Posts in category: Personal

Here we go again.

It was so lovely last week to have a break from trying to balance school work and work work, all from home.  And now here we are again, back to it.

The half term break was a bit different from how it would normally have been, but I think the children still had a good time and they definitely enjoyed the chance to relax and not have to do any school work.

We weren’t able to do any of the things we would normally have done in the holidays, like visit the local library, play at the park, visit the gower or pop into town and go swimming.  But with it being warm and sunny all week long we were at least still able to get out and have some fun in the fresh air.

At the start of the week we walked up to this spot with amazing views across Swansea bay.

We were all ready for a sit down by the time we got up there, but within a few minutes the children were off again, throwing their hats like frisbees and chasing after them.

Nerys also found a little notebook and a pen in the backpack we took with us and drew a picture of the meridian tower while we were up there.

Both the children have really been enjoying drawing lately, and I love seeing their different styles starting to emerge.  We’re really aware that they’re spending more time in front of screens at the moment, so we’ve been making a point of getting them to sit and draw instead for a while each day and they both really enjoy it.

They’ve also been reading more over the past few weeks too.

Rhys has discovered Harry Potter recently and had worked his way through the first 3 books in the series, so I bought him the next 2 to dive into.  I’d forgotten quite how much longer the books get as you get further into the series!

Nerys has really come on in leaps and bounds with her reading too.  A family near us had put a pile of books out on their wall last week that they didn’t want any more so we picked up a few from the fairy animals of misty wood series that Nerys liked the look of.

She started reading one by herself at the weekend and really impressed me and Steve with how well she was doing with it.

We did spend more time at home than we normally would during the half term break, but ventured out for a scoot in the park one afternoon.  Steve also walked the children up to his parents’ house to pick up some food and give me a blissful hour or so in the house by myself.

And we even had our first proper paddle in the sea of the year which was just amazing.

Hopefully this warm weather will stick around a little bit longer so we can pop down again and make the most of living where we do.  We’re still being asked to stay local and close to home here in Wales and we’re really lucky to have so many lovely places we can go for a walk while following that rule.

I have sat for what feels like hours, trying to work out what to write for this month’s me and mine post.

I just don’t really have much to say I suppose.

There’s no real news.  It feels like this last month was much the same as the one that came before it.  Time really does mean nothing at the moment!

We’ve still been living with pretty much the same restrictions that were put in place ages ago here in Wales.  So we’ve still not seen anyone, we’ve still been sticking with our cobbled together routine of juggling work and school work at home.

This last week at least has been different with it being half term.

We went out for a walk early in the week to a spot that the children have never been to.  It was only a 20ish minute walk from home, but uphill all the way, including a pretty tiring set of steps to get to where we wanted to go.

It was so worth it though, for the views of Swansea bay.

Nerys in particular loved spotting the landmarks that she recognised like the meridian tower and mumbles head.

It turned out to be the perfect spot for a family photo, once I wasn’t quite so red in the face from the walk up there!

I still can’t quite get my head around the fact that this is the third me and mine post that I’ve written while we’ve all been at home.

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again but this is just such a surreal time to be living through.

The children should be heading back to school next week, for the final half term of the school year with all the fun of sports day, the summer fete, playing in the yard and in the woods with their friends at the end of the day.

Even if they do go back before the end of term, it won’t be to anything like a normal school day.  Which makes me wonder if it’s best to just keep them at home now and hope that things are something closer to ‘normal’ by the start of the new school year in September.

The way things are going here in Wales it may not even be a choice for me to make anyway, which honestly I’m quite pleased about.

If you’re in England and have a child in the relevant year group, how are you feeling about the possibility of them going back to school?

Half term.

I can’t quite get my head around the fact that we’ve spent the last half term at home.

Most of the time we’ve just sort of been getting on with it all, to the point that it all feels quite normal for us all to just be at home.  Then I actually stop and think about it and realise quite how mad this situation is.

