Busy day....

Sundays, for us, are always busy, today being no exception.

We started off at the sports centre where we can be found every Sunday morning, having a game of badminton. Michaela says that I don't need anger management, I take all my frustrations out on the poor shuttlecocks, lol.

Then home to clean and tidy etc, then take delivery of my home shopping order, put it all away , then onto the dreaded job of the day - finishing clearing out Lucy's bedroom. Over this past week we've spent a few hours a day going through her room to clear it out - it was so full of toys, clothes etc that the poor girl couldn't keep it tidy.

It's now finished !!! Twenty two bin bags of rubbish, seventeen black bags full of things for the charity shops !! It looks so much better now, and I've also put up her new Rachael Hale curtains, to go with the bedding and fleece in the Daysha Dalmatian design.

Lucy has more books than our local library, so I cleared out one of the beech bookcases from my office and put it in her bedroom, enabling us to get rid of the rickety old white bookcase. Her new pink tv/dvd player fits on the top beautifully, all in all a massive improvement.

We've just had a warming, comforting meal of sausages, mash, vegetables and onion gravy and the home made apple crumble is just out of the oven. So at least we're getting a nice end to a busy day !

xx

New Year's Eve

It's hard to believe that it's New Year's Eve today. In some ways this year has gone too fast, in others it's been really slow.

I don't particularly enjoy today, as Dave tends to get pretty melancholy about things that haven't happened, and it's hard to celebrate as a family if one of you is this way inclined. But we've spent today out as a family, and then came home to have a cake decorating competition.

I laid out three victoris sponges, all my cake decorating supplies and let Dave, Michaela and Lucy just go for it !! I acted as judge of course *grins. It was great to see them doing the decorating - especially Dave, who never normally gets involved in things like this.

There's a lot of things Iwe did this year that I'm proud of -

* We drove in France for the first time ever - in a left hand drive car. And I didn't crash ! lol
* We had a wonderful week's holiday in a fantastic barn home in Bergerac
* I worked in Worcester for four months, spending at least four or five hours a day driving to and from work. I'm proud that I gave the job my best .....I just couldn't keep the job after I discovered the things I did about the organisation
* Mickey passed BTEC Performing Arts and GCSE Maths
* Lucy did really well in her SATS, performing at a level about four years beyond her actual age
* Dave and I passed our Personal Licence and Designated Premises Supervisor exams - we are now qualified to run a pub
* Lucy sang in her first full carol service at the local church - very proud of her

We had a pretty good year in many ways, and hope that this year will be even better. Lots of the plans we had , sadly, didn't happen, but we have firm plans for next year.

Onwards and upwards as they say *smiles.

Happy New Year to everyone !!

xx

Budget

I've worked out that at the moment, my monthly budget is £520. That covers food, pets, presents, clothes, emergencies etc. I should just about be able to do it, if I'm very careful. I'm lucky in that Dave earns enough to cover all household bills apart from these, and as an accountant, he's damn good at it, lol.

I had a new mini greenhouse for Christmas from Dave, and extra staging, so I'll be in heaven with that. I spent a few happy hours last night with seed catalogues, planning what I could resonably grow. We have a conservatory which the greenhouse will live in, plus we can grow extra plants in here, in lieu of a full size greenhouse. Tomatoes, cucumber, peppers and aubergines are on that list.

I plan to take advice from the many blogs which applaud stock piling. I've done a reasonable amount of this in the past, but stocks have been depleted. Ie, they're now non existant, so it's back to square one.

I must admit that I've done well this past year with Tesco Clubcard. I saved enough points on there to give a discount of over £2000 on our holiday in September, which to me is pretty amazing. I intend to carry on with these points, but to use them to collect Christmas and birthday presents to save using my monthly budget for them.

I already do a lot of my cooking from scratch, and I've found that online shopping gives me the best way of saving money on groceries.....I'm not tempted to buy those little extras that just seem to jump into the trolley.

Now, I just have to build my money saving tips list....back to the blogs !! *grins

xx

Merry Christmas !

We had a lovely Christmas Day - it's amazing how much food (and drink!) eight people can get through !

The girls were very happy with all their presents, I have to admit that people have been very generous with them .

I've just been looking at the online sales at Boots, Marks and Spencers etc - it's so frustrating that I don't have the money to buy sale items ready for upcoming birthdays and next Christmas. At least if I start watching my money more carefully this year, I'll be in better position to take advantage of all the sales next year.

I'm feeling happy, content, relaxed.....the whole family has had a great time, and I'm enormously grateful for the time we've spent together.

Clare xxxxx

Nearly there...

Almost finished my Christmas shopping, the next couple of days will be filled with baking and cooking to get ready for the big day. I have a home made pudding for the first time ever this year, so I'm hoping (all my fingers crossed) that it turns out well.

Mickey's talent show went brilliantly, and got a fantastic response from the audience so I have a very happy and proud daughter. She took in the presents that she made for her teachers today - beautiful mugs filled with chocolates, hot chocolate mix, and mini whisk wrapped in cellophane for the male teachers, and bags of chocs and body cream for the ladies. I think it's safe to say that she's now even more popular with the staff than she was before !!

I'm wrapping the hampers for family tomorrow, now that the cellophane finally arrived, but in the morning we have Lucy's birthday party - my baby is 9 years old today !!!! She's going bowling with 7 friends, and having a meal and a party at the ten pin centre....not cheap, but it's the first party she's had in three years , so she's worth it.

Let's hope nobody lets go of a bowling ball and lets it land on toes....believe me..its happened before !!! xxxxxxxxxx

Traditions....

I read on a lovely blog today about the traditions of Christmas.

The author told of how she and her family choose decorations for the tree, and how their children are involved in that.

We have long had the tradition of each year allowing the girls to choose a new decoration each for the tree, which usually represents something that happened that year. For example, one year Mickey chose a soft cream horse after she spent many happy hours in the saddle at the local riding school. Every decoration brings back wonderful memories.

The tree will never be perfectly co-ordinated, but the decorations mean so much more than any bulk pack, matching, mass produced ones ever could.

There's a lot of my children's wishes in that tree. *smiles

xxx

Talent....

Michaela, my older daughter is taking part in a school talent show on Thursday - when all other entrants are singing and/or dancing.....she is writing a Catherine Tate 'Lauren' sketch. Face...bovvered?????

We're so proud of her for not just doing the same as everyone else...she's worked hard on the script, and has even got two teachers in on it, to play another mouthy teenage girl and a rapping Santa !!

She's the quieter of my two daughters, so to see her do something like this is wonderful.

Lucy is taking part in the school pantomime on Tuesday - Jack and the Beanstalk, in which she's playing a wizard. Apparently Harry Potter was an integral part of the fairy tale.....who knew?? *grins

She's also singing in the local church Carol Cervice on 23rd December, which we all plan on attending. It's great to see her involved in activities like this. Next stop.....brownies or scouts !!!

xx