A new start

Today I begin the training for the new job - a new start - and the first time I will have been employed since I was a waitress in a posh hotel in St Andrews as a student!  I have to say that it feels weird, but I am sure that it is something I shall get used to in the long run.  Having to work to someone else's rules will be a bit of a change, but hitting targets for the job will hark back to Usborne selling days!

So, three hours of training today starting at 11am, on the internet and the phone simultaneously, and then "start work" on Monday.  I'm nervous, I'm excited, I'm relieved.......so much better for the YFG and I to have me working at home than having to travel, wear a uniform and be restricted to specific hours if I worked in a supermarket or shop, for example.

I have to work three hours a day, so 15 hours over the week, but three of the hours must be worked in the slot between 6 and 8pm between Monday and Thursday.  I can do most of the work in the daytime and then I think that I shall do 90 minutes on Monday and Thursday evenings.

There is a FB group for the people who work for this company, as everyone works at home, so it is a way of interacting with others who do the same or similar roles.

God does answer prayer - I always said I was looking for a job I would be able to start in September, and be part time.  If I could do the job at home, so much the better.  Strikes on all accounts - thank you, Father!  I have felt particularly watched-over and blessed these past couple of weeks.  God is good.

Better go - need to review some documents this morning before the training.

Love and loss

Hop on over to Ann Voskamp's blog and read some really wise words from her guest writer yesterday, Lisa-Jo Baker, whose book, Surprised By Motherhood, sounds like a good read....another one for my book list.

Lisa-Jo is very eloquent and says what I would like to say but just can't put into words right now.  I do wonder about how the girls are grieving, and whether I am "doing the right things" for them, but they don't say a lot and I don't want to push them into talking if they don't want to do so.  Space and grace look like the way to go.

A frugal break

Thank you all for your comments and ideas to enable us to spend a couple of days in Aberdeen with the EFG at half term.  I still don't know whether it will actually come off, but I hope to sort it out for sure today.

I have found that there is a Youth Hostel in Aberdeen, and there are family rooms that can be taken for a few days there.  At various prices, so we can pick and choose how we want to spend our cash.  I don't think that the YFG will be very keen on sleeping in a multi-person dormitory with people she doesn't know, so a room might be best for us.  We can also self-cater there, which is an important aspect for us.

For the ride north, I think that we will be letting the train take the strain, as they say.  It takes a lot of worry away from me, and it will be good to go on the train a couple of times with the YFG so that when she is a wee bit older, she can make the journey to see her sister on her own.  With a Friends and Family railcard, the cost will be in the region of £120 or so, and it would easily cost me more than that for diesel if I was to attempt the drive!  Apart from that, I don't really fancy driving nearly 500 miles in a day, twice in one week...

The last time we travelled on the train at the October half term, we made the mistake of doing the journeys on the Saturdays when we went to Burghead near Forres in Moray.  We loved the holiday, but the train journeys weren't great because the trains were so packed with other holiday makers.  Perhaps by travelling on the Monday and Thursday or Friday, we may be able to avoid the rush.

There are other options, as my sister has offered to get a cottage for the half term so that we can see the EFG.  I don't know whether to stick to the original plans, or to go with her, or to let the YFG and UJ go with her.  There was a plan that the YFG and UJ would go up at half term with my cousin and her husband, but that plan fell through when the husband couldn't get the time off work.  I will be talking with my sister today to see what she thinks.

The slight spanner in the works is that I was offered a job yesterday!  I won't have accrued any holiday allowance by the end of October, and apparently, all holiday for the year has to be booked by January 1st each year!  Missed that deadline, then.

If we manage to go on the trip, I think that the days off will be allowed, as I did tell the interviewer yesterday that I had plans, but I will be taking them as unpaid leave.  To someone who has been self-employed for so long, that makes sense - if you don't work, you don't get paid.

Watch this space......

In the kitchen

Bright and early on a busy Monday morning and there is a lasagne cooking away in the oven, ready for the YFG's supper tonight.  I've got a meeting to go to at the school this afternoon, and a church meeting tonight so I thought it would be good to get it made and ready for her to "ping" in the microwave later on.  There are four portions in the pan, so she will have another one later in the week, and some will be stashed away in the freezer for another week.  I shall be doing the same trick with a chicken casserole later this week.

There were actually six portions when I dished it out.

