It was another lovely spring day yesterday and I took full advantage of it. Three loads of washing billowed on the line in the breeze, I walked to school to fetch the YFG home at 3pm, and I made lemon madeira cakes with fresh duck eggs. Three parcels were posted off to various parts of the country to people who had successfully bid for Duplo bits on ebay, and one of the cakes was delivered to the elderly neighbour who gave me the duck eggs. The rich yellow yolks really enhanced the colour of the cake and made it appear even more lemony than it was!
The FGs went to band practice last night but the FH was not well enough to go so I took them and nipped off to Tesco to buy more baking sugar (caster, I mean) and have a browse for secret presents to stash away for their birthdays. I treated myself to a DVD of Love Actually for £3 as we had only got the video version - and our video player is no longer working.
Today I have woken up with a cold and a sore throat so I am drinking honey and hot lemon drinks and keeping warm. The weather promises to be good again today, so I think I may spend some time in the garden, although I have the heap of ironing to do and I need to visit a school in town today to sort some paperwork out for them. And we have gymnastics tonight - I'll need to take my honey and lemon juice along with me to keep my voice going through the evening, I think!
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Sunday, 15 March 2009
A glorious Sunday
Although it didn't get off to a very early start as I slept in until 11am, I seem to have got a lot of things done today. The YFG was at a friend's house for a sleepover - I dropped her off there yesterday at about 3pm and she was returned tonight at 7pm so it was quite a long visit. However, it was just at the other end of the village, and the friend's mother promised to bring her home at any time if she wanted to be brought!
The sleep in was the result of a busy week and a lot of interrupted nights as the FH has a bad chesty cough at the moment and is having problems sleeping. Between his coughing and his TV watching in the night, I am getting woken up a lot. I slept the majority of last night in the YFG's vacant bed, so I did get a good start on the night!
As a consequence of the extra sleep, we missed church this morning. I got up and made a cup of tea and was able to sit in the back garden in my pajamas to drink it in the sunshine. After getting dressed, I organised the lunch and then fetched the lawnmower and cut the front lawn. The chickens were happy to recieve the clippings in to the run to scratch about with and generally peck at. After lunch, I loaded up the dishwasher and moved the lawnmower to the back garden. Cutting the back lawn was much harder work as the grass was longer! It made many more trips to empty the grass collecting basket, and took me about an hour. Another pleasant hour was spent in the sun, digging over one of the raised beds, with some of the chickens happily foraging for the worms which I was bringing to the surface with every turn of the spade. The chickens are not meant to be ranging around the garden but some of the lighter pure breed chickens are able to fly out! A few of them are always out and about in the garden, and whilst it is pleasant to have them keeping you company right now, they will do untold damage to the seeds when I get to sowing time. We must work out exactly how they are getting out and put a stop to it very soon!
The chickens are laying between 8 and 13 eggs each day now, so I have to wash and date the eggs each day so that I make sure that they are sold or used in the correct order. They are of a variety of sizes and colours and make for an interesting collection in an egg box - so much nicer than the average supermarket box of eggs as I can explain to the people buying the eggs that a Barnvelder laid that darker one, a Dutch bantam laid that tiny one and that lighter coloured egg is probably from one of the white hens.
This evening I have ironed my way through quite a heap of laundry whilst watching half of Africa on the TV. First we saw "Wild at Heart" on ITV although we had to miss the last 15 minutes so that we could turn over to BBC1 to see the brand new series made from the books of Alexander McCall Smith - The No1 Ladies Detective Agency - perfectly set in Botswana. I have read the first 6 of the books and love them, and having seen the film which was made from the first book last year, I have been looking forward to this series ever since I heard it was being made - and it has not disappointed me! It was lovely and I am already looking forward to the next episode. We'll have to catch the end of "Wild At Heart" on the itvplayer.
The sleep in was the result of a busy week and a lot of interrupted nights as the FH has a bad chesty cough at the moment and is having problems sleeping. Between his coughing and his TV watching in the night, I am getting woken up a lot. I slept the majority of last night in the YFG's vacant bed, so I did get a good start on the night!
