Posts in category: Personal

There are so many things that writing this blog has given me over the years, but the thing that I think I’m most grateful for is the push it’s given me to photograph my children and my family regularly.

I would take hundreds of photos of the children even if I didn’t write this blog, I’m sure.

But writing these Living Arrows posts, along with the ‘siblings’ and ‘me and mine’ posts that I write each month, gives a different sense of purpose and focus to the way I photograph them.

On weeks when we don’t do anything out of our normal, everyday routines these posts push me to still grab the camera and take some photos.  And even if I’m a bit uninspired by them at the time I’m always so pleased I took them when I look back at them a year later.

This will be the 6th year that I join in with Living Arrows and I still love it as much as I did back in 2016.  I love having all these photos of the children growing and changing, along with the written records of what we’ve been up to.

I’m kicking off the year with these photos of Rhys and Nerys taken on a chilly walk along the seafront.

We’re pretty much back in lockdown here in Wales, which has made the start of the new year feel a bit different from most years.

This time last year we were out of the Christmas haze and getting back into the swing of our normal routines.  Rhys and Nerys were heading back to a new term at school and Steve was back to walking to campus for work every day.

Right now though it feels like we’re in a sort of limbo.

Steve’s still got a few more days of leave and then he’ll be heading back to work – in our kitchen.

And the children would normally be going back to school today but have got 2 inset days and then are doing home learning for the rest of the week.  Next week is still up in the air as far as school goes.  We’re expecting to find out sometime this week whether all the children will be back in school, or if they’ll carry on with the home learning.

The children and I had a chat about it and, once again, they’ve been fantastic about it.  I can’t get over how adaptable they’ve been through this whole situation.

They do get sad about things that they can’t do and people that they can’t see, but generally they’ve just been so understanding about everything.  I wish I could give them some definite answers about things, but for now all we can do is keep taking things pretty much one day at a time.

Are your children heading back into school this week or are you keeping them at home for now?

So here we are.  A pretty strange end to the strangest year.

If you’d told me back in January how things would go this year there’s not a chance I would’ve believed you.  Even now, having lived through it, it all still feels so surreal.

But here we are.

We’re ending the year in lockdown here in Wales, so we’re back to staying home as much as possible.  The guidance here is to only go out for essentials, and to stay as close to home as possible when we go out for exercise.

Luckily the weather has been pretty dry and we have a fair few places close to where we live that are really lovely for walks.

We headed down to the beach for the first time in ages the other day, and took our last family photos of the year in Victoria Park.

We’ve had a really quiet, lazy Christmas break this year, with a few walks around the local parks and far too much screen time.

After all the upheaval and uncertainty that the children have coped with this year, I think they’ve really needed this time to just shut off from everything for a bit.

They were due to be going back to school on the 6th of January but it’s now looking like that’ll be pushed back until at least the week after.  I’m trying hard not to worry too much about it, and just take things as they come for the next few weeks.

We’re really lucky in that both Steve and I work from home and can be flexible with our hours.  So while it is a juggle having the children at home doing school work, it is doable in a way that I know it’s not for a lot of other families.

I think we’ll hold off another day or two before chatting to the children about it all though.

For now we’ll enjoy a few more days of the Christmas bubble, full of treats and tv and playing with new toys and games.

I was looking back through some of the photos that I’ve taken of the children for Living Arrows this year and I just can’t quite believe they’re all from the same year.

The photos from the very start of the year feel like they were taken a lifetime ago.  So much has changed since then, it all feels really quite surreal.

After all the changes this year, it’s been so lovely over the last week to be able to bring back some old, familiar Christmas traditions.  Like getting the children to pose for photos in front of the Christmas tree!

Christmas day itself was a really nice mix of old and new.

We started the day the same way we always do, with shouts of ‘he’s been’ and gathering on our bed to open our stockings, one present at a time.

Then where we would normally head up to my in-laws after breakfast, this year they came to us for the first time.

Steve had been organised and cooked the turkey and made the chocolate torte on Christmas eve, so the cooking of the main Christmas dinner was surprisingly stress-free, and the children loved spending the day with their grandparents while still getting to be at home.

We also managed to do a group video call with my parents, my siblings and their partners, and all the cousins which was so much fun, and a lovely way to feel like we’d seen each other while we were scattered around the country.

