Diary Entries

The other night, we had finished dinner and were sitting at the table listening to the kids mucking around as they always do when it’s chore time. My house is often totally silent for hours and hours each day, and then when the kids have to share a chore (such as clearing the table, unstacking and re-stacking the dishwasher, and then washing the pots and pans), suddenly my house becomes a zoo. They shout out their negotiations, bidding on the “best” bit of the job, and then play rough and tumble in an effort to get there first. Most of the time, I hold my breath, thinking we are going to end up in the emergency department, but luckily they tend to know their strength, and we usually only end up with some bruised prides and a few scratches. Anyhow, I digress. My husband asked me if this is what I had imagined when I said I wanted to have kids all those years ago, and it made me think. No, this is certainly not what I had imagined at all. I must admit that when I was in my baby-obsessed period, I couldn’t think past the act of holding my own baby in my arms. I think I was too immature to look further ahead, and I’m glad. I suspect that I would not have had any babies if I had given it more thought - the idea of sharing my space with these cocky young people who are now bigger than me and have their own opinions, would have probably put me off altogether. Knowing that I now have a young man about to start year 12 absolutely floors me. That conversation has made me reflect on my life and the choices I have made. I’ve made lots of mistakes, but I’ve also done a lot of things right. Even if this is not what I had envisaged, I love my life as it is, with its noise and stress, and the gangly awkward know-it-all teens I call my own ❤️ I will gladly take the bad to get the good.

After 11 weeks in lockdown: Week pretty poggers m8, les gooooooooo! That’s what my boys suggested I write when I asked how we would sum up this week. So I guess that says it all 😳🙄😂🤪 I started making Limoncello and tri-colour marmalade - that’s probably the most exciting thing that has happened this week, apart from the purple hair and the visit to the street library. And my sewing machine died from overuse, but luckily my daughter has allowed me to borrow hers while mine is being repaired ❤️ Also, I’m breaking up my sewing and crochet with a bit of cross-stitch 🤪 - gotta keep things interesting eh?

10 weeks of lockdown. Wowsers. Here are some things I’ve learned in the past few weeks: 1. Jellybeans have a shiny coating made of shellac. 2. Don’t give the kids an inch - they will take a mile. We’ve had to tighten our lax rules as exams loom. 3. I am officially a crazy chicken lady - I’m hoping these dark brown eggs hatch with girls so that I can add terracotta coloured eggs to my collection. 4. Apparently I’ll be going for a walk every day in September (for STEPtember) 5. Wine is delicious - oh wait, I knew that already 6. Car trips are exciting. My daughter loves jumping in the car, even if I’m just doing a drive by the office. 7. Play equipment is not always found at the playground - and my husband can leap and star jump with the best of them. 8. My kids don’t eat nearly as much fruit when they are home full time - they reach for biscuits, bread, Weetbix or leftovers whenever they can 9. Yes, it is possible to go for 3 weeks between trips to the supermarket - mostly thanks to Box Divvy 10. Roast garlic is easy, delicious, and perfect for lockdown times - garlic breath doesn’t go through zoom 😂

Finally getting used to this new normal - it has taken 9 weeks for me to get here and time is now passing at a rate that seems less surreal. I wanted to say a big thankyou to the many special people in my life. I have received surprise board games, puzzles, cooked meals, chocolates, champagne and special treats from friends and family and I really appreciate these gestures. I’ve settled into a rhythm now and can embrace the good experiences that lockdown brings. We won’t be in this forever, and the fact that life is full of people with good hearts gives me hope. Thankyou all. Also, I wanted to share my crazy teen boy aka young men antics. My eldest threatened to lick my second child's nose while he was sleeping last night. Child 2 rigged up a booby trap on the door to his bedroom so that he would hear Child 1 creeping into his room. In the middle of the night, Child 1 crept towards Child 2’s room. Child 2 had left a little light on so he could video Child 1 sneaking in. By this light, Child 1 glimpsed the twine holding the trap in place and snipped it with scissors. He then proceeded to sneak into Child 2’s room but his joints creaked 😂😂😂 and woke Child 2 up. The plan was foiled.