As a consequence of the extra sleep, we missed church this morning. I got up and made a cup of tea and was able to sit in the back garden in my pajamas to drink it in the sunshine. After getting dressed, I organised the lunch and then fetched the lawnmower and cut the front lawn. The chickens were happy to recieve the clippings in to the run to scratch about with and generally peck at. After lunch, I loaded up the dishwasher and moved the lawnmower to the back garden. Cutting the back lawn was much harder work as the grass was longer! It made many more trips to empty the grass collecting basket, and took me about an hour. Another pleasant hour was spent in the sun, digging over one of the raised beds, with some of the chickens happily foraging for the worms which I was bringing to the surface with every turn of the spade. The chickens are not meant to be ranging around the garden but some of the lighter pure breed chickens are able to fly out! A few of them are always out and about in the garden, and whilst it is pleasant to have them keeping you company right now, they will do untold damage to the seeds when I get to sowing time. We must work out exactly how they are getting out and put a stop to it very soon!
The chickens are laying between 8 and 13 eggs each day now, so I have to wash and date the eggs each day so that I make sure that they are sold or used in the correct order. They are of a variety of sizes and colours and make for an interesting collection in an egg box - so much nicer than the average supermarket box of eggs as I can explain to the people buying the eggs that a Barnvelder laid that darker one, a Dutch bantam laid that tiny one and that lighter coloured egg is probably from one of the white hens.
This evening I have ironed my way through quite a heap of laundry whilst watching half of Africa on the TV. First we saw "Wild at Heart" on ITV although we had to miss the last 15 minutes so that we could turn over to BBC1 to see the brand new series made from the books of Alexander McCall Smith - The No1 Ladies Detective Agency - perfectly set in Botswana. I have read the first 6 of the books and love them, and having seen the film which was made from the first book last year, I have been looking forward to this series ever since I heard it was being made - and it has not disappointed me! It was lovely and I am already looking forward to the next episode. We'll have to catch the end of "Wild At Heart" on the itvplayer.
Saturday, 14 March 2009
Gone but not forgotten
Today would have been Charlotte's birthday - Charlotte was a lovely girl whom I had the privilege and honour of coaching at gymnastics. She died last February in an accident on a Fen road which ended in one of the local "drains" - one of the drainage channels used to keep the Fens dry.
Here is a link to her memorial site: http://charlotte-elise-walker.gonetoosoon.org/memorial/
if you would like to read about her. I can wholeheartedly endorse everything that is said about her - she was a very special young lady who is missed at gymnastics. She had been working for a competition with the other girls, and the weekend after her funeral, which I attended with my daughter and the Head Coach, we took the other girls to the competition. The organisers kindly held a minute's silence for her, and presented us with an engraved medal, which I took to her parents soon afterwards. Her parents remain in our thoughts and prayers.
Here is a link to her memorial site: http://charlotte-elise-walker.gonetoosoon.org/memorial/
if you would like to read about her. I can wholeheartedly endorse everything that is said about her - she was a very special young lady who is missed at gymnastics. She had been working for a competition with the other girls, and the weekend after her funeral, which I attended with my daughter and the Head Coach, we took the other girls to the competition. The organisers kindly held a minute's silence for her, and presented us with an engraved medal, which I took to her parents soon afterwards. Her parents remain in our thoughts and prayers.
Friday, 13 March 2009
I was back - then gone again!
This week has been nearly as hectic as last week, evidenced by my absence from here. I am getting the basic things done in my day, but the time has not been there for the extra, more fun things like this. The priorities have to be the day-to-day living tasks, like trying to keep the house running, feeding the family, etc.
I fell down this week on feeding the family - Tuesday night was gym and so the FH had to cook and then Wednesday, I had to be at a school meeting from 5.30 and just wasn't prepared, so the girls made themselves beans on toast, and made gingerbread biscuits for dessert. Although the FH and I were out all day yesterday, I got my brain in gear and took a lamb joint out of the freezer so I popped that in the oven at 3.30 and we all sat down to a lovely roast dinner at 5pm - veggies and everything. It was lovely. Tonight is gym again and the FH is on the cooking rota so he is making steak and kidney pie. I can't eat that so I'll be having some salmon with veggies when I get home.
We have realised (yes - we are a bit late) that the quail are not likely to lay eggs now, as we have had them six months and they are still not laying, so we think that we have been conned and they are probably all males. They are lovely, plump birds though, so I will be looking for some quail recipes soon!
