feasting ~ and yet more partying

Another weekend of partying and party preparing.

This time it was Master Freddie’s 7th birthday party on Sunday afternoon with many of his friends. He has always been good at arithmetic and quite obsessed with number blocks from an early age, so it came as no surprise that he really wanted a number blocks party. It makes no difference to him that the other boys in his class may have already progressed onto Nerf battles or Pokemon parties – he was adamantly sticking to number blocks.

So we made some.

It took us most of the week to source the bits we needed to build seven number blocks. Not quite cubes, as we used mainly the empty wine boxes Sainsbury’s put out for customers to take, as they were free. Finding the plain coloured paper was not easy and a roll of orange was not to be had anywhere and too late for us to order any, so we had to improvise and join a few sheets of orange A4 card together that we had left over from Halloween (but it did the job…and here they are).

Master Freddie’s mum hired the local village hall and a wonderful party entertainer called Nellie B, who was happy to do a mix of traditional games, team games, dancing and the highlight at the end was the snow machine, which had all 23 partygoers screaming with excitement.

And now we are recovering from the two weekends of partying, and we both came down with a cold on Monday morning. I am not surprised as our diet for the past two weeks has not been wonderful, many quick to make meals and a few cans of soup to fill in when we haven’t been able to make our own. So we are paying the price of not looking after ourselves and the dental appointment for today has been cancelled so we don’t pass on any germs.

In all I am feeling rather weary, it has been quite a hectic time since well before Christmas and no doubt my body is telling me I need to rest. Mum is already pestering me about going up to see her as her party seems a long time ago now to her….increasingly she has no sense of time anymore. I will somehow have to dodge the question of ‘when will I be seeing you’.

January seems to be melting away now, just like the recent snowfall we had. In a weeks time we will be greeting February and all the month brings. I already have a joyful vase of daffodils on my kitchen windowsill and orange tulips on the table. I especially like them as they begin to droop and their stems wander and, had I the time, I would reach for my sketch book and watercolours.

As I eat my breakfast I have a direct sight out to the garden arch we erected in the garden last year. It was one of the non-negotionable possessions that we brought back from our cottage garden in Scotland. I have hung the fat ball feeder from the top and it is wonderful to see a host of garden birds everyday coming to feed. I am not organised enough to take part in the Big Garden Bird Watch, but I will get plenty of pleasure just watching them each day.

Apart from making number blocks I have been making headway with our finances, planning a new budget for this year against the final figures for last year and updating our savings accounts with any interest. This passive income is vital when you are on a pension, so it is important to find the highest earning tax fee ISA accounts that I can when any come to maturity.

All in all, even with the cost of living increasing, we are doing OK but I do worry about our long term future and possible care costs given that my mum has reached 100 now and the cost of her care over the last 2 years has now depleted her savings to the point that we need to apply to her local authority for assistance.

I expect after their assessment they will not want her to stay put in her own home as the cost of her care is over a £1,000 a week now and when you add her living costs onto that it will probably far exceed what the council will pay and they will obviously prefer to pay the all inclusive care home fees where they do a deal with certain homes for the smaller, cheaper rooms.

Of course there is no issue for the council if a relative wants to step in and offer to pay the difference in costs, but this has to be thought through carefully because we have no idea how long mum might live for…at the moment I am thinking possibly to 105 and five years of expenses will be required, and expenses that will increase as she gets less able and with more dementia; this will drain any savings that we have put aside for our long term needs.

Mum is so much better remaining in her own home with carers going in four times a day for almost an hour at a time. She would not get that amount of undivided attention from the carers in a care home. When she fell and had a brief spell in one a couple of years ago she was lucky to be helped to the toilet two or three times a day and that involved minimal ‘chatting’ as they would be dashing to help the next person pressing the buzzer. Her main contact was the support staff bringing a meal.

It is such a worry but all I can do now is wait for the call from a social worker, when one is appointed, and they are struggling to do that until some time in February.

But not all is doom and gloom, there are little signs here and there that spring is on its way and that is always cheerful. On our walks we see the catkins growing longer and in the garden I have shoots forcing their way up through the ground – only to meet with this bitterly cold and wet weather.

I never mind January, in fact I quite like being able to hibernate (parties aside) and concentrate on staying home where it is cosy and warm; bringing the paperwork and filing up to date and if I exhaust that, turning out a few cupboards. And planning, lots of planning…maybe even dreaming a little of what I might do in the year ahead.

It was nice to clear the decorations from Christmas, they are neatly packed away again in the loft, and have a clean around but I never feel it is quite the time for a deep clean until I can get any soft furnishings washed and out to blow on the line. We had a trip to Ikea last Thursday, not for anything in particular just a look around. I like to look at their room sets for ideas, especially where they cleverly use some of the items in tiny spaces. I do want to fit out our built in wardrobe but it is quite shallow and definitely not walk in. The 35cm deep and 50cm wide Pax frame would be ideal to slot in at one side and would give me room to put 3 or 4 shelves above and 3 or 4 drawers below.

I have a yearning to create a capsule wardrobe of clothes that actually all fits into the wardrobe – underwear, scarves, bags, coats, the lot. I have already condensed the clothes in the 3 drawer chest down enough to be able to remove it from the bedroom all together soon as our main bedroom is not very big by today’s standards and space is at a premium. I am replacing it with the Ikea Nordiska dressing table, which will be painted a duck egg blue colour and is just a nice size to fit between the bed and the window wall. DH will have the Nordiska bedside table at his side.

So that is my few ramblings and now I am going to rest and read…quite a treat really if it wasn’t for this awful streaming cold.

Thank you for your previous comments, my mum had a lovely week with plenty of attention, but so far no card from King Charles, maybe he needs a nudge.

Back soon….I hope x

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