Life

2024 in socks – pair one

February 22, 2024 by Penny Leave a Comment

Life likes throwing curved balls doesn’t it? The academic year started off reasonable calmly, but since October it feels a bit like we’ve been hurtling along somewhat out of control, whilst hanging on for dear life. All three kids have encountered various hurdles, I tried to take on all the training needed for a career change, and then a family bereavement on the day that the kids broke up from school for Christmas meant that none of our festive plans really went where we expected them to. For the kids sake we went along to the festive light displays and the panto, but it was very much a case of going through the motions rather than enjoying it.

In the start of 2024 things again felt on hold until there had been a funeral, but even on the first day back at school for the term a totally different curved ball came in, and it’s only today about six weeks later that that has finally been resolved (waiting and patience are not my strong points at all!) and finally I feel like I can breathe again and make plans going forwards.

What has kept me as calm as possible though has been picking up my knitting needles again, and also losing myself in books.

I made a pact not to buy any more craft supplies or books in 2024 until my birthday in July. So far I’ve only managed to keep half of that! What I am successfully doing though is finally working my way through some of my craft stash. One thing that I realised I had a stupid quantity of was sock yarn. So, my 2024 sock challenge was born. A sock a month. That way by the end of the year I should have 6 pairs of socks to wear.

A completed pair of hand knitted socks. They are striped, but not matching with a main bright pink colour and yellow, brown and black and white patterned bits. Next to them is the remains of a ball of yarn.

Nearly two months I’m I’m delighted that this is a challenge that I’m actually ahead on. The first pair of socks were completed in early February and are already keeping my feet toasty and warm. The yarn is something I picked up cheaply in Lidl last year, and the pattern is one from John Arbon Textiles that came with some alpaca sock yarn that I mush have bought about 8 or more years ago. I finished the alpaca socks in 2023 and discovered that the pattern gave socks that fit perfectly, and in particular gave enough length to work really well with the DMs that I wear 99% of the time when out of the house. The piece of paper with it on is now getting a bit tatty and so I really do need to type it all out again with the couple of small modifications that I made after the first pair.

The start of a hand knitted sock on three double pointed needles. It can be seen that this is being knit in a car and in the background is the Shedunnit podcast playing on my car's audio screen.

For now though sock number 3 is on my needles and I’m just working the short row heel and hoping I didn’t make a mistake when trying to do so whilst also listening to a British Sign Language demonstration at WI last night. Anxious about making sure we woke at 4.30 the morning for B to head off for a long work trip I needed something to calm my hands until we started signing ourselves, I just hope I’m not having to unpick it when I pick it up again this evening!

The book reading is a little behind where I wanted it to be by now, but I’m hopeful I can pull that challenge back into shape over the next couple of months. I’m also hoping I can make the time to write about what I’ve been reading over on Penny Reads too. So far I’ve only managed to document one book since Christmas, but there is so much more I want to say for some of the others that have been transporting me to different places this year.

September – attempts at a fresh start

October 2, 2023 by Penny Leave a Comment

September. A month which marks new starts to so many parents. This year saw the youngest start at school full time and as such my life has changed again to fit in with that. It’s felt like I’ve been juggling everything since she was born and the fact that she’s now out of the house for six and a half hours a day makes a huge difference in my daily life. The morning school run and all the after school and weekend extra-curricular activities are still a huge juggle (especially as we have an hour round trip to school!) but for six and a half blissful silent hours I can actually hear myself think and go to the loo in peace. Fellow juggling parents you will know exactly what I mean here and why it is such a big deal! Alongside that her older sister started in Year 9 and her brother kicked off his final year at primary school.

Her start at school also signifies the start of me trying to get my working life back on track somewhat, and catch up with all the jobs that have been sitting on my to do list for the last five years. My list of things I wanted to achieve in September was massive, and unrealistic, but I’m pleased to say that at least some of them have been achieved. I also feel like I’ve got a pit more of a plan of what the weeks and months ahead might look like too. A few curved balls have derailed and delayed plans a little bit, but I’m hoping to get them back on track pretty soon.

So, just what have I been up to?

Well, both my husband and son celebrated birthdays in September. For one we went to a 1940s weekend at the Milton Keynes Museum and managed to see a Lancaster flypast. The other involved taking a bunch of Ten and eleven year olds go karting. Pretty sure you can work out which was which. It was also the month when my husband and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. As we have no childcare around locally it was also the first wedding anniversary where we’ve actually managed to go out and celebrate. A luxurious brunch back where we went for our first date was absolutely perfect and it felt so good to actually be able to have a conversation without interruptions from little people.

