I’m starting to completely lose track of time.
I can’t believe it was just a month ago that I was writing about world book day, Rhys’ school residential trip, and a lovely scoot around the park. It feels like so much longer ago that all those things were happening.
And it seems so odd that there are no signs at all in last month’s siblings post that everything was about to change.
I think I was in denial about how serious things were about to get, this time a month ago, so didn’t mention anything about the coronavirus in that post. Now though, there’s no getting away from it.
We’re now into the fourth week of the children being home from school after they were all closed to try and control the spread of the virus. It’s been an incredibly surreal few weeks so far, with those moments when everything seems normal and then it all hits you again, out of the blue.
I think the warm, sunny weather has been a big factor in how surreal it all feels. It’s really created that sort of summer bank holiday feeling, which is in such stark contrast to the seriousness of the wider situation going on.
I am thankful for it though. Thankful for glorious clear blue skies and warm days to get out for a family walk each day. I’m also so grateful that my children are old enough to understand why the play parks are closed, so we can walk through the other parks without them getting upset about not being able to go on the swings and slides.
Rhys and Nerys have both been happy to walk, run, and sometimes scoot around the local parks together, and we’ve talked about the fun we’ll have back in the play parks when they do open up again.
I think they’re both starting to miss all their friends from school but they’ve been getting on together really well, for the most part, considering how much time they’re spending together at the moment.
I’ve seen a few people talk about how our children will remember this time in their lives when they’re older, and I really hope my children hold on to all the positives that come out of it. The extra time spent together. The later-than-normal bedtimes and late afternoon family walks. The fun of using zoom to see school friends and join in with cubs sessions. The randomness of Easter spent just the four of us, doing egg hunts in the garden, egg and spoon races in the carpark and our own version of the Easter bonnet parade they normally do at school.
I don’t know where we’ll be in another month’s time, which is a really strange thing to accept.
A month feels like ages and no time at all, all at once, and I’m not sure how much better the coronavirus situation will get in that time. I’m not convinced the children will be back at school to see the end of term out.
So I suppose all we can do, with all this uncertainty, is keep doing what we’ve been doing. Keep juggling. Keep trying to bring as much normality into our days as we can, while also kind of embracing the weirdness of the whole situation.