It's been a good old while since I last posted so I guess we should start with a bit of a recap, not that too much has changed. Liam is halfway through his university degree and is living the typical student life half way down the country. I miss him terribly but he is happy and doing well, living with his girlfriend and a couple of flatmates. Ali turns 18 next month and is also looking at universities with a view to doing a Masters degree in psychology! How on earth they've turned out to be such a couple of brainboxes with half of my ditzy genes is beyond me but I couldn't be prouder of them and am cherishing the last few months I have with Ali before he also leaves the nest.
Amazingly enough, Gareth hasn't got sick of me yet either. Probably due to the fact that he's the nicest bloke in the world but somehow he still manages to put up with me dishing him up spectacular failures such as grey scrambled eggs (was supposed to be a Carbonara) and my really annoying tendency to forget EVERYTHING. How we met is rather a neat story in itself but I'll save that for another day.
We also have a new kitten which we recently adopted from our local cat rescue charity. Being massive fans of 'Vikings' we named him Ragnar, although in hindsight we should really have named him 'Wizzer' due to his rather worrying habit of peeing on everything! Even so, we wouldn't be without him - I'm just grateful for all the stain and odour removing tips I've learned from Simple Savings over the years!
Life still has its challenges (doesn't everyone's?) but for the moment I'm just enjoying winter at my beloved Nawtypoo Cottage. I always seem to turn into a raging earth mother with the onset of the cold weather each year and feel constantly compelled to bake and stuff everyone full of soup and comforting puddings. Feeding the many birds who visit my garden is also one of my favourite joys and I was rather alarmed this morning to notice that even some of my sparrows are looking a tad obese!
There's another reason for my return to blogging as well - meet Roger, the writing desk!
Isn't he fabulous? This has to be my all-time favourite freebie and I treasure it every day. Not that I was the one to name him Roger you understand; he already came to me ready-named by his previous owner. Roger was a cherished family heirloom for over 40 years and spent a good part of his previous life travelling all over the country in a house bus before being handed down through the family. Unfortunately when the family moved to the beach and downsized their home, they had to make the wrenching decision to part with Roger. Fortunately for me, a couple of friends on our local Facebook Buy & Sell group saw him and knew I was looking for a real old fashioned writing desk with plenty of character so gave me the tip-off. Now Roger sits in pride of place in my room and I look forward to many happy writing adventures together!
There's still plenty more to catch up on but I don't want to bore you to death already so all in good time. I'm just busy making the most of my frugal skills every day, whether it's cooking and reducing waste, or growing my own food or making cleaning products and the like. It's amazing how many things we Simple Savers actually do in a day that other people just don't do! I'm glad to be able to do them and even more glad to be able to talk about them with other likeminded people who 'get it'. Things might still be tough money wise but good grief, I would hate to think what life would be like if I never knew of so many ways to save!