A cup of tea in my flask as I sit and look at the Manor House at Bletchley Park.

To fit in with my mum going on a U3A trip there I also managed a day exploring Bletchley Park. Somewhere I’ve been several times before, but never before without children. With my ticket valid for a whole year I plan to go back again and again until I’ve actually had time to explore all of it and take in all the fascinating stories of the code breakers who worked there in the war.

The start of the new academic year has also seen the beginning of another academic year as a school governor. This is my third year as chair of governors at an infant school, and my eleventh year of being a governor overall, and I think it fair to say that I’m in the swing by now. It’s a volunteer role that takes up a lot of time, but is also incredibly rewarding too. As is always the case at the start of an academic year there is plenty of reading to do and just absorbing all the latest edition of Keeping Children Safe in Education and reading all our relevant linked policies has taken a while. I tried to intersperse all that governor reading with a few books though and September saw me finish reading A Knight for a Knave (and watch the film version, Kes) and Death and The Penguin.

A open copy of Keeping Children Safe in education sits next to a can of coke and a copy of Death and The Penguin.

All the kids’ extra-curricular activities have also kept me on the road. I’ve now got two in Scouts as well as one in Squirrels so sewing on badges to a uniform or camp blanket is a regular activity. The youngest is still attending swimming lessons (Swim England Stage 2 at the moment) and my son is doing weekly karate classes (he had his purple belt grading yesterday) in addition to an after school football club. There is a weekly performing arts class for the youngest and the oldest is this week auditioning for her school drama company. I’ve also finally taught the big on to crochet in preparation for a new school crochet club that she’s trying out this week. Despite being left handed so seems to have mastered being able to do chains and last night’s lesson on treble stitches hopefully means she’s on her way to her first granny square. If that isn’t enough there’s also homework for the older two and daily reading for the youngest. All to be squeezed in between sleep and school.

We’ve also been catching up on all things medical this month. Orthodontist appointments, a long-overdue ENT appointment and two of them at regular dental check ups too. One day soon I might even get round to booking the eye test that was due in September last year for me.

I have managed to carve out a bit of me time too – although nowhere near enough. My September WI meeting involved learning all about Special Effects make up and props and model making. Absolutely fascinating and not something I knew anything about beforehand. I’ve also squeezed in coffee with a couple of friends and made a point of actually spending evenings on the sofa with some great TV. Bake Off, Task Master, Celebrity Race Across the World and Only Murders In the Building are my current favourites but I need to get back into the habit of doing more than just sewing on Scouting badges whilst watching. With the exception of crochet lessons for the oldest I’ve not picked up any knitting or other crochet in far too long. I also had a fantastic night out with a friend hearing the wonderful Rev Kate Bottley speak about her new book. She was so utterly lovely and down to earth and it was a delight to hear her speak.

Penny stood with the Rev Kate Bottley as she holds a chicly toy version of Jesus.

When it comes to work I’ve been plotting behind the scenes trying to get my portfolio of blogs back up to speed. I got to do my first toy review in ages over on Penny Plays and also hosted friend and fellow blogger Becky Goddard-Hill as she launched her new book on Penny Reads. I also wrote about the Andrey Kurkov and Lucy Worsley titles I’ve recently enjoyed and finally got round to re-publishing the recipe for my Gran’s Ginger Biscuits that I make for each month’s WI meeting. I also finally documented the Encanto patchwork quilt that I finished for the youngest’s bed. As well as featuring my trip to Bletchley Park I’ve also featured The University of Oxford Museum of Natural History over on Penny Travels after visiting there in the summer holidays. I also had grand plans of using this site to tell you all about the work we’d done at home this last month, but to do so would need us to have actually done something at home, which we have utterly failed to do!

October will not only feature half term, but also an attempt to start tackling all the jobs that need doing around the house and garden. Watch this space for progress on those…

A week in history

September 12, 2022 by Penny Leave a Comment

The phrase “what a week” has never seemed more appropriate than when used for this last week.

This time last week my youngest daughter was just finishing her first settling session at the school pre-school. She was incredibly excited and feeling very grown up to be finally going to “school” like her older brother and sister. As her mum I was looking forward to her finally being in some form of childcare after all the chaos of the “covid years” (apologies to anyone taking offence at me referring to school as childcare here – as a school governor I know it is so, so much more than that!) and I was excited about the prospect of finally being able to get back to work properly – and also go to the loo without an audience and drink a cup of tea in peace and quiet.

