Sunday Snippets

Shut the Box

Persevering. Sunday Snippets is an invention of Jax Blunt on her blog Making It Up. I've done it before but it never became a habit. This month Jax set herself a challenge to blog all 30 days of September. I decided to join her but missed a week of days in the chaos and exhaustion of going back to school. I've not given up though and I'm still aiming to blog as much as I can this month.

Realizing that despite the heatwave of last week, this weekend the summer really did end. I had to wait all day to do laundry while the previous washes dried on the line. During the summer the washing took 2 - 3 hours to dry. I could have done laundry all day if I had enough things to wash or if I felt like I needed clean sheets and towels every day - which I don't obviously.

Wondering how this happened: I spent the summer decluttering and organizing my house only to find that two weeks into the new school year, we are once again living in an enormous mess. Luckily we have a few more holidays over the next few weeks because of the Jewish Festivals. God always gives you a second chance.

Discovering a design fault. We have this game called Shut the Box, which a friend sent for DD last Chanuka. I admit that we've not played it that much but we  never noticed the error - or possibly an intended quirk? (I don't think so.) DD just showed me. How did we not see this before? Did you spot it?

Enjoying the cooler weather. It seems like nothing to you but, believe me, we suffered this week - possibly more than during the whole of July/August which was bad enough.

Saving money by going back to my regular supermarket instead of shopping at the expensive boutique supermarket around the corner. My regular super is a ten minute walk away (downhill) and a 20 minute crawl back up the hill with a heavy trolley (yes I  have shopping-trolley, don't judge). I just could not do that trip in the heat. I could have taken taxis of course but the cost of the taxis was about the same a the savings so I didn't bother.

Sleeping well. DD has finally gone back to sleeping in her own bed after about two years of sleeping with me. We used to share a room in the winter to save on heating two bedrooms, and then separate in the spring, summer and autumn. But for the last couple of years she's not made the move back. I didn't mind too much but recently I noticed that I keep being woken in the night by stray elbows, knees and feet encroaching onto my side of the bed. It was probably always like this but only now it started to bother me. Well DD is bigger and I'm menopausal - nuff said.

Compromising by sharing the family bed on Friday nights when we don't have to get up in the morning. DD: "People say Shabbat is the best day, but it's not, it's Friday!"

Relaxing in our pyjamas the whole of Shabbat. DD wakes up on Shabbat morning with two question. Are we going anywhere today? Is anyone coming? She loves it when the answers are no and no as it was yesterday.

Snippets - Another Weekend

Joining in with Snippets over at Making It Up.

[Reading] with Janet and John: John, John, see the aeroplane come down. DD: "Why don't they say land?" I've also noticed a complete linguistic change in my lifetime: Let us - Let's - Lets. Janet and John only say 'let us' of course.

[Celebrating] Family Day at Kindergarten. The children are blessed under the Talit (prayer shawl) canopy.

[Decorating] a cake bought in the supermarket. Friends over for lunch. After the last birthday cake(s) fiasco which looked great but weren't cooked enough inside (my oven not me), I bought a simple cake in a packet from the supermarket and we decorated with (more) pink icing and sugar flowers/butterflies. Forgot to take pictures but it looked good and it did the job.

[Playing] in the park. Love those swings.

[Hanging] our favourite art on the wall as part of an evolving display. Notice how the whole exhibit comes to together with a recurring theme of purple princesses in their gardens.

[Hanging out] with Playmobil.

A girl can never have too many princesses

[Creating] patterns with Geometri shapes.

Here's one I did earlier

No Mummy, it's not finished!

A lot of concentration is required

Snippets About The No Lodger

Joining in with Making It Up's Saturday Snippets.

[U-turning] on the idea of a lodger. I finally came to terms with the fact that no single female wants to live with a middle aged single mother and her 5yo - no matter how adorable the 5yo may be. So we spent the weekend moving me out of the spudy (spare/study) and back into my big bedroom. I feel like the woman who was told to bring the goat and other animals into her small abode. So much space suddenly...

[Happy] with the above decision even though it means looking for a different source of income.

[Finding] so much extra storage that I could even get rid of a couple of old bookcases. (Going free to anyone in Jerusalem who wants them and can pick them up).

[Rearranging] the kitchen now that I don't have to have a free cupboard for the lodger and...
[Enjoying] not having to take things out in order to get to things behind and...
[Admiring] clear clutter-free counters.

[Snapshot]

STOP-tober 6th: Snippets

Today I'm joining in with Saturday Snippets on Making It Up as well as continuing my STOP-tober Challenge with Mortgage Free In Three. No need to explain, you'll pick it up as you go along.

[Trying] not to eat my way through the entire store cupboard all in one night. It's meant to save me money by supplementing our food throughout the week/month/year. This is the flip side of buying and storing. It's called eating and eating.

[Inspired] by this store cupboard home by Allegra at Theory Of Boots.

[Wondering] how to up my own store cupboard practice.

[Succeeding] in sticking to the STOP-tober budget so far. I've spent nothing since the supermarket shop last Thursday. Really, absolutely nothing.

[Procrastinating] with fb and blogging when I should be working. On the other hand, it's almost 9pm - why should I be working after teaching for six hours straight today?

[Tired]. See above.

[Waiting] for one little girl to fall asleep so I can go in and switch off her little light. - I think she may be asleep actually but don't want to risk going to look in case she's not yet.

[Reading] Caitlin Moran's How To Be A Woman and finding it hilarious. I'm surprised at myself as I don't usually like too much description about sex and other bodily functions.

[snapshot].

Just because we're not arts and craftsy, doesn't mean we're not creative. We just prefer clean creativity.