Half term! Yay!!

We've got plans for doing a few of the usual jobs, doing some (just some) of the jobs that didn't get done over the summer and going to the allotment.

We also want to visit a property for sale with 4 acres. The price scares me silly. We would have to stay at work and it would take an extra hour morning AND evening for travel so we'd be too tired to work the land but we'd have to earn in order to pay the mortgage - and at the same time save every penny possible (as if I'm not pretty well doing that already) in order to pay the mortgage down so the the lump sum on retirement would finish paying off the debt. And then we would own the property but have no money left to do any repairs etc. But that is the price of property round here if I want to stay close enough to see my new grandson grow up. I'm really tied in knots over this whole thing. Moving to somewhere like Wales, which was our original plan, would be a bit cheaper but we could not stay at work so we couldn't have a mortgage. It is the land that is the problem and pushes the price up. If we stayed in this house and just stopped work, would that be enough to improve my husband's asthma? We couldn't have any more animals. Oh, isn't life full of difficult decisions.

I'm feeling a bit miserable this weekend as I woke up with a cold yesterday. So far it has been "just a bit of a cold". I've taken my echinacea and vitamin C and hope that it doesn't develop into anything more.

It has been a busy week. I took a party of kids into the city centre to hear an author speak and then, two days later, we had a different author come into school for the day. And my husband had lots of meetings to go so, some of which he had organised and ended up working from 8am to 10pm without a break for two of the days. Needless to say, he slept in this morning....

We haven't been to the allotment for weeks so it will just have to wait for half term now. The hens haven't liked the colder weather and have only been laying 4 or 5 eggs a day all week until today when they surprised me with a full house of 7. I'm still turning customers away but at least the new hens are paying for their keep and that of the older hens too.

It was my birthday this week and my son's too. I made LOADS of flapjack and took it into school so that all the staff and my pupil helpers could have a piece. All I got back at the end of the day were tins with a few crumbs in the bottom :) Good job I kept back a couple of pieces for home!

We had a family meal to celebrate both birthdays and I made a big pear sponge in a roasting tin. We all agreed to provide different bits of the meal so that it was not too big an effort or expense for anybody. There was a bit left over and they all wanted some to take home. My husband had been looking hopefully at the leftovers but there was none over for him in the end so I've promised to make him a small one tomorrow. Good job that they laid an extra couple of eggs today.

The hens don't like the rain we've had this week and so they are back to laying 4 eggs a day between the 7 of them. Not good for sales of eggs!

It is birthday week in our family so we are having another family gathering on Sunday. I've got to provide the puddings and bake for people at work and do the washing and some ironing and cleaning and my daughter wants me to go round for a couple of hours tomorrow and I have to learn a new song to sing to church on Sunday morning as well as practise the rest of the music and the hens need cleaned out and the rabbits too...and so on. And I'd like a few minutes off for a rest because mine is one of the birthdays. But... I'll be going back to work on Monday for a rest at this rate.