Head over to Rhonda's blog at www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com and read what she says about getting through the recession by going back to basics and really appreciating the Home-maker's role in all of this. She is so right, and I applaud her for bringing this to the forefront. More articles like this help us all.
Have to go now but I am hoping to have more time to come back at the weekend.
I fell down this week on feeding the family - Tuesday night was gym and so the FH had to cook and then Wednesday, I had to be at a school meeting from 5.30 and just wasn't prepared, so the girls made themselves beans on toast, and made gingerbread biscuits for dessert. Although the FH and I were out all day yesterday, I got my brain in gear and took a lamb joint out of the freezer so I popped that in the oven at 3.30 and we all sat down to a lovely roast dinner at 5pm - veggies and everything. It was lovely. Tonight is gym again and the FH is on the cooking rota so he is making steak and kidney pie. I can't eat that so I'll be having some salmon with veggies when I get home.
We have realised (yes - we are a bit late) that the quail are not likely to lay eggs now, as we have had them six months and they are still not laying, so we think that we have been conned and they are probably all males. They are lovely, plump birds though, so I will be looking for some quail recipes soon!
Head over to Rhonda's blog at www.down---to---earth.blogspot.com and read what she says about getting through the recession by going back to basics and really appreciating the Home-maker's role in all of this. She is so right, and I applaud her for bringing this to the forefront. More articles like this help us all.
Have to go now but I am hoping to have more time to come back at the weekend.
Monday, 9 March 2009
I'm back!
Yes, last week was busy, but we got through by working together. Briefly, Monday was spent in preparation, Tuesday was the first book fair, Wednesday was recover and regroup, Thursday was the second, and Friday the third. The Tuesday/Thursday ones were at the same school, so 150 children and their parents had quite a few hours to look at the books and make orders as I was there in the afternoon and for the Parents' Evening meetings but on Friday, at another school, 300 children had just an hour after school to drag their parents in to the book fair and make their orders - and so it was a frantic hour, with parents queuing up to pay! I took the FH along to help me on Friday, and my lovely neighbour looked after the girls.
The third school which I have been working with has done a Sponsored Read, so my involvement has been minimal so far, just dealing with paperwork and getting it all set up - the work will start next week when I have to count the money and sort out all the sponsor sheets!
We didn't get to gymnastics on Tuesday, but we made it on Friday and Saturday. On Wednesday evening there was a meeting in the village about trying to start up a Brownie group which we went to because the YFG was interested. She soon lost her interest when she saw that most of the other girls who had gone to find out more were all about 7. We'll see - it probably won't start until September when she'll have turned 10, and she'll be old enough to go the Guide group instead if she wants to. Thursday I attended a small meeting about starting a LETS group in the Fen area - Local Exchange Trading System for anyone who hasn't heard of it before - it's a slightly more sophisticated bartering scheme. We were members of one when we were in Fife and found it an excellent way to meet people and get things done.
On Sunday, we had a congregation-led Sunday service as there was no preacher available to come along and do the honours. The other family with children were responsible for the music and readings and we took care of the prayers - it worked well. We all sat in a circle and had a good time. The FH came along to support us as well, which was lovely. The circuit Superintendent will be in charge next week for Holy Communion so we'll be in safe hands!
Today, I have been dealing with the laundry which had built up, washing eggs, and doing more preparation for this week's work. I'm not sure how busy this week will be - I know I have to go out delivering all day on Thursday, but apart from that, I am taking my time recovering from last week. I know that I have a Governors' meeting and training night on Wednesday from 5.30pm and then there is another LETS meeting on Thursday but I may have to bow out of that as I won't be up to going out every night of the week, and the Gov meeting is more important this week.
The third school which I have been working with has done a Sponsored Read, so my involvement has been minimal so far, just dealing with paperwork and getting it all set up - the work will start next week when I have to count the money and sort out all the sponsor sheets!
We didn't get to gymnastics on Tuesday, but we made it on Friday and Saturday. On Wednesday evening there was a meeting in the village about trying to start up a Brownie group which we went to because the YFG was interested. She soon lost her interest when she saw that most of the other girls who had gone to find out more were all about 7. We'll see - it probably won't start until September when she'll have turned 10, and she'll be old enough to go the Guide group instead if she wants to. Thursday I attended a small meeting about starting a LETS group in the Fen area - Local Exchange Trading System for anyone who hasn't heard of it before - it's a slightly more sophisticated bartering scheme. We were members of one when we were in Fife and found it an excellent way to meet people and get things done.
