All wrapped up

(Image from marthastewart.com)

My gift wrapping is not up to Martha Stewart standards, but they say practise makes perfect, don't they!?!

This week I have been finalising some gifts that I needed for various people on my list.  One young lad I know didn't know what he would like, so I asked him 20 questions last weekend and I have ordered something I know he will love, and well within my budget too!

A baby boy will be getting a home made fleece blanket, using some IKEA fleeces I have left from last year; the girl that I made the fleece blanket for last year loves hers, and I think this little boy will be snug and warm in his.  His sister is a tricky one, though - what do 3 year old girls like these days?  This particular one does like books, so that may be OK.

The teenage girls are under control.  Sorted!

The adults - my dad and my uncle, for example - are probably going to be getting foodie items!  That is still that plan.  And all I need to do in advance for that one is sort out something to deliver them in...

The teachers and TAs at the village school will get the little chocolates and mock Rochers that I tried earlier in the season, and the cellophane bags are here, and I bought some very cheap but Christmassy ribbons last weekend, so that one is also under control.

The little stash of items for the girls' stockings is also developing nicely.  Nothing too extravagant, but little bits and pieces that are either beautiful or useful. 

The FH has a couple of items we know he loves...

Grateful

I don't know what I am saying, but I am so pleased and humbled that people keep joining the blog as Followers - another one has come on board tonight.  Thank you, all of you.  I'll try to keep wittering away with interesting stuff.....

Menu planning for the week

So many people do a "Menu plan Monday post" that I thought I would be different and leave it to Tuesday!

Today I leave the family to fend for themselves whilst I am the gym club, so they need to be able to make something fairly simple that ticks all their boxes.....they are having cold corned beef with mash and veg and pickles.

Wednesday is another tricky situation this week where I have an after school club to run, and then have to get home and get people fed before I have a meeting at 6.30pm and the EFG has Guides at 7.30pm.  This is where something in the slow cooker could come in very handy - quite what I don't know, but I will raid the freezer and get that sorted later.  At least I know the basic plan.

Thursday is easier because I will be home once I have dropped the YFG off at her piano lesson.  This is quite often a day when we have a more traditional meal with meat, potatoes and veggies.  Today will be roast chicken portions with gravy and Yorkshire puds as well.  I will be making use of the oven on Thursday night to make mince pies for the church coffee morning on Friday, so it will be good to make the most of having the oven on.  I might even do the FH one of his favourite crumbles.

Friday is a day when the kids like to do their own tea.  They will be freezer delving when we get back from gym, and they could end up with meal portions which I have frozen earlier, or hot cheese sandwiches with soup, or even beans on toast.  It will be quick and simple, that is for sure. [And I won't be cooking it...]

On Saturday, I am looking forward to spending the afternoon at home now that the YFG has stopped doing ballet due to scheduling hassles with the teacher, and we have nothing on this Saturday.  I will be popping some baked potatoes into the mini oven and leaving them to it for about an hour.  They'll be served with beans, cheese, salad, tuna perhaps, whatever is lurking in that storecupboard and needs using up from the fridge!

And on Sunday, I think I might have a bit of a cooking session.  I know that I have chicken breasts and mince in the freezer, so will be planning to make some portions for meals that we can just take from the freezer on nights when there isn't a lot of time.  Tea will be portions of something I make - or some of Froog's lamb faggots which have been in the freezer a couple of weeks now - there aren't many portions of those left!

Mid month finance update

(image from fnancialhelper.co.uk)

Before I start, I just want to say two things - a warm welcome to the latest followers who have joined up, and that I am thinking of all those people who have been affected by flooding today - some people haven't got over the last floods and now here they are inundated again.  Particularly thinking of people in Perthshire because I know that area a little.  

So, the mid month finance update - a bit late but better late than never.

I have been a little too keen with the savings this time!  I know I told you about the £1123.45 that I want to put into savings before the end of the month...well, I thought I would get off to a flying start, and I moved £400 out of the current account into savings, and I am blowed if I am going to put a penny of it back.  That is a one-way street...but it means that I have to squeak through the next week until we get any more money paid into the bank, and I have bills to pay with what is in there.

