January Review

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Firstly, I can't believe that January is almost over already, and for me that means heading back to work, but I thought it would be good to try and take stock of positives this month, and what I need to think more about for the coming months.

Overall the month feels like a bit of a fail, as there have been some mammoth expenses going out (although it's not really the amount, it's whether there's an alternative solution), however, perhaps I'm being a bit tough of myself when I actually look at what they are :

• a fairly large tax bill (part tax return and part NI missed payments from several years ago when I as setting up a business and not earning...was it worth filling the gap?  Will we ever have any government pension to mention? I really struggle with pensions as they really clash with the feeling of living with God in today, in faith...more pondering required!)  p.s. I don't have any issue with the tax paying...only on what my taxes are spent on!
• the car's MOT (it actually did very well, but still costs so much, for something that we don't actually use that much.  We've considered going car-less when it dies, but when we looked into the cost of hiring a car, or getting the train to visit relatives for a week or so in the summer, unbelievably it costs more than us having the car serviced, taxed & MOT'd for the whole year!!  And we can't quite manage Preston on the bicycles!)
• repairs on the house (the garden fence panels almost blew down in the recent gales, so needed sorting - the one positive, is that with some persuasion the guy fixing them managed to revamp them, rather than scrap them and just give us new ones, pretty much the same cost, and there was really nothing wrong with 95% of them!  A leaky roof and gutter that meant our front yard flooded in giant rain.  Both things that pre-kids I've have had a go at doing myself, but currently I only seem to manage to keep on top of the things in the house, I knew that realistically it would be months before I'd get round to sorting, and who knows what the winter water would have done in that time!)

And going into next month we have two outstanding possible expenses that are playing on my mind:

• we have a digibox thing which means we can record TV programmes, and the reality of life is that we never watch anything live anymore (other than kids TV).  The harddrive is going, and I know we'll end up getting a new one, but I do feel annoyed that we're all so desiring of TV (especially when you consider the quality of most of it).  Especially in the winter months, we use it to switch off, to iron in front of, and we love things likes Sherlock.  But really, is it the best use of hundred quid?
• and finally the nightmare of our small backyard!  It's the biggest challenge on the multi-use front ever: kids play/bike storage/clothes drying/food growing.  And the bike cover is on it's last legs, and with M about to get a little bike too, we just need more storage space.  So do we get a wooden shed?  If so, the only logical place to put it, is in the only good bit of sun space in the garden, where I was about to get lots of growing going!  Ahhhhhhhhhhh...............or do we just stick to plastic covers for the meantime, but end up replacing them frequently?  Just can't decide.  (Was hoping either a shed or bike cover would come our way and the decision could be made...but no sign so far.  And the four uses are good things...not making the decision any easier.)  Am I just overtired and thinking too much ;-)

On the positive front, January has been great in some little ways:

• waste is down to a minimum....once we eliminate disposible nappies at night next month, we'll be producing less than a kilo of non-recyclable waste each week (the small black bag looks ridiculous when I put it out...hooray!!!)
• all birthday cards this month have been recycled, and 90% of the gifts too
• we haven't thrown any food away
• the chores list has worked really well (for me at least)
• and I've made marmalade for the first time.

So let's see what February brings!

Keep Calm and...

I've seen more and more of the 'Keep calm and...' merchandise in the shops and people's homes...where will it end?  

But what I hadn't seen was 'Keep calm & trust in God', and to be honest, that's the reminder I need around the house, rather than turning to cupcakes, G&Ts or our monarch, in my day-to-day.

I was about to make one, but thought I'd do an online search first, and sure enough...there are plenty of images of this saying too (and more besides).

Source

(I believe 'Keep Calm & Carry On' was a phrase started by the British Government in 1939, to try and raise the public's morale.  If they'd somehow managed to get a trademark or copyright on all things 'Keep Calm and...' and had a penny for every time it was used, it might have helped reduce the deficit!)

Follow me to Freedom

So as well as 'Keep Calm & Trust God', this month I've been really impacted by a George Bernard Shaw quote that I read in 'Follow Me To Freedom: Leading & Following as an Ordinary Radical', my latest bed-side read.  In the stage play Back to Methuselah he wrote, 

You see things; and you say, 'Why?'  But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'

I've really noticed how we just get stuck in the normal way of doing things, and rarely take the time to stop and dream another way of doing things.  As I start back at work at the end of this month, and try to juggle all that that entails, I hope to hold onto these two sentences, and trust God whilst daring to imagine new ways of doing things....all one step at a time.

Herb Success

I am always astounded at the price of small bags of herbs in supermarkets, and when I needed a relatively small amount of sage this week, I felt I needed to be more creative.

When we moved into our house there was space for plants in the gate pillars at the front door, but when I spoke to the friend we'd bought the house from, she said that anything she'd planted in there, simply got nicked.  I thought I'd give it one try, and sure enough the flowers lasted all of 2 weeks before they did a midnight escape.

So I changed tack and planted some herbs in them, on the basis that they didn't have dazzling flowers, and it's amazing how many large rosemary bushes there are dotted around the city on the entrance to subways, and they thrive.

Two years on, the herbs are still there, and people are welcome to take cuttings if they need any thyme to cook with.

So, back to the sage issue, I emailed round all my neighbours who live in the neighbouring streets to see if anyone had any sage growing, offering thyme, rosemary and bay in return, when needed.  I had a great response, and not only recived some sage, but am having a sage cutting cultivated for me (thanks!), and now also know where to get mint and a few other herbs in future.

So I think I'll be cultivating the local herb network further in the coming months!

STOP PRESS: Waste miracle!

So today is bin day and I weighed the black sack before it went out.