It does make me feel better about the days when I struggle and the children struggle.

This is such a bizarre time we’re living through.  I don’t think any of us ever thought we would experience something like this, when our children would be out of school for such an extended amount of time.

Of course we’re going to have hard days.  Or course we’ll struggle to process it all.

What is so surreal about it all though is that, a lot of the time, things are good.  We’re happy.  We’re incredibly lucky to be together, and to be healthy.  Days have lost all meaning, in the best possible way.  We can go for walks through the park, as a family, on a random Tuesday afternoon.

We can sit out in the sun, listening to the birds singing louder than ever, noticing the seasons changing around us.

The thought of going back to the old routine of school days and clubs and swimming lessons is really strange now to be honest.

I still don’t know when the schools will open up again here in Wales, and even once they are open I’m assuming it’ll be quite a while before the school week is anything close to ‘normal’.

I do wonder how different life and the world will look when we do start coming out the other side.

Nerys quite often talks about the things she wants to do ‘when this is all over’, and I do find it quite strange to think about.  At the moment I just can’t imagine going out and doing the things we would normally be doing.

We went out to the supermarket yesterday and I noticed when we got home that I instinctively pushed the kitchen door open with my elbow, feeling like a surgeon on their way to theatre having scrubbed their hands clean.

We all wash our hands as soon as we come home from a walk, even if we’ve not touched anything while we were out.

The whole family now naturally cough into our elbows instead of our hands like we used to.

I wonder how long it’ll take before those kind of new habits start to fade away.

Do you think they will?

Do you think that we’ll all revert to our old habits quite quickly, or will we always now be more mindful of touching our faces and washing our hands?

It’s out.

The wobbly tooth that had been sitting at a very strange angle in Nerys’ mouth for what seemed like weeks is finally out.

She actually pulled it out in the end.

It had been bothering her more and more each day, until one evening she’d just had enough.  I’m quite impressed that she pulled it out to be honest, I don’t think I could bring myself to do it!

Now we’re all getting used to her face changing again.

This is the second tooth she’s lost since lockdown started and I’m finding it a bit hard to get my head around how much she’s changed in that time.

Her face looks so different now with this big gappy smile.

I keep forgetting about it, then being surprised when I look at her and see it again!

We were actually supposed to all be going to the dentist for a check up about a week ago, but obviously that appointment was cancelled.

I’m not sure when we’ll actually be able to go to the dentist again, I’d imagine they’ll be one of the last services to be up and running again with the risks of infection being so high when they have to be in such close contact with patients.

I have a feeling our dentist will be quite surprised when we do finally get to see her again.

The last time she saw the children Nerys still had all her baby teeth and Rhys still had his poor broken front tooth that was stubbornly holding on.  His adult tooth had come in behind it and it was still refusing to fall out.

Now it’s out and luckily the adult tooth has moved to pretty much the right spot in his mouth.  It’s been quite a weird process, getting to see this tooth gradually shift into the right place!

I’m guessing you can tell by the fact that this post is almost entirely about the children’s teeth, that not a lot else really happened with us over the last week!

I think it’s the same for loads of people though isn’t it.  There’s just nothing really to report at the moment, we’re all just pretty much doing the same things each week.

Although saying that, I’ve just realised that it’s half term soon, so even though we won’t be able to go anywhere like we normally would, it should still be a nice change of pace to have a break from school work with the children.

Are you looking forward to it, or do you think you’ll actually carry on with a bit of a routine of doing work with your children?

A month ago, in April’s siblings project post, I wrote that I had no idea where we would be in a month’s time.

Turns out the answer is we’re in pretty much exactly the same place we were then.

A few things are starting to shift in England after Boris’ speech at the weekend, but here in Wales things are generally the same as they have been for weeks now.

And I’m quite relieved about that to be honest.

The plan at the moment for England is for Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 children to start heading back to school at the start of June.  So for us that would mean Nerys would go back, but Rhys would still be at home.

