school

My Sunday Snapshot and Ordinary Moments, Calm

September 13, 2020 by Anne Sweet 6 Comments

image shows a red oil burner with a rose shaped wax melt.

I still have a some of my Etsy gift vouchers left so this week I treated myself to a new oil burner. It came with some lovely little rose shaped wax melts that smell of lavender. I always associate lavender with peace and calm and that’s just what I feel I need right now.

Ordinary Moments – Calm

The kids haven’t been to school. They have had tummy bugs which has been highly unpleasant. Luckily most of the adults didn’t get sick which was a relief.

So, the girls haven’t actually been back to school yet and the Little Man has lost three days this week.

I have been in hospital having my treatment, although I have come home each evening. No worries about spreading anything in the hospital with all the COVID precautions. No visitors allowed, and I had to have my temperature taken before entering the ward. Then I was at least 2 metres from anyone else apart from the staff, and we were all masked.

Overall though, it’s been a stressful week and I’ve had so much going on in my head. This morning I wrote a (very long) brain dump blog post which will probably stay in my drafts, but it was very cathartic and now I feel calm.

It’s all about taking deep breaths and dealing with things as they happen. The kids are going back to school tomorrow and I have everything ready. I’m not sure how it’s going to go, but we’ll try our best and I’m going to try not to stress about it.

Everything else is just a blip in life. There is just too much to deal with right now and I can’t bury my head in the sand but I can do everything possible to install a feeling of calm in my home. I’m going to do this by stepping away from Social Media and focusing on the things I need to get ready for tomorrow. We will have a lovely Sunday Dinner (we are having a roast today, but it will be a late one as no-one is ready to eat at lunch time.) We will all shower and get our clothes ready for tomorrow. We will spend the evening playing games or watching television. Calm and peaceful and organised. Away from the chaos in the world.

Today we are going to keep calm.

The rest of the week will happen no matter what.

My Sunday Snapshot and Ordinary Moments – Ash in a Box

July 19, 2020 by Anne Sweet 8 Comments

It’s been a while since we had a photo of Ash. Here he is curled up in my old wool box. It’s Ash in a box!

I bought the box to store my wool down my the side of my chair. It’s made of a leatherette type material and comes with a lid so can double as a pouffe, or extra seat. Ash loved it right from the start and used it as a scratching post. I kept turning it around to hide the scratches but in the end he’d made such a mess of it that I decided to replace it.

No sooner had I emptied out my wool stash Ash was in the box like a shot. Perhaps that’s what he’d wanted all along. To him, this was his box and he was ready to claim it. So much for me getting rid of it, it’s now Ash’s new bed.

He’s a cutie though, you have to admit.

In Other News

School is out for Summer! I guess that means I don’t have to worry about struggling to get the kids to complete their work each day. They are already looking forward to going back to school in September. Fingers crossed this virus stays low so it can happen.

Boo celebrated by going to spend an hour with her friend. We were going to invite her around for Boo’s birthday but when she begged to see her sooner we couldn’t say no.

Star left the house after 116 days. She went with her Dad to Mc Donald’s drive through, so she didn’t even have to get out of the car. It was a change of scenery though.

We have decided that we will start to leave home regularly each week now. We need the fresh air and exercise. You won’t be finding us anywhere crowded though.

Happy Holidays!

More Ash

My Sunday Snapshot and Ordinary Moments – Crystals

July 12, 2020 by Anne Sweet 9 Comments

I’ve never really considered myself a lucky person, but I’ve had some lucky moments. Recently I won a competition to win £500 to spend at Etsy. Trust me, I had to work for my entry, but it was worth it. I love Etsy. The first thing I did was go and luck for crystals. I had plenty of things I’d wanted to buy on my favourites lists.

Recently I’d bought myself a crystal bracelet which I loved so I decided to buy another. I love lapis Lazuli, and was so thrilled to find one with rose quartz. Both of these crystals bring me so much comfort and healing.

lapis lazuli and rose quartz bracelet with angel wing.

I was also really excited to find this beautiful tea light holder made from a blue agate geode.

My next purchase, that hasn’t arrived yet, is a lovely dish to keep all the crystals I already have in on display.

The Ordinary Moments

After my last post which was really positive we have had a couple of rough weeks. When you are a Mum of three daughter’s all over a particular age, then you get weeks when the world can just ‘go and do one!’ Yes, that’s been the attitude. The fun loving family time from just a week before had disappeared as fast as the sun.

School work at home has been a pain, the girls have been really unresponsive, and the Little Man has had to be pushed to get started. I can’t wait for the school holidays!

In these strange times the thought of the school holidays feels really weird. At this time we would be preparing for the end of year parties, and I’d thinking about what to buy their teachers as end of year gifts. Well, not really the girl’s now that they are both in secondary; but the Little Man’s teacher is actually leaving the school altogether, it’s sad we were not able to buy something for her. We are not even allowed to go to the school to drop something off.

