Category: dEAr diary

a chat about my day

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dear diary >> ringing in the new

I thought I would drop by to wish everyone a very happy and healthy New Year 2023. We will be celebrating as usual with our closest of friends that live locally – just a very informal get together.

I find New Year’s Eve is very much a time of reflection and it has been lovely to look back on some of the photos and remind myself that although 2022 has not been the best of years for us there have been bright moments amongst the gloom and I have achieved quite a lot.

We managed a lovely family holiday in Scarborough and celebrated my elder daughter’s graduation in December when she received her MSC in Environment and Development from Leeds University, which she has been studying for part time over the last 6 years or so whilst working, being pregnant and looking after little Freddie; having to struggle on with her studies during the Covid months and having Covid herself was an added test of her resilience – so we are so proud of her ability to soldier on and gain her masters degree.

My focus word for the year was ‘Improvement’ and each month I documented little things that had improved. I began in January by making a list of some areas that I felt needed improvement to make my life and the household run better and simpler…..

‘Buy things before you need them’ – I am very organised when it comes to keeping one in hand with such things as toothpaste and shower gel, I cannot remember a time when we have ever run out but buying a present for someone’s birthday, or a new outfit for an event and I confess I can leave it to the last minute.

‘Tie up loose ends each day ‘- I have this maddening habit of working on something but then not quite getting to finish it and I have to put it aside – often because I am either distracted or interupted by such things as phone calls, making meals or having to move onto something more urgent….or life can sometimes just get in the way. It can be a few days or even weeks before I can get back to a task by which time I have forgotten exactly what I was doing. My plan was to get better at trying to finish what I start.

‘Being more prepared‘, especially when going shopping – sorting out coupons and vouchers in advance and checking the fridge and freezer and store cupboards so I don’t over buy.

The ‘one hour pottering and putting away session‘ – I do this first thing in the morning whilst I wait for an hour before I can eat after I take my thyroid medication.

I made a real effort on each one and if I stick to them my life runs more smoothly but it was difficult keeping this up when I had a bad back and then the Covid struck in November and rendered me useless. Now the busyness of Christmas is over I will be practising these habits once again in the new year.

Each month I also made small practical improvements around the house and garden and to our diet and health. With help from DH I made a point of finishing some little jobs that had been on my to do list for ages – hanging a picture, planting the seed potatoes, putting up a shelf, emptying out an old garden pot, selling some books to Ziffit, rehoming my candle collection, mending my dress, replacing the old washing line and the doorbell…well the list was endless but one task a day meant a lot of little tasks being completed over the year.

We also made time to go for a walk morning and afternoon and I exercised my back once a day.

I am writing a new master task list now of all those little jobs that need doing – it will no doubt run to pages – anything that is actually a project will be broken down into some bitesized tasks small enough to complete in a day.

So in the coming year I will continue with my tiny every day improvements but I will be changing my focus word – more on that in my next post in the new year.

I am so looking forward to the new year and a fresh start and am eager to read all your thoughts on what changes you might be making – whether they are resolutions or just ideas.

Happy New Year 2023 to everyone xx

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dear diary >> all is calm, all is bright

We are slowly getting back to normal here and like the words of the carol – we are back to calm. Christmas was perhaps a little more hectic than I would have preferred, but with three very excited young children in the house you cannot expect that it would be restful!

We spent the week before Christmas chasing our tails. On the Saturday we had our family ‘Not so Secret Santa’ get together at my sister’s house in North Yorkshire to swap presents, play games and hold our musical interlude after a delicious buffet lunch; I am always the conductor and hold the baton.

Even though our music sheets have both coloured and numbered notes that match the colour and notes of the handbells and xylophones we still, after all these years, do not get any better at making a recognisable tune as no-one ever comes in on cue! But that is the fun of it.

After Sunday at home to put up the tree and a few decorations, my daughter came on Monday with Little L and Sweetie who hung all the baubles on the tree for us…and it looked magnificent, even though we had two, sometimes three, baubles on one branch…and yes I did manage not to rearrange it all when they had done unless a bauble was in severe distress.

