First of all I was going through the awesome comments and Sharon Koole shared that there was a site that suggested yarn substitutions called yarnsub.com. I shall be bookmarking it!
Sarah Head - as I put in the comments, I couldn't agree with you more about SATS and the exams. I don't think bear is feeling worried about passing, he can be remarkably confident when it comes to knowledge. I think he feels under seige. I have repeatedly told bear that if he fails an exam then there are other options. It might be harder, and it might be more expensive, but there are always ways or other jobs or other options. It's never the end of the world. If schools are like this at 11, what are the secondary schools like when so much funding and reputation relies on the results?
There has been snow here. To be fair, we've had four flakes and a promise and are much better off than people like wherethejourneytakesme who really have got their hands full. Yesterday I went out briefly to put some stuff in the bin and I felt battered but it wasn't really that bad. DH works on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales and he's found it trickier, but still not as bad as some. I ought to hang out some of bear's shirts. Snow is supposed to bleach whites.
I bought a very large pack of Aldi washing powder for a very reasonable sum. It isn't bad, especially not for the money. It's just not as good as Ariel. I can tell. All sorts of very respectable authorities like Which say that Aldi is a really good brand for washing powder, but it isn't the same. My whites are not as white. I mean, bear's school shirts are still white, but they're not white I've had to fight the urge to twitch when I've been in the playground and seen downright grey shirts because goodness knows what they've washed the shirts in, and it's really none of my business, but I like bear's shirts to be white.
I've been waiting to finish off the Aldi washing powder. Today I caved. I tipped the remaining powder into a container where I keep the cheap stuff for soaking things like baking trays (biological washing powder can do amazing things to stuff with grease on) and opened up a box of Ariel with a sigh of relief.
So my whites will now be white and the rest of the house will be a fail in housewifery but at least the laundry is a start.
Dear Lyssa...I think I have commented on your blog before...I have been where you find yourself...it is a terrible, dark and guilty place...I suffered for many years...possibly triggered by having a healthy baby boy a year after a stillbirth...plus some inlaw issues. I went to my doctor who basically said you lost a baby...now you have one...and that was that. Things would get better for a time then I'd fail again...sometimes triggered by an illness. After turning 40 I really fell to pieces...turned out I had benign positional vertigo...brain re training exercises and medication slowly helped. I still take the medication...without it I get awful earache and headaches...Only now at 50 do I feel the real me is back...I travel across half the county for work meeting people...I won't drive the motorway or a section of the link road where I felt ill so many times...but I get where I need to be...on my own! Hang in there...you're a caring person...and very often it's caring people who absorb much of other people's distress that suffer in this way...keep taking the little steps and very soon you'll be flying high! xx
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this and for a wonderful and inspiring hug. Your comment has really given me a boost. Thank you! LM x
DeleteI like whites to be white.
ReplyDeleteTo use up that old powder I use a bit of washing powder to clean down my stainless steel sink - it is great to bring up a shine. Rub the dry powder around the sink with a damp cloth to start with then add the water to rinse - any brown stains from tea disappear and so does any grease and it cleans the drains at the same time. Works like Bi carb but also takes the grease away which bicarb doesn't do as effectively i find.
January has not been a good month so far - but then a lot of my January's are filled with more bad news than good.
The SATS sound a bit of a headache - I am sure bear will get through it but the pressure is not good at that age. The pressure you have now at work is bad enough you don't want to spend all your life under pressure.
Thank you for the tip. I shall definitely be using it! I'm not letting it go to waste, I'm just not using it for whites lol! As for the SATS, I think it is so unfair to put the kids through this sort of pressure. LM x
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