Autism, Menieres Disease and Me

Although my MD has been really good to me recently (no attacks in nearly 4 weeks) Autism has been a big issue in the house recently hence why ive not been blogging the last 2 weeks. I am having a lot of trouble with my eldest son's behaviour at the moment. Brad is 14 and severly Autistic and goes through phases where his behaviour becomes out of control. This is the point we are at right now. None of the usual deterants are working with him even Lee has tried talking to him but to no avail. I have spoken to my ex husband and asked him if he could talk to Brad about his behaviour which he has now done so im just waiting to see if this has an impact (fingers crossed). I have also decided to get him some councelling to try and deal with the anger issues he seems to have. He hates being Autistic and different to his peers and just wants to be "normal" whatever normal is. I am so thankfull to god for keeping my MD at bay right now as I really dont know how I would cope with all this if I was having attacks on top of it all. So this is where we are at right now just getting through each day as it comes the best way we know how. Hopefully now Brads father has had an imput things will calm down a little and we can get back to normal around here and I can start my blogging again.
Much Love
Claire xxx

Day trip to Bradford On Avon

 

Today Lee took me and the boys to Bradford On Avon for the day. Its about a 10 minute train journey from here and although I used to drive through the village years ago when I was still driving I am ashamed to say I have never spent any time actually visiting the village untill today. The village is beutiful and completly unspoilt by the commercialism of todays world. All the shops are housed in the beutifull old original buildings that have been there for possibly hundreads of years. We had great fun looking around and taking some beutiful pictures.

 

This is a lovely little restraunt housed in one of the old buildings.

This is the River Avon.

This is the local church but the picture really does not do that beutiful large stained glass window justice at all.

I am so blessed to live in an area with views like this to take my breath away.

 

 

 When we got off the train at Bradford On Avon there was 3 boxes of videos and a box of green plastic pots which said free on. We had a look through and there was 3 videos I liked so I had them and several of the green pots which will come in handy for cooking and crafts total cost £0.

 

 

 

In celebration of the olympics gold post boxes were placed in all the towns were a gold medalist winner was from and yes there was one in Bradford On Avon. The gold post box in Bradford On Avon is to honour the Olympic achievements of the town’s kayak king Ed McKeever who scooped top spot in the K1 200m at Eton Dorney.

 

 

I was also very pleased to see this shop although we had a good look round there was nothing that I actually needed this time around so we left empty handed but I am so pleased I am now aware of it so I can use it in the future.

 

 

It also happened to be market day today. I got a lovely cook book that I wanted rrp £16.99 I paid £6 bargain.

And I got this lovely handmade knitted hoodie for Brandon. It is knitted using alpaca wool so is lovely and soft it cost just £18 a snip considering all the work that has gone into it. I have taken the ladies card and will be putting a custom order in for the older 2 boys before xmas and I may even treat myself to one of her beutiful shawls.

 

 

We had lunch on the water which was lovely and the boys were really excited by it.

 

 

This was the view out of the window behind us.

 

We all had a really enjoyable day and will definately be visiting the village of Bradford On Avon again.


We have made a decision recently that is going to save us a LOT of money. I currently have a package with BT my tv, internet, and landline phone is supplied by them and costs £55 a month. We never use the landline and never rent movies so I just could not understand why it was costing soooo much money. I spoke with the boys and Lee as he will be moving in in the new year and we have decided to get rid of the whole package. We will use our tv to watch videos and dvds only and if there is a tv programme we wish to watch we will watch it online instead and as I say we do not use the home phone anyway. All we will need to make this possible is a pay as you go dongle costing £15 a month which is a saving of £40 a month / £480 a year. I also have a contract mobile phone which costs me between £25 and £30 a month. Because I am partialy deaf I very very rarely make calls I always text people instead. I have been looking at various different tariffs and have found one that suits my needs much better and will also save me money. I will be going for the pay as you go unlimited texts package. You top up £10 a month and the next month you get unlimited texts for free this will save me between £15 and £20 a month / £180 and £240 a year. So in total I will be saving around £60 a month / £720 a year quite a saving im sure you will agree.

I also want to share with you a money saving tip which I have just used myself to save a small fortune on xmas presents for the boys. Lee was given a voucher today to get £30 off of all orders £60 and over with very.com. They also have a huge range of toys on 3 for the price of 2 at the moment. Also when you open an account with them you get 10% off of your first order this is what I got and the price breakdown.