It was a lovely, fun, relaxed Christmas day that I’m so thankful we were able to have, even just for that one day before heading back into the lockdown that’s been put in place here in Wales.

Things are still so uncertain here, it’s been so nice to just shut the world out for a few days and give the children a relatively normal Christmas, with lots of treats to eat and plenty of new games and books to get stuck into.  We were also able to spoil them a bit with their main presents, thanks to contributions from their grandparents, which lead them to declare this the best Christmas ever.

So I’m holding on to the festivities for a bit longer, to enjoy this break from reality a bit more.

We’ll leave our tree and decorations up until new year’s day and in the meantime keep enjoying cheesy films, twinkly fairy lights and big piles of chocolate.

I don’t really know where to start.

After everything that’s happened this year I didn’t think much would surprise me, but the announcement at 4 o’clock on Saturday that we would be going into lockdown at midnight completely caught me off guard.

It came at the end of a week of home schooling so my head was already frazzled from juggling the different bits of work set for both children, along with my own work with various deadlines that needed to be met.

I’m still sort of processing it all to be honest.

We’re really lucky in that we were only planning on seeing Steve’s parents for Christmas anyway, so we don’t have any difficult decisions to make there.  We’ve just had to accept that we can only see them on Christmas day now, rather than boxing day as well which is what we had planned.

In a lot of ways we’ve got off lightly.  I’m so angry for all the people who had got their hopes up that they could spend the day with their families and are now, suddenly, facing Christmas alone.

I understand why the restrictions have been put in place, I’m just angry that it was all done so last minute, after all the reassurances from Boris that things would be able to go ahead.

I’m trying not to dwell on that though.

Instead I’m focusing on all the things I have to be so, incredibly grateful for.

Nerys was a great help in reminding me of how amazing all the little things are last week.

She had been stuck at home isolating for 10 days, and then we had a week of home school and rain that ultimately led to her not leaving the house for 2 weeks.  So on Saturday morning the two of us went out.

We walked through Singleton park and spotted all the gorgeous wood carvings in the botanical gardens.  I let Nerys lead the way and we wandered down little pathways and over the trip trap bridge.  We watched a dog swim in the stream and threw sticks in the water to see how quickly they would be swept away.

Then we went to Brynmill park and strolled round the lake.  We bought duck food and tried to feed the ducks, but mainly ended up feeding seagulls.  We spotted robins and listened to them cheerfully singing to one another.

We walked and we talked and we took our time, and it was glorious.

Nerys told me over and over how much fun she was having, how great it was to just be outside together.  After 2 weeks of being stuck inside, just that simple pleasure of being out in the fresh air was wonderful.

I did have to laugh though, because the other side effect of her spending 2 weeks at home is that her feet have apparently grown, so none of her shoes fit her properly when we went to go out!

Luckily she now fits in Rhys’ shoes, so she’ll be borrowing those for a few days until the new shoes I’ve ordered her are delivered.

It really is those little things that I’m grateful for at the moment!

Apparently Christmas is only 10 days away.

I don’t really understand how that’s happened.  How are there suddenly only 10 days to go?!

I’m not even sure what we’ve done with ourselves over the last month.

I was looking through our photos the other night to find a few of Rhys and Nerys together for this siblings post, and couldn’t find any.  In fact, I’ve hardly taken any photos at all over the last few weeks.

So I got the children to pose together in front of our Christmas tree so I had at least one photo to share here!

We got our tree at the end of last week and spent Saturday afternoon decorating it together.

We’ve got a lovely mixture of baubles that were passed on to us from Steve’s parents and little wooden ornaments that I’ve had for years that remind me of the ones that my parents have.  We also have a handful of homemade ornaments that the children have made over the years.

What’s quite nice now that the children are a bit older is that everything is actually quite nicely spaced out on the tree, not like when you have a toddler who wants to help and puts all the baubles in one little spot!

Now the tree’s up I think we’re all starting to feel quite festive and can’t wait for the end of term.

The children are both at home already, doing online learning for the last week of school, which I’m pleased about.  I mean, yesterday was a bit of a struggle to juggle everything, and their timetables are busier than I thought they’d be for the last week of term, but we’ll get there and at least I know they’re safe at home.

We’re only planning on seeing Steve’s parents for Christmas, so we want to do everything we can before then to limit our contact with other people to then be able to enjoy the day with them.

