I’m getting to the stage of lockdown now where I’m no longer sure how long things have been like this. I actually have to get the calendar out to work out just how many weeks this has been going on. I’d say that it’s becoming like a “new normal” but then it might just sounds like I’m jumping on the bandwagon of using a new phrase that the media and government seem to have adopted.
What is very obvious to me though is how many people seem to be now picking and choosing which lockdown rules to follow. There are far more cars on the road now than there have been before. People are starting to shop more often. They’re taking their kids to the supermarket as a jolly rather than only as a necessity. Those outings for daily exercise seem to be increasing in length and people are sometimes jumping in the car to go and do them. It’s almost as if people have forgotten the reason we’re doing all this.
I know things are hard, especially when you’re juggling everything as so many parents are, but I’m genuinely worried that this lax attitude that more and more people seem to have now is just going to cause a second peak in cases. I understand that there is a pressure to get the economy going again, but at what cost? I’m not convinced that everyone’s new laxer attitude is directly related to people needing to work though. That’s what concerns me most.
Back in our little bubble life has been progressing quite nicely over the last week, although things are so busy that I genuinely wonder how we ever found the time to actually go to school! Since the Easter holidays finished my daughter’s school work seems to have gone up rather a lot. Her school aren’t forcing her to do any of it, but she wants to try and keep up with what everyone else is doing. I’m trying to encourage her to do a bit each day and she’s actually been much better at cracking on and doing just that. Staying one step ahead of what she’s doing is the bigger challenge.
My son is somewhat harder to encourage to work, but he too has down some good stuff over the last week. I’m also working hard on trying to get him to see that him winning board games isn’t the only possible outcome of a family game. He didn’t take his first experience of losing at Monopoly very well. Then again, I wasn’t too impressed either when my daughter had me out this afternoon when I landed on her hotel on Park Lane!
The weather hasn’t been quite as nice this last week which means less garden time and on some days sadly none at all. The whole situation is so much easier to deal with if we can get outside regularly. Instead there have been a huge number of board games with the older kids and lots of CBeebies for the youngest. I figure that’s acceptable considering everything else going on.
My husband I have been trying hard to tag team as much as possible to both be able to work during the daytime and reduce the amount of evening time that I need to spend working. Some days it works well. On others not so much. I think the feeling of being constantly tired is just one I’m going to have to learn to put up with. Making more time to do things for me is helping my head though.
I’m charging ahead with one of my crochet blanket projects right now. Encouraged by managing to join in with my knitting group last week via Zoom, and also a crafty catch up with WI friends too. It was lovely to see what projects everyone has been working on. I’m also making more of an effort to actually watch things on TV when I sit down rather than just aimlessly putting on whatever I first come across when I turn it on. As well as the end of Race Around The World I’ve also finally started watching Friday Night Dinner and enjoyed this week’s lockdown version of HIGNFY (and been tickled by the idea of Ian Hislop having a cat called Colin!) With the kids we watched the musical of The Midnight Gang from the Chichester Festival Theatre, which was excellent. I thoroughly recommend it.
I’ve also just started on what I think might be a bit of a rabbit hole of documentaries by Molly Dineen. Tonight we watched Heart of the Angel after someone recommended it on Twitter. Utterly fascinating. Combine it with the Hidden London videos from the London Transport Museum and it’s made me realise how much I want to spend more time learning about the history of the Underground. Our Tube Stop Baby project may be on hold for a bit, but I’ve got plenty of stations that I still need to write up and loads more I want to learn about stations we haven’t yet made it to. This could keep me busy for a while! Combine it with some of the other classic documentaries that have made their way onto iPlayer and that should certainly keep me busy for a while longer.
Add in another board games night with friends on Skype (Chainstore this time – a write up to come soon), plenty more jigsaw puzzles and my son doing an online Beaver sleepover and it really has been a full week. The eldest two are here less this next week which means a bit more time, but also time missing them. I usually keep my self busy when they’re not here and get out quite a lot to distract me from missing them. That’s obviously not possible right now and the quiet after they’ve left is strangely loud.
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