Friday 17th April – Thursday 23rd April

Our 5th Week of Lockdown.  The 5th week where we are safe at home, only leaving the house for food shopping and once daily exercise, as a family if I can drag the kids out with me, this week I started going out more on my own. I found that this week it really started to hit me hard.  I had quite a few days of meltdowns (yep me not the kids).  I’ve found that I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure everyone else is happy before actually thinking of me.  I am not a rule breaker at all and have therefore felt the pressure to make sure my kids are homeschooling well like really well.  Now this has caused too much stress and anxiety on some days/weeks and I have just kept pushing-silly idea!  So from here I started looking more into what I wanted to do, taking time to do that during the day and letting the kids do what they wanted and ways to avoid me staying in that misery. Things I could relax on, things that would still be learning but more fun, things that I could do for me to give me a little bit of self care and time out.

Starting with walks and podcasts.   Being in the woods really calms me.  I tried to walk on the road and funnily enough it left me feeling stressed out still, despite the odd wave at older couples sat at their windows looking out at the world which melted my heart.

For  my birthday we got a new sandwich toastie maker, as our old one had fallen apart but I made sure it was one that made waffles and paninis too.  We had a few dodgy waffles to start but soon got the hang of it and they are perfect for a dessert or cheeky weekend breakfast.

I have found finding ways to keep P learning harder.  I have to remind myself that he’s only 3 and is learning constantly doing things we see as normal.  He’s perfectly happy helping me put the washing on or playing with things near me while i sort clothes out.  He’s not going to school for another year, as he’s an October baby so there’s still plenty of time to get him recognising numbers etc.  He’s got really good at holding his pencil now though and surprised me when he did this puzzle. LB was always puzzle mad but P has never been interested.  I had to help and give him clues but he actually seemed to enjoy doing this with me.  Only problem is when I’m not watching LB, the school work seems to go out the window a bit.  Hes not great at self motivation. He even likes me to do colouring with him-doing things on his own is not his forte.

Homemade pizzas are a favourite here and a meal that the kids love to cook with us.  We make our own dough and its great they they can get involved at every level. Baking is another firm favourite of course though I am pretty sure the licking of the bowl is the main reason for their participation.  We have made these cookies a number of times from my friends cookbook. They are so easy and really yummy, they never last longer than a day though.

Peanut Butter and Nutella Oat Cookies

While creating video and content for my dance school one of the challenges from a teacher was to see how many toilet rolls you could balance on you while standing on one leg.  LB tried and got to 3, though they never stayed up for very long.

I have been trying to get P to sit down with us at the dining table while LB does his school work, even if only for a little bit.  So we’ve done sticker books, old magazines, dry erase writing books and shape sorting.  Some days he stays happily, others he’s trying to drag me off in the other direction or demanding the TV.

There have been some really lovely sunny days and man am i grateful for our garden.  Some days there is nothing better than a cold beer or G&T and some snacks while sitting in the garden watching the world go by.

We had a mini greenhouse in the shed from when my husbands Nan had passed away -still in the box, never opened.  So one day we dug out some seeds my friend had given me last year and got planting.  It was great activity for the kids. They both got fully involved, adding the mud to the pots, palnting the seeds, watering them and writing the labels.  Its been wonderful to see the seeds come up over the last few weeks.  We planted a huge array of things courgettes, tomatoes, beetroot, spinach, brocolli, salad onions and so many more. We also planted some sunflower seeds another friend sent our way so now we are in a little competition to see who can grow the tallest one.
Unfortuantely only 1 of 3 has actually come up for us.

Outside play is perfect as this one gets a little bit of quiet and isn’t so disracted by whats going on around him while we argue with LB about his shool work. 
Then his imagination just goes crazy and he is lost for ages.

Hot sunny days and BBQs.
Some days I just love to cook and make an effort other days not so much. 
I really notice the difference in how i feel after a really good meal with plenty of veg.
We had cut meat out of our diet a lot over the last year due to it not agreeing with my husband.  However due to only shopping once a week we have added more chicken and turkey back in as we can put it in the freezer as the veg goes off quickly. However this means we have been eating meat most days and we have certainly felt the difference it has had in how we feel. I’m not sure we could go vegetarian or vegan but we certainly want to try and eat mainly that way.