Its a rainy day.

 

  

Todays soup is Leek and Potato. 

Todays dinner is hunters chicken and rice.

 Todays dessert and snacks are PB&J biscuits.

 Todays activities are testing the depth of puddles...

 ...and a spot of ghost hunting and exorcism.
A happy busy day in Spurrier house 😃

X X X

And breathe...

 

The three eldest went back to school today, number 4 starts on Friday to allow for teacher visits first.

Everyone returned home happy but tired. This week is going to be a long long long one.

Once everyone had been dropped off, Baby C, Miss W and I met up with a friend. We all visited the community pantry which is my usual routine on a Monday. There was lots of tasty things on offer but there was quite a crowd of people all competing for it. I was very lucky to snaffle the last of the burgers. 

Meat can be hard to come by at the Pantry so whilst they have plenty I will try and stock up on tinned meats for leaner times. This week I've added a tin of tuna and a tin of ham to the stocks. 

I'm also experimenting with making soup in the slow cooker as a starter for dinner time. Im hoping it will fill up some tummies and add some extra nutrition to our diets without costing the earth. We aren't on a position to increase the main meal size and with fuel rises and the cost of living crisis it doesn't look like it's on the cards any time soon.

 I'll keep you posted on how it works out for us.

Tonight's soup was parsnip & squash. It came out really nicely with a handful of lentils added for good measure. Dinner was beef curry and rice, using the burgers from the pantry.

Everyone ate well and no one asked for desert so I call that a win ☺️

DH picked up some milk on his way home and also picked up 2 trays of chicken legs and 4 packets of bacon reduced to pennies. They are all now in the freezer. What a clever man I married ☺️

Take care

X X X

A quiet start

 

We've spent the first few days of the holidays quietly at home. DD1 is spending the weekend with the in-laws on a mini holiday so I've just got 4 to entertain for now.

Yesterday a friend of mine asked if we would like some fridge bits as she was going on holiday and didn't want to waste anything. She gave us a bag of all sorts of things including a packet of bacon medallions. This morning we made cheese and bacon turnovers together. We tried to make puff pastry but it doesn't seem to have worked. In fact the pastry seems even flatter and more dense than my usual attempts 😂 

We also moved this beautiful but very solid and heavy writing desk from its resting place in the kitchen to the front entrance way. It looks so much nicer than the plastic drawers we had there before. 

We found the desk on the school run. It was on someone's driveway with a free sign attached the top. DH picked it up on his way home in the car that evening and i crossed my fingers and toes that someone else didn't take it first.

One of my aims over the holidays is to encourage the children away from screens for entertainment. So I've pulled out our old Beetle game and taught the children how to play, as well as a few decks of cards to play pairs and patience.

Tomorrow we are off to a local festival which I'm looking quite forward to do. They have a display each year by a local trope of lion dancers and they are so amazing to watch.

X X X

Summer break is here!

  I sent my last two children in school off this morning for their final day. DD1 and DD4 both finished yesterday so I had 3/5 home with me.

Though it was very overcast all day the air was still quite humid and the house will take a few days to cool down to a more comfortable level, so we decided to make a little activity in the garden for entertainment.

DD1 made tickets from little pieces of card whilst I made a quick Car wash sign for the 2 smallest two to decorate. It gave me just enough time to gather a few things together.

First you fight the ticket off the customer 🤣 then give the vehicle a good dust over. 

Then we spray everything, including the driver, with warm soapy water.

Then we give everything a good scrub with some sponges and rags. 

Then we wave the customer goodbye, switch drivers and do it all over again and again until everyone was soggy and had had enough.

Then we get everyone dried off, fed and back off to school to collect the missing two.

We celebrated the end of term with a lollipop and lots of excitement about the next few weeks together 🙂

Happy summer holidays everyone

X X X

Drowning not waving

 

I'm struggling at the moment. 

My Dr has put me back on some medication for anxiety and depression but it's not quite kicked in yet so I know I'll feel a little better soon.

There's just so much to juggle at the moment. Finances are a huge worry now and for the future, organising 5 children, keeping the house up together, preparing for the summer holidays, worrying about poorly family members, trying to be a good friend, just trying to be everything everyone needs me to be.

It's tough and I don't feel like I'm doing any of it particularly well right now. I'm definitely treading water and slowly sinking. It all just feels like an uphill struggle.

I feel like I need a complete reset, to start from scratch again and build things back up slowly until I'm on my feet again and can keep up to speed. I'm not sure how I'd go about that, I'm not very good at slow and steady. I tend to try to do it all then collapse in a heap exhausted. 

 There's not much point to this post really I'm just ranting. 

Sorry 

X

Thursday's Th-somethings

Yesterday was spent enduring Sport's day. A full day in the blazing sun on AstroTurf with minimal shelter. By the time we arrived back home I felt awful, DH very kindly let me have a lay down to recover while he cooked the children's tea. 

Today I still feel headachey and lethargic but it's not to bad. I've managed to get all the jobs I wanted sorted out today completed, albeit a bit slower than planned.

On this afternoons school run though I had a lovely surprise. One of the school run ladies I often chat with passed me a heavy carrier bag and said her friend had given her a load of bits and she didn't need these but wanted them to go to a good home. 

Can you guess? 

A big tin of buttons! All shapes, sizes and colours 😍 What a lovely gift! 

There's several really pretty metal buttons, some very classic looking vintage buttons and even a few cute shaped buttons for children's cardigans. I'm going to make great use of them all.

In other crafting news here is a quick progress pic of Baby C's blanket. I'm still getting strong ice cream vibes from it but DD1 said it makes her think of tropical sunsets 🤔

 I guess we'll just have to see how it evolves.

Take care and stay hydrated

X x X

 

Tuesday's twitterings

 

We've had quite an exciting day. I dropped off DD2 and DS at school as usual before heading to our usual Tuesday morning group.

This week we made cards for Father's Day. 

After our group we decided to spend ten minutes in the park enjoying the lovely weather. We were just finishing on the swings when an air ambulance started to circle overhead and landed on the grass almost beside us. 

The tiny two were fascinated by it for a good while. I was initially worried that some very ill person was about to be rushed across the park on a stretcher, not something I wanted two young children exposed to, but it was what they call a "Dr Uber" that delivers specially trained medical staff to the scene rather than transporting anyone away from it.

The helicopter was there for a fair with just the pilot who had to tell a lot of people to please stop touching the helicopter.  I can understand many people stopping and watching but the idea of rushing over to take close up pictures and get in the way of people doing important jobs seems a very poor one.  Someone was even asking to take a photograph sat in it! 

After the helicopter excitement there wasn't any time to rub home for lunch before the afternoon school run. We ended up heading into one of our favourite cafes and sharing some banana pancakes. After polishing them off Baby C took a nap and DD3 and I read a book together back in the park under one of the trees. No more helicopters appeared which I think DD3 found disappointing 🤣

Once home I found a quick few minutes to finally give Miss Rabbit her face. It's not perfect but I'm pretty pleased with it over all. Hopefully Baby C will agree on her birthday.

X x X