Day 42 - Captain Moore 100!

Captain Tom Moore is 100 years old!  Well done to the lovely man who achieved so much in his century on this planet before he raised £32 million for the NHS.  What an amazing thing to do and I love all the fuss he has been getting.  A link to the BBC news article about him is here.

Would you believe it but I actually got up and went for a run, early, in the rain!  I never, ever thought that would be something I would do, and actually enjoy it.  I can do a 5k in just under half an hour now.  I need to try and push my distance a bit really, but if I'm going in the morning I need to keep it short.  Don't think I'll be doing that regularly anyway.

I got back and the boys were eating their breakfast.  They quickly finished up and went to get dressed and do their teeth.  We were all ready for Joe Wicks on time. 👍 Thanks Rob x

For Oscar's literacy lesson today his lovely teacher had done an online video.  It was the best thing ever! He sat there listening intently and produced his best work yet!  I wish all his literacy lessons could be like that and I have put in a request so fingers crossed. 🤞

It was then time for Maths which is usually great at keeping them quiet as they just get on with it.  I got a few jobs done while they were busy and occupied.

Another Art lesson started with tears for Oscar but he finally produced something, which obviously he wasn't very happy with.  Just in case you don't know, it's an elephant running away from a fire in a forest.

Leo produced a picture showing him living a sustainable life.  His little story if you can zoom in on the picture is really cute.  It says about having a filter so he can drink the water from the river, that he makes his own clothes from the wool from his sheep, rides his bike and has a solar panel. 😊

Leo was also really cute with his rabbit today,  It's name is Rumpelstiltskin, he's had him since he ws born, and he said that he was teaching him. 😍. Anything to get him to do some bloody literacy work!

Finally got a new picture from my sister with little Jude in it.  He's changing and growing so much!  I'm sad I missed his early days and strange to think I might not get to see him or the rest of my family for a long time yet. 😔😢

Once school work had been finished I took the opportunity to take myself and a cup of tea up to my room again.  I think this is definitely the way forward as with the doors shut and my headphones on I get a bit of peace and quiet.  Bliss.

I had the usual mess about on Snapchat and I thought this one was hilarious.  I could not stop laughing, such great therapy.

I came across this on my Instagram feed and I'm going to give it a try.  I'm not really a chocolate person, much prefer crisps and biscuits but the boys like chocolate so it might make a nice change from the usual fairy cakes we make.

Pretty uneventful rest of the day.  The boys were on screens, I did some jobs and dinner.  Rob was home quite late from the office and then had a Zoom call with friends.  I got the boys to bed, wrapped Leo's birthday presents and went to bed to blog.  I plan to watch Killing Eve nearly every evening but I just run out of time.  Might at least start it now as it isn't quite 11pm.  Actually it is now I've read through what I've typed. 😃

Today I learnt how to work out the angles inside a polygon, I'm not missing trying to get Leo to school on time every day and I am grateful for learning new things with my boys.💙

Day 41 - Headache

I am so bored of Joe Wicks but it is a good start to the day and Leo and Oscar have been joining in more.  The rain is obviously stopping them going out and getting exercise so this will have to do for now until I find something else.  Will have to make sure that Leo is happy with any change though.

The snapchat filter today was hilarious!  I will never get my hair done like this 😂

For school work today Oscar had to do a drawing of a flower.  A simple task you would think, but no.  He was in tears.  He really doesn't like drawing as it has to be perfect, so every pencil mark wasn't good enough!  I eventually talked him around and we changed the work slightly so that we could put it up in the living room window.  I'm sure his teachers won't mind.

The flowers we used as props.

Leo chose to make a paper bracelet today from recycled paper.  This was part of his school work.  I helped him out a lot, and it was really fiddly but he did amazing at sticking with it and he was proud of the finished product.  The website has loads of simple ideas, which you can find here.

Ellis had his first online lesson this morning and it's good to see him back to doing something other than gaming.  He is in the room with us but we don't notice him that much which is a good thing as must mean he is busy. 🤔

I was still struggling today with feeling drained, achy and tired.  The niggly headache started again just after lunch and I was very snappy and not my usual self.  PMT maybe, which would explain it.

