feeling a little less blue

You may have noticed I was feeling a little blue yesterday.
I am feeling better today, I have a plan and that always helps me to feel more organised.

I am doing a little of each of the jobs that were making me feel overwhelmed.
Stephanie's bedroom has been bothering me for a while. I ended up tidying as I chatted to my sister on the phone yesterday. I had only intended to get it started so that she felt more able to complete to, I have almost finished the room during my chat without realising.

The ironing is 1/3 complete. It is 2 weeks worth of ironing so it won't be finished for a couple of days but 15 minutes a day is clearing it.

I have almost caught up with my paperwork.

I have loaded one thing onto eBay this morning, one a day until it is all gone.
I even made myself breakfast this morning;

 

It is a green smoothie, full of spinach well my iron keeps dipping low so am trying to boost it. I didn't have time to drink it before I left for work so I put it in a flask cup with the intention of drinking it as I set up for the day. Except when I got to work I discovered I had left the cup on the kitchen side. Oh well I guess I am one step closer to making sure I have breakfast.

 

I have spent this evening doing some school work, chatting with my children and making the dinner for tomorrow as I know I have a busy day as Stephanie has a swimming gala 40 minute drive from home straight after school. So I have made dinner so that it just needs heating and I don't have to rush/stress after work.

I now need to go and finish my marking and then I can go to bed. I am tired but I know that I will be back organised by the weekend. I am also having a night out on Saturday so that is something to look forward to. Well not a night out where I spend lots of money. It is a night out with friends camping, so all I need is a bottle of wine and a little meat to add to the bbq.

Overwhelmed

I am feeling a little disillusioned/overwhelmed at the moment. I want a simpler life but not sure how/if it is possible for me to do.

So much to do at home, work and things I would like to do if I had more time. I want to crawl into a box and only do the things I want to do and ignore the rest. That's not possible so I curl up and sleep. Also not productive.

I felt like this a month or so ago, went to give blood and found my iron levels were too low and so mine was no use. Maybe they have dipped again. Last month when I felt like this I added spinach to everything I could, and had green smoothies for breakfast. Admittedly I have tailed off the last 2 weeks. Perhaps I need to reassess my diet. I may be eating the wrong foods.

I need to a plan to get myself sorted. I will start by making a menu plan using what food we have, then create a shopping list for what is needed to supplement the plan.

I have been growing veggies in my garden,

the strawberries and raspberries are thriving in all this glorious weather that we are having, the spinach etc. however is not. My cabbage and other greens have shrivelled and are not looking healthy. I think I need to get some more planters and put them pout the front. My garden is south facing which is glorious for me but it does get incredibly hot. I am hoping that if I put pots by the front my lovely neighbours will leave them alone.

This is the front of our home, so not much of a front garden, but I may be able to put a couple of pots out there.

I think I need to make a list of all the things I need/want to get done and set a goal of at last one thing a day to help me get to feeling back in control.

I have for home;
organise the eBay pile- put one thing on to sell a day maybe
ironing- this has got to be a large overflowing basket as I have put it off- 10 mins  day un til caught up
garden, I have managed to make a start on this but 5 mins weeding a day to get up to date
menu plan for the week
baking- I want to make a treat for our lunches etc
breakfast- must make time for this
general cleaning- 15 mins a day- its not dirty just need to keep on top and organise clutter
Stephanie's bedroom- 15 mins a day to declutter.
time to 'just be' with the children, talking and actually listening/ playing whatever it is they want ot do. Stephanie and I curled on the sofa and watched a film together last night. It was bliss. She must have felt the need for it too as she snuck into my bed for a cuddle about 4am. She is still snoozing there now.

I have a lot to do for work and a stressful week coming up. I need to keep focussed and not let things overwhelm me. Today I need to
plan for the week
finish my marking
write 1 school report- if I write one a day they will soon get finished!

I think the main thing I need to do is focus on one task at a time and get my head down to do a little of each a day to get me back to where I want to be instead of feeling like I can't get everything done and overwhelmed so hiding!


things aren't all bad I have managed a few tasks, I took some old shoes to the clothes recycling place I got £5.50 for 2 crates of shoes we don't use anymore. All goes into the summer holiday pot.
I also used the club card boost to get a day at Thorpe park for me and Dylan (Stephanie doesn't like rides) and a day at Drusilla's for Stephanie. So that is 2 days sorted for the summer. We also  have a LEGOLAND trip planned for my nephews birthday treat- I have half price vouchers for this.

So where am I going to start today? I am just off to menu plan and organise a shopping list for when the shops open. Then I shall get breakfast.
I will do my marking while I wait for Stephanie to get up.
This afternoon we are off out to meet up with my sister at a free festival locally. So I need to check out times/ locations for the thing we want to see. I feel a little better just for having a plan.