That first settling in week is always a bit of a funny one as in my case she was only in for 80 minutes a day. Not enough time to drive home and back so after a celebratory alone coffee with my husband on the Monday the remaining mornings were planned to catch up on school governor business whilst taking full advantage of the tea making facilities in the school staff room.

Later on the Monday came the announcement of the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss – which was sadly no surprise for anyone who had been following the Conservative Leadership election over the summer. Tuesday saw her heading to Balmoral to be officially appointed by HM The Queen and replace Boris Johnson. A cause for celebration in one way, and at the same time incredibly worrying for what it would mean for the years ahead and the cost of living crisis that so many of us are now caught up in.

Normally the outgoing and incoming PM would head straight to Buckingham Palace for one to resign and the other to be asked to take over. It was therefore expected that we would have a new PM in place by Monday evening, but a week earlier the Palace had announced that The Queen was not going to make the journey from Scotland back to London as already planned and instead she would remain at Balmoral for the politicians to travel to her there.

Wednesday was Truss’ first appearance in the Commons for PMQ against the Labour Leader Kier Starmer and her confirmation that she wasn’t going to enforce a windfall tax on energy companies, but that the next day she would make a statement about how she planned to tackle the energy price rises. That evening the Privy Council was supposed to meet virtually to appoint new Ministers. The meeting was postponed as The Queen was said to be resting after a busy schedule on Tuesday and a statement was made by the Palace to that effect.

Thursday saw many of us tune into the news to see how she planned to do this. A cap of £2,500 for the average household will provide some relief in the short term, but with the PM’s initial statement many of us were left with more questions about how this would work and what it means for business and schools as well as our homes.

With any government announcement the details always follow. Some of them aren’t even thought through when a Minister gets up on their feet to make an announcement, so it came as no surprise that we were going to have to wait a bit, but none of us could have expected what happened next.

As we were sat there eating lunch and continuing to watch parliamentary coverage there seemed to be a bit of a commotion in the chamber. Notes were passed, whispered exchanged took place and people looked worried. A statement came out of Buckingham Palace to say that the Queen was unwell.

People here in the UK know that Bucking Palace never commented on The Queen’s health proactively. Statements might be made if she had to withdraw from an official function but this statement was incredibly unusual and we all knew it. News then came that the Queen’s children and her eldest grandson were travelling to Balmoral. We all knew that that meant instantly.

As this shocking news was digested by the nation the news organisations swung into action. Television schedules were pulled to swap over to rolling news. Presenters changed into black ties and dark suits and the mood changed. Rumours circulated about whether or not “London Bridge had fallen” and you could see it in the faces of everyone on the television that we all knew what was going to happen next.

As I sat in a school carpark listening to Radio 4 whilst my son was at a karate class the news came just after 6.30pm. Initially shared on Twitter as a sign of the year we were in.

The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.

This was followed by the playing of the National Anthem.

There was something haunting in those words. The instant reference to The King shook many of us. The National Anthem’s familiar sound making everyone stop. Tears came.

We all knew that this would happen one day, yet at the same time the Queen had seemed immortal. For seventy years she had been a continuous presence in all our lives and her image was literally everywhere. Even in a post-Covid nearly cashless society nearly all of us had a purse full of coins or notes bearing her image.

No one really one what would happen next. Many of us probably read about Operation London Bridge on the internet that afternoon, but few of us have lived through the death of a Monarch. None of us have lived through the death of a Monarch who had been on the throne for over 70 years.

As expected the tributes followed. News organisations have planned for the death of the Queen for years. They have plans to follow and lists of people to interview and topics to cover.

Sharing the news with the children was different from how it might have been had she died just a year or two earlier. 2022 was the year of her Platinum Jubilee. Children around the country had taken part in street parties and school celebrations for the Jubilee. They had watched concerts in her honour on television, primary school children had received a book all about her and we had all seen her invite Paddington to afternoon tea. They all knew the Queen and loved her. This was bit more than just a Monarch dying to them. She was like an honour fun grandma that they saw on the television and in books and newspapers and magazines.

Since The Queen’s death was announced I don’t think any of us realised just how busy things would become. I had absolutely no idea as to what the appointment of a new King would entail. I’d simply assumed there would be a Coronation in a year or so’s time and that otherwise it was just a formality that Charles became King and the Royal Family would go away and mourn in private before being seen at the State Funeral.