Thankfully the boys worked so well that we managed to finish early.  I thought it would be a nice idea to watch a film in my bed before they were allowed their computer gaming time.  Well I tried and failed to get it to work so I ended up sending the boys back downstairs to the living room to watch TV and I stayed in bed watching Gogglebox.  I laughed out loud, rested in a dark room, and had very few disturbances.  It worked a treat and was one of the best decisions I've made in lockdown as I got up to do dinner in a much better mood and the headache gone! 👏👍. I think I need to get a break a bit more often.  Going out for a run isn't a break so I need to ask Rob if he can just take charge of the boys sometimes.

For dinner I finished off the turkey burgers I had started yesterday.  I think they turned out alright and both Ellis and Rob nailed them in about 1 minute 30 seconds!  They were actually really simple to do and I'd be happy to do them again.  Need to find some other things like this to do. 

Had a lovely FaceTime chat with my friend Lou.  We would sometimes see each other up to twice a week depending on who was taking who to which rugby club!  We both have 2 boys, playing for 2 different clubs, who train and play on the same days.  It's been really helpful in the past as it means we can help each other out with lifts and stuff.  We had a nice catch up and it's much better talking and being able to see each other, rather than just over messenger.

Rob is off to the office tomorrow and my plan is to get up early, yeh right, and go for a run first thing.  He's agreed to get up with the boys and give them breakfast, get them dressed, do their teeth, make their beds and have them ready for Joe Wicks at 9am.  Should be interesting.  Now I just need to get myself to bed as it's already Thursday!  Clapping day again! Goes round fast doesn't it?

Today I learnt that Oscar really doesn't like drawing and that I need to have more breaks away from the boys, I am loving the rain, for now, and I am grateful that Leo managed to stick with something that he was finding difficult. 😍💕💙

Day 40 - Green

A pretty uneventful day today and nothing really to report. Had another pants nights sleep but I got up okay.  It did actually rain and was a very grey day but I didn't mind.  It was nice hearing the rain hit the windows and it was great for the garden.  I loved how green it looked and with us not being in it much we could see plenty of wildlife. 😊

The school day went better with the sheets printed off and I actually learned quite a bit about working out the missing angles in a triangle.   Also loved getting the paints out and making a picture.  Haven't done that with them since they were little.  We used to do that sort of thing all the time but they just don't have any interest in any of it anymore. 😞

Baby sea turtle heading to the sea.

I can totally recommend running in the rain!  The cycle path was empty 🙌. I didn't have to zig in and out of people or worry about what side I was on etc and the drizzle helped to keep me cool.  I did a little over 5k but I didn't even look to see what my pace was, I was just away in my head jogging along.

For dinner tonight I wanted to cook the boys some herby turkey burgers from scratch but I didn't realise until making it that you have to chill it for 2 hours/overnight before you cook them, so I got them ready and stuck it in the fridge.  It was pretty simple to do, just time consuming getting it prepared.  I'm not a very patient cook, I'm more of a chuck it in the oven and stick the timer on type of cook. 😂  But at least I'm trying.  You can find the recipe here and I'll show you how they turn out tomorrow.

After feeding everyone, again, clearing up again, doing the dishwasher again, I realised I was feeling a bit drained.  Don't worry I'm not depressed or ill, I just think I'm very tired from so many nights of bad sleep and a bit dehydrated.  I think I'm achy from too much exercise!   So after putting Oscar to bed I asked Rob to sort the other two out so I could go to bed early and chill.  So here I am at half 8 in bed already! It's bliss. 😑

Going to watch a Killing Eve episode and catch some zzzzz 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Today I learnt about finding missing angles in different triangles and how to spell recipe. 😂 I am loving the fact that I don't have much washing anymore and I am grateful for the rain making my garden nice and green. 💚

Day 39 - Saskia B Day!