I will check in during the week to let you know how I am getting on.

decluttering

Yesterday we sorted out Stephanie's bedroom. I have got her a new (to us) bed on eBay for £53, they are £300 new.
So we started by removing all of her belongings from the room which resulted in my bedroom looking like this;

Scary mess!

We dismantled her old bed, I listed it on facebay to see if we can get a quick sale. Then built her new bed. then the task of sorting out her toys and belongings. Stephanie was really good as normally we are not allowed to remove anything from her room ( I do it when she stays out!) However she allowed me to take 4 black sacks of unwanted stuff out of the room. I could have taken more, but knew I was already pushing it to get that much out with permission LOL

We know have a bedroom that looks like this;

Stephanie loves her new room.

Oh and mine is tidy again now too :-)

decluttering

I have written on my list of home to-do's that I would sort my

under the stairs cupboard. I did this yesterday.

This is a bag of old shoes I am sorting through to put on eBay. I also through one black sack of toot out. The cupboard is now useable and I can find what I need under there.

I am trying to raise as much cash as possible so I have been listing onto eBay all of the shoes that I think will sell. So far I have listed 10 items. Which incidentally helps with another of my to do list aims- to list at least one item a day to sell on eBay/face bay. I have one item being bid on at the moment and several others being watched- so fingers crossed. They are all children's shoes that I am currently listing. I have had to take a break as the batteries have died for taking the photographs. There will be more listed over the next few days- if you need any shoes, or know someone who does send them here for a bargain My EBay page.

Lot's more organising to do I plan on doing a little a day, so could be more than just shoes listed over the next couple of weeks, as I move around the different hotspots for clutter in my home.

a catching disease!

I suffer from listitus! I write lists for everything. I am currently juggling two lists I have written for myself to complete over the Easter holidays
one for work and one for home

 

I asked the children the other day to think of anything they would like to do over the Easter holidays, I didn't get an immediate response, but half an hour later Stephanie handed my this!

 

Yes she wrote me a list in response.
She also ahs her own list of things to do in her notebook for herself. I am not too sure what is on it as its her book- I'm not allowed to look. I know it exists because her dad asked her to do something and her reply was, "let me get my book I'll put it on the list"

Whoops! LOL

 

organising

Today has been another organising kind of a day- well for Dylan. His granddad drove him to Ikea to get the furniture for his bedroom as I was looking after my niece and nephew while my sister went clothes shopping. Dylan is getting so grown up, he built the bulk of his furniture himself with just a tiny bit of help from Granddad. pictures will follow once he has organised his things onto the new furniture but his bedroom looks so much better for having smaller furniture.

I started the day with a 5km parkrun. It is my first time at one of these events as they are all at 9am on a Saturday and Stephanie normally has a swimming lesson at 9am. I was very pleased that I completed the course in 30 mins 32 seconds. This is a timed by chip event so the timing is very accuyrate and your results get emailed to you after the event. I was 39th person to complete the run today; 10th female and 4th in my age group. Not bad especially as lots of the runners were running club members. I really enjoyed the run, I would love to be able to participate more often but never  mind.

Once I got back I made these for my room;

 Then my sister dropped my niece and nephew off to me for the afternoon.
We had a fun afternoon involving watering the garden, shooting water guns at the windows/fences/shed etc, bouncing on the trampoline, reading, making dinner together and making tents from furniture boxes;

We decorated the boxes with various pens and paint together and lay in them looking at books. Once everyone had left I loaded the car for tomorrows bootfair. I do hope I can clear the majority of the stuff. The attic is looking half empty and the house is looking good I don't want to have to fill it back up.
I am now going to sit in front of the television and knit before getting some sleep for my early start.

Thursday

Today has been mostly about organisation. Dylan has been organising his bedroom, I have sorted Stephanie's and my bedrooms. I have recycled lots of old pieces of paperwork etc and donated a bookcase to my sister. The carpets have all been shampooed I never cease to be amazed and disgusted in equal measures to how much dirt comes out of the carpets.

I have taken Dylan to his Dad's house for a week, Stephanie still has another week and  a day at her Dad's before she comes home.

What am I going to do with myself for a whole week? Well, I plan on getting the house finished there are 2 cupboards crying out for sorting. I am going to do another bootfair on Sunday and I need to do some planning etc for work before September.

That is not going to take a whole week, so I am hoping to go exploring local places; I have my national trust and English heritage memberships so I may use those to explore some of the places which don't appeal as much to the children, there are also lots of lovely places to walk not too far from here so I will probably do some of those as well. I would love to go away for a few days on my own, but there are not enough pennies in the bank so that will wait for another time.

The first thing I did arriving home alone was look in the fridge. There are lots of fruits and salads that need using up so I made this for dinner;

That's a cheese and onion slice from the freezer stash, and lots of the salad that needed using with a grating of cheese on top. The can of coke is left over from the bbq the other week.

