Project 52 2021 week 14 – decluttering

Week 14 of the year and Project 52, and it’s been a largely chilly one, interspersed with wintry April showers. Not the best weather for a first week of the Easter holidays. I had 3 days off work after the bank holiday although we didn’t go anywhere or catch up with people. Covid cases are still going down, the inlaws both had their second Covid jabs, so just waiting for next month to roll by so I’ll have mine and the OH in June. Hopefully once shops and outdoors hospitality opens next week, we won’t see cases rising fast again. It was also the week that the Duke of Edinburgh died, just a couple of months before he was 100. I feel for the Queen, now ruling the country without her husband of 70+ years.

Onto the week’s round up.

Easter Sunday was a quiet day. I’d decided I wanted to have an Easter egg and sod my diet for one day, so scoffed a Terry’s chocolate orange egg, although I did put the 2 chocolate bars in the larder to use for cooking. After having basically no sugar or chocolate for the last 3 weeks, I didn’t really enjoy it that much. It shows how fast you can change your tastes if you’re strict about it. So back on the diet again after that. N had the first junior club coaching so I spent just over an hour catching up with various other parents dropping kids off. Not very many children turned up – only about 7 compared with about 12 usually, and none of the tots age which overlaps our session, so it meant a better coaching session for the older children. And lots more space.

This is the second year we’ve not all been over to the farm for a big family Easter dinner, but my mother in law had cooked a turkey crown so we shared it between their house and ours. I started my decluttering and reorganising of the larder. 1 1/2 shelves done. A lot more to do.

Bank holiday Monday was cold again. I finished my next Wasgij puzzle, then set about sorting out more of the larder, and a couple of the drawers in the kitchen. Cutlery and cooking utensils drawers now done. N enjoyed using the Dymo label maker. Poor Amazon drivers having to work on the bank holidays – but the driver over the weekend delivering, was one who loved our dog. Both seemed happy to get the 2 way attention!

On Tuesday I made banana and chocolate chip muffins to use up 2 brown bananas. Only N was eating them so I ended up freezing some so they didn’t get wasted. He bizarrely decided he wanted to bake biscuits from his cookbook on the same day, so we’ve ended up with lots of sweet stuff to eat. Sigh. I need to start trying some keto cakes then I can at least help eat them. Although not sure they’ll be quite as nice as proper flour cakes. I helped N take the dogs for a walk. It snowed later on in the afternoon. In April, it sounds madness.

I finished the second shelf in the larder, although have had to put some bits (household cleaners and toiletries) on the window ledge too. Yes, our larder has a window because it was initially built to have it as an office, but the OH doesn’t do his own office work, so it’s always just been used as a larder. We still have 2 crates of tins and household/toiletries and 1 crate of drinks on the floor in there, but hopefully we’ll start working through those instead of me repeat buying things we don’t need. I also did the baking tray cupboard.

On Wednesday N was at tennis camp for the day. It always seems a bit expensive at £35, but it’s for 6 hours, and when I look at other tennis camps, they’re only for 2 hours and cost around £20! We definitely get a bargain. Luckily it was dry, but sooooo cold. N still went in shorts. Brrrr. He had a great day – there were lots of little ones there, but they did have about 9-12 year olds. N said the little ones who got put with their group for some of the games were ‘pretty good fun’.

While he was there, I got out the sewing machine and made some notebook covers. If I can get them neat, they might be an option for fund raising at school. My best friend says she does a roaring trade with them at her son’s school. Otherwise, they’re just cute for gifts. I decluttered my corner tupperware and mixing bowl cupboard. It’s looking very empty and neat now.

In the afternoon, i had a lady turn up at the farm. She’s been working surveying at a nearby barn, and her car parked on the verge had had its window smashed, and she’d caught them trying to steal her dog from its crate in the back. They only managed to get her handbag, but she was too wary to go onto her next job, so asked if she could hang around at ours where it was safer, until the police came out. It was a shock for me too, because we’re out in the sticks, why would someone just be driving past on the rare chance of finding a car parked up on the side of the road. I made her a tea, before the police said they were looking for a missing person so couldn’t come out (not surprised as they never come out when we have things stolen either). Hopefully she got her car fixed, the dog was ok and we don’t get any further incidents around here.

On Thursday it was more organising. I did some chopping up of onions, peppers and celery to put in bags and freezer for speedy recipes.It has made the freezer and then larder stink of celery everytime I open the freezer, but it’s worth it and saves fridge space. Plus means items won’t go off because I’ll just freeze any before it gets wasted. The only problem is our freezer has got full again. Need to get eating the bread. N and the OH have discovered toasties made on the George Foreman grill this week (the OH dropped the replacement aga toaster down the back, only 2 weeks after I replaced the first one he dropped down there!), so hopefully they’ll get through more bread.

I also made N try on all his shorts, t-shirts and jumpers, so I can sell or donate them. Usually I hand down to my godson, but by the time we see him, he’ll probably already be in that size N’s getting rid of! N’s ended up with only 2 pairs of chino shorts, and a couple of jumpers. I’m not sure whether it’s worth buying anything to replace the ones we’ve got rid of – he lives in jogging trousers and sports shorts, which I can’t stand outside of sports. Looks so scruffy.

On Friday I decided it was time to rock tape up my knee. Every couple of years I get some twinges and it’s just started again. The last couple of weeks I’ve been upping my steps (just at home), and now it’s hurting when I do that on the spot. I don’t know if I tweaked it a bit when walking the dog, or knocked it. Seems fine when walking around normally. So now it’s strapped up and hopefully resting it a little might help fix it. I made homemade coleslaw for the first time. It was delicious, but I’ll be eating it for about 3 days!

Tennis group session was quiet with only 6 of the orange/green group turning up compared with 9. N was the only green player, so he basically had a private lesson with the assistant coach while the rest were orange players so did their normal group session. It’s nice to be able to see N playing points against a much better player to see how he copes. He also had a lot of serving practice. These first 3 sessions back are 2 hours as they include 30 mins catch up from a rained off session, so we got my money’s worth.

Saturday was a quiet day. N and I did pop into town in the morning – to get bread from the bakery market stall, stock up at the butcher’s, a trip to Home Bargains to see if I could find some type of stand or shelf for under the sink (no success), and a drive through milkshake for N from Costa. I did some puzzle, cleaned out another cupboard, some reading.

All this decluttering has been great, but I’ve added to my stash of ‘ready to go to the charity shop’ bags in the car boot, as well as nearly filling up the bins when they’ve got another week before being picked up. Thankfully there was room in the recycling, but I’ve already nearly filled that again. Oops.

New posts this week:

• Wasgij Destiny 22 – Trip to the Tip solution
• Return to tennis after lockdown
• Keto charcuterie board