This track hasn't been on the blog for ages.
We have these steps in our bathroom and kitchen for smaller people to reach sinks and toilets and they are called "The Brand New Steps" even though they are 5 years old! Grandie made them for us when S, now 7, was a toddler and she christened them and, for half a decade, the name has stuck.
So in our kitchen you might hear a conversation like
"Oww!"
"What have you done?"
"Just walked into the Brand New Steps."
Along with brown paint (aka nutella) and the "First rule of bath club" (to the tune of "What's the first rule of Fight Club?" -have a wee before you get in if you are interested) it is another way conversations that take place within our family have evolved a language all of their own. Of course it was a rule before I knew that
principles are better than rules.
The lazy vibe has continued today. A long standing home ed friend over to play this morning. We have known her since she was 4 and she is 12 now, made time during her visit for the allotment and made paper aeroplanes too.
Ron, who has the plot next door to ours at the allotment, is one of the UK's champion dahila growers. You might recall me mentioning on the blog last year and speculating whether this was a skill he learnt in school. The flowers are not to my taste. I am more about fragrance but I admire his talent and patience. Those blooms will be heading to Yorkshire next week. Yes, that is manure. Not a great fragrance!
Operation food budget begins today and I can report a spend of £2.70, E scootered with me, which was cool, ocado deliveries do have an element of "manna from heaven" about them and we bought a stir fry sauce. In the interests of economy I did google the possibilities of making our own but not being in possession of any of the raw ingredients besides water and sugar it seemed a large outlay for a meal that we rarely eat. Being more of the risotto, pasta, pizza bias.
From today I'll put my food budget notes at the bottom of each post that way you can avoid austerity should you wish. it is tricky to be totally honest and accurate as stock levels in the freezer and larder are fairly high but not so the fridge. There is never going to be a zero point for this sum. In my mind I have £20 per day as a ball park average. We shall see how it goes. It is not going to be linear.
So, for breakfast TDO had warm croissants and duck pate whilst S & O had jacket potatoes with cottage cheese and orange cheese. E didn't want any breakfast, he often has porridge in the week or sausage sandwich at weekends. I had fruit salad and toast.
We also love coffee, recently I've scaled back our illy habit to lavaza levels but, along with countless others, TDO buys a ready made coffee each day on the way to work which I have previously been including in our running budget totals. Many people have spoken to me and contacted me about this topic, some initially shocked at our spend but slowly revealing that they were, for example, excluding eating out from their totals.
The trio like Actimel probiotic drinks in the mornings which are about 25p each.
For lunch we had allotment salad with the addition of mozzarella to the tomatoes and basil, O had two chicken breast fillets. My attempts at home made here have been rejected. S had ham and bread all wrapped up with home made apricot crumble and ice cream. because we are fairly unschooling in our appraoch we don't all have to have the same meal, I can't help wonder if family food is cheaper in the states where many of the ideas originated!
For super we will have stirfry, S will have ristoto, (we make our own chicken stock so a really inexpensive meal) and the boys will probably have home made pizza. I use bread mix for the dough and reduced (as in cooked down) passata with onions and garlic for the topping.