The menu for this week looks like this:

Monday - Lasagne for the YFG and chicken liver & veg for me.
Tuesday - Baked potato and beans/tuna/cheese/salad, etc combinations
Wednesday - Chicken thigh & sweet potato casserole
Thursday - Risotto
Friday - Lasagne for the YFG and sausages for me
Saturday - Fish and chips [from the freezer] for the YFG and river cobbler and veg for me....

There are things I can't eat, which means I can't share all that the YFG wants to eat.  We have to adapt some of the meals to tweak them so that there is a version I can eat as well as the one she wants to enjoy.  All that I have bought specifically for this menu is the sweet potatoes, as we have got everything else in the store cupboards, freezer or vegetable rack.

Whilst I have got the oven on, I am going to pop a tray of flapjack in, and then use up some spotty bananas by making some banana and walnut cake, so I'd better get on.  See you later!

Sharing and caring

The poor cat doesn't think much to it, but there is a hedgehog coming for a nightly feast on the cat biscuits, it seems!

The cat who lives here [she's not "our" cat] has tinned meat in small portions twice daily but has access to cat biscuits to munch on whenever she is peckish.  I try to keep that bowl topped up most of the time, and I thought she was getting through quite a lot just lately.  I did wonder whether some of the other neighbourhood cats were coming round to share it with her, but then this week I have been out to the freezer late twice, and nearly tripped over a good sized hedgepig with its nose in the bowl, having a jolly good munch on the biscuits.  No doubt it is also the wee chap which is drinking her water as well!

I buy cat biscuits at Lidl's at 99p/kg so I don't begrudge a hedgehog a feed - the cat isn't ours anyway, so I might as well just put the biscuits out for whoever needs a midnight feast. It's good to have hedgehogs in the garden to keep the slug population under control, although this one might not bother with too many slugs if I let it feast on the cat food!  Balance is required, I think......

Hope you have a good Sunday.  I am off to chapel this morning, and then my dad is coming over this afternoon.  I also have a heap of ironing to keep me occupied at some point today - school shirts!  The weather looks set fair for one more day at least, so I hope to be able to spend some time in the garden, getting it ready for autumn and winter.

EFG update

We have been chatting with the EFG nearly every day on Google Hangout which is a really useful app to have - it saves using up our minutes on our phones, and means that we can see each other too.  I have to admit that some of the time, she looks a bit miserable - sometimes tired, sometimes bored!  She is having a long week this week, with nothing too structured to do and lots of leisure time - the cinema is offering students free showings of films and there is a free bus to get home afterwards, but the film didn't start until 10.30pm last night, so she is rather worn out this morning.  It is lovely when we get a glimmer of a smile, though......hoping for more of those as she gets more involved.

I just keep telling myself that she has got to go through this process of becoming more self-sufficient, although it is rather painful for me to watch.  Once the lectures and labs begin next week, I know that she will thrive on it all, and be more engaged.  She hasn't said that she wants to come home yet, anyway!

Getting that letter

As I blogged last month, I thought that I should be entitled to Widowed Parent's Allowance but it seemed to be taking for ever to come through.  I knew that the FH had paid the requisite amount of NI, or so I believed anyway, and couldn't see what the delay was.

I phoned up again last week, and at last someone could explain: there can't be an account open connected to my NI number for WPA whilst there is an account open on the FH's NI number for Old Age Pension, as our NI numbers are connected to one another because we were married......so the OAP account had got to be closed down before the WPA account could be opened.

These things take time........I was trying very hard to be patient, but I really wanted to KNOW!

And, at last, on Monday, a brown envelope turned up, to tell me that yes, I am entitled to WPA whilst the YFG is here and I get Child Benefit for her.  WPA is not a fortune, but it makes a heck of a difference in our circumstances.  It gives me three years of leeway in being able to be here for the YFG when she gets home from school, of not having to take just any job that I can find.  It means that I can be very careful with cash and probably only work part time, so that I don't have to leave her to go and work very odd shifts in Tesco - I have looked on the jobsearch websites and some Tesco [and other supermarkets, for that matter] jobs ARE rather odd shift patterns!

We won't be able to afford foreign holidays, we won't eat out and we won't be wearing the latest fashions.  We'll be careful with our money, as usual, and we'll get by.  We will probably be able to stay in this house for a while longer, which gives me more time to get the FH's workshop sorted out and the house smartened up for viewings.

I have applied for a couple of jobs this week.  I shall keep looking :)