Almost the end of January, and time to post on how my resolutions are going. I would definitely recommend this as a good way to do resolutions. I've actually been pretty much getting them done, and its kept me focused.

1) I did my income tax return. Was surprisingly easy, and I shouldn't have put it off as long as I did. Next month I need to sort out my national insurance - they keep sending me bills, and I think I should have been exempt for at least some of it.

2) Living within my means. This has gone OK this month. It helps that January is pretty much a 'go nowhere and do nothing' month. I have managed to avoid bank charges so far. I won't be relaxed until I start earning from childminding though and can start paying down debt - so I don't feel as positive as I might.

3) Take Polly swimming. This is scheduled for this afternoon!

4) Finish a watercolour. Have not done. I have done a drawing, which I am planning on painting at the weekend.

5) Re-read Lord of the Rings. I'm on course to finish this (just). It's been very rewarding to reread it again. The only slight downside has been that I'm having to stop myself visualising the MMOPRG. :-( It started to wear off after Rivendale, thankfully, as I passed the computer game zones I knew, but it was a bit sad! I've been playing lots of the LOTR MMORPG, and while it is a very good game, and does not abuse the books, it does neccessarily shrink the vastness of Middle-Earth. The other result of reading this has been that I'm itching to go out walking myself. Any Bristolians want to go on any easily reachable local walks - I'm up for it. One day I'd like to see if I can walk all the way to Bath along the cycle path.

6) Find my first childminding client. Not quite, just dealing with enquiries, which I'm finding pretty stressful going. I've had one no-show this morning. I wasn't entirely surprise that this particular customer turned out to be unreliable, and I don't mind not taking on such. I've had one studentmum/granny pair come to look, but they havn't got back to me. I was very nervous before the meeting, which perhaps didn't help me present myself as professionaly as I might have done. I tend to be extremely reticent with people I hardly know, unless we share some hobby that breaks the ice, and I see I'm going to have to work on this to bond with customers. I've got one woman I've exchanged emails with, who's coming to see me when she gets back from holidays. I've got another woman coming tomorrow, who I shall call Desperado - having arranged the meeting over the phone she emailed me saying could she come round sooner as she didn't want to be pipped at the post for a slot!! Desperado sounds nice - so fingers crossed that goes well.

7) Starting a notebook of D&D ideas. I've started it, but am starting to think that what I might write next is a Mass Effect campaign using the Traveller ruleset. I'm missing getting my Space Opera on! Still, I will continue to write D&D ideas down for as and when I get back in the Forgotten Realms mood again.

8) Take Polly to a city farm. Done! She really enjoyed it, although I was pretty gutted the cafe was closed. :p Still...probably for the best...see point 2).

9) Bottle the wine! Done! Much fun with a hammer and a strange device apparently called a flogger. We now have 4 + 1 dodgy one bottles of sweet, very slightly fizzy, but quite drinkable white wine. Its definitely a desert wine - I've forgotten all my brewing chemistry but I suspect the sweetness and the length of time it took to ferment are maybe connected to me not putting as much acid in as the recpie asked for.

10) Sort out storage in the main bedroom. Not exactly - but I have done a steady potter of clearing and rationalising cupboards all over the house. We could make a lot better use of the space here than we have been doing, and we are going to turn the back bedroom into Polly's bedroom finally, after its former life as my study, then a storeroom. Now I have a large pile of stuff waiting to head to the tip.

Thames Valley Police have done my CRB - so that shouldn't be many more days before my registration arrives. Woot! Light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks for your supportive comments re. my last post - its appreciated. I was having a very self-pitying five minutes. Its good to be reminded that other people are also in a similar boat, or have been in the past.

Mid August: OFSTED assures me that CRB checks only take a few weeks, but in the unlikely event it takes more than 6, I can contact them to chase it.

End September: Still no CRB check. Chase it with OFSTED, who shrug helplessly and say theres nothing they can do to escalate it with the CRB until its been 2 months. When I say its been too months, turns out they didn't actually send it off until the end of August, so I have to wait until end October.

End October. Ring OFSTED to say can you sort this out now please. They say they will send a polite letter to CRB, but say theres nothing more they can do.

Mid November. Decide to take it up directly with CRB as OFSTED are useless in this regard. CRB shrug helplessly and say its with the police and has been for the last 50 days. Incoherently tell me that this delay is due to the form having been sent back to OFSTED as their inspector buggered up the countersignature, meaning it only reached the CRB properly completed six weeks after my inspection. (OFSTED told me nothing of this!! Yet it is irrelvant - it doesn't explain why the police STILL have it).

CRB then say that they can't release the details to me of which forces are working on it, until the police have had it 60 days (10 days from now), at which time they will send them a polite letter, and 10 days later they will tell me which police force has it.

So another month then before I find out who's desk it has been on since the end of September.

I'm pissed off at the system. The CRB recieves 80,000 forms a week, so I get that they and the police will discourage anyone ringing up to check the progress of their individual application. I get that the police are sqeezed for manpower and its probably noones personal fault. But this delay looks to be losing me at least 4 months earnings, which for a hard up childminder is a bloody lot of money - especially as I'm not claiming any benefits. Even though I can blame OFSTED for 1 month of that delay, thats another 3 months delay just to sheer weight of applications in the system.

