Five weeks + 3

I have the feeling that my busy few days away and weekend finally caught up with me, as I was asleep by 8 o'clock last night and slept for 12 hours! Either that or I am really getting old. Yesterday was a nice peaceful day for me, the boys and I just pottered about the house not doing much of anything really. It made a nice change from my  somewhat hectic break away. I know enjoyed it but it took a lot out of me. I am continuing in the peaceful vein this morning doing a cross stitch I found in a drawer in the office, I used to do lots of them years ago, I can't remember why I gave them up, oh hang on a minute, the strained eyesight the burning aching fingers, no that's not it, it was the obsessive way I wouldn't stop until I was finished. Oh well I only have the one!

I am having a bit of an interesting dilemma at the moment, one that I'm not sure whether it is funny or not. Now when I was in hospital and home recovering Neil had to be in charge of the shopping, even when I started cooking again I still wasn't able to shop. Now I'm cooking pretty much all of the time (if you ignore the days away eating out!) I still find going shopping quite tiring. Anyway Neil seems to be obsessed with where we shop, now I always shopped where ever I wanted, I wrote a menu a list and I did the shopping all whilst he was at work. I've tried most of the local supermarkets, I even had a brief stint shopping at Aldi on my way home from Uni. OK so that ended in disaster, I got accused of shoplifting by the store detective, he asked me to empty my pockets and looked in my hand bag, for hand cream, it was a horrifying experience and I refuse point blank ever to go into an Aldi again. I did complain and they did send me a £10 voucher as compensation, tough, the voucher is in the drawer and they have permanently lost my trade. Neil does refer to Aldi as the shop I am banned from but don't believe him it's self imposed. Enough of my criminal past and back to the dilemma, I want to go back to the way it should be, with me writing a list and doing the shopping where I want to but Neil is convinced his input in valuable (it is his money). He thinks that because the bills were lower when he went shopping he was doing it right, he bought instant rubbish and frozen ready meals, sure the kids enjoyed it living on a diet of pizza and beer (I'm slightly kidding about the beer), but not a piece of fruit, a vegetable or salad entered this house under Neils regime. Once I started writing a list and shopping again, back went the good stuff, plus real meat, and up went the shopping bill. So how do I take back control when money wise he thinks he knows better, and without hurting his feelings. I could try, you have a company to run, let me run the house! But it sounds a bit shouty and rude!

Well I'll leave that one for you all to ponder over, along with the burning question "How does Neil put up with that pilfering crazy woman?, as I have a cross stitch burning a hole in my lap, that I have to get back to. Lets all hope for another calm peaceful day, and we'll try to keep the dilemmas to a minimum.