We then went back up to North Yorkshire with the girls and stayed overnight to look after them at their house whilst mum went to work (who thought it was a good idea to have the children off school for the whole week before Christmas??).

We came home late on Tuesday night quite worn out and slept well…too well, and was rather late up on Wednesday morning. We decided we had better get the food shopping done in the supermarket in town and a good job too as it was crowded out and by Thursday many of the shelves had been stripped of certain items like eggs.

On Thursday while DH made a large pan of curry for Christmas Eve, I finished off the little desk calendars I had made for my friends who live locally.

I bought the original desk top calendars for about 50p each in a sale after Christmas at Sainsbury’s before the pandemic with the idea of making my own calendar sheets and re-using the metal stands. All year I have been taking photos around the village of some well known and and not so well known spots.

To make them look more special I slipped them into a cellophane bag and then wrapped them in festive tissue. Nothing goes to waste in this house as I re-used some of the brown paper bags I saved over the years from the sandwich shop when I was working – stamping them with a festive stamp – they made a handy carrier to hold the presents.

On Thursday evening we wrapped all the presents while watching some TV (our only nights’ viewing) and on Friday I cleaned and tidied with a mad dash around with the hoover.

Finally on Christmas Eve morning there was only the trifle and a jelly to make before my daughter arrived with little L and Sweetie. At 4pm after putting some potatoes in the oven to bake we went to church for the Crib Service which is the start of my Christmas. The point where everything is done and I can sit back and enjoy. My elder daughter and Freddie joined us for tea after the service and we all tucked in to a hot meal of baked potatoes and lentil curry.

Afterwards the children decorated the Christmas cake with snowmen, penguins and santa…and lots of little icing decorations – it was a very serious job taking a lot of concentration….

…and is probably a little crowded but I think they do so well and I love it.

I especially love the look on Santa’s face!

Once it was finished to their satisfaction the three of them opened their Christmas Eve boxes which contain new pyjamas, a Christmas craft to keep them busy and a story book to read at bedtime. With all three changed into their new Christmas pyjamas they settled down to make the craft item – a string of Christmas pictures to colour in and hang up.

When the doorbell went everyone went quiet waiting to see who it was….it was a wrapped present left on our front doorstep saying ‘To open on Christmas Eve’. (DH had sneaked out the back door, put the present on the doorstep, rung the bell and quickly run round the back again and into the living room without the children even realising he had gone). As you can imagine they were so excited as to who could have left the surprise present – we said it might have been the elf – it was a game of Peppa Pig Monopoly suitable for all ages to finish off the evening before bedtime.

Then some very tired children listened to a story, put out the mince pie and carrot for Santa and Rudolph and went to bed followed not long after by some very weary adults.

After today DH and I will be on our own and able to make new plans for the new year. I am always excited at this point – it is like a fresh start and I am looking forward to a good year.

How did your Christmas go?

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dear diary >> looking forward

Thank you for all the kind comments and well wishes. I seem to be reporting a lot this year about illness, so I am hoping the start of next year will see a big improvement to my health. Illness of any kind can often drag you down and I do feel like each time I just get going again something else happens and like a game of snakes and ladders I find myself sliding back down a slippery slope once again.

This Covid virus has certainly taken its toll on both of us and the fatigue is only just beginning to go. Yesterday we managed another very short walk down the lane although it was quite miserable in the drizzle and eerily quiet – still it was good to be out in the fresh air and feel the weather on our faces. Each day I manage to do a little more than the day before so that is a good sign. I am lucky that I didn’t have a cough or breathlessness but I do feel very stuffed up and that peculiar taste and smell that developed still lingers.

Our homemade soup makes a satisfying meal for us as our appetites are slowly getting back to normal – today we will make a batch of mushroom soup between us – DH will do the chopping and I the cooking and then no doubt we will have a rest to get over the exertion! We have an apple crumble in the freezer but I am not sure I could do it justice yet so I will probably opt for a fruit yoghurt instead.