 

 

I have a decision to make which you may be able to help me with. This is the storage chest from my bedroom. I can't decide whether to leave it as it is;

 

Or to cover it with a cushion and some of the left over material from making my curtains;

 

What do you think?

 

catching up

You can tell it is nearly the end of term, we are all exhausted an there are lots of jobs around the house piling up.
I have lots of little jobs to do. Tomorrow I have an unexpected day off- both children have diarrhoea. I am going to be spending the day ensuring they are both ok. I am hoping to get a little head start on some of the jobs. I have written a to do list to help me with this. Regular readers will know how this helps me to focus. I will post an update tomorrow on how I am getting along. Hopefully the list will be checked off by Sunday evening. Wish me luck!!

organised me!

Well I'm trying I don't think I'll ever be properly organised LOL

I wanted to get myself organised so that I don't keep nipping in the Coop on the way home for something quick because I had forgotten to get some food out of the freezer for dinner. So yesterday I went through the freezer selected, with Dylan's help, what we would be eating this week and got it all out to defrost. Then today when I got up I put the lamb for tomorrows curry into the slow cooker.

Then this evening while I made today's dinner Dylan made a curry sauce;

 

He made a double batch so we can put one in the freezer for another time.

And I made some sausage pastries for us to have the next night. They are all nestled nicely in the fridge now.

Wednesdays dinner is chicken wraps. They will be made on that evening as they are quick and simple anyway.

Thursday is staff meeting night so we are having cupboard food- noodles and tinned fish. One of the children's favourite meals.

Friday will be home made pizza. I will make the dough for this one evening in the week when I have 5 Min's free.

 

While I was organising the meals I started to think about cost, I have seen lots of bloggers at the moment working out the costings for their food. I started to work out rough costings for these meals;

 

Sausage pastries

sausage meat 50p in Christmas sales

flour (45p a 1.5kg bag, I used 200g roughly so about 9p)

butter (55p per pack, I used 1/2 pack so 28p)

total 87p for 4 of these. We will only use 3 in our meal so 66p for Tuesdays dinner. not counting veg and potatoes.

 

Curry

cheap lamb steaks roughly £1.00 worth

tin toms 33p

onion 8p (at a guess)

chillies, gifted to us by my aunt and uncle when we visited earlier- 0p!

£1.41 for all 3 of us.

We will eat this with a little rice 40p for a 1kg bag we use about 145g per meal so about 7p. Plus 1 naan bread from our approved food order so around 5p. Total for this meal £1.53 for three of us, not counting veg.

 

 

 Chicken wraps

wrap kit gifted by children's nan 0p!

Chicken breasts from butchers bulk buy so around £1.50

total cost for meal £1.50

 

Tuna and noodles

tin of tuna 49p

tin mackerel 85p

approved foods noodles 5p

total for meal £1.39

 

homemade pizza

bread flour 30p worth

yeast 5p worth

cheese 1/2 block £1

tomato puree 1/2 tube 24p

total 1.59

 

looking at those costings I am amazed at how little those meals have cost me. I have fed us all for 5 days for the grand total of  £6.69. Once I add vegetables/salad to each of the meals it will take the total up to around £10. That's a figure I am very pleased with. Of course this is only dinners but we don't have fancy lunches sandwiches/salad usually with fruit and yoghurt. Nothing expensive. So I think I am feeding us for about £15 for the week.

 

 

 

I have also been following some of Frugal Queen's advice- I have left my sewing machine set up so that I can mend things as soon as I notice they need it. Today I have mended a pair of Dylan's school trousers where a seam had split and one of my summer dresses where the adjustable strap clasps had snapped. I have sewn across the straps to hold them together, it just means that they are no longer adjustable. Which is not an issue- if I get any bigger the dress won't fit anyway!

 

 

We have had a busy day, I have collected Stephanie's Christmas present, visited my aunt and uncle (bringing home 2 goose eggs and a bag of chillies), Dylan and I have been swimming, I have done some school work, and prepped dinners for the week along with doing all the usual housework. So I am going to treat myself to a little me time- I'm heading off to the bath with a library book.

 

Have a lovely evening.

 

 

 

How did I do?

When I woke up this morning I set myself this list to work through;

Stephanie's swimming lesson DONE
Take Stephanie to the bank DONE
Take Stephanie to her dad's DONE
Take car for mot DONE- it passed!
Take Dylan to the library DONE
Collect (passed!) Car DONE
Go to the gym it's a rollover- tomorrow!
School work about to start!
Organise garden rained off- maybe tomorrow if weather behaves!
Washing done
Menu plan done
Organise fridge and freezer done

I have been terrible lately at getting organised and taking the meats etc out of the freezer for dinner in time. So I have removed it all today so that I can do all the preparing etc tomorrow and then I haven't got to worry all week when I get in from work. So will save me money and time as I won't pop n the coop for a cheat dinner!