"No problem," I know you will shout - "you have all that food in the storecupboards," you will remind me!

And I will agree.  But I do need to buy fresh fruit and veg each week.  You know I have a strange diet of my own and that I am supporting the EFG with her weight loss, so I do need to buy a few items.  And pay for a piano lesson.

So I just opened the latest Sealed Pot, and we have cash!  With the pot's money, and the other bits and bobs I picked up from here and there, I have about £80 in cash.  More than enough for the week.  Thank Goodness for sealed pots.  And it means that I am ready to start SFT's new Sealed Pot challenge in December with an empty pot, hungry and ready to be filled again!

Overall this month, we are getting along quite well. The total amount put in savings so far this month amounts to £600, and the amount I need to save before the end of the year has consequently gone down a little to just  £739.92, which I believe is very do-able.  I would like to get another £150 in there this month, which will leave about £590 to go.  

I know that I have the gymnastics after school income to come when I invoice for it in December, and the first of the book sales is coming up at the end of the week.  Every penny counts!  Another will be on the 1st December [to be confirmed] and the last will be on the 9th December.  Between the three sales, I hope to exceed my £100 target for those.

This week is definitely a Grocery Challenge week so that should help to s-t-r-e-t-c-h things out a little longer.

One for the morning

(image from godislove.me.uk)

At the concert on Saturday at chapel, one of the ladies taking part shared a prayer, which I liked and have been pleased to find on the internet, so I can share it with you all.  I hope you like it too - it is funny, but so real.  I found it here

Morning Prayer

Dear Lord,

So far I've done all right.

I haven't gossipped,

haven't lost my temper,

haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent.

I'm really glad about that.

But in a few minutes, God,

I'm going to get out of bed.

And from then on,

I'm going to need a lot more help.

Amen.

Happy Birthday!

The FH has celebrated his 75th birthday today with

• Breakfast in bed
• Toblerone [one of his favourite chocolates - just a small bar]
• The latest Andre Rieu DVD - Live in Maastricht - which he watched before he got up, so I am told!
• Attending a concert at the chapel this afternoon, with his mates, which he enjoyed.  We shared a cake with the others attending, and they sang "Happy Birthday"
• Speaking to his sister on the phone tonight.  His younger sister.  He has another sister, and she was very fond of her big brother, so I guess that she might have thought of him today - we don't know where she is, after a family falling out over 16 years ago.  We wish her well, where ever she is.
• And tonight, he has had such a busy day that he is contemplating retiring to bed already and watching the DVD again...then again, perhaps he'll stay up for Casualty...such an exciting life we lead here!!
• Planning now to get his free bus pass to add to his free TV license.

The Traveller

We saw him again today.  I think I have told you about him before.  We see him roughly every 6 - 8 months perhaps, usually walking northwards; somehow we miss his southerly journey, and we are probably not catching him every time he goes north.

Tonight I dropped the YFG off at her piano lesson with her friend and decided to take the EFG and head further north than we usually go, to a town which has an Aldi.  I wanted to get one of their four-bird-roasts for Christmas as I have heard very good things about them.  It was definitely getting dark, just after 4pm, and all of a sudden, we caught sight of him on the other side of the road, facing the southbound traffic.  

Now he is wearing a high visibility coat [thank goodness] and he is carrying bags, just a couple, but that is more than he had last time we saw him - perhaps someone has given him a blanket, or he has bought one somewhere....

By the time we returned along the road at about 5.15pm, he was nowhere to be seen, and we both wondered where he could have gone - has he holed up in a shed somewhere for the night, has he reached a destination somewhere in that area, has someone given him a bed for the night?  We had bought some food that we could have given him if we had found him again, but of course, we don't know if he would have accepted it.

He is an older gentleman of the road, with a grey beard and a weather beaten face. 

He feels to me like a Fenlander, at home on the road, travelling where he will, and answerable to no one.  He is mysterious and intriguing, and I would love to know his story, but I don't suppose we ever will.  Each time I see him, I am glad that he is still here, alive and walking, but I do wonder where he goes.