fred_mouse

 yesterday, reasonably successful.

projects: worked on long stitch until bored; worked on crochet when talking to people. Neither of these are close to finished, which is a shame, as I'm over both of them. More over the long stitch than the crochet - don't ever want to do another long stitch, but just wanting to start the next crochet project....(faked granny squares blanket. will take some planning). 
tidying: got lounge completely tidy. then emptied disaster out of music room, all over the lounge. Music room rearranged, several items returned and away, got distracted, cleaned inside of music room windows - can't tell, outside too grubby. dealt with shopping. lounge is still disaster
fitness: short ride to shops with youngest. tick the box on the letter, but not the spirit of the resolution. 
everyday survival: shopping (milk, cheese, ooh, look, marked down nice stuff - youngest talked me into all sorts of things: fresh salmon, blueberries, brie), cooked lunch, cooked dinner. 
food: quiche (*2, commercial gf pastry, one salmon, one warrigal greens), meringues, both written up in my little book. 
music: picked a couple of piano pieces to work on. did so. Tuned viola, practiced reading the cleff. Found flute books, tried a couple of tunes. Found dulcimer book, tried a couple of tunes. picked recorder piece (soprano) to work on. May have been a little distracted while tidying up items from music room....
other: fixed lounge room curtain so it runs on track properly; persuaded kids to get rid of some items out of the 'small visitors' toybox; vacuumed two rooms; changed calendars; paid up on pocket money (last year's)
friends: saw aria briefly, but only to exchange objects. enjoyed being at home.


today, also reasonably successful.

tidying: more stuff from lounge into music room, including sewing machine, which has been used. cleared many items off kitchen table *and* kitchen counter. not sure that difference is actually detectable. 
projects: finished calico shoulder/shopping back with cat stencil on, will be gift for friend KM. have not really worked out what else to work on - should do more, but will have to leave that for tomorrow. 
basics: washed, dressed, cooked pasta w tomato sauce for lunch. really was the kind of day when I needed to note that the basics happend (middlest has a friend to stay for a couple of days, I have the edges of a migraine). 
fitness: longest bike ride managed so far. Have been heading to fwy from here, then following bike path that takes us along Roe Highway. First few days went as far as Karel, yesterday kept going to the next side street, this time went around the golf course. Found hellacious "hill". Need to get fitter - actually thought of this as serious obstacle. (for those not familiar with the area, we are on inland sand dunes. Flat, flat, slight slope, flat). 
music: worked on recorder piece. worked on one piano piece. apparently brain is in music space, as made a lot fewer mistakes than usual. This is not compatible with clear communication in English, which has been causing problems intermittently. 
other: passed on contact details for IC to TM, if ze wants to get in touch; wormed cat (why oh why does it take three people to hold a cat down to do this. are there tricks anyone can show me?); fixed the contraption that attaches youngest's bike to mine so ze is following behind me, rather than a foot to the side.
friends: off to a BBQ at JH's tonight - catching up after a long time of being out of contact (except that ze and I had lunch together during december, but A hasn't seen her, and the kids haven't)

It's been a fairly busy day, remarkable in the number of little things completed, and the fact that much of it was done with 3 kids in tow, and while I was still exhausted at the end of the day, I wasn't any worse than usual.

After a leisurely start the the day, I dragged kids to the local park-n-ride, caught bus into town. Went to kouks, bought many ingredients for fruit cake. Spent much more than usual at such a shopping expedition, didn't get everything I 'should' but stopped at the point where I knew that the pram would be comfortably full. Still managed a couple of things falling off mishaps, but nothing disastrous - no broken glass or plastic bags. Also managed to take swanCon receipt books to White Dwarf (who are in the process of moving!) and Tactics. Had lunch with black_samvara. Met up with an old friend/acquaintance. Caught bus back to local park & ride, collected car, went to shop to stave off disaster (potential for which was discovered this morning after breakfast, when there was No More Soy Milk in the cupboard). Home, did much of the unpacking of groceries, couple of kids came to visit, I managed to get fruit cake started (the chopping and the boiling bits), made dukkah AND muesli, so those looming potential disasters are also staved off (is that a proper arrangement of that verb?). Also managed a nice cornbread:

3 cups flours/meals, including approx 1 cup dusting polenta, some rye flour and some atta flour.
enough water to mix to a sticky paste
chopped fresh chives (coarsely chopped)

put corningward type dish in oven, with generous amount of oil in, warm. Add batter, cook for a bit. Swish around so that some of oil covers top of bread, pour off excess oil. Cook until looks done (doesn't move when tipped sideways). Probably about 1/2 an hour. Serve hot. mmmm....

As for gardening today: didn't manage to plant anything (although I had myself convinced that I was going to plant 2 things, given that I don't think I did anything yesterday). Instead, pruned the limb off the neighbours jarrah tree that is coming through the fence and is goingto be too large in a few years (would damage the fence), so that I can plant something in the spot that it hit when cut (which is why it has to be done now). Also pruned the neighbours shrub that descends on our rubbish bins. Also cleared the front drive! (with help from artisanat, who kindly moved the (ow, heavy) jarrah limb). Had great plans to do more, played piano instead. However, have learnt much of a page of a tune I didn't know (mind you, I searched through the book until I found a page I was willing to try and learn, so bit on the cheaty side there.

but in all that, the most remarkable thing about the day is that most of the time I kept my temper completely, and only a couple of times got a bit gruff (once with youngest child who wanted to post a letter, but didn't want to actually get out of the pram to do it, and once with middle child who did something small and silly, and once with eldest child who was trying to hold too many things while waiting at the checkout, despite having a perfectly good trolley to put some of it in, and dropped half of what he was carrying). this is remarkable, because bus trips are not something that we are collectively good at, and they tend to trigger the worst in at least one of us....