On the menu for the next week we have;
Sun- steak and roasties
Mon- lamb curry
Tues- chicken wraps
Weds- sausage meatballs and spaghetti
Thurs- tuna pasta
Fri- homemade pizza and garlic bread.

Lunches will be cheese/fish sandwiches or salads. With fruit and yoghurt.
Breakfast is fruit or toast.

Today I also took Dylan to Hobbycraft to get some paints for his models he is getting into at the moment. It's a hobby his dad has recently taken up again and Dylan has got into it too. It's nice they have something that is not computer screens to do together :-)
While there Dylan picked out a limited edition Skyfall model which is on sale. He didn't have enough money so I have picked it up- and put it away for his birthday- mean mummy!! LOL

Dylan has organised 2 of my old mobiles to sell at one of the online sites he has sold his on previously. I have listed a couple of books on amazon. I have also listed some of the children's old toys on a Facebook selling page. I have 2 sold subject to being collected in the next few days. I have bought a Sylvanian families tree house for Stephanie's Christmas present which I am collecting in the morning ready to put away. So hopefully will have a nice amount to add to the savings again this month through earning extra pennies!

So a very productive day. I am so relieved that my car went straight through MOT and has no advisories on it either, always a worry when the only car you can afford is old.

I

Sunny Sunday

I am loving that the weather is finally warming up, I do hope that it is only going to get better now!

I have spent today baking a birthday cake, tidying the garden, cutting the grass, planting seeds and doing school work at the garden table. Bliss!

I have also done a little housework, I was sorting some bits out in a pot I keep chucking in a flowerpot on the kitchen side. Put everything away that shouldn't have been in the kitchen and discovered this in the bottom;

I counted it up there was £3.21 in small change. I don't even remember putting it there. So I put it all into the sealed pot. Which incidentally is a figuratively speaking sealed pot as I still have not put a lid on it LOL

The pot is now full, so the plant pot has become sealed pot #2

 

I also put up this bunting, Stephanie made it yesterday at the English festival, it looks perfect in my hall. I think I may get some pretty papers to put some in the other rooms in the house. I do love bunting, it's so cheerful.

 

I must go and empty the washing machine ready for going on the line in the morning, and to decorate the cake.

1st day of half term

I have begun the cooking I have planned for this week. I have made;
Marble cake
Veg soup
tomato base sauce ( I use it for pasta, the beginning of curry/casserole etc)
Meatballs in tomato sauce

 

I have a question for you, I still have half of this pumpkin I can't remember the variety. I have made soup with it already what else do you do with your pumpkins?

 

 

I have had quite  a busy day it began at 5.30am when I woke up and started my organisation for next term at work. I wrote this last Friday to help me get everything done;

 

 

Yep, another list! I took a bag of paperwork up to bed with me last night as keep waking uncharacteristically early so thought I might get an early start.

I managed to work still snuggled up in bed and get 3 items ticked off of my list :-)

 

An hour and a half later I was downstairs and started today's chores with the ironing- the children were still in bed. Then I did some work on my large project I really think I should be able to show you it tomorrow- just the last finishing touches to go.

 

We then spent most of the day on the allotment testing out the new battery powered strimmer and emptying the compost bins- half way there more to do on Wednesday.

 

A lovely start to our half term!

 

lists

I have always been a little on the forgetful side, however I seem to be getting worse lately- maybe I'm getting old!

So to help me along a little I have been using one of these more and more;

I have had two lists today; my to do list and my shopping list.

I managed to complete my shopping list, what do you mean you are not surprised. My to do list is not quite finished, but I can get it finished tomorrow.

I could really do with some tips to organise myself- what do you do? Leave your solutions in the comments below.

organised is not me!

but I really do need to be! I am awful at sorting myself out. I have had 2 days off this week so far and all I have done is dig a tiny part of the allotment over and tidy the shed. I think I am going ot write myself one of these for each day;


Yup the only way I see myself getting anything done is to write a list. I may stop whiling away the days thinking about what I need to do rather than doing it this way. I will then do a round up post in the evening and plan for the next day. I'm going to trial run this so here is my to do list for tomorrow;
1. take Stephanie to school, then go for a run (possibly more a walk interspersed with the odd jog. I have not done any excercise in a while!)
2. get car windscreen fixed/replaced- something hit it as I was driving down the motorway today, not good.
3. whilst waiting for windscreen repair, which is booked for the morning, begin to write my literature review for uni.
4. after lunch go to the allotment to dig more.
5. collect Stephanie from school and take to party.
6. in the evening sew more of the hexie quilt, I am becoming concerned I will not have done for Stephanie's birthday after all.

On that note I am off to collect the children in from outside so I can get them clean and to bed in order to sew some of the quilt!

Wish me luck!