Clean and tidy

Cleaning is all I seem to have been doing all day!

I cleaned the chooks out this morning, which was an intensely dusty job, and then I had to clean myself by having a shower. I have cleaned lots of clothes, using the washing machine, of course and they have blown beautifully on the line - resulting in Mount Ironmore. Can't worry about that tonight, though! I have cleaned the kitchen up after the YFG and her friend made cupcakes, and I have cleaned the downstairs cloakroom.......

We are off to bed now! Looking forward to going to see the EFG and FH tomorrow at UJ's house - and my cousin and her parents are coming to see him and share tea with us all, so it will really be a day of rest and chatting - can't wait!

Domestic days

I have enjoyed quite a bit of cooking the last few days - a lemon curd marathon yesterday produced six jars, and today I have cooked and bottled in vinegar a large number of beetroot for the FH's lunches. He loves to have some crispbreads with salad and beetroot. He likes all manner of pickles and vinegary things, which I can't abide, so they are his and his alone...

The YFG has been to the optician this morning and given a year's guarantee, and I picked up my new glasses, and some contact lenses to try. I had some last year and they dry my eyes out terribly so I haven't worn them much, but these new ones are supposed to be different - and they are more expensive - so now I need to check out Lensway's website and see if I can get them any cheaper!

I treated the YFG to a few streaks of a very subtle colour in her hair this afternoon, after borrowing a streaking cap from my friend who does our hair. We had bought a semi-permanent colour this morning and she was itching to try it out. She was going to do a skin test before we did it for real, but didn't read the instructions properly and mixed the stuff up completely, which they then say you have to use "immediately" so we took a chance and used it. To be fair, it hardly touched her head at all as she had the cap on, so it wasn't as much of a chance as it would have been doing her whole head. She now has some subtle tones of warmer colour through her dark blonde hair. I can see it because I know it is there, but I doubt a stranger would realise!

The EFG had a wonderful day at the Botanic Garden in Cambridge yesterday - I was very surprised to find out that there were only 7 of them on the course as I was imagining that she would have about 15 or 20 people there. The EFG made a friend of a girl from Lincolnshire, from Boston, so that girl must have had quite a journey to get there. They did all sorts of things with bread (yeast being an organism) and fermenting other things too, and walked around the garden. She says she has even been inspired by the garden with some new ideas for her art homework, so double whammy there - biology AND art!

The FH is getting a little bored and fed up with his caring duties, and given that he tells me that UJ has been hoeing the garden today, I guess that he won't need to be there much longer, although there are still some things that UJ needs a hand with. By the end of next week, though, I am hoping that the FH will be home. Really hoping! We are missing him here too.

Fab Fern

Oh, dear - I stayed awake until 12.40am this morning to read Fern Britton's book - New Beginnings - I just couldn't put it down! It is a romantic read with some twists and turns, and all ends up jolly nicely, with the heroine getting her man at the end, but I really enjoyed it, and just had to know what happened before I turned off the light........

Brave girl

The EFG has survived the tooth extraction today, and is recovering well. She sat in the car whilst I had to do some shopping, and then she laid on the sofa when we got home, and watched a DVD for a couple of hours. She is up and about now though, and thinking about tidying her room - still. It has been an ongoing project for about three days, and still isn't done - it's a major re-arrangement job.

I have lost my enthusiasm for tidying, or doing much at all, to be honest, today. I have had the trip to town with her today, and I have done the things that needed doing, but rather than do the challenging stuff, I am thinking about going to bed now with a new book....we had some vouchers for WHSmith, so we spent them! I do have a heap of ironing to do, but that will be there in the morning.

The YFG is coming home tomorrow, when the FH and UJ come back to the village for their lunch club. She has missed us, and been quite vocal on the phone about coming home, but this time away has been good for her! She has certainly caught up with her sleep, so she should be full of beans. The EFG will be going back with them tomorrow afternoon, so that they can take her into Cambridge early on Thursday to attend a Gifted and Talented Biology workshop at the Botanic Gardens. She is looking forward to that; she attended one at the end of Y7 which was a week at the Engineering Dept of Cambridge University, then at the end of Y8 she did a 2 day Writing workshop at the UEA in Norwich, which she loved. Last year, the courses on offer were a bit strange and she didn't fancy any of them, but this time I found this one just at the last minute and there were some places left - and best of all, this one is free! I hope she enjoys the day.

