We are off!

Leaving my baby at home to look after the house & bird H?ave a good three weeks!
Lizzie

Just let the holiday begin

Nothing bad has happened but it did feel like it was once or twice, stress levels have been sky hight his week. Eldest son taken to hospital with chest pain, not the heart attack that I live in fear of but nonetheless life threatening. A tear between his oesophagus and trachea. Nil by mouth and a drip. He isn't even a good hospital visitor let alone patient and as soon as they were sure the tear was mended he was allowed to go, if only to bring his heart rate back down to normal.

Now he is home again. Thank you NHS, you are excellent.

Youngest son is 18 now and all of his friends seem to be coming of age at the moment, it is parties and other events most evenings. I wish I was a mum who can sleep before everyone is tucked up safe in their bed but I cant so last night I was awake until 3.30am. Tonight he is playing floodlit football so hopefully he is home nearer 11 but I am actually tired enough to fall asleep without knowing where everyone is.

Weekend is devoted to last minute shopping, cleaning, making the six cushion covers I have talked about since last August,more packing.

The only thing I am not looking forward to is leaving my youngest son home alone. I know he is an adult etc etc but he is good company and I will miss him. But all the same, roll on Tuesday

New New Year

We have got a little bit lazy in our habits lately. Meals a bit make do and not so well planned, forever running out of clean socks because the washing is clean but not sorted and out away, Ahdel room is still a mess as we needs to mend the bed drawers before he can use them and they are his main storage. Garden is still full of tripe from the shed refurbishment (not actual rubbish but stuff for freecycle etc). We we are going to do as much as we can this week and then draw a line under our bad habits. When we come back from hols we are going to treat it like New Year, complete with a few resolutions

Financial - doesn't need changing really, I keep it all pretty tight since I noticed my shortfalls a few weeks back. I will re-visited budget and make sure I am not paying more than I could for anything (except mortgage which I am overpaying on purpose)

Food shopping - shopping once a week, not sneaking to the shop after work for just some xxxx, which adds £20 to my spend on every visit. I have drawn myself up what could be loosely described as a meal planner/ shopping list. I will use this, no really I will.

Cleaning etc - drawn myself up a plan of the week and allotted daily quick tasks. I am sure my slovenlyness is accidental not laziness but we will see if this helps me to focus

Household management - also on my meal planner/shopping list/housework planner I have included a section for everything else i forget, like posting ebay articles,paying one off bills, buying new taps (should have been searching ebay but forgot).

I apparently need a bit more structure in my life than I think I do.

Last weekend we pickled two lots of chillies. I took step by step photos but I need a child to be home to work out how to get them from phone to blog. It was good fun (even though I wont eat them)and they light up my dull kitchen worktop like little Chistmas decorations.

Holiday count down

Still a couple of weeks but already deep in preparations for the holiday. When we used to fly off somewhere and stay in a hotel for a couple of weeks then preparation was really just about packing a few clothes. This year we are going to the Crete house but planning to get it finished enough to let out. I am hoping for a long term let, which, although it wont actually make much money, will keep the house warmer and dryer during the winter and will be better all round. So my packing this year consists of electric drills and routers, curtain wires and pictures, even a wine rack. I try to buy what I can in Greece but the Greeks are too smart to have a second hand market in most things because they just don't get rid of stuff. I am happy with second hand but it is new or nothing in our area. So furniture, curtain poles etc are bought locally and the little things which are so hard to come by come from here. I did ask a friend where to buy curtain wires last year, he reply was 'easy, you get your sister to bring them out from England', very useful!

Todays plans are:
Cleaning, all morning and plenty of it.
No cooking - leftovers for lunch.
Buy extra tiles to finish the guest bathroom - would have been useful this week when the lighting circuit blew in the family bathroom.
Mystery shop.
Garden tidy and move remaining shed stuff out of conservatory (stuff for the kitchen remodelling can stay).

Fahed is still working on his shed, which has now grown to a workshop, because he keeps improving it. It is fully wired up now, not just a single sock, and the electrician has been round to check and certify it. A new window has been fitted in the side wall to allow more air movement. Benches are now complete. Just ceiling insulation still to go i think.

The idea is too finish all this before hols so that when we come back in mid September all current projects have already been finished and the house is livable. We then have the autumn to strip out the old downstairs cloakroom and build me a larder. Once this is in use I can think about the kitchen refurb, which might be over Christmas.I have everything I need for the kitchen refurb except the wall tiles and worktop, all from sales or second hand.

and so, we live in exciting times.