The up’s and down’s of lockdown

Well, we are still sane, just about.

When I wrote about our first week of lockdown, my plan was to write a weekly update to share how we were coping, what we were doing and generally just to add some thoughts to these pages. As you have probably noticed, those updates never happened.

The good intentions left after the first week and I felt no one wanted to hear the mundane every week – it’s not like there was much to say, we hadn’t been anywhere, done anything other than school work and it was boring for me, so I felt with everyone in the same boat it wouldn’t be beneficially at all, plus writing about those things would have depressed me even more.

I love my little family unit but now in week 6, it’s a struggle. We have a nice big house and a decent-sized garden, and for those, I am very grateful but I am missing people. I miss my parents, my sister and my friends. It’s not that I am the most social person but the school runs were made by the daily chats on the curbside for an hour after we’d dropped off the kids, I would get to school early for a natter with friends and would have friends over for dinner with their kids a few times a week.

Video calls and phone calls are OK but being around other people is what I am missing most, popping over to see my sister and besties whenever I want to or when I need a break during the day from work.

I don’t do very well with being told what to do, which is one of the main reasons I work from home and am my own boss. Timetables and regulations aren’t how I work best, so I am finding this very difficult mentally. We’ve not ventured out other than for exercise locally, we wouldn’t and I am in no hurry to send the kids back to school but I can’t wait for this to be semi-normal again as it is people I am missing the most.

We managed quite well with school work for the first two weeks here, the teacher and students (me and the kids obviously) all ended up with detentions most days as we always overslept, but at our own pace, we worked our way through the school work which was sent home.

Then the Easter holidays happened and I let them skip any work-related work for those two weeks – we painted, did arts and crafts, played board games, did puzzles, sewed, took on projects and there was a LOT of screen time.

Those weeks none of us suffered, we took it in our stride and had family fun. The chilled-out attitude we all had made it feel like the school holidays and other than days outs or missed holidays it was almost like normal here. We ate too much, slept in late and had fun every day. Of course, the wonderful weather did help.

Since then it’s been a struggle, I have been feeling bored and am fast running out of things to fill the time and all of us are finding our patience with each other runs a little thin at times, especially in the evenings. I have recently come across Vurbl which has been great for both the children and myself. Vurbl is a podcast hosting website and has some of the best educational podcasts as well as some great crafting podcasts – it has been helping us to unwind and shut off for a while.

We’ve sorted out the whole house now – I tackled the kitchen on the kids last day of school, pulled the cupboards out and sorted through everything, my room was next. Since then I’ve down the same with the kid’s bedrooms, removed all broken and old toys and sorted through their wardrobes getting rid of all clothes which no longer fit. Paul tackled the shed, we’ve had a huge sort out of both the front and back garden, sorted the front room and playroom and finally over the weekend tackled the spare room/dumping ground. Thankfully, we used Clearabee to remove all the rubbish, you can read my review here. 

I’d love to get the paints and wallpaper and decorate the front room, but with deliveries taking a long time and stores being closed – I refuse to go out unnecessarily so it can wait, it’s not an essential job (and with work thin on the ground it’s an expense which can wait). I also need to fix the garden fence which went down with the last storm and then paint all the fences – also a job which can wait.

The school have now started using Seasaw to send homework for the kids so it’s back to forcing them to at least do some of it, they certainly aren’t the most willing students, and I’m not the best teacher.

I have relaxed on trying to get them to do everything and we are doing lots of hands-on things instead such as baking, gardening and games which they are far happier to do. They have even made me a planter out of an old pallet they found on one of our walks. These, after all, have educational values attached to them so they are learning without realising.

We have also set up a home gym which the kids are loving and have a routine they do every day now.

Bedtimes for all of us seem to have disappeared, with the kids going upstairs anywhere between 9.30 and 10.30 then watching a show or reading for a while, this also means we are all sleeping in later which I am not averse to at all after all the days are long enough as they are so if we don’t wake up till 10 am then they don’t seem just as never-ending.

It’s been a time of mixed emotions for us all and the times of day seem to be dictated by what we are having to eat next, but we are just about coping and staying sane in our own way.

How is lockdown going for you?