UK Lock Down and Me – Ramblings

I’m not even sure how many weeks we’ve been in lockdown anymore without thinking about it carefully. The weeks are rolling into one another, some days are better than others and we’re learning to just go with it.

When we first went into Lock down, I had intended to write weekly updates on life in lock down. But the weeks quickly merged, and I lost any sort of urge to write about things. Until now. Now, I feel as though I should write something. I should voice my thoughts.

I mostly don’t mind being in lock down, some days are harder than others. But mostly we are just getting along with things. I seem to spend a lot of time planning for food. We’ve always been quite good at cooking from scratch, but now our meals are all home made. I’ve become a bit of a pro at baking soft bread rolls, which is hugely popular. (I bought bread flour in a 16 kg sack from a flour supplier a couple of weeks ago, so we have enough flour for a couple of months!) We’re very much sticking to the children’s school routine, so lunch is eaten earlier than I usually eat. If they don’t eat “on time” they seem to get grizzly, so I’m keen to keep them fed “On time”!

Home Learning During Lockdown

The home-schooling is not really a chore, we are doing a couple of hours each day. We get days when we do more than others. Today was one of those days when we randomly did a science experiment as we needed something to get all the children working together. No one had been happy to do their maths – actually the eldest had been happy to, but no one else had! So simple science in the kitchen was a great way to just remind them that learning is mostly fun.

Learning outside the classroom has meant the children have learnt things they may not have otherwise had the chance to. It’s almost been like they’ve had a home tutor. Eldest has perfected his baking, and now can bake a rather good banana cake! Middle boy is very keen on arts and design and has been keen to paint and sew. Interestingly, Yo has suddenly started to play for hours with her dolls – she’s 5, and her imagination is in full flow. She reads a lot, and the books she reads are now being played out in the world of Barbie and Sindy. I need to buy her some new books, I do love that she is so keen to read.

Lockdown and me.

I found myself resorting to sitting in the car with the youngest yesterday. I just needed a little quiet, and the story CD played in the car meant N was delighted to sit in the cat quietly with me, while the older children raced around the garden on their bikes. For some reason, yesterday was difficult. Perhaps it was trying to process all the what ifs? But I sat in the car for 20 minutes and felt refreshed.

This morning I woke up and went for a run. It’s something I’ve been doing for a while now. Lockdown has just encouraged me to keep running. Honestly, I’m still not sure I enjoy running, but I have that love hate relationship with it, that keeps me coming back to try again and again. Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not a runner. I have no style, and I puff and pant as my feet pound down. I probably resemble Phoebe from friends as I run. But, there’s something about running. I almost feel as though I run my problems away – rather than running away from them. So, today was a good day.

One Day At A Time.

I think I’ve learnt that the only way to survive at the moment is taking each day at a time. I’ve ripped up the rule book on Friday Film Night, and we will watch a film on any night we want to! Even if it is the same DVD we have already watched 1000 times already! I pick my battles, they can stay in their pyjamas until 9 am but then they have to wear actual clothes. Onesies do not count as clothes! The older boys have started to stay up late, but after 9pm it’s in bed and reading – although I am aware that actually the 9 year old is building Lego not reading! I’ve found myself stumbling into bed exhausted before 9.30pm, is it just me or is lockdown exhausting?