No more dreaded Mondays

It’s the end of a long and tiring week for me. I consider Mondays my ‘end of week’ now rather than Sunday and thank goodness I have it free today. 

Last week I covered someone at work while she was on holiday as well as doing my own job. Thursday and Friday I was visiting a client in Durham so had to work on trains and in a hotel room, although I managed to squeeze a trip to Durham cathedral in so I could light a candle in memory of my mother. 

The next day, Saturday, I drove to Thame to scatter her ashes with my father and sister on her birthday (and discovered the most beautiful damask rose bush to pop her under). Sunday I went with Martin to look after his stall at a model aircraft swap meet. 

I’m shattered frankly. I’ve been awake before 6am every morning, and when I’ve eventually got to sleep I’ve tossed and turned and not stayed asleep. My sleep pattern is dreadful at the moment because I am stressed.

But thank goodness for Mondays. I had a nice lie in this morning until 8am and now I have lots of energy to get done the things I want to accomplish. I've changed MIL's bed and washed the sheets, then cooked up a batch of egg shells to grind up in the chicken feed for extra calcium. 

Shortly, I'll be tackling a job that's been annoying me - I am drowning in blankets, throws, duvets, fleeces, patchwork quilts, bedspreads, eiderdowns and curtains. There are piles in every room. I’ve taken in a lot from Martin’s aunt’s house and some of my mother’s items and now I’m inundated. I need to sort out the ones to be washed, get those done and then fold up the rest and get them away in the airing cupboard. That is in a dreadful state as well so I have to sort that out before anything can go in. I’ll hopefully end up releasing more stuff for the charity shop and making some room. 

Later on this afternoon I am potting up a load of tomato plants and cucumbers for the greenhouse. Martin found a greenhouse for £50. Bless him, he spent all week clearing the space for it, painting the wall and putting it up. It’s a bit rough and ready but as long as it protects the plants and keeps them a bit warm it doesn’t matter. 

Because I feel more rested with three days off I'm now spending the time doing more cooking, rather than throwing quick meals at people. Dinner tonight is a nice pork joint, but previous weeks I've done lamb shanks and a vegetable lasagne. 

After that I'm doing some studying for my herbal course and reading some of my new books. Last week I decided to add some vintage books on frugality/simple living to my collection. Every now and then I get a £25 voucher from work for something I’ve done well so that's been burning a hole in my pocket for a few weeks.

I was particularly pleased to find good copies of books by enthusiastic and penny-pinching cook Shirley Goode written in the 80's. Although she is no longer with us, she left behind a great legacy  - she had a blog where she talked about all sorts of ways to reduce household spending on food (among other topics). I've read it all before but will be going back through again. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. I also have The Farmhouse Kitchen Cookbook after finding a couple of vintage episodes of The Farmhouse Kitchen on YouTube. It only dawned on me recently that the woman who hosted it was Scottish and not from Yorkshire at all. 

I’ve also discovered a wonderful YouTube channel, courtesy of Rhonda over at Down to Earth, featuring a lovely Turkish couple cooking outdoors in all weathers. There’s no talk, it’s just the sights and sounds of their activities, which is amazingly soothing and fascinating. Her chopping blade is something else! 

So tonight I will round off my day and relax watching an episode.

I used to dread Mondays. Now I look forward to them 😊