Dear Diary

A 3618-post collection

As Bullwinkle once said...

"This time fer sure."

Finally got to make that appointment for Chaos, which is happening today. I'm finally going to get those dang schoolbooks. I may even see to one of our bills with the money I have left. Which should still leave roughly $100 in the kitty until next Tuesday.

I still have to talk to Beloved about getting that firkin mint plant to MeMum.

But at least I have the ball rolling on Chaos and all her disparate needs.

I am going to spare a few dollars for some simmer sauces. We need flavour. And we're running out of tinned tomatoes.

And I get the feeling that I'll have to wait until the payday after this next one before I can stock up on noms once more.

It's gonna be a fun fortnight.

We'll scrape through. My paranoia with food stores is going to see us through this little thin time. I'm good at making sure we can scrape through.

All we really need is a working refrigerator. And on that note - it may be less expensive than initially expected. We have a dodgy seal at the bottom of our fridge door and that, dear readers, is what's causing it to go wonky on us.

When we get that fixed, at last, I shall get milk again.

Grrrr... fargnax...

OK so I was so eager to have money again that my mental calendar flipped ahead by an entire week. Which means I pretty much have to keep my head in for ANOTHER week.

We have loads of stuff to eat, so it's cool. What's not cool is not having options. Like... "Meh, I don't feel like cooking, let's have Pizza/HJ's/Maccas/RandoTakeoutPlace" kind of options.

What's also not cool is that the freezer needs a defrost and, despite our best

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Payday! Time to get broke

It's the payday just before school, so today will be full of shoes, socks and jocks. Water bottles and hats. And hoping that Officeworks will have the shiznit we need in time.

I have some money squirreled away, just in case. I hope it won't be necessary, though.

Today's big challenge will be keeping the kids awake all day. They've got used to the old siesta and school won't let you take a napnap. The barbarians.

With luck, we should have everything

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Battery at 98%

A planned day at the beach turned into a day at the local pool. It being closer and easier to get to. I'm not a very strong swimmer and I really despise getting my face splashed, so even the shallowest of kiddie pools can bring on panic symptoms if there's five billion kids... well... being kids in a swimming pool.

Plus Chaos thinks it's greatly entertaining to splash me for some reason. Maybe it's because it's a predictable reaction. Maybe it's because

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I feel so much better

I should learn. I really should. When I'm feeling depressed or overwhelmed, I just need some Me-Time.

Yesterday - I did buggerall. Today, I plan more of the same.

Of course you will be getting the instant story and the daily instalment of Iris and Peter Get Married (Eventually). But beyond that? I plan on doing nothing very much at all.

Beloved has weather-dependant plans to go to the beach. You will be hearing about my sunburns and sandcastles if all goes

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I'm taking a day or two

Weekends are the perfect days for Selfish Days. And I kind of need a Selfish Day or two because I've been skipping out on looking after myself.

Stressing out about shit that needs to get done only results in me going into a spiral and not getting anything done at all. And much though I'd love someone to just come in and take care of the stressful stuff for me... I have to do it and being Clear will be a big

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Welp. Gotta do it today

I never got the message from Officeworks about the books, so I have to chase them down about it today. I gotta get lunchboxes, pay bills, and plan the laying-in-of-supplies.

Thank goodness I now know a place where I can get poppas and snacks by the crate.

I gotta get myself into enough gear to cook meals again. These last few weeks have been heat-and-eat when they haven't been purchase-and-gorge. Beloved's been enormously helpful, but they can't cook for me forever.

Nibbling

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Changes and PLNs

I shaved my head, today. I just couldn't stand another minute of having swampy hair in the humid atmosphere of a Queensland Summer. Most of the stubble is my natural hair colour. Weird little patches, here and there, are the bright orange that I used to sport.

No longer. A deep, violent red is cheaper by the job lot, so that's going to be my new hue until such time as something cheaper comes along.

I may have to pay someone to

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Summer's back

Beautiful sunny day plus sweltering humidity equals I really should have gone on my walk nearer to dawn.

Oof.

I'm sweating up a storm, my hair is a swamp, and today's walk reduced my personal batteries to the red zone.

All I can focus on is what I need and what I currently can't afford because no spare money.

I need orthopaedic sandals made for plantar fasciatus, because my feet are getting beyond swampy, too. Also I need footwear just to be

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This time for sure

All my gassing yesterday came to exactly nowt. The doctor's phone was engaged. I ran out of both impetus and spoons to go do the book thing. And the floor never got swept.

Blargh.

BUT... I did get more nibbling done. And I have to re-nibble the kitchen countertop before encouraging some of my family to help clear off the fridge-top because the stuff up there is bad.

No more hoarding egg cartons. Nobody wants them any more. Best to recycle them

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Gradually unfucking my house, and my life

I'm getting there. The floor needs a sweep and I might just make the brats do that because I'm having a low spoons day. When I get up from my blogging duties, I will enter another basket of washing into the eternal cycle of sorting clothes.

I nearly have a full bag to take to Saint Vincent's. All clothes that Mayhem or Chaos or both have outgrown.

I'm still hanging on to a pair of size 16 jeans in the idle hope

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Beginnings and endings

It's all tangled up in January. Sure, the year is over, but my Year of Instants won't wrap up until sometime in February. The story behind that being that I didn't start doing my Instants until sometime in February, 2013, and that kind of echoes on.

Maybe someone will give me a Multiple Prompt and I can whittle that gap down a little more. But probably not by much because this will be another Leap Year of Instants for 2016.

I'm also

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Tough slog

New Years is still kicking me in the butt, alas. The nibbling I should have done yesterday just... didn't happen.

Other things got done. Things that needed to happen, of course, because I've been waiting for said happening for the better part of a year - if not more. For instance, the jade plant I inherited part of from my grandad finally has its own garden bed.

This plant is practically unkillable. It's gone from growing in front of his house, to

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Blurghledy

I must not stay up past midnight for another year. This shit is terrible for me.

I am not only a mass of aches and knots and weariness, but I am all that with stuff to do and a significant lack of coffee.

I'm breaking it into small and manageable pieces, today. Ere I sat down to blog, I made sure the sink was clear and the dishes washed. When I finally rise from my writing, I will sweep the floors and

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At the closing of the year

Before I write the last story for this year [but not the last story for this year's Year of Instants... that's another story] I thought I'd mark my progress in word counts.

The novel I'm currently working on should hit 62K today, and 63K before the weekend.

This year's Year of Instants is standing at a little over 142K, including titles and menus. I have twenty-nine stories to go before I can bundle it all up and get it out as a

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