 

£15

£15

£22

£15

 

£20

£20

 

 

Total cost £107 plus £3.95 p&p = a total cost of £110.95 I paid just £43.25
This is how I did it I got a discount of £30 for the 3 for 2 promotion you get the cheapest items free.
I then got 10% off of my remaining order using code 29U99 a further £7.70 off
I then used the voucher Lee was given today code 2BLZX a further £30 off
Quite a saving im sure you will agree.

Well this post has become slightly longer than I had anticipated and I have so much to catch up on where we have been out for the day so I really must get on.

Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

 

 

Catch up in pictures

 

I made up some family meals for the freezer this week.

This is Chicken mush and is rather yummy.

Some yummy choc chip fairy cakes.

 

I went to watch my god daughter in Alice in wonderland.

She played a lobster and did really well I was very proud of her.

We went shopping.

We went trick or treating.

 

 

Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

Frugalism vs Simple Living are they one and the same

Ive been asking myself this question for a while now and I still dont know the answer so comments are more than welcome on this one. I have been living a frugal life for around 3 years or so now and I like to think of myself as being pretty good at it. I gave my car up 3 years ago and bought a bicycle instead, I moved to an all electric property in the hopes of installing solar panels at some point so we can live off grid, I started shopping at charity shops, started using sites such as Freecycle/ Freegle/ and JFTLOI. I learnt how to shop more wisely and price check everything, I learnt to look for vouchers and coupons on items and events, I learnt how to repair items instead of throwing them away, and I learnt crafts so I could make things by hand either for gifts or for my familys wants and needs. All this said ive noticed a trend in the simple living blogs I read. They all seem to have veggie gardens, keep chickens, and will buy only local produce with a concern on food miles. I have tried many times to start a veggie garden and been unsuccessfull every time. I would love to keep chickens but just can not afford the start up costs at this moment in time. I would love to buy only local produce and support local business's and local farmers but at this moment in time my purse just will not allow it. Here in the UK food prices are at an all time high and set to rise even further. That combined with rising fuel costs, rising energy costs, rising public transport costs etc etc I now buy what I can afford not what I want and im affraid morals have somewhat gone out the window. My priority right now is reducing my debt as quickly as possible so that we can afford to have morals on food miles and buying local produce again. So that I can afford the start up costs of keeping chickens. So all this said am I living a frugal life or a simple life or maybe some where in between ? Maybe in order to live a simple life you have to follow a path starting with frugalism in order to get to your final destination of simple living I know I still have a lot to learn and am so gratefull for all the blogs and writtings avalible to me nowadays teaching me how to move closer to my goal of simple living. Please feel free to comment on this post all CONSTRUCTIVE critism on where Imay be going wrong is more than welcome.

Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

The Start Of A New Week

We was very busy yesterday (Monday) as soon as I got up I got the children ready for school and tidied the house whilst Lee had a lie in. He has been working a lot of 12 hour night shifts recently so I didnt mind he needed to catch up on his sleep. I did some more washing had a shower and got myself ready. I really wanted to go out and get a few things in town but felt mean waking Lee up so waited untill 11am before doing so. We went into town and had a look in the charity shops where we got some nice items. I got myself 2 pairs of shoes, a pair of trousers and top, a jumper for Brandon, and a lovely Thomas the Tank engine night gown for Brandon. I have put the nightgown away as one of his xmas presents and I just know he is going to love it. I also got some more wool for the scarfs I am making as xmas presents and a plastic funnel for the homemade toiletry xmas gifts I am making this year. I also got some foil containers that I wanted as I plan to make up some family meals for the frezzer this week. By this time we were tired and hungry so we treated ourselves to lunch out. When we were finished we came home and unpacked just in time for picking up the boys from school. Lee went to collect the boys for me as Baby had an appointment at the vets for her vaccinations. I always feel mean taking the animals to the vets but I know its for their own good in the long run. When I got back from the vets it was time for dinner I made a yummy carbonara pasta bake with cheesey garlic bread which was delicious. Then it was bath and bed time for the boys. Once the boys were in bed I sat down to write my weekend blog post, did a little knitting, and did a little housework before going to bed myself.