School Holidays

Will it even feel like school holidays when the only difference will not be trying to get them to work every day? We have cancelled our holiday this year and probably won’t be going out much.

I don’t even know if we will be needing new uniforms for September, they have so much stuff that’s hardly been worn. I have ordered the Little Man’s p.e. kit from the school, they have their own special kits which are personalised. But we will need to go through all the stuff that’s been packed away for months to see what still fits. I’m pretty sure Star is the same size, but Boo seems to have sprouted up and The Little Man seems to have filled out.

Now, I have to get my thinking cap on. We need to make these school holidays count somehow. Do you have plans?

Here’s my last Sunday Snapshot and Ordinary Moments page.

Isolation Diaries Day 42 -fifth Week

April 25, 2020 by Anne Sweet 6 Comments

How’s it going at your end? Are you staying home, do you have to work? Everything is so strange these days isn’t it? Even the television is rather strange, I can’t get used to watching everyone recording in their own homes. It seems weird watching television programs made before the lockdown where people are actually gathering together and there is no social distancing. We have just completed our fifth week of staying home.

It’s the Weekend

How’s it possible to feel excited about the weekend? Well, at least I don’t have to motivate the kids into doing any school work! They have driven me kind of crazy this week. It’s helped having a routine of getting up, having breakfast and getting dressed rather than lounging in our pjs way too long. But it’s been a struggle getting them to actually start working.

The teachers are good. I’ve had regular calls from the girl’s school and they even offered to deliver us some food the other day if we were struggling. I declined. We are getting our shopping deliveries so we have no food issues. How lovely that they can do this though.

The Little Man’s school sent a video made by all the teachers. They’d tried to do a zoom together which had failed, so they sent a load of photos and messages along with the school song, which the Little Man sang along to. He also had a p.e. lesson sent by some of the school teachers in fancy dress. This was so funny and we put it on the tv and all had a go at it. (well, I did what I could.)

But now we can chill out and I can give up nagging for a couple of days. I do want the Little Man to continue reading though. We are reading ‘To Be A Cat’ by Matt Haig and I’m loving it. (Probably more than the Little Man but we won’t say anything about that.)

Tension

It’s so hard to not feel tense with all that’s going on. It’s also hard not to take it out on each other when you live in a large family like ours. We’ve had to have several conversations with the kids about their attitudes. Thankfully, one of them was backed up by a BBC bitesize program, we had been berating Boo on her tone of voice when she spoke. Then the program talked about tone and how different things sound when you say them in certain ways. I think she got the message a lot clearer than our moaning at her.

We are also having sleep problems. The kids are fine but the adults seem to have lost sense of their body clocks. (well apart from me, but then I have to deal with the Little Man waking up early.) The two eldest have been going to bed when I get up and then staying their until nearly dinner time. Graham has been sleeping on the settee because he says I keep him awake. It works both ways, he keeps me awake! We are both snorers, but we didn’t have problems when we went to bed at similar times. Now, he stays up until 3 am. By which time I’m well away and snoring. So he’ll wake me and I’ll stay awake listening to him snore. It’s making us both grumpy and for a few nights this week he’s taken to sleeping on the settee instead. The older kids are in their bedrooms, but they can still be noisy. I think they forget sometimes that it’s 4 am. Just because they are wide awake.

So, with us all being confined and our sleep patterns being disrupted there have been the odd few arguments when we are together. Mostly the older two, although Graham can be grumpy when he first wakes up. And the kids wind him up. As always, I try to be the peace maker, but even my patience runs thin sometimes.

I am lucky though. We may argue but we do care about each other. I can’t imagine how awful it would be to be stuck home in an abusive relationship.

BBQ in the Fifth Week

bbq, fifth week, lockdown, stay home, stay safe — *photo from Unsplash via Pic Monkey*

The weather was so nice we got the BBQ out. It was funny, I ordered a whole load of BBQ stuff in the online shop and nearly everything was substituted for sausages and burgers. We ended up with 60 sausages and 48 burgers! Thankfully, Graham was able to pick up some other things from the local shop for variety. I ate too much and ended up with a tummy ache!

I also discovered that my new wheelchair works on grass and went for a trip up to the top of the garden. I did get stuck a couple of times but eldest son was there to help out. I’ve not had the chance to use my new chair much, I went out four times before lockdown and three of those were medical appointments. So it was nice to have a ‘spin’ in the garden. Another nice feature is the handle bar on the back so I can be pushed when needed. In my old chair the only way to push it was to push the seat which hurt my back.

So that was my week, the highs and lows. And now I’m into my 6th week of staying home!

I haven’t done this for a while but here are the places you can find me online. Please join me if you wish.

See you soon, don’t forget to join in with your posts. We could make a COVID Time capsule between us!