I'm sure I'm not the only person in this position - so what is the overall effect on the country of this ludicrous system? My application that I need to earn a bloody living, is jammed behind thousands of other childcare workers and volunteers - most of ordinary people without criminal records, and most of them who've already had a CRB check multiple times in recent years. This is my third in five years.

The CRB checks system exists only to cover the arses of employers, and be a stealth tax. It does not protect kids, as we have recently seen. It is discouraging volunteers, and causing grief to ordinary hard-up people like myself who's only crime is to want to help other families and earn some coin whilst looking after my daughter. *poses glumly for Daily Mail photo, wilst holding baby*

We're still waiting for OFSTED to get my registration sorted, and are down to our last groat. Over the years though, I've become better at being (relatively) poor - more philosophical about it, and more savvy about how to get through the week whilst spending as little as possible. I've done a few fun thrifty things this week:-

I siphoned my home made wine into a clean jar. This allowed me to taste a swig - and it was very scrummy, if very thick and sweet. Definately a desert wine. There may have been a hint of the parsley flavour, but perhaps this was wishfull thinking. I wonder if the sweetness is to do with me not having used enough lemon juice. Its diluted now, and just has to sit around for another three months before I can bottle it and inflict it on friends and family. I've bought new yeast and bits and bobs to start making more - perhaps I'll experiment with the nasturtium thats running riot out the back, and my grandfather has quinces that I've offered to brew.

Chris threw out a couple of pairs of trousers, and I've started making them into a wall hanging. Don't laugh - its not trouser shaped - I cut a square out. Despite having no dressmaking skills, I can't bear to throw out material and have been longing to try applique with my old clothes for ages. There's a crazy quilter in my soul somewhere. The plan is for it to be a funky fish design on the navy trouser background, and go in the bathroom. The plan is also to finish watching Angel while I sew it. :)

Thrifty eating is in full swing this week. I don't usually approve of factory farmed chicken, but occasionally I have to suck my principles up and buy a tescos value bird. This is going to be: roast, pie with bacon, and the leftovers entered into the Everlasting Stew. The stew has been going a while now and has been combined with various spices and dalhs to be more like a curry. I've also bought some dried pulses to make experimental veggie burgers with.

I've also started tidying the Computers Graveyard, aka the back bedroom. There should be enough dead machines in there to cannibalise one retro gaming machine from, and give away the spare parts.

And I now have two breadmakers, one of which doesn't work. I could throw it out, but I'm now wondering if it can be taken to pieces and used for anything. Today I started fantasising about growing plants in it. I'll be hanging out my teabags at this rate...

On a non-thrifty note - our hoover has died and our floor is therefore in a ghastly state. This is the second cheap hoover to die in as many years, so I'm wondering if Vimes Boots Economics is operating here. Perhaps I should buy a decent dyson with my first clients cheque and have done. On the other hand...my grandfather got a Ewebank (sp?) out the last time I visited - remember them?! Perhaps they are the perfect toddler cleaning up after device if they are still on the market.

...but I don't feel like I have much to say at the moment.

People keep asking me how the childminding is going, and the answer is: OFSTED haven't got my CRB check yet, so I can't start. This is giving life a 'hanging around waiting' feel that it's had for a few months. Perhaps I should instead of mooching, seize the free time and get done some of the hobby projects I've been wanting to do, but I'm finding it hard to get motivated.

I wish I'd got on with applying earlier. na_lon suggested I do childminding way back, when Polly was small, and I resisted the idea for a while. I wish I'd gone with it, because we'd be in a far better financial position now if I'd been childminding for a year already. Sometimes friends can be right. I sometimes wonder if people are looking at our lives and thinking "AARG - Viv and Chris should stop being a pair of twats and do X - they'd be much happier 5 years down the line." Feel free to tell us, I might just listen.

So I'm going to try and write a post whilst Polly watches Pingu in the next room. I think I'll just go and put away the box of pastels first...

Right.

Passed my OFSTED inspection. Now I have to wait for CRB clearance which could take any length of time. We're hoping its sooner rather than later as my entitlement to contribution based jobseekers has run out, so I really need to be earning some loots. My newly aquired sister Cath has given me her old double buggy, so I'm pretty much all set now. We're feeling really positive about the childminding - it will give us enough money to get us out of the penny pinching zone and into being able to start saving. Meanwhile Chris is enjoying his job and getting glowing appraisals, so we're feeling pretty good even though there is a recession on. :)

Just had a lovely weekend in Rothbury with my long-lost father and grandfather. It was very nice to spend some time just us and chat about things. Am totally in love with Northumberland - such a sense of enough space, which I'd forgotten about, living in the crowded South for years. The almost deserted beaches with just a few families, and the odd dog and horse rider, were amazing - such sandy beaches down here would be heaving on a summer weekend. Polly loved her first paddle in the sea. "MORE water!". :)

Been trying to spend a bit less time on MMORPGs and more on other hobbies. I love to play MMORPGs (EQ2 and LOTRO at the moment), but they are still eating a bigger chunk of my time than I'm comfortable with. Decided the thing to do is to stop tradeskilling!. MMORPG players will know what I'm talking about here. I get a nerdy, autistic enjoyment out of it, but really it is just pressing buttons and watching numbers go up. There are not the more rounded pleasures of skill in gameplay, teamwork, exporation, being sociable etc that I can get with adventuring. So to free up more time for other things, I'm going to be disciplied with myself and not get into it any more.

