Raisins to be cherryful - 10 / 10 thread - all welcome

[FrannyandZooey]

For anyone who wants a boost to their general health. The suggested goals are:

EAT 10 PORTIONS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES EVERY DAY - if you don't usually eat much fruit and veg I would build up gradually or you could upset your digestion.

DO (AT LEAST) 10 MINUTES OF EXERCISE EVERY DAY - can be yoga, stretching or something more energetic. The plan is that the idea of doing 10 minutes is not too daunting, and having started you may well find you want to do more.

There are no restrictions on what you eat so long as you get your 10 fruit and veg as well. The focus is not on weight loss but on improving our energy levels and hopefully our general mood and well-being. Sign up below and post here to tell us how you're getting on and how you are feeling.

Basic guidance on what constitutes a portion of fruit and veg here and you can download more detailed information by following the link at the very bottom of the page

Great news ChocolateRockingHorse

Oh how lovely CRH!

What lovelt news, chocolate.
And rather good weights too.
Dd1 was 5lbs when born (at 35 weeks) and was in scbu for 24 hours then okay.

Museli
pear
Tomatoes
dried bananas

We have the mosr delicious pears a the moment, they are perfectly ripe and juicy and you have to dribble the juice down your chin as you eat them.

Off out for dinner with dds as dd1 recieved her Platinum Award at school today, the first in the whole school.

I've eaten beetroot - lots
and discovered I may have completely arsed up my entire Maternity Allowance claim by not reading the small print properly

if not able to put it right this will cost us approx £3900

Fab news chockrock gal, (wow, a step-grandma at age 12! )

oh franny, what have you done??

congrats chocolate how wonderful for you and family
and fran how did that happen?

have had wonderful son's birthday today -- just family playing party games, trampolining competitions, obstacle courses, egg and spoon races, picnic, frisbee, a walk in the rain. everyone knackered and content.

Toms, many many, cucumber, carrots

littlerach that's fab, she must be pleased as punch

many happy returns to the small stuffitlama

Gosh Franny, hope you can sort that out.

Congrats rocking horse

I have eaten crap.

Thinking of Mrs C

and happy birthday, little llama

littlerach that sounds very impressive (What is it?)

thanks fmf he is utterly happy
scuse dullard ignorance and forgetfulness -- what is maternity allowance again.. a tax thing?

I just had an email from my quadriplegic friend saying, "Are you home? I need help. I have soup on my head. Don't ask :0"

She's fine now but it made us both lol.

[snort] it's not every day you get to say that, I bet

I've just looked it up.. was confused about whether it was stat. maternity pay.

I really want to give you hope it can be sorted out. Have had really good experiences with tax fuck ups errors, and I wonder if the benefits situation can be the same. Have you spoken to anybody official about it yet?

hi UR.. did you do the de-souping?
had to go away when you were giving details about internet man but i did my revision and he sounds a lot nicer than lift guy

I did not do the de-souping. I assume someone else did it but I will ask her about it tonight.

Spent ages chatting to internet man last night & sharing youtube music. Was nice.

I don't know anything about tax/ maternity allowances. Hope it is sort outable.

you haven't met have you..
is it planned?

Might meet next weekend. Not sure.

it's my benefit while I am on maternity leave - am self employed
basically I don't pay NI as get a small earnings exception on it
and was under impression I wouild still get full Maternity Allowance as covered by small earnings cert
not so
unless I can hurriedly back pay 13 weeks of NI contributions (they DID once let me do this before) then I will get the grand total of £27 a week
wahoo

I agree tax people are really nice when asked to help with things like this, but I don't know if they can legally do it this time
the time period is very dicey
I am due in 9 weeks and should in fact have made claim 5 weeks ago

ah hold on have just seen thing about needing to claim before baby is 3 months old
shit
that should be ok
I can revoke small earnings exception and pay NI for next 13 weeks?
oh god oh god oh god I hope so

and no I couldn't get NI people on phone - office had just closed for weekend
was on phone to benefits people just to check this was right about the Small earnings exception and she kept me on the phone until after 5 pm

ah well
nice job for a monday morning - oh, no, Tuesday, this week!
and I can fret about it till then
lovely

Hope it works out, Franny. Sounds very stressful. Being self-employed is complicated.

DS is meant to be taking a nap but keeps saying, "Hi UnderRated, I love you. Can I get up now, UnderRated?"

What a pain, having to wait til Tuesday

"Claim as soon as you can after you have been pregnant for 26 weeks. If you claim more than 3 months after the date your Maternity Allowance is due to start you will lose money."

this means I can claim up to 3 months after going on maternity leave, right? before I lose any money? so presumably they back pay the allowance once you claim? and you have 3 months to do it? am I reading that right?