My life at the moment is as dull as the weather and I am looking forward to brighter and more productive days ahead now the worst of the virus is over and I am able to at least think about festive plans. This year our plans will be kept simple – often they are the best anyway. As some of my readers will know our family operates a Secret Santa – it is something we have done since 2013 and we have never looked back we are all thankful to spend less time shopping and it leaves more time to have family get togethers – eating, drinking, chatting and playing those all important party games.

It was quite encouraging to hear Martin Lewis give out a similar message last night on his program. Over the years it seems Christmas has become about the gifts and the shopping and very little else. When I was a little girl I always looked forward to going into Sheffield city centre at night to see the lights and the displays in the department store windows. Of course back then there were probably a dozen large department stores throughout the town and each put on a magical display. With all the council cutbacks our local town has a very poor display and somehow the new flickery LED lights don’t have quite the same impact as those old fashioned brightly coloured light bulbs that streamed across the road. We have no department stores left and hardly anyone has a window display. No doubt this is the reason that we now search out light displays to go to during the festive season at National Trust properties though they are a might more expensive than the free shows we used to have in all our towns and cities.

I always enjoy making a few little things for Christmas but this year I know I will be short on time. I am currently looking for inspiration for a Christmas card design – I quite often do a linocut – there is something quite simple and satisfying about this technique….ah well maybe I can magic up a little enthusiasm to make a start, after all Christmas waits for no-one.

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dear diary >> keeping warm

Not surprisingly, each day for a long while I have intended to write a blog post but somehow life just got in the way and now dear DH and I have been struck down by the virus after avoiding it like the plague for so long. The virus itself came after a visit to the hospital about my shoulder – co-incidence maybe… or maybe not.

The symptoms resembled a good dose of flu, with fever, aching and a lot of prostration and sleep. There was no cold, runny rose, sneezing or cough for me just a sore throat and I am left with a rather strange smell and taste that won’t leave me that I can only liken to castor oil, but hopefully in time it will go. As we go into week 2 of the virus the tiredness is the overiding factor now that is rather hard to shake off but we have nothing scheduled in the diary this week so I am just going to ease myself back into life again and collapse on the sofa when I need to. We are aiming today for a short walk mainly to see daylight which seems in short supply at the moment and to get some movement into our muscles. Like flu it has left us lethargic and weak and we are putting all our energies into keeping warm, eating as well as we can and reading my favourite books.

Before I succomed to the virus I had spent a great deal of time making new cards for birthdays and occasions out of old ones so I thought I would share them tomorrow for the monthly Scrap Happy challenge day. Even if you are not creative they are so easy to make and not only do they re-use some of those lovely cards we are given these days but in these hard financial times making your own saves money.

I hope everyone else out there is keeping well, I keep reading my favourite blogs as I find the energy and concentration but commenting will be sparse until I feel back to normal. Being ‘laid up’ does allow me a lot of thinking time and I have been making plans in my head for adjusting certain areas of my life I am not happy with, change is never easy is it as we often fall unintentionally into bad habits. More sleep and exercise will be at the top of my agenda.

With Christmas looming on the horizon and the fact I have now lost a bit of time I don’t want to feel rushed or panicked when I start to get back to normal as it takes all the enjoyment away. I noticed how busy the roads have become recently and just going to Sainsbury’s in town for our weekly shop has become a whole morning or afternoon task and we are having to find quieter non-direct routes to avoid the lengthy queues – it appears there is no longer a quiet time to go.

Luckily we had a pantry full of food before we fell ill and I did manage to make some fresh tomato and red pepper soup one morning though I had to do it in 3 stages with a sit down rest between. I am so thankful I don’t have children to look after and can just go at my own pace for a while until recovery is complete.

Thankfully, I cannot pass on my germs over the blog and you are spared from seeing me in my post covid state kitted out in an old snuggly jumper and looking like I have passed through a hedge backwards!