Instead our television screen and social media feeds have been filled with pomp and ceremony of a scale that has never been on television before. It is almost hard to keep track of everything that has happened involving our new King. Although Charles III title was automatically assumed on the death of his mother The Queen there was then on Saturday a televised meeting of the Accession Council at St James Palace and then a Proclamation outside the palace of the new King. This was followed by Proclamations across the country and in other Countries around the world who take King Charles III as their new head of state. In a world of mobile phones and instant internet access there is something beautifully paint about these traditions, but at the same time also incredibly moving.

The King is also required to travel around the country visiting Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as the new King all before the Queen’s State Funeral which is due to take place in a week’s time. That’s in-between meeting the Prime Minister, opposition leaders, other Ministers, Church Leaders and representatives of the Commonwealth and the countries where he is head of state.

Meanwhile the Queen has now started her final journey from Balmoral back to London, where her funeral will take place. She travelled to Edinburgh yesterday and the route was lined with members of the public wishing to pay their respects. The Public have also arrived with floral tributes at all the Royal Palaces and many have come to try to catch a sight of the new King. The scenes looked incredible over the weekend with so many families travelling.

Whatever your views on the Queen or the Royal Family you have to acknowledge that this is history. Living history. It’s incredible to live through it, and for our children to live through it too. It’s hard to believe that this time last week my head was just full of thoughts of first days at school and drinking tea in peace. What a week. A week in history.

Photo by Jack Lucas Smith on Unsplash.

The one where I got Covid on Christmas Day!

January 22, 2021 by Penny Leave a Comment

2020 really was the year that kept giving.

There I was feeling all smug that my kids reached the end of term without anyone in either of their school bubbles having to isolate. Yes, there was the bit where we went from Tier 4 on Friday to Tier 3 on Saturday and then Tier 4 on Sunday, but I was already at peace with the idea that seeing any family on Christmas Day itself wouldn’t be sensible, so again it didn’t damped my festive enthusiasm too much.

By Christmas Eve I felt on top of the world. A long-overdue Zoom catch up with some friends was wonderful, and after that I decided to celebrate with a glass of wine. A rare occurrence these days. I went to bed and then had a weird night of tossing and turning and not being able to sleep properly. I woke up with a thumping headache and just assumed it was the effects of said glass of wine. I carried on as usual though with the youngest, who was incredibly excited about their first Christmas where they had a clue about what was going on.

By lunchtime the paracetamol had turned the headache into a dull thud and so I went of to collect the eldest two from their Dad’s before returning and starting the rest of Christmas celebrations here. By 3pm it was time to put dinner on and I was starting to feel rough. Really rough. Rough enough that I pretty much fell asleep on the sofa and B had to make Christmas dinner – which to be fair about he did really well, even if both of us did totally forget the stuffing until two days later!

A bit of food made me feel a little better and I perked up for a while, before slumping again as the evening wore on. That night in bed though I again couldn’t sleep, but this time though I was starting to feel all feverish. Alarm bells started ringing, but I could still smell and taste everything so I assumed it wasn’t Covid but something else. By the next morning though I felt no better at all and sensible me said it would be wise to get a test. Just in case.

So, Boxing Day 2020 saw me heading to Luton and the glamorous location of a dodgy looking tent in an equally dodgy looking car park under a fly-over. As I approached, had it not been for the presence of a security guard in hi-vis, I might have assumed I was there to take part in a drug deal.

Credit where it’s due though – the whole booking a test process and actually being tested was incredibly straightforward. I was in and out within ten minutes and could have booked a test for as soon as 30 minutes after logging on to the NHS website.

Thirty six hours later my results came through and I was genuinely shocked to see a text message containing a positive result. Back in December it still felt quite unusual to test positive and many people didn’t know anyone who had. I spent ages trying to work out where I might have picked it up. Apart from one supermarket trip (when I couldn’t get a click and collect slot) I hadn’t been anywhere else at all. Literally just walking local streets with the kids. It’s my assumption that one of more of the kids picked it up at school, didn’t have symptoms themselves and then passed it on to me. My husband came down with symptoms five days after me, suggesting that I gave it to him, so that rules out it having come from him at work.

As time went on and the January return to school loomed it turned out that I wasn’t the only parent from my children’s classes who had been ill over Christmas. Nearly a third of us had and only in one case had their children shown any symptoms. This “new” strain seems to not only pass more easily, but also not present many symptoms in kids at all.

It goes without saying that having worked all this out I really couldn’t see how re-opening schools was sensible at all. Where my kids are at school in Hertfordshire the Covid levels were higher than many of the London boroughs where they announced that schools would remain shut. It made no sense at all and frankly sounded dangerous.