The garden is getting over run with weeds in a couple of the raised beds, and I am going to have to attack them with some weedkiller on a still day, because they are thick with couch grass which is impossible for me to dig out. If I can get them clear soon, I will be able to sow a winter nitrogen crop, ready to dig in in the spring - at least, I think that is the plan, but I have never done it before. There is always a first time.

The EFG will be thinking about which A level courses to apply for come the Autumn, so we will be attending open days at local 6th form colleges, and considering her options. At the moment, she wants to be a teacher, so A levels are definitely on the cards, but her thoughts currently involve Biology, ICT and Art, which seems like a strange combination, so I think we had better take some advice on that! Any teachers out there who care to shed any light on the matter - feel free!

Moving out

The YFG has gone to stay with the FH and UJ until Wednesday, so the EFG and I have had a day at home, pottering around. We had a long sleep in this morning, not waking until past 9, so the first thing I had to do was feed and water the poor chooks, who must have thought that they had been forgotten!

I have done several loads of washing today to take advantage of the sunshine. I am keeping an eye on our electricity consumption, and reading the meter every Monday, so that was done this morning too. We are using about 140 units a week - that has been the rough average of the past 9 weeks, which is coming in at about £18 a week; this doesn't include the monthly standing charge. I want to see what I can do to reduce the amount we are using, and to see if I can find a cheaper supplier. I have looked a couple of times, and got cheaper unit rates and then been stung with a higher standing charge, so I am being very wary.

I have changed our telephone to BT, but then the broadband has been a nightmare - it was ordered at the same time and has been cancelled twice by BT, and now the MAC has expired so I have had to ask my present company for a new one, which I am now waiting for. I am afraid that I will be without broadband for a time whilst the handover eventually takes place as I had to give the company I am with a month's notice, which I did, and now it may not get taken over in time.......if it wasn't for the fact that BT is so much cheaper than the present arrangement, I would have told them where to go by now. It has been very frustrating. Because I am afraid of not having internet at all for a while, I can't put any of our stuff on eBay at the moment, and the EFG has quite a pile of odds and ends she wants to pass on to new homes.

The EFG is doing her agony aunt bit tonight with a friend - that friend called last night at past 11pm, and they are chatting away now - the girl only lives half a mile up the road, and they could have got together in daylight, but she leaves it until this time of night to talk every time.

The YFG has been on the telephone several times today. She was bored this morning, and called to see if I would fetch her home!! I said no. The pace of life there IS much slower, but I think it will be good for her to slow down for a couple of days, and have less stimulation to be constantly doing something. Apparently she has been for a walk to the park with the FH this afternoon, helped him with some shopping and some gardening, and had a snooze on the sofa this evening, so it does sound as if she is catching up on some sleep, just like we did this morning.

Tomorrow the EFG is having a tooth out, so I know she will be squeezing my hand hard whilst she is in the dentist's chair. If I can't type tomorrow, you'll know why!

Greetings!!

Gosh - what a week to end the term! There has been a lot going on, and we have finally made it to the summer holidays - thank goodness. The FH has been home today and taken the YFG back with him to UJ's house for a few days, so the EFG and I are about to settle down to watch a DVD together.

Hope everyone is well - our thoughts are with the people of Norway today, and I am also hoping that our friends in America are coping with the heatwave as I know that Ohio (where my friend C and her family are) is pretty warm, according to the weather map in the newspaper!

Relaxing on Sunday

The girls and I slept in, pottered over to UJ's house for lunch, had a lovely meal with UJ and the FH, mooched around his garden, wandered home about 4pm and then relaxed through the evening! It was altogether a relaxed day, and it did us good.

UJ is doing well; he is increasingly mobile, and getting around the house remarkably well. The district/community nurses are keeping an eye on him regularly and seem to be saying that all is going in the right direction.

We are missing the FH terribly here! The house is not the same without him, and it has been very quiet here today whilst the girls have been at school, but I have had enough to do to keep me occupied, and I have even watched tv whilst I was shredding a huge heap of old papers!