Ma has been signed off by the reablement team and Adult Social Services has said that she doesn’t meet the standard for carers, unless I withdraw support, which I’m not really going to do. So Ma and I are getting ourselves into a groove. I come to hers on Tuesday night and stay until Friday morning. I get Friday at home and go back to hers on Saturday for housework and prep. Then Ben comes on Sunday to see her and she has Monday by herself.

It’s not entirely a logistical nightmare and I’ve talked about doing meal prep for Ma but what I eat is a work in progress, this is what I ate last Thursday!

Morning food at Mum’s is very like morning food at my house. I take my apple cider vinegar and supplements (a multi vitamin, vitamin D, Omega 3, sea moss, a probiotic, agnus castus) the ACV is from Willys, Ma and I both drink and (suprisingly) enjoy it. The claims for what daily ACV can do for your health are fantastical, all I know that since I started drinking it my heartburn has gone (heartburn is something I always used to get with PMT and at peri menopause all the damn time, no changes to my diet helped, I had it when I didn’t drink for a month, when I fasted. It was grim and after 4 days of ACV in the morning stopped.) Mum is convinced it helps with her hands and it’s a useful way for both of us to get a pint of water into our bodies first thing in the morning.

Breakfast this morning (as it is most mornings for me) greek yoghurt, fruit – strawberries today, a tablespoon of jam and homemade granola. There was a pot of coffee, which has my collagen (this one) in it. I think the possible benefits of collagen for menopausal women has been covered elsewhere, it’s not recommended by the NHS but I think there are benefits and it’s not doing any harm. Yes there is more water because hydration is important!

I did some work until Mum got up and we did her exercises and had her breakfast and coffee. Then I worked for the rest of the morning. At lunchtime, I popped to the Sainsburys local for ham and coleslaw, which was part of lunch.

A ham and coleslaw sandwich (I made the roll) cucumber, carrot and a pepper.

‘Pudding’ was grapes and salt and vinegar corn

I did have a fudge at about 3pm when energy was flagging

Dinner was pasta

And another fudge for afterwards

And that was a day of food, it was pretty normal with the exception of the two fudges!