomorrow will be cheese burgers and Thursday will be toad in the hole. 

I'm hoping to avoid more trips into town until next week and just use the local shop for milk and bread top ups as needed. I can't spend money in the shops if I'm not near them. 

This afternoon I need to try and work out why the dishwasher is beeping angrily at me and possibly doing lots of washing up if ifs broken.

Wish me luck 🤞

X X X