Feels surreal to have been in lockdown (again) for 8 weeks, with another 5+ (minimum) weeks to go. Every day feels a bit like Groundhog Day and I’m sure my posts are getting a bit repetitive too. Seems like I’m stuck…. I’m stuck…. I’m stuck… I’m stuck…. I’m stuck………… I’m trying to give myself a task to complete each day so that the days don’t pass in such a blur. Today I plan to braid my daughter's hair in an effort to relive those days when we could just jump on a flight to somewhere in Asia. It may take me the whole week to braid her whole head 😂😂 To be honest, Gladys BBQChicken can tighten the restrictions as much as she likes and it doesn’t really impact my life right now. I don’t really go anywhere or do anything outside my house. I’ve never been one to hang at the shops and I’m not a fan of parties. I got my vaccinations as soon as I was eligible, and plan to get my kids vaccinated as soon as it is approved. The only thing I’m really missing are my friends. I am still desperate to have a coffee and/or wine with someone other than my husband, but happy to do my bit until we can get our vaccination rate up. Still love my family and thankful that I’m not alone at this time. That’s a positive 🌈

We have moved through many phases of lockdown these past 7 weeks: baking, pasta making, puzzles, books, board games, craft, crazy hair…. and now we seem to be stuck at fatigue and laziness. To combat this, we had a family meeting this week (oh I was certainly not the favourite parent for initiating that!) and now we have some structure to our days. In “normal” times, we were the family that left the house at 7am and didn’t get in again until after 7pm. The kids had a jam packed timetable - not because I forced them to be active, but because they wanted to be. We are a family that works hard and plays hard. So here we are. Stuck at home with only zoom music and dance lessons. No part time work anymore and no sport. Something had to give as bedtimes were getting later and later, it was harder to get them up in the morning, and there was a lot of moping around during the day. Don’t get me wrong - we are having some lovely times together. But I could see us all slipping into some habits that I knew would be hard to break, so we have re-structured our day. It was nice to actually have a conversation about everyone’s needs - it’s important for me to remember that I basically have 5 adults in the house - it’s no longer 2 parents who are telling their 3 kids what to do all the time. The kids showed great maturity in the negotiations and I would highly recommend an open-minded family discussion if you are in a similar situation ❤️ I know it’s only been a few days so far, but our new routine has been very refreshing, with less bouts of moodiness. From everyone. Stay sane my friends.

Wake up… Work… Listen to Gladys… Work some more… Watch Olympics… Go to bed. Rinse repeat. This is what my life has been reduced to. On weekends replace “work” with “sit on my bum doing nothing much”. Really need to shift my mindset a little. Maybe next week I’ll mix it up….. Do I dare to miss one of the 11am updates? 🤔🤔😂 Actually, I did do something fun this week: I bleached the kids hair and we splashed a bit of colour through. Tried my hand at balayage and it wasn’t too bad. I’m certainly not giving up my day job tho. Also tried out the Library2u service which was amazing. Ordered my books on the app and they were dropped on my doorstep a few days later - a totally free service. Gotta love that. And I will leave you with one other story which is kinda funny. I let my lovely Araucana chook (who lays beautiful blue eggs) spend a romantic evening with a rooster so that she could become fertile…. You can officially call me a chicken pimp! My kids were mortified, but she came home with a smile on her face 😂😂😂

Things I’ve learned after 5 weeks in lockdown: 1. To fix 99% of computer issues, turn it off and then on again 2. Our house is very small when people are not getting along 3. I really can make a meal from next to nothing - it’s usually quite yummy but not always….. 4. Never enter a slapping competition with your son. It hurts a lot and you will lose and have a very red cheek. 5. My kids’ time on devices has gone through the roof. I know that they are spending a lot of time doing online work for school, but gaming has totally taken over their free time. As a result, we are having a device-free day tomorrow - this announcement has been met with many scowls, but we will do our best to make it work. Bring on hours of Monopoly 🤪 6. It’s time for lockdown hair…

Week 4 done. My kids are being much nicer to each other now - I think because they know they are all stuck together for the long haul with no reprieve from their friends. They now clear the table every meal without complaint and stack and unstack the dishwasher too. The other day they folded 5 loads of washing - took awhile and there was a lot of flicking each other with towels to try and inflict pain, but I’ve learned to take the good with the bad. We have completed 14 jigsaw puzzles this lockdown (so far) and last night we made rainbow meringues (extremely messy but quite fun). Tonight we are planning to make homemade rainbow pumpkin and ricotta ravioli - our poo is going to be brightly coloured indeed. Is that something to look forward to??? Another positive: my husband found some pics from when I was at uni so reminiscing was quite nice. Cannot believe I was so skinny back then. Also having difficulty realising that was over 20 years ago. Thought I would be upset that I’m a different shape and size now, but I care less than I thought I would. I’ve borne 3 children and I adore them. That’s worth any increase in body size in my opinion. Keep finding the positives my friends ❤️

As another week in lockdown passes, it’s once again time to reflect. I’m certainly enjoying this forced isolation more than before, and I think that is because I’m finally embracing it. It’s hard, and I’m still struggling, but I’m trying to let go of the negative emotions I feel when I see others not following the rules to the same extent as me. We all have different risk profiles and so we behave differently. Coming from a health background, all I see is risk. But I’m slowly learning that others simply cannot see danger where I do. Perhaps I’m being overly cautious, but that is fine. Anyhow, all is well with me, my family is safe ❤️… and now I’m off to read my book with a cup of tea.