On Sunday, we had a congregation-led Sunday service as there was no preacher available to come along and do the honours. The other family with children were responsible for the music and readings and we took care of the prayers - it worked well. We all sat in a circle and had a good time. The FH came along to support us as well, which was lovely. The circuit Superintendent will be in charge next week for Holy Communion so we'll be in safe hands!
Today, I have been dealing with the laundry which had built up, washing eggs, and doing more preparation for this week's work. I'm not sure how busy this week will be - I know I have to go out delivering all day on Thursday, but apart from that, I am taking my time recovering from last week. I know that I have a Governors' meeting and training night on Wednesday from 5.30pm and then there is another LETS meeting on Thursday but I may have to bow out of that as I won't be up to going out every night of the week, and the Gov meeting is more important this week.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Books, too many books!
Just here briefly to say that I probably won't be here this week as the bookfairs are taking over my life! Will be back at the weekend when it will all be over, bar the deliveries.
Waves to those across the sea.
Waves to those across the sea.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Church bells
At gymnastics yesterday morning, we could hear church bells ringing out - and then when I had to nip over the road to get some milk for the tea, I could hear them in all their glory. It was a lovely spring day, bright and sunny with a fresh breeze, and the bells were pealing out across the town - it was wonderful, and put me in a good mood!
Today being the 1st March is the start of another financial challenge for us. I did not curb spending in February and we spent as normal, which is reasonably frugal, and certainly not lavish, but this month we are going back to the "essentials only" kind of spending, which clears out the stock cupboard and makes menu planning interesting. I have had a delivery of staple items from Asda today (with a voucher code for free delivery) and that came to £74.50 so I am allowing myself £125.50 for the rest of the month for groceries or anything edible - so that includes things like a school dinner on World Book Day for the YFG and it also includes anything that I buy for the garden like fruit bushes or seeds, which are used for the production of food! That is the maximum I want to spend, and I would like to spend less. We are well stocked up on everything else, non-food wise, like cleaning items, hygiene items and all that sort of thing! I'll let you know each week how we are getting on, and what we are eating. In the months to come, I would like to reduce the amount we spend in these months, as well as the amount we spend in a "normal" month, but I think that the best way to go about it is slowly!
A busy evening is ahead, wrapping parcels from the sales on ebay, so after tea (casseroled lamb shanks with vegetables), I have to get the FGs' hair wash session over, and get myself set up to watch "Wild At Heart" whilst I wrap, and wrap, and wrap.......It shoudn't take that long, I hope. I also hope to get the other items listed tonight as well, ready for next week. Sorry about the photos I promised yesterday: the camera has gone AWOL but when I find it, I'll put them up.
Today being the 1st March is the start of another financial challenge for us. I did not curb spending in February and we spent as normal, which is reasonably frugal, and certainly not lavish, but this month we are going back to the "essentials only" kind of spending, which clears out the stock cupboard and makes menu planning interesting. I have had a delivery of staple items from Asda today (with a voucher code for free delivery) and that came to £74.50 so I am allowing myself £125.50 for the rest of the month for groceries or anything edible - so that includes things like a school dinner on World Book Day for the YFG and it also includes anything that I buy for the garden like fruit bushes or seeds, which are used for the production of food! That is the maximum I want to spend, and I would like to spend less. We are well stocked up on everything else, non-food wise, like cleaning items, hygiene items and all that sort of thing! I'll let you know each week how we are getting on, and what we are eating. In the months to come, I would like to reduce the amount we spend in these months, as well as the amount we spend in a "normal" month, but I think that the best way to go about it is slowly!
A busy evening is ahead, wrapping parcels from the sales on ebay, so after tea (casseroled lamb shanks with vegetables), I have to get the FGs' hair wash session over, and get myself set up to watch "Wild At Heart" whilst I wrap, and wrap, and wrap.......It shoudn't take that long, I hope. I also hope to get the other items listed tonight as well, ready for next week. Sorry about the photos I promised yesterday: the camera has gone AWOL but when I find it, I'll put them up.
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