Just a quick note for anybody near a Sainsburys. This week they have Princes juices, orange and apple, at £1.19 for 3 x 1 litre packs. Three for the price of one - except that I would never pay £1.19 for just one litre. I normally buy basic cheapo juice at 56p per litre. That would be £1.68 as against £1.19. We like juice and get through almost one and a half litres in a week. I now have enough for several weeks squirrelled away :)

My husband made me a lovely dinner yesterday. We had a minced beef pie from the freezer which I had bought from Sainsburys when they were on special offer at 50p a few weeks back. Needless to say, I had bought several and put them in the freezer! Usually we like to make our food ourselves but sometimes when I find a bargain like that, we have some in the freezer. I think they must have been changing the packaging or something like that because they were on offer, not reduced for a quick sale. It is a family sized pie which cuts into 4 portions. We ate it with potatoes given to us by an allotment friend who still had a sack of last year's spuds to use up, courgettes given to us by another allotment friend (ours are smaller and not at the "glut" stage yet), our first picking of our own runner beans and onion gravy made with onions from our allotment. Pudding was some of last year's fruit from the freezer with a very small portion of icecream. As there is enough of everything for another night's dinner, the total cost of two complete meals for both of us was 50p for the pie, a tiny bit of fat to saute the courgettes and the gravy granules plus a tiny bit of icecream.

Very nice it was too!

I'm celebrating the start of the holidays with a heavy cold. As the repairs in my room at work required that I leave everything clear for the workmen, I struggled into work for the last two days of school and cleared everything. After they finish the windows, they are going to repair the floor. I need to clear everything or else they will and that means some things would probably go missing. So I'm at home, feeling better for a couple of days in bed and lots of cups of tea brought to me by my husband. The trouble with being just so exhausted at the end of term is that I pick up everything that is going - and that despite taking echinacea and vitamin C and making sure that I eat my five-a-day and drink loads of water etc.

My husband is at church this morning. Our minister has gone to a conference so my husband is taking the service. I gave him so many instructions - give eggs to this person, put the milk for after service coffee in this place, label the second bottle of milk and put it in the other kitchen, tell this to that person, don't forget to pick up that person who needs a lift to the early music practice...... and so on. Will he remember everything? Probably not but just so long as he remembers some of it.

I went up to see my hens and give them some corn yesterday afternoon when I was tired of laying in bed. I felt like I'd run a marathon when I went back into the house : )
I can tell that my brain is missing and that the space is mainly filled with cottonwool because I've had to edit this post three times so far for spelling/grammatical errors. I give up. Any other errors are staying.

I'm working hard to clear all the surfaces in my room at work so that the cleaners can have a real good go in here during the holidays. I can see large areas of clear space so I'm nearly there but not quite. Just a couple of days to go now and then FREEDOM for 5 weeks. And then I start trying to sort the house out. I've promised myself that I shall clear out lots of clutter although I want a holiday as well. I don't think we will be going away much but I want a break and catch up on sleep and just to feel rested. So I've plans for some decluttering but not everywhere because there is too much to do and I want to succeed, not set myself up for failure.

It is our staff end-of-year "do" tonight with a bbq. This year, the school governors said they would pay for staff because we had such high exam etc results. A free meal and it will be really nice too. I'm looking forward to it, tonight.

I'm having fun at work this week. The workmen have arrived to take out all the windows in my room and replace them.... It is raining hard and blowing a gale and the room is a bit well ventilated for my liking : ) although there is boarding up on the inside and also a plastic curtain thingie on the outside.

There is just me working in here as no kids are allowed in which has its benefits. I start a job and carry on until it is finished without any interruptions. I'm getting through soooo many jobs - it is great. BUT I'm back in winter woollies and keep popping into the main area of the school on any pretext I can think up just to warm up. The workmen did manage to blow all the electrics in this area yesterday and just got them working again an hour ago. The first thing I did was to make a nice, hot cup of tea only to find that the milk in the fridge had gone off...

You have to laugh, really!!

This week has been a looong one. Lots of the family have been down with a tummy bug. My husband and I had to come home from work on Wednesday. He was over the worst by the next day but had to go in on Friday because he was running a work experience conference with lots of important people from industry there - and nobody else could take over. I stayed home on Friday and did nothing much and felt much better for it. Today my poor husband feels like a limp rag, whereas I am not exactly a bundle of energy but am much more like my normal self.

Only ten more working days to go....

This week has been busy and we haven't had a free weekend for several weeks. This one isn't free either but it is just not quite as full. This morning we provided the music for a children's activity morning at church. Next weekend we are not booked to do anything. However, I'm not cheering yet because I think my daughter has designs on borrowing dad to help work on the Ford Transit that they are converting to a campervan. The trouble is that we have not had any time to go to the allotment since before my husband was poorly. We are hoping to go tomorrow afternoon for a bit if it is not too hot. I am quite bothered about how much weed we will find. And is there any fruit and veg left or has it all been smothered by the weed? We certainly won't have the time (or the energy) tomorrow to transform it all and we won't have another opportunity to go until next weekend, daughter and weather permitting. At least some of the weeds will be able to be eaten by the rabbits and hens so not all will be lost.

I'm doing the washing today. The problem with busy weekends all in a row is that only the minimum laundry gets done and sooner or later you get down to the dregs of the wardrobe. My washing line is full and the next load will be finished in a couple of minutes so I will have to sort the washing line for dry or almost dry items that can be taken down and the rest moved up so that more can be added. There is more to do tomorrow too. And the ironing as well.

Our boiler has stopped heating the water. It will still heat the radiators - just not the hot water for my shower. I can feel another bill coming on. The car had its MOT this week and that was expensive. This week is not a good week for the smallholderwannabe funds!