For so many reasons I just don’t know how that would work.  So I’m relieved that in Wales they’ve announced that the schools won’t be opening up at that time.

The children have, obviously, been spending so much more time together than normal lately, and I think it would be quite stressful for both of them if only Nerys went back to school.

Whenever they do head back to school things will be different and strange and that in itself will be hard for the children to deal with.  So the idea of one of them going back and trying to cope with that while the other one is still at home just doesn’t feel right to me.

It just feels like a lot to put on such young children and, even though it’s been hard juggling everything, I would rather have both of mine at home until things feel that bit more settled.

Of course I’m incredibly aware of how lucky we are to be in the position we’re in.

Steve and I are both able to work from home, so we can have the children here with us for as long as we need/want to.  I’m also more aware than ever right now of how lucky the children are to have each other.

They both miss their friends, and everyone else they can’t see at the moment, but they do have each other.  They have someone to play with, someone to talk with before they fall asleep, someone to argue with and then make up with.

I hope one of the things they remember when they’re older, looking back at this time, is how lucky they were to be in this together.

Have you ever had a time when someone’s asked you what you did at the weekend, and you just can’t remember?

It’s like you know you did stuff, but it was all so normal, so standard, so routine that you don’t really know what to say when someone asks you about it.

That’s how I feel now, trying to write this post.

I know we’ve done stuff over the last week.  We’ve been busy with the juggle of school work, and housework, and work-work.  But it was one of the weeks that I think is destined to disappear into the blur of all these weeks at home.

Nothing really noteworthy happened.

Rhys had another virtual cubs meeting.  Nerys has a wobbly tooth that is still, somehow, hanging on in there albeit at a very unnatural angle.

We did make it out for a walk on the beach at the weekend which was amazing.

We went down mid-morning when the tide was in and it was just what we all needed.  To breathe in the sea air.  To spend a few minutes just watching the water.

I think we were out for about an hour in the end, just walking along the beach and then back through Victoria park.

It’s something we’ve done countless times before.

So normal, so standard, so routine.

Which made it so perfect.

In all the chaos out there at the moment, I suppose it’s a real luxury to have a week where there’s nothing to report.

We’re at the start of our 7th week at home.  Aren’t we?  I think that’s right, but it sounds absolutely crazy that it’s been so long since the schools closed.

I’d love to say that we’ve settled into some kind of routine with all of us home trying to get things done, but we’re still mainly winging it each day.

This whole experience is such a roller-coaster of emotions for all of us, I don’t think it would work to try and force ourselves into a rigid routine.  It suits us better to have a rough plan in place of what needs to be done, but to adapt it as we go depending on how we’re all feeling.

So some days the children will do PE with Joe in the morning, if they’re in the right frame of mind to try and master his moves.  Other days we’ll ditch that and head out for a walk/scoot in the park instead to get all of our bodies moving.

I’m so relieved that our local council decided to keep the parks open so we have plenty of green spaces to use for our walks.

There are days when I’m quite happy to just stay at home, but on the other days when the children are starting to get a bit stir crazy we all definitely benefit from a trip to the park or the woods.

We did do something a little bit different at home last week, to stop it feeling quite so much like goundhog-week.

Rhys took part in a ‘camp at home’ activity with his cub group, as part of a world record breaking attempt at the most people camping all at once.

He had to pack an overnight bag, set up a tent or den (we did ours in the living room), create a campfire (he built one in Minecraft!), cook a meal, take part in a scouting activity and then spend the night in his den.

When we first talked about it I thought maybe he could cook something like beans on toast for himself for tea, but he immediately said he wanted to make pizza.

So Steve told him what to do and he made pizza for the four of us from scratch, all by himself.   He made the dough, he cut up all the toppings, and assembled the pizzas.  And they were amazing!

I think it all gave him a bit of a confidence boost, and I’m loving the thought of him being able to make us dinner now and then!