Calm again

I got rather stressed last week with the pressures of life and driving everyone everywhere. Sunday morning I got up and told the family that everything was cancelled until Friday - no church, no band, no gym, no rounders, no art club - we are all effectively grounded until Friday! The relief is wonderful - the time to stay at home and just do stuff here is great.

Yesterday I ironed, spring cleaned, tidied, threw things out, put things away, etc. Today, I have done more of the same, with a bit of internet research thrown in and a friend round for a cuppa later on this afternoon. It was nice to take the time to reconnect with her and just relax.

Tonight, the YFG and I have baked; she has made some coffee flavoured cupcakes all on her own, right through to the icing. I have been chief washer-up and also made a carrot cake to a recipe I hadn't tried before. I made an online Asda order and that got delivered tonight so I have some sour cream to make a rhubarb crumble cake with tomorrow, and the Philadelphia cheese with which to frost the carrot cake. That's tomorrow's work.

Talking of work, we seem to have decided by mutual consent that our time as book delivery people is probably over. This has come at the right time, as there is so much to do at home that I don't really feel we have the time to continue anyway. Finding a way to replace the small amount of regular income it brought will be another matter, though. I do have about a tonne of books still in the garage from my time with Usborne, so I have made a business account on eBay and plan to sell them there. I took some to the post office this afternoon (when I picked the YFG up from school) to get them weighed for postage charges, and plan to list them tomorrow to see if this will work. I know I won't make the RRP but I am thinking that whatever I make is a bonus and better to have the money in the bank rather than sitting on the shelf.

The Brown Sussex chickens are still laying but they seem to have had a couple of off days and I have only 10 eggs to go into the incubator tonight, instead of the dozen or 14 I had been hoping to have acquired by now. I'm going to go ahead with that, but it is a little disappointing. The Gold Partridge Orps are still laying 3 a day (there are 4 of them) nearly every day, but I don't have any more incubator space.....you can see where this is going, I'm sure. I'm now considering buying a "proper" automatic incubator! This would save me the hassle of hand-turning the eggs, but it would also reduce the variables in the whole process and may make the hatch rate better. The breeder pellets I am going to pick up from the feed store on Saturday should also increase fertility a little, so I hope that they like the pellets!

The French beans have had two days outside in the sunshine and look very healthy. I am returning them to the greenhouse each night, as it is rather chilly to leave them out all night. The lettuces are looking good, too - and the tomato plants!! I am removing laterals from them already. The Gold Laced Orp chicks had their first night in the ark last night, and emerged rather timid and shy this morning, but have spent a happy day scratching about and enjoying the extra space which the ark affords them compared to the box they were in. The single Sebright chick spent the night with them, but when they came out this morning, it unfortunately didn't take them long to realise that he was not one of their number, and he had to be removed as they were starting to attack him. He is back in his box in the utility room tonight whilst I think of plan B for him.