Everyday feels like groundhog day now. The weather is rubbish, we are stuck indoors, home schooling is a real struggle and we have nothing to look forward to, now that lockdown has been extended until at least 8th March.
This week Kian took himself off on a bike ride, but we got a phone call after a couple of hours to say he had a puncture, so my husband had to go and rescue him. Normally we get a local company to fix our bikes if something goes wrong, but, I decided we would fix it ourselves and ordered the parts from Decathlon.
It took a few watches of different YouTube videos and a spell walking away from it, but Kian managed to change his tyre himself. It certainly isn’t as easy as it looks!
Here is our week:
Sunday 24th January
Eliza’s 10th Birthday and the final member of the family to celebrate a birthday in lockdown.
We had been hoping for some snow, but typically, living by the coast meant it missed us. However, we had to pick her birthday cake up from my friend who lives a couple of miles further inland and I had seen that they had some, so I bundled the kids in the car early, before it disappeared.
There wasn’t huge amounts and it was already starting to melt, but the kids loved playing in it, building snowmen, throwing snowballs and making snow angels.
The afternoon was spent with doorstep visits from friends, playing games, silly string fights, battering a piñata full of sweets, before a zoom call with family and friends to blow out her candles.
It wasn’t the party that she wanted, but we had fun nonetheless.
Monday 25th January
The novelty of homeschooling has definitely worn off now, although Eliza was happy that she could do her lessons on her new laptop. Sebby moved to the PC, which is in the hallway, but it is now clear that he needs supervising more closely as he kept wandering off and messing about – I even heard his teacher shout to him to sit still.
We look after Lilah every Monday and she adores Uncle Kian – today he taught her to beep his nose!
Tuesday 26th January
Another day and another home school session. We have had an email from the school to say that the afternoon session is now two compulsory foundation subjects and must be completed between 1:00pm and 2:30pm.
It was clear that I wasn’t going to get much work out of the kids, so we took advantage of some sunshine and headed out for a scoot instead.
The schoolwork was done, albeit, a bit later in the day.
Wednesday 27th January
The weather can only be described as dreary now, but we decided to head out for a walk anyway.
I wore my walking boots, which although waterproof, I almost instantly regretted as it was so muddy, where the river had burst its banks a few days before.
Our mission was to try and spot the Otters that are living on the river and a Kingfisher. We didn’t find the Otters, but just a few hundred yards from the end of our 4 mile walk, we were treated to a Kingfisher darting along the river. Sadly is took rest over the other side of the river, so I didn’t manage to get a great picture.
Time to save for a new lens for my camera I think!!
Thursday 28th January
Back to work for me, so the kids are in school. It does feel really busy when I drop them off. There are only 4 kids in, in Eliza’s class, but there are 11 in Sebby’s.
When I got home, we unboxed from Sneak Artz which we have been sent to review.
Friday 29th January
Work again for me and a busy day in the shop.
It is always a great feeling when we get to help local charities and today we donated wetsuits and suncream to the Watersports Library in Poole, which loans watercraft and equipment to local people so they can get out on the water.
Saturday 30th January
Wow, what a busy day. I can only put it down to being payday weekend for most people as the shop was full from 11am until 5pm with constant queues to get in.
I spent the day outside as a “queue buster” and it still amazes me how many people try to come shopping with all their family, walking past a huge sign saying “please shop alone”. Most people were good about it though.
My only picture of the day was from Pokemon Go, where I finally managed to catch my Smeargle to complete a challenge.
How was your week?
Wow, they have so few kids in. N’s class have 20 kids out of 30 in! (and that includes kids with 2 parents working from home who aren’t key workers, and the kids even have laptops or ipads etc at home they could use!).
Happy birthday to Eliza. We’ve all had lockdown birthdays here too.
I think some schools are more relaxed than others. We only have 234 in the whole school
All the days do seem the same. Thankfully today is a sunny day here today so it’s brightened our moods a little.
My girls learned to fix punctures and change bike tyres last year. They were well chuffed with themselves.
Happy birthday to Eliza. It sounds like she had a great day. It looks like you had a fab time in the snow.
It looks like you had a great walk out despite the mud. x
You know, we walked twenty kilometres last week, and haven’t spotted smeargle even once, so annoying, that we couldn’t complete the challenge. Though the gift was not especially good.
Love your kingfisher photos! Eddie and I are wishing Eliza a happy belated birthday! Her birthday cake looks fabulous! I wish I could make a Dobby figure like this.
That was one muddy walk. Lilah’s nose-beeping made me think of my boys when they were tots, they both loved when I buzzed their noses.
Apologies for the double comment, I got a mesage http://edge.microsoft.com/captiveportal/generate_204 when I was trying to leave a comment the 1st time.
You know what, we walked over 20km in the last week, and haven’t spotted a smeargle even once. Very annoying, as it was the only one left in the challenge, though the prize for completing it was pretty pants.
Lilah’s beeping the nose reminded me of my boys when they were tots, they both loved when I buzzed their noses.
Eddie and I are wishing Eliza a happy belated birthday. That cake looks super! The Dobby figure is fabulous!
School at home is not fun is it. I only have one that doesn’t want to do any of it without constant attention, how you juggle everyone is beyond me. So jealous of your kingfisher shots, I’ve never even seen one, let alone photographed one – wonderful sight #365
Our kids school has a lot of kids in but also has a lot who aren’t but who I haven’t seen turn up to even one online session! It is interesting to see how different schools are dealing with it and I’m amazed by how few are in your childrens classes.
It seems you have busy and lively days with the kids! It should snow soon again…
Lovely family by the way!
Happy belated birthday to Eliza and glad you managed to find some snow. The children look like they enjoyed it. How lovely to spot the kingfisher on your walk. #project365
Happy belated birthday to Eliza. It sounds like your homeschooling is a lot stricter than ours there is no way with us both working we could commit to getting certain things done at certain points in the day. I wouldn’t know where to start with fixing a puncture or changing a tyre – well done Kian.
Happy 10th Birthday to Eliza! Everywhere is so muddy at the moment. Difficult to walk off road/proper path unless you go up high. Seems strange to hear about children going to school – I don’t know when H will go back, but it’s fine as he does his own homeschooling.
Happy 10th Birthday! That is an amazing birthday cake, I might have to order one for myself ;0). We didn’t have any snow either but I’m glad you managed to find some. I don’t understand why people are going out to the shops in groups. I haven’t been in a supermarket for nearly a year, except to pick up our Christmas dinner from M&S. That was a shock to the system. Darren does the shopping runs for us with a mix of online ordering. Perhaps we are used to it as we can’t really take Ethan food shopping.
Magical birthday cake! The snow was a glorious respite from the monotony of lockdown. There is a kingfisher on our river but I haven’t spotted it (the kids have on a walk with my parents) #project365
Well done with your Queue buster a role, you must have remarkable patience and restrain to do that job. The first few birthdays I think we all promised we’d make up for, but now it’s just the way we are doing things. All the schools are doing something different, shame to have compulsory online times when you’ve had the freedom, must be hard when parents are actually working from home during the day. I don’t envy any of you right now.
Happy 10th birthday to your daughter!! 🙂 Looks she had fun
the snow day looks so much fun.. looking forward to reading about sneak arts. hope you have a good week too!
Happy belated birthday! Love the birthday cake.
Glad you managed to get out and find some snow!