4 kg of nappies (as ever), but the total sack (with nappies included) didn't quite make it to 5kg!

Can we keep it up next week...that's the question now.

The reality of returning to work

As I start this new year, I also return back to work after my maternity leave, and although I don't start back properly until February, the reality of trying to juggle everything has been playing on my mind.

Before I tackle how to fit in all the extra things to make and grow that I've been thinking about, I have to work out how to manage the house as well as having great time with the kids when we're not at work and nursery.  The last thing I want is for all our time to be taken up with chores, but I do want a clean and safe environment for them to grow, and although my standards are definitely not where they used to be, the reality of meal planning, washing and cleaning are still there.

So my pondering on how to make sure that these chores don't overwhelm me and steal quality time and my thoughts, has lead to two things.

The first is a new plan, which of course includes a tick list!  I love having lists and crossing things off, but hate rewriting this kind of repetitive list, as it highlights the never ending cycle that I'm in.  So my latest plan (knowing me there will be a different one next year), is a list of weekly, fortnightly and monthly chores.  There is a plastic sheet over the top, so I (possibly we) can cross things off, but when the timeframe has passed, simply wipe off the markings and start again.  The theory of it being in view is that another adult in the house may also do some of these tasks, but by his own admission, I won't hold my breath ;-)

The second plan is to shift my attitude to these tasks.  An old uni friend of mine, Roger Bretherton, has recently written a book called 'the GOD lab' in which he talks about the Beatitudes and gives experiments for you to do at the end of each chapter.  On of these, is to pause in something that you're doing, and use all your senses to really experience the moment.  What can I hear, see, feel, smell, taste?  I've started doing it when I breastfeed my son, as I often spend the time thinking about all the things I need to do, coming up with ideas etc.  But the time I spend with him in these moments is really precious and going so fast!  This has really helped me to enjoy the moment, savour it, live in it, not in the past or the future, and thank God for it.  

So my plan, is to try and apply that to the chores too.  Some I'll do with my daughter (as she loves helping!) and are precious, some are just moments to pause in the now.  Having just done it a few times already, I've found myself being so thankful to God; thankful that I have the ability to do the tasks (have found the time, have the strength, the mental capacity, my health, have been blessed with the appliance that makes it so much easier etc), so already I'm finding a new richness in something I'd never have thought I could.

So thanks God and Roj!


(Here's another photo of the list, for those that requested the ability to read it all ;-)

Waste Challenge - Results Unveiled!

Drum roll please.....

....and the results of the first week of the bokashi existing in our waste challenge are...

Pre-Bokashi

23rd Nov    10kg

30th Nov     8.5kg (of which 4kg was disposable night nappies!)

7th Dec       7kg

(there was a bit of a gap of weighing in the middle of December, due to being away and the general madness of the Christmas week)

With Bokashi

4th Jan         6.5kg (of which 4kg was disposable night nappies)

To have a clearer picture we'll obviously need a few more weeks of results, and equally should probably have had more 'pre-bokashi' weeks when we weren't changing other habits.

But the really interesting thing has been generally thinking more about where the things we'd normally pop in the general waste bin could go to.  So here are where lots of bits are now going, and I'm hoping we'll get even lighter general waste going forward!

How we 'recycle'

• paper, tin, plastic bottles - the recycle bin
• glass - the glass bank
• shredded paper - the compost
• egg cartons - the compost or junk modelling
• plastic trays, yoghurt pots etc - nursery for junk modelling
• foil - a local church that collects (via a friend who does a trip there every so often)
• milk bottle lids - the office to a charity that collects them
• broken or unused 'things' - freegle, charity shops (and if that fails, the general waste)
• fabric/shoes - clothes/fabric bank, if no good for friends or charity shops.

Things that we haven't found a way to recycle (yet!)

Lurking at the back of the cleaning cupboard!

• tissues (we seem to have a lot of these with four snotty winter noses in the house)
• plastic wrappers that annoyingly covers most food from supermarkets! (a bit reason for getting fruit & veg boxes delievered each week is that everything is loose in a box that you return or can recycle)
• disposable nappies (although I'm considering trying both kids in the daytime terry nappies for a few nights - the reason we'd changed previously is that the wet when they are little can get them to wake more frequently, but would like to see if that's the reality now they're a bit older)
• chemicals/cleaning products that we don't want (I recently cleared out the cleaning cupboard (with some irony - see the photo!), and some things we've been given randomly over the years, haven't used, but wanted rid of...I tried freegling some, but to no avail...so sadly ended up in the bin).
• oil/fat (at the council recycle centre they now have an oil bank, however, a) I have to drive to the other end of the island to get to it b) we don't collect very much and it went really mouldy in the jar c) the bank was locked shut when I get there, so they said just to leave it on the floor next to it...did it ever make it into the bin, or just into the general household skips?)

So we're going to keep at it, and I am going to look into whether the council pays a tax on the weight of waste that is disposed, as on the basis that our small kitchen compost caddy is definitely heavier each week than our whole kitchen general waste bin, there may be a cost saving argument for introducing food waste collecting (plenty of other areas do it).  Although looking at the number of black bin bags that our neighbours put out each week, the habit shift required to make it viable would be enormous (not a reason not to do it, if it's the right thing though!).

Mixed success in charity shops today

So I trawled the charity shops in Southsea today, and the bad news is that there is hardly any wool around, so not sure I'll be unravelling too many jumpers to make other things this year.  The world seems to make all jumpers with cotton and acrylic (no wonder they're not that warm!).

But the good news is the amazing children's gift stash that I picked up in the Cry shop.  Amazingly the pile below only cost £8 in total, and most of them are totally unused.

I'll definitely keep visiting the charity shops, and keep hunting out gifts and fingers crossed on the wool front.