Last day in May. So it goes.
The plan, on fortnightly cleaner day, after checking the weather forecast and the tide times, was an early morning walk along the coast at the West Witterings beach then home, via the detour of Horsham Museum, which I figured wouldn't be too bad as the boys would sleep, to collect the 1940's Reminiscence box that we had ordered in to collect today, in time for S to go dog walking at 2pm.
A month or so ago inspired by: Carries War, Lion Witch & Wardrobe and a few other historical fiction books S, 7, was really into all things Second World War which is why I ordered in the box. It was already out on loan to someone else though hence the wait. The thing S was most keen to see was the gas mask. Along with art, history is her main area of interest. She wants the gas mask to wear when O has his nappy changed :-O
Today didn't exactly go to plan though as firstly I had to wake S, 7, and O, 3, up, I am often tempted to post on facebook to ask why it is that my children wake up so early except on the one day per fortnight when they have to wake up early but then I remember that the majority of parents wake their children everyday and that waking up naturally is actually a luxury not all children afford.
S didn't want to get out of the car at Witterings, eventually we persuaded her down on to the beach, no one wanted to go for a walk, O wanted to build castles then the wind blew sand in E's eyes and he screamed so loud for so long it was probably audible on the Isle of Wight. So, after eating the chocolate brownies I made first thing this morning in the car we headed to Horsham. As there was no walk no one fell asleep and there was all the fidgeting associated with 80 miles in the car. The staff had advised the box was very big and to pull up outside which I did. We have walked to Horsham Museum many, many times but as we approached I realised I had no idea of the way in by car! Totally disorientated myself but it all worked out okay.
Windy morning at the beach. The second day in a row O has sported his pyjama top on the sand.
Everyone crashed out early than me last night so I took the opportunity to do some household economics as several annual statements have landed on the mat in recent days and I have been wondering how we can fund several big purchases we will soon need to make. Depressing and inspiring all the same time. How is 80% of our monthly income spoken for before we even move!? Our average monthly food spend is coming in around £1000 per month irrespective of whether the month has 4 or 5 weeks. Shocking at first glance but that covers all meals as TDO takes lunch to work and all food eaten away from the home is included as are detergents, loo rolls and so on. Broken down to 3 meals per day for 5 people it actually comes in around £2 per person per meal which seems pretty reasonable really given that we are all meat eaters and consume a large percentage of organic produce.
Past attempts at budgeting have been less than successful. A major switch of utility providers a couple of years ago saw us without a bill for a year due to administrative error, changing insurance providers left us under insured when we needed to claim and cutting back on food spend seems to guarantee we eat more carbohydrates and less protein and fruit with the obvious impact on health.
These thoughts have provided an interesting backdrop to going through the ration books with S this afternoon.
In Other News
Does anyone record a bar chart, I'd love to know if this is the statistical peak time of year for road kill as, on our 80 miles North to South of West Sussex today S and I have spotted: one large deer, several foxes, as well as badgers, rabbits, pheasants (or peasants as my sons call them. "Look at that peasant in the road.") and hedgehogs. I believe some people find them a cheap source of nutrition!