Are you planning on seeing family over Christmas, or are you just having a quiet one at home?

A little over a week ago I was chatting to one of my friends after dropping the children off at school.

I commented on how lucky we’d been so far this year, with only Rhys’ class having to isolate at home for a week.  I knew as soon as I said it that I should’ve done the whole “jinx back, double pinky, round the side” thing from Gilmore Girls to unjinx us; and that instinct was right.

Touching my head and saying ‘touch wood’ didn’t do it.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that Nerys has been at home for the past week, isolating along with the rest of her class.

She’s been great about it to be fair, and I’ve quite enjoyed getting to watch her doing an online lesson every day.  It’s like a little insight into how she is in school, and it’s been so sweet to listen to this class of 6 year olds chat and giggle each day before the lesson actually starts.

Nerys needing to isolate did mean that last week was a pretty quiet one, with her not able to go anywhere and there still being work and school work to do at home (and school runs still with Rhys).

I did go and pick out our Christmas tree though, and we spent a lovely Saturday afternoon decorating it together – after we finally got it secured in its stand.  Apparently I didn’t look all that closely at the trunk of the tree and it’s slightly skewwhiff.

The biggest bit of excitement we had last week came with a knock on the door on Sunday.

One of the girls from cubs had popped an envelope through the door, full of badges for Rhys that he’s earnt over the last few months.

We knew he had a badge or two on the way, but weren’t expecting the little pile that arrived!

He’s so proud of himself, and I’m so proud of him for sticking with all the meetings that’ve been held over zoom this year.  He’s not always found them easy, but he’s commited to showing up and joining in each week and it’s so lovely that he’s now got these badges to show for it.

What’s really lovely is that there was even a ‘camping at home’ badge in there for Nerys, after she joined in with the big camping event back in the summer, camping out in the living room in sleeping bags for the night.

Steve actually pulled the sleeping bags out of the cupboard again when he was getting all the Christmas decorations out, and I think we may well end up doing a festive lounge sleepover one night during the holidays.

For now though, we have this one last week of term to get through.

We’d actually decided to keep both the children home for this last week, after a few more cases emerged at the children’s school and coronavirus rates across Swansea in general are getting really quite high.

As it turns out though, the council have decided to close the local schools and move to online learning for the week.

So we have a bit of juggling to do this week, but I think it’ll be quite nice to all be at home, with the tree and the lights and a few early finishes to watch some festive films.

Are your children in school this week or are you keeping them at home?

In last month’s me and mine post I wrote about how life seems to have been about the simple things lately.

And this past week that trend definitely continued.

It was a week of school and work and all the predictable rhythms of family life.

Rhys’ cubs meeting was in-person again which he was really happy about.  He did pretty much all the zoom meetings during lockdown but much prefers seeing everyone face to face and getting stuck into activities.

Last week they met up in the fields behind the scout hall for an ‘I’m a celebrity’ themed session.  Rhys was so excited when I picked him up because his team had won after he knew the answer to the tie-break question – in the 12 days of Christmas song, what was given on the 3rd day?

I had no idea he knew that song that well to be honest!

The children were also both able to go to their swimming lessons yesterday, before heading back home for warm showers and a quick few photos in the sunshine in our bedroom.

Both the children seem to be doing well with their swimming lessons which is great, but it struck me today that by the time I actually get to watch them at their lessons again they’ll be so far ahead of where they were last time I got to see them.

We always used to be able to sit poolside during their lessons and watch how they were getting on, but now we have to drop them in and then wait in the car until they’ve finished.

I have a feeling I’ll be a bit stunned when I get to see them in action again!

Cubs and swimming aside, the real, simple highlight of last week was the children learning to play solitaire.

Rhys had played it a few times on the computer and was so excited when I told him we had a pack of cards in the drawer so he could play a ‘real life’ version of the game.  He then taught Nerys how to play and it’s given them hours of enjoyment over the weekend.

They even ventured downstairs by themselves on Sunday morning and played a few games before coming and waking me up, which was a nice change of pace from the day before when we were woken by them arguing about who knows what!

I’ve not played card games like that in such a long time, I forgot how much fun they can be, and it’s been so nice rediscovering it with the children.

Now I have to try and remember some other card games we can play together, because all I can think of at the moment is shithead which we used to play at uni, which I think I might have to rename before teaching it to the children!

Do you play card games with your family?  What’s your favourite?