It's my Saskia's birthday today!  We have known each other nearly 13 years now and I can't imagine life without her in it.  She is my rock in tough times, always tags along to parties with me when I don't know anyone, makes me laugh, smile, cry and makes me feel loved and cared for.  I am so very lucky to have her in my life and I'm gutted we can't go and celebrate her birthday properly.  But I am trying extremely hard to just be patient as this uncertain time and I know we will be back to making amazing memories again in the future.  (I can't say soon, as that word is starting to piss me off!). Here are some of my favourite pictures and videos of us making memories.

I always know I've done something wrong with this look 😂

No1 party

Michael Flatley

Theatre Trip

Pre Spice Girls drinks

More Spice Girls fun

Was totally smashed and didn't know the words! Good times 😂

2nd Party - hadn't touched a drop 😬😂

Another Theatre trip

CP!

Exhausted from CP! 😴

Where I would like to be 😊😋

For a present I sent a card, flower, bottle of bubbles and some chocolates.  I wanted to get her an afternoon tea delivered too but the company I picked ran out of delivery slots and it was too late to go anywhere else.  As it happened, she had one anyway. 👍

Nobody was feeling it this morning,  I had a rubbish sleep, kept waking up again and then at 4am I could have just got up. I dozed in and out and eventually got up at 8:15 am. Ellis struggled to wake up, Oscar moaned that I hadn't woken him up earlier and Leo was away with the fairies.

I'm definitely getting stronger as although the Joe workout was hard this morning I could tell that I was finding certain exercises easier to do. 💪

Today I decided to do things a little differently.  All the home schooling stuff is put on the school website and they email you and send texts too.  It's all very confusing but I know they are trying their best.  To save paper and ink I thought it would be good if the boys could work off the screen and just write in their books the answers etc but it didn't go down well with Leo.  I shouldn't try and fix something that isn't broken!  That will teach me 😏

I know it's not an essential item, but I bought myself some flowers on the click and collect shop this week.  I could do with some lessons on how to arrange them properly so I'll add that to my list of things I want to do, when I can.😊

We finished our school work and I went out for my tactical run via Saskia's house.  I was so excited that I ran a mile in 8 minutes, 4 seconds!  😅  I could not have kept that up for long though.  It was so lush to see her but so hard to say goodbye.  In fact I refused to even say it.😒

Sat in the garden at dinner time with the boys as we know we won't be able to do it for a bit.  I don't want the rain to come and I'm going to have to actually go for a jog in proper rain it would seem.  Yawn I know.

We had a lovely visit today from a Jay.  I think Leo named it, Jay. 😂

I totally forgot that it was Monday and that the netball girls had arranged a zoom chat for 8pm.  I picked up my Whatsapp messages about 8:20pm and quickly got online.  It was so good to see them and to have a chat about some different stuff.  Had a giggle and a catch up and think we're going to try and make it a regular thing, which is great!  I will only ever drink tea or water when we do though. 😉😁

I blogged, messed around with Snapchat and was then planning on watching a Killing Eve episode but I just ran out of time.  Ah well, there is always tomorrow. 🤷

I realise the blog is monotonous and boring most of the time, but I suppose that's life right now.  We aren't going anywhere special or doing anything particularly exciting, just living.   With this in mind, I've realised that years ago I wrote a few blog entries but never actually finished them.  I plan to add some pictures and content and post them.  I might even write a bit about our travels.  Rob did a brilliant online diary of it but had to take the website down when he started his job.  I'm sure it would be okay to share some pictures and stuff, like...

I really didn't plan on writing an entry a day and I know it's all a bit same same but I will enjoy looking back on it all when I'm a little old lady sat in front of my wood burner stove, bucket of tea in hand, surrounded by photos of my extended family. 😍

Hope everyone is making the most of their days, even if that means sitting on your bum doing nothing.  Try and enjoy the little bits.  Doing the blog has made me notice the little things more as I am looking for things to remember.

Today I learnt that I should't try and change something that is working perfectly well as it is.   I'm looking forward to having a new experience, and I am grateful for the small things.

Stay safe and well everyone 💙💚💛💜