Projects for September:
1) start the family history scrapbook - starting with the pages for the Ellmores.
2) do a bit more work on my Ars Magica plot. I've had some more ideas for an overall arc, and am now thinking of running a Christian-themed adventure with all the mages in this covenant having what the system calls True Faith. I need to get my head around the character advancement system first.
3) finish writing a plot for the Tuesday night D&D - I have pretty much figured it out: a treasure hunting romp in Myth Drannor.
4) work out whither next for the Wednesday night evil campaign. The players are enjoying their characters, and I know whats coming immediately, but I've lost my way in terms of long-term plot arc.
5) more brewing, now I've got some more jars from dad. The parsley wine is still fermenting!
5) Carry on with yoga. I'm finding it brillant for tension and easily fit-in-able between mummy duties.

Polly: is almost two, obsessed with trains, and has been known to utter three word sentences. She is a keen artist, making marks that are apparently quite advanced for her age, and knows her colours - she's will bark orders at me for more finger paint squeezing if the mix isn't to her liking: "more RED! more YELLOW!" :) I'm also really proud of her for learning some words to describe her feelings. She's started to say "Polly sad" and "Polly happy" in the right context - I'm really pro teaching children emotional literacy as a foundation for much else in life, so I'm really pleased with this! Bad mummy confession: I'm really looking forward to having more children around to give her more stimulation - I don't have as much interactional stamina as I'd like and have a tendency to be self-absorbed and resort to the TV whilst I get on with my stuff. I worry she's not getting as much input as she should. :/

Right - thats enough waffle!

This weather sucks, doesn't it. What happened to our hot summer? Here's an update while I lurk inside....

Ofsted are processing my application. One of their inspectors should be calling soon. I've decided not to worry about getting ready for it - I don't have the money to throw at the house (which needs painting) or on getting equipment, and won't until I am working. So its a chicken and egg situation. There's still deep cleaning to be done, but I can't face it until I've got a definite deadline to work towards.

I've also come to realise that they are not expecting me to have a perfect childminding operation set up to start with. In fact, knowing how the public sector mind works, its easier for them if I don't. The important thing is that they get to point out areas for improvement, which I can' work on between their visits. That way they can show I am 'continuously improving', which is the important that those who live by ticky boxes have to look for. And if I can have my paperwork in place, especially the safety related paperwork - AND show how I'm 'engaging with' the Early Years Foundation Stage (the pre-school curriculum), then I should be fine. Very very few applicants for registration suck so much they don't get accepted. Its something like 0.5%.

Well - I was going to write more - but got distracted with Who Do You Think You Are! Now I'd better go do something with the little...more later.

Two day Paediatric First Aid course booked. £97 quid!

Landlord will give permission to use premises. Yay! Not that we thought he wouldn't but since he could have put the kaibosh (sp? and what's a kaibosh anyway?) on the whole scheme...big relief.

House still a mess, but I'm feeling less and less neurotic about it.

Delighted to learn how much stuff is going to be tax deductable. *slinky double buggy drool*

Still need STUFF. Craft materials, lego, dressing up clothes...er...I'm sure I've forgotten something vital to preschool development.

Contemplating earning extra cash doing after school pickups of bigger kids. Was going to avoid the hassle but am now thinking I could use the loot. What toys and stuff do bigger kids need? No idea. When I was 10 I played with lego but these days they probably sit around drinking cider and having sex no? Perhaps I should ask Polly's biggest cousin.

1) Laundry *groan*.
2) Ebaying. (Pitiful profits, but better than nothing).
3) Tax return and tax credits paperwork.
4) Shopping. (Trying to stick to frugality despite being in the hole already with my monthly budget and feeling a bit hopeless).
5) Freecycling the old sofa (we have a sofa-bed, yay!) and some bits for Aunt-in-Law.

Fun. Why is it fun projects seem at some stage to morph into another scarey 'To Do List'?
1) Getting the next D&D plot together.
2) Scanning in my photos of the great-great grandparents.
3) Home brewing attempt No. 2
4) Having a go on the newly-aquired violin.

I have at least caught up with LJ this morning. Sometimes social media seems to become another thing that there aren't enough hours in the day for. I've failed to keep up with the MoneySavingExpert forum threads I was following as that forum is just Too Darned Big and active.

I would also like to find time to read my childminding bumph and get my head around the changes I need to make at home, and the paper work I need to do.

ETA: oh, and clean and dry the tent from last w/e!