As a school governor, and in particular one responsible for some of the most vulnerable children in our school, I am fully of the belief that school is normally the best and safest place for our children. This definitely wasn’t the case in early January though. We were bought some extra time as my children’s school refused to take them back initially as there was still Covid in our household at that point (my husband was in his 10 day self-isolation period still) and even though the kids had finished their ten day period, there was no guarantee that they were not symptom free and had it in the same timescales. My kids school had an INSET day on the Monday, meaning that children were only due to return on the Tuesday, but of course all that changed when the latest lockdown announcement came through late on Monday night.

I could probably write a whole essay on the way the Government has handled Covid, and in particular the fact that so many announcements, especially ones involving education, come out late at night, or at least after the end of the normal school day. It’s infuriating, rude and creates even more work for people in what should be their down-time.

Trying to recover properly from Covid whilst homeschooling has been a challenge, to put it mildly, but as we head towards the end of January I think I’m nearly back to normal. I do seem to have the insomnia part of long-Covid that many people have reported, but other than feeling very unfit and a bit tired (which could be attributed to home-schooling!) I’ve come out of the whole thing pretty unscathed. At its worst I was aching all over my body in strange ways. I constantly felt cold and also developed a hacking cough. It wasn’t really how I expected Covid to be and was pretty debilitating at times. Not at all easy with two adults ill and three kids in the house. Three kids that had been looking forward to a normal Christmas…

Maybe for Christmas 2021 we can make a better go of things?

Five things my kids miss after five months of Covid

August 12, 2020 by Penny Leave a Comment

The last 5 months have been tough for all of us. Different from anything we could have ever imagined. As adults you can somewhat understand why things are different, but as a chid comprehending everything going on can be somewhat harder. As adaptable as kids may be, there’s still so much that they are missing. As we hit the half way point in the summer holidays I took time to take stock of the five things my kids are missing most after five months of Covid.

School

Top of the list for most kids has to be school. Whilst the idea of school being cancelled initially made some children jump with glee, the reality of months without their friends and the structure of the school day is now really having an effect on many kids, mine included.

My eldest two were lucky enough to be able to go back to school for four weeks before the summer term ended by virtue of their father being classed as a key worker. As much as they enjoyed being back, it still wasn’t school as they would normally recognise it. Bubbles of just 15 kids and not being with all their friends or regular teachers made it feel somewhat more like childcare in familiar buildings than school proper.

Hugs from relatives

As an adult I’m still trying to get my head around the fact that no one will tell us when we might be able to hug people again. It’s as if the government have forgotten all about that restriction on us. Maybe they hope that by saying nothing we’ll all forget that it is a rule still (as seems to be the case looking at pictures on social media) and then if we have a second wave they’ll be able to blame people for hugging each other?

As a kid though being able to see your grandparents and other relatives but not be able to give them a hug as they usually would is so difficult. I know some parents have stopped visits to grandparents entirely as the feeling of not being able to hug each other is too much for them to handle. I find it astounding that people can be allowed to sit next to each other on aeroplanes and get drunk together in pubs, yet a small child isn’t allowed to be embraced by their grandmother. Doesn’t that just feel wrong to you? In Scotland social distancing is no more for children under the age of 11. Why isn’t that the case here in England too? Or are the remnants of Hadrian’s Wall working as a Covid defence?

Swimming and libraries

We’re a family who enjoy simple pleasures during school holidays rather than flash trips away. Two highlights for my kids are usually going swimming together and taking trip to our amazing local library. Both aren’t allowed right now. The swimming pool has just reopened, but only for lane swimming or formal swimming lessons. My kids just want to mess around in the water, much like friends are doing when they are able to go away to places with their own pools like Butlins or Centre Parcs.

The local library is also reopening this week, but only for people to collect pre-ordered books. As a small child the joy of the library is being able to go in and choose a new author or book from a vast choice. Sitting down with a phone app and clicking on things just isn’t the same.

Playgrounds

The reopening of playgrounds has varied so much around the country. In some places they are open and as you walk past you could almost think that nothing had ever happened. In others playgrounds are still all taped off and the grass in them overgrown.

As a responsible parent I feel that I shouldn’t let my kids into an open playground if it’s too busy. No child let loose in a playground after months of it being off limits is going to remember to social distance. Especially not if they’re a toddler. But imagine how heartbreaking it is to a child to get to a playground and then be told they can’t go in whilst other kids are in there running wild.