About Me Page

The Isolation Diaries Day 16 – Worries

March 31, 2020 by Anne Sweet 2 Comments

Back to Work – Day 15

The weekend did feel a little more relaxed, we put our worries aside and I let the kids just do whatever they wanted to. This did result in finding Boo still on her phone at 11pm in bed on Saturday night. I did say the no screens after 9pm rule was still in effect so she was sneaky in getting her phone into bed with her. I think she misses her friends a lot more than the others though.

Monday was not so good. I don’t want to go into too much detail but I think stress got to us a little more than usual. Graham has his own way of dealing with all of this. I know he’s struggling because he goes out a lot more than me, I’m used to staying in. So, he’s found a release, but he wanted to take it a bit further and I wasn’t happy about it which ended in a big falling out. We worked it out eventually though. We have to remember, it’s tough for all of us individually as well as together as a family.

I didn’t feel like working with the kids because I was upset, but in the end, I found getting some work done with the Little Man was a big distraction and helped a lot. Oh, he protested, he wanted to play Roblox all day, but we managed to drag him away and in the end he did a fair bit of work.

School Worries

It’s so difficult and I’m sure I’m not the only one with worries. Will my kids fall far behind in their school work? Will they catch up? Is it going to make a big impact on their lives? How hard is it going to be going back to school? So many more questions.

Everyone has their own approach, and I hate it when people criticize others. I have three very different children and I’m having to take a different approach with each of them.

My Three

Star is stressing, she will be in year 11 in September, exam year. She needs to keep up with her work if she wants to do any good in her exams. Her stress levels were through the roof before they shut the school and we had just managed to arrange a meeting to talk about it but it was too late. So now, she is completely torn as to whether to do the work and feel stressed again, or ignore it and hope it goes away! Yesterday I managed to get her to complete an art assignment. She loves art so that was something at least. I’m not going to force her to work and make her feel worse, but I am going to keep pushing her into doing whatever she can. Today she’s just asked if I have any lined paper, so that’s a good sign she wants to do some work.

Boo, is more interested in talking to her friends than doing any work. Apparently her friends aren’t working, so why should she? She’s the tween with an attitude. Her work is mostly online and the teachers are reading and marking everything submitted. She got a shout out in the virtual assembly last Friday for her work….so maybe she’s not gossiping as much as she’s making me believe?

The Little Man is younger and needs direction. He’ll do his maths work no problem, but when it comes to English, he doesn’t like writing things down. Get him into it somehow and his work is really good. I’ve read some of his past pieces and they are amazing. But again, there are pieces in his book with the comment from the teacher about him not trying very hard. It’s really hit and miss with him. I’m being sent info every day for him to complete, and at the moment I’m happy so long as he does about three quarters of it. We’ve not managed to complete it all.

Day 16

We had another shop delivered yesterday and I’m afraid I have to admit to panic buying. We normally have a big shop each week delivered and then Graham pops out almost every day for little things we need to stock up on. That’s not really something I want him doing now so I try to get as much as possible in the main shop. This week I even managed to get Easter Eggs for us all! (Don’t worry, they are stashed safely away out of sight.)

The freezers are full to brimming and so are the cupboards. We won’t go hungry for sure. And most of it is non perishable. The Perishables will be used up first and then we know we will have no waste. I think next week I’ll ease back on the frozen and tinned stuff and just hope the shops continue to fill up for when we fall low again. One thing I’ve been unable to get is pasta and I have a lot of pasta fans in the house. I know how to make fresh pasta, but it’s too time consuming when you are a family of seven. I might try the kids with gnocchi instead, that’s a bit easier.

Fear

There are so many things I really want to write about, rather than just the day to day stuff. But on the other hand I want to keep a diary too. Last time I talked about the Invisible War and how we are fighting something we can’t actually see or avoid…unless we stay away from others.

a white face mask on a pink background with the words Don't Panic above. worries

The past week I have seen a lot of fear. People are scared, it’s understandable. This virus can kill, and does kill. At first people were saying it was no worse than flu and that it was less deadly. But we have a vaccine for flu, we understand it a lot better and figures aside, it doesn’t matter. How many times have you seen the Country in lock down because of an outbreak of flu. We should never underestimate any other virus, but COVID-19 is proving to be a devastating one. People need to take it seriously and stay safe and keep others safe.

Some people are showing less fear and wishing to carry on as normal. This means meeting up with friends and family, going out to public places, shopping irresponsibly, even posting videos of themselves licking supermarket shelves….yuk!

Then there are others shaming people for going out, posting photos on social media of people on bus stops or groups of people out together. It’s all based on fear and we should be mindful of other people.

Fear can bring out the worst in people. I’ve heard of some awful stories. Don’t spread fear, but if you feel scared, ask for help. There are also some wonderful kind people out there. These are the people we need to get through this.

We may be apart, but we are never alone.

Finally, More Worries

I couldn’t leave this post without a mention of a lovely friend and her husband who are going through an incredibly tough time at the moment. It’s not COVID related but my heart goes out to them both this morning. You’ll get through this, I know you will. And once this damn virus has gone away I’m going to treat you, I promise. I just want to give you the biggest hugs.

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