Knees up!

The bruise on my poor knee has come out to quite dramatic effect!  It isn't as sore as it was, and I seem to have calmed down again from the jarring effects of the fall.  Thank you for the good wishes!  I hobbled around for a couple of days but managed to cut the lawn with the YFG yesterday and the exercise must have done me some good.

Hope you have had a restful Bank Holiday weekend - back to work in the morning!

Welcome home

The EFG almost fell off the train yesterday under the weight of the enormous rucksack she was carrying, as well as trying to lug along the two huge suitcases.  Good job she was not flying home as she would certainly have exceeded the baggage allowance......and when she got home, the suitcases seemed to "pop" all over the sitting room floor as she was unpacking and pulling things out to show me.  Never mind, we can find homes for everything as we go.

She didn't bring home much washing as she had done it all in her laundry room there, where they have driers - such hardship it is going to be here for her without a drier!  She had me laughing though - she has brought the rails from her airer home as they wouldn't fit in the storage box, although the concertina ends did fit - so the rails are here and the structure is there!  I was so pleased that she had found time to nip to Hobbycraft in Aberdeen and find me a couple of balls of Regia sock wool so that I am nearly all set to start my sock knitting experience - the Sockalong lady recommends a short circular needle, so I just have to find one of those now as all the local shops in town yesterday only had long ones.  One scarf is finished, so just one more to complete and then I am going to start on the socks.

The EFG has a terrible cough, and has been tossing and turning all night.  I think we might need to get to the shop today for some medications.  She had cough mixture in Aberdeen but didn't bring it home......too much to carry!

The YFG had an interesting evening last night at Islington Town Hall, where she went to an author event with my sister.  Bobfest is all about the cat which helped author James Bowen get his life back together. The event was about raising money for The Big Issue.  She wasn't quite sure what to expect but it wasn't what she thought it would be - we were expecting the author to speak, and she had hoped to see the cat!  But the author seemed to be very shy and didn't say much at all, just signed copies of his book, and the cat was not in attendance at all.  The YFG was overwhelmed at the fans who had come from Finland, China and Brazil [that she knows of] to the event, and their enthusiasm for the cat and the writer!  She said that the term, "crazy cat lady" took on a whole new meaning for her last night.

All a bit of a different experience from our simple village life with Shadow!  The YFG came home and said she didn't like the way London smells.........what can I say to that?!

Sore but happy

Very stiff and sore this morning, but with a grin on my face as the EFG's train left Aberdeen about an hour ago - she is on her final trip home of this academic year!  She's weighed down with lots of luggage that she is a bit stressed about managing at the changes, but some kind chap has hefted her rucksack into the rack for her, and she has her eye on him getting it back down at Newcastle!

(image from en.wikipedia.org)

I'm off to gym this morning but I am not sure I shall be much use - I was there last night but just made the tea and supervised kids to the toilet down the hall as I couldn't actually coach.  It seems to be a quiet weekend anyway, with a lot of people away for the bank holiday or even for the whole week for half term, so hopefully there won't be too many kids there this morning!  A hot bath in a minute might help loosen the stiff muscles, I hope...

And there is gardening to be done, so I'm planning on keeping moving around, however slowly.  Hope you have a good weekend xx

A bit bleugh!

I went full length on the utility room floor yesterday afternoon, rushing to come inside to answer the phone.  I have a bright bruise on my knee, and several other aching bones and muscles all over my body, including a bit of a headache.  I shall NOT be rushing around today!  I shall probably be moving altogether more sedately indeed.

Just today to get through before the YFG gets a break from school for a week, and I get a day off work on Monday - and I am very ready for it again.  I have other holiday booked during the year, but there are 6 days left available to me to book, and I can't decide how to take them yet!  I've got a week booked already in August, and the l-o-n-g stretch from then until the Christmas break might be just the time to take a few more days off, except that I cannot take them in the October half term as we have to share out the allocation of school holidays, and I have already got my share of those.   So I am probably going to take them in the Autumn - but as a whole week, or perhaps two blocks of three days or even three blocks of two days added to a weekend........too many possibilities!

