Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 6: Calmly through the day

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

I’ve just had toast and marmite.

The dog is livid that I will not fix the rain for him.

Doing a jigsaw.

Popped into work just to use computer for some orders and found out they have been trying to me for the afternoon shift as someone is off ill! Might be working next morning too.

I'm having chippy tonight

Do I want a gravy chip with peas and onions, or breast of chicken?

I’m still in bed

Having a ploughmans for lunch - bread from the bakers, blue cheese, real ale chutney and apple.

Another item of food for me to google.

I’ve spent 2 days planting bulbs and leaf gathering in the garden which did me the world of good, emotionally and physically.

Looking out of my kitchen window, there is an army of squirrels digging up the bulbs and thousands more leaves are blowing off the trees.

I’m sending the DDogs out to chase the squirrels which is pretty much their favourite pastime ( no danger of them ever catching one!)
The leaves look rather beautiful on the ground so I’m going to leave them there.

The trusty Vanish bar worked! All gone except for one tiny spot I missed. We can cope with that, he’ll be getting a full-size bed soon enough so the old bedding will be going anyway.

We have had a baking morning here too - I’ve baked a beetroot and orange cake and DH has made a ginger nut apple crumble. The kitchen smells delicious.

DS has been doing his favourite jigsaw all morning. I think we must be on about the tenth time now. He wants one of us to ‘help’, but we aren’t allowed to put any pieces in. If we do transgress, he takes the offending piece out. However he does continually tell us to ‘help!’ quite firmly 🤣 He has just said ‘We can do it again... and again... and again... and again! Come on Mumma, let’s go!’ Oh good 🙈

I'm back from the supermarket. We're trying a new pizza sauce for homemade pizza nights. The cats are requesting the leaves to be blown off the deck, as they hate to walk on them. DH will do it later.

I just read a medical blog post ranking the best human organs. It was pretty good. I'll post the link if anyone wants it. The skeletal system won.

Yes please @MissConductUS

Medpage Today has a lot of good stuff.

[[https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/generalprofessionalissues/89621?eun=g20716785d28r&hr=dd_REC274&xid=NL_MPT_REC274&vpass=1 Ranking the Best Human Organs
— Which organ is the greatest? Which is tripe?]]

Gathering mental strength for the talk with DS - that is I write the points that need to be adressed and DD will do the talking. I am afraid we have not demanded enough of him when he was younger, but we were trying our best. Oh well!

It hasn't been properly light all day but it is still dry and reasonably warm (10°C).

eggypegg, as an ex scout leader I cannot advocate for the movement enough. DS started as a Beaver, and has had so many opportunities as a result. He's 16 and still attends (virtually ATM) Explorers which has a mixed reputation amongst his peers.

The culmination of this was him going on a 3 week expedition to Kenya aged 15. The boy who came back was a very different (and significantly grimier!!) one than the one who went and it has changed him for the better on almost every level. He has also remained friends with his travel companions who are a different group completely to his college friends.

Top tips from me would be to name everything, never send white stuff to camp, have a bin bag for them to sit on when collecting from events / camps and ensure the washing machine is empty before you leave

In boring news, it got dark very quickly tonight.

@Prokupatuscrakedatus Ah, you can only do what you think is best at the time. It’s clear DS has got a lovely, supportive family. You’ll all come through it in the end. (Veteran of a number of talks with dbro!).

@Champagneforeveryone

eggypegg, as an ex scout leader I cannot advocate for the movement enough. DS started as a Beaver, and has had so many opportunities as a result. He's 16 and still attends (virtually ATM) Explorers which has a mixed reputation amongst his peers.

The culmination of this was him going on a 3 week expedition to Kenya aged 15. The boy who came back was a very different (and significantly grimier!!) one than the one who went and it has changed him for the better on almost every level. He has also remained friends with his travel companions who are a different group completely to his college friends.

Top tips from me would be to name everything, never send white stuff to camp, have a bin bag for them to sit on when collecting from events / camps and ensure the washing machine is empty before you leave

In boring news, it got dark very quickly tonight.

This is a brilliant post @Champagneforeveryone, thanks.

I was a Guide, and my leader was very proactive in organising international trips. I spent my 15th birthday in the Czech Republic and my 16th in Spain as a result (and went to Disneyland Paris twice). I had wanted to join from Brownies, but was never allowed (I don't know why). I never got any badges though. I didn't join until I was 13, and there seemed to be less focus on badges for us older ones. My sash always looked so sad and empty compared to my friends (who had come up from Brownies).

I think that DS1 would love Cubs if he gave it a chance. The outdoor side of it is right up his street. When we tried him with Beavers though, the colony (which was brand new) focused primarily on craft activities. And he's too feral active for that for an hour. I know that each pack will run slightly differently, so I'm trying to find him one that has physical games as standard (I used to be an assistant at a Cub pack when I was 16, and I recall lots of running around games).

It's brilliant that your son has continued with Explorers as teens can be mean. But he gets the last laugh, what an incredible opportunity to go to Kenya.

And in boring news, the wind and rain is howling outside. But I'm sat on my bed with my crochet, listening to it and it's very peaceful.

@Spudlet
Thanks for your kind words.
Unfortunately it's me (my side) that equipped my offspring with interesting brains (ADHD from my DM and autism from DF side). So I can't talk to DS as I am too much like him, only old and female.

I've written my christmas cookie list:
Nusskekse, Schokoladenkekse, Schneebällchen, Zimtbällchen
Vanillekekse mit Schokoguss, Hildabrötchen, Vanillekipferl,
Butterfingers (a recipe DH brought home from Edinburgh) - I need 2 more. Family tradition demands 10 different kinds.

In boring news, it got dark very quickly tonight.

So true. I was in town with DS1. We went into the arcade in daylight and came out into darkness not long later. It was wet and miserable too.

Put up the tree and some lights in the hallway. I know its early, but this is a pants year and dd is spending xmas week with her dad.

DH has just had another sleep, his third nap today. He's just off to collect 2 click and collect orders.

I'm drinking tea. My mouth and lips have been tingling all day which is wierd.

I’m pissed off cos I took some mattresses to the tip and apparently you know need to book a slot there . So had to bring them all the way home and unload them into the living room (as baby car seat won’t fit in the back of the car with them) where they will need to stay til Tuesday when I can take them back. Dullest news ever

The trees are almost all bare here and it's dry and cold after a huge storm that swept through with Canadian air in its wake.
I cut back my two big Boston ferns in hopes of overwintering them indoors, and divided the bigger one, so hopefully I'll have three ferns next spring.
Dcat spent last night trying all the comfy spots on my bed in turn and walking back and forth over me. Feeling a little sleep deprived now, but Madame seems none the worse for her restless night and after all, that's all that matters.

@Prokupatuscrakedatus goodness me, that's going to be a lot of cookies. They sound lovely. I'm a pretty good baker, but my biscuits/cookies are only just OK, apart from my flakemeal biscuits, and shortbread, which I have a bit of a knack for.

Decided on the gravy chip with peas and onions. It was OK but they clearly didn't fry the onions properly and it was a bit tasteless. It's getting notions, our local chippy, at the expense of deliciousness, I think they're changing the oil too many times

@reallyspicycurry
They taste nice, but only those DH bakes are really really good to look at.
I googled flakemeal biscuits and I think I might add them. So thank you!
I'll take most of them to the office where they will be inhaled by students doing their internships.