My etsy shop is now open just click on the ad in my side bar to view the items I currently have in stock.

Remember these

 

 Well this is what they look like now

 

 

 

They are avalible in my etsy shop at just £2.99 each. There will be more stock added just as soon as I can get some decent photos of it.

Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

Our Weekend

This weekend has been pretty quite as Brad and Brandon were at restpite and Lee was at work which left just me and Ben at home. I love the times I get to spend with my children just one on one I get to focus purely on them. I have managed to get back on top of the mountain of washing that had accumalated whilst I was unwell using my homemade laundry detergent. Some of the boys white school shirts were so badly stained that they did not come up in the wash. So I decided to bleach them overnight and rewash them in the hope of saving them. Im pleased to say this worked and saved me having to get rid of 6 good school shirts.

Washing to be done

 

Washing to put away

 

 

 

I was also inspired by a post written by Rhonda Hetzel at her blog Down To Earth entitled Junk Drawer Challenge. You can find the post here http://down---to---earth.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/junk-drawer-challenge.html#comment-form
I have a drawer in my kitchen that the boys use for their stationary and colours which it has to be said was a complete mess here is a before picture.

 

I just recently bought Brandon some new pants and the packaging they came in was basicly a pencil case so I saved both packets and used them for this task. Here is the packaging I am refering to.

 

I emptied out the drawer and put things into piles all the pencils together, all the crayons together, all the other items such as sissors / rulers / rubbers etc together. I put all the pencils in one set of packaging, all the crayons that were not broken into another set of packaging, and all the other items into a pencil tin that was in the drawer already. I pulled the drawer out and gave it a good clean before putting everthing back and this is how it looks now.

 

I had a large number of broken crayons left over so decided to make some teddy shaped crayons for the boys using these left over broken bits. I put them into piles colour matching as closely as possible.

 

I then peeled the paper from the crayons leaving just the wax crayon itself.

 

I then cut up the crayons into small pieces and put them into my teddy bear silicone moulds.

 

 

 

I put these in the oven at 240 for about 10 minutes untill the wax had melted. I then took them out of the oven and using the end of a paint brush gave the wax a good mix to get a solid colour as opposed to a rainbow effect colour. I then left them to sit on the side for a few hours to cool and solifiy and then poped them out of the moulds and this is what we had.

 

Some fun teddy bear crayons

 

 

The boys were very impressed with these and have been having great fun using them. I have also been busy catching up on my blog reading. I have around 6 blogs that I follow religously and had not read for about 2 months so that meant a lot of reading. It was just what I needed to get my head back into the zone of frugalism and simple living so thank you ladies for your inspirational posts.

I also made a start on one of the 5 scarfs im hoping to get done as xmas presents one for each of my 3 boys, one for Lee, and one for my god-daughter Leia. Appologys for the picture quality my camera has been playing up a bit recently and I need to get Lee to take a look at it for me. I will post a much clearer picture when I get the chance.

 

 

Hope you have all had a good productive weekend at your homesteads.
Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx

Very Very Unwell

Over the last few weeks I have been extremly unwell with my Menieres Disease it has completely stopped me in my tracks and a lot of the time I have had to rely on help from my partner Lee and several of my friends just to get the day to day things done in the house. I have had 2 ambulances called out to me one of which wanted me to go into hospital which I declined as there is nothing that can be done for my condition in hospital that cant be done at home i.e medication and lots of rest. Several doctors appointments and an urgent referral back to my specialist and it looks like im going to have to have more surgery on my ears something im really not looking forward to. So as you can see frugalism has been the last thing on my mind recently and as such im afraid I have very little to report in that respect. I do have some news though Lee and I have decided to live together we have a few things to sort out first but we are aiming for early 2013. New year new start as they say. It will be so nice to have him here all the time especially when I get sick he has a way of calming me down and getting me through the worst of MD attacks. Today I am feeling a little better and the eldest and youngest Till's are at restpite and Lee is at work till tomorow evening so its just me and Ben at home for the weekend giving me time to get back on top of things. Especially the mountain of washing that has accumalated while I have been unwell. The plan is to get back to my frugal living and start my blogging again. However MD is very unpredictable so if I disapper for a while again then you can be sure the MD is upto its old tricks again.

Much Love
Claire
xx xx xx