If anyone is wondering about the OTHER job in the church, it has still not been advertised, so that is no further advanced at this stage.  Apparently, we have to wait for the powers-that-be higher up in the chain to agree the job descriptions and contracts, so these things are taking much more time than had been anticipated.  The local minister is quite upset about it all because he had wanted the lay workers in post in June......I don't see that happening at this rate!

Best be off to potter my way through the day - work, chatting at chapel at the knitting club for half an hour, gymnastics tonight, Sainsbury's delivery coming tonight, and a rummage in the freezer for some supper - have a good day!

Roll on Saturday

The EFG will indeed be home on Saturday, so she is busily making preparations today.  All sorts of arrangements fell apart this week, and she isn't feeling at all well with a really chesty cough, so I told her to get herself on a train home as soon as she could.

I shall meet her off the train later on Saturday afternoon.....whilst the YFG is off on a trip with my sister to London to an event all about Streetcat Bob.  I know very little about it, save that my sister bought the tickets for a surprise for her husband and then found out he had a prior engagement and couldn't go with her - so the YFG gets a well-deserved trip out.  Nose back in the books after the weekend though - still more exams to go.

(image from dailymail.co.uk)

Teaching

Do some parents teach their children about managing money at all?  Or should I put it another way - do some parents not allow their children to learn about managing money?  Heard about a student this week who pays all her loan/grant to her parents and they add a little to it, and then give her an allowance each week......drip feeding her enough for one week at a time.

If this student has a history of being very stupid with money, I can see their point.  But for most, I think that they need to learn how to manage funds themselves.  The EFG has full control of her dosh, although I have sat with her a couple of times to discuss her budget and how to work out how much she might need to allocate to different budgets, and whether she is getting a good rate of interest on her savings account.  I have looked at accounts with her and weighed up the pros and cons of taking a special student account, or staying with the account she opened here a few years ago - we came to the conclusion that the main benefit to compare the student accounts against was the overdraft fees and since she didn't plan on needing an overdraft, that would be irrelevant.  Then we compared free gifts, and railcards seemed to feature heavily in that category - we had already bought a three year one and got a good discount, so that wasn't much of an attraction either - so we concluded that she might as well stay where she is!

We have an open relationship when it comes to talking about money - she told me how she had spent £60 on a pair of Doc Marten shoes, and I opened and closed my mouth like a fish a few times!  We've chatted about the best bargains in Lidl and Sainsbury's and which give the best coupons - and where to save cash.  She meal plans very well, and has done me proud.

I have hopes of her coming home a little earlier than expected as she is not well and I really want her home NOW!  She's got to work a few things out with her friends about storage, but I am keeping everything crossed that she pulls it off so that she can come home and collapse.

Tears today

It seems that everywhere I have been on the internet today has sparked tears in me today. 

 I started off reading how John's condition has deteriorated at The Barefoot Crofter and it made me weep to think of his family because it reminded me of our journey here, and I know some of how they might be feeling now, and in the days ahead.  I've added them to my prayer list at home.

And I have read and re-read and read again Ann Voskamp's heartbreaking post at A Holy Experience about Love and what these women, our sisters, are going through in Iraq.  She always makes me think, and challenges me to pray, to believe and to act in faith.  I have done what I can tonight, but if you can't donate, then please pray or do what you do, for these women and their children.  We might live in a different world when we read how they are suffering there, but they are about 3,500 miles from the UK.  I don't expect to have to read about women and children living in those kinds of conditions in 2015, sleeping in a metal shipping container with no running water, no sanitation and little hope, having run from their homes in fear.  Having to choose which of their children to take with them, burying their children on a mountainside because they died from hunger and thirst.  The tears brim again now as I think of this.  And look at those photos - those are women just like you and I.  Children just like ours, full of expectation and hope, children who should be able to grow up in safety.  

Just tucked the YFG up in her bed, snug under her duvet and safe in her own room, fresh from the bath and in clean clothes.  Hugged her extra hard tonight.  Counting our blessings.