Spontaneity

Children may not all understand the word spontaneity but that is definitely what they are missing these summer holidays. One of the lovely things about the long school holiday is being able to get up and say “what shall we do today?” Nowadays pretty much everything has to be booked in advance and it really does take some of the joy out of things. Getting slots to visit a National Trust property is like getting Glastonbury tickets and has to be attempted the Friday before. If you’re visiting somewhere new you need to do your research in advance and book a table somewhere for lunch or dinner, or else you run the risk of having hungry kids and no where to feed them. Places have (understandably) restricted visitor numbers so you just can’t always get a slot somewhere on the day you want. I understand why it has to be done, but when you’re a kid used to being able to be spontaneous it really can be quite disappointing.

I know all this is being done for our benefit, but at the same time we really do need to think about the impact this all has on children. My toddler’s not been able to mix with anyone her own age for months now and that surely must be having a developmental impact on her. She’s at the stage where she should be going to toddler groups and stay and play sessions and just can’t. The older two miss their friends and normal life acutely. Hopefully schools will be returning next month, but with bubbles still in place it’s not going to be how it was when they waved goodbye to their friends back in March. They’ve missed birthday parties and traditional end of school year activities. School trips were cancelled and my son will even be going to a new school in September. They also miss all the extra curricular things they love. Cubs and Beavers. Swimming lesson and football training sessions. Who knows when all that will be back to normal.

Penny’s Corona Diary – 31st March 2020

March 31, 2020 by Penny Leave a Comment

The last six days have disappeared in a blur. Each evening I’ve sat down and tried to write this diary and failed miserably. I’ve just been too tired, or simply too busy.

This home schooling lark is taking up a considerable amount of my time and patience. I know that the schools are not expecting miracles with a year 2 and a year 5 child in the house, but sadly it seems that my children’s normal teachers are so wonderful that they’ve set the bar extremely high! Today is the first day that the 9 year old hasn’t had a melt down when I’ve suggested that we didn’t need a formal paper timetable for the day. Each evening I’ve been printing worksheets like mad and spending spare moments marking them and researching the million and one “useful sites” that I’m being bombarded with on all social media platforms and the numerous WhatsApp groups that have sprung up.

We’ve found some great things over the last week. Joe Wicks’ morning PE lessons are fab, if a little too energetic for my kids’ liking. Twinkle is simply magical in terms of all the worksheets and plans that you can download. I also really enjoyed a life history lesson that we did last week from the Western Approaches Museum in Liverpool.

Today my 7 year old took part in an online History of Railways talk that an academic from the University of York was doing. At just 30 minutes he managed to fit in numerous interesting facts whilst making it accessible to a young train loving audience.

It hasn’t all been school here though. My daughter Cub pack started with an online Zoom Cub meeting last Wednesday evening and then, seeing as she was supposed to be on Cub camp last weekend, they ended up doing an online Virtual Cub Camp from Friday evening through to Sunday morning. With four Zoom sessions for all Cubs over the weekend there were also numerous activities for them to join in with. We had bridge building, campfire making, map reading skills, survival skills and even a Harry Potter online Escape Room. She made a den in her bedroom (from her little sister’s Wendy house) and slept in that for the weekend – meaning that she even qualifies for “nights away” under modified Scouting rules. It was epic, if a tad exhausting for those of us facilitating it all. A brilliant way of keeping the Cub Pack all together though and making the children still feel involved.

As for me… Well, last night I finally managed to catch up with some of my WI friends online. I’m honestly struggling to find the time to do things for me though. I’m yet to read anything and my crochet has sat abandoned too. With everyone in the house all day every day the amount of housework increases exponentially and there are still the the jobs like ensuring everyone is fed and has clean clothes to take care of. I see people online talking about having time to bake bread, watch box sets and take up new hobbies and I think they must be living in a lockdown parallel world to the one I’m in. Just having the kids at home 24/7 for over a week now is taking up pretty much every waking hour. The fact that the youngest in the family has been teething badly (and so not slept properly for the last 4 nights) just adds to how tired I’m feeling. What I wouldn’t give right now for a couple of hours of peace in front of the TV with a cuppa and my crochet and knowing that I’m on top of the housework. Add trying to work and earn money into the mix and I’m finding it all pretty overwhelming.

Anyway – tomorrow is another day. And I’m really hoping that I might finally get some proper time for myself. I made a real effort on Sunday afternoon and whilst the youngest was napping I handed the older two their tablets and sat down with a jigsaw. I’m just slightly regretting my choice. All the tube lines are now complete, but the white background is proving to be more challenging than relaxing!