- Lockdown Diaries -

Thought I'd share another lockdown catch up.

The boys have been enjoying their time at home to the fullest, screen time is pretty high, but they get all their work done in the morning and the rest of the day is up to them.

I do try to take them for a walk around the village a couple of times a week and I also get them out in the garden helping out with the veg we're growing.

During clap for our key workers, we decided to take out the pots and pans and make some extra noise and to Alex's delight he broke a spoon he was banging so loudly, now it has become a weekly tradition to see who can break the next spoon! I'll be out of wooden spoons come the end of the lockdown.

We got crafty making posters for a surprise video that my sister in law and I decided we'd plan for my dads 60th. We got other family members involved and we all made a letter poster to spell out Happy 60th Birthday.

He was very impressed with our efforts.

Lockdown birthday's are so much more thoughtful than normal birthdays, which makes me think we need to ramp up our efforts and keep doing these random acts of kindness even when we are allowed to be with other members of our family.

I've been missing the gym recently so I decided I would try online yoga sessions.

I've always wanted to do yoga, so now is the perfect time to start.

I'm really enjoying it and it isn't as tricky as I thought it would be.

It definitely picks my mood up.

One evening as I was finishing, a sleepy Ru decided the floor by my feet would be a better place for him to sleep rather than his bed.

The cats are enjoying the sunny afternoons and are even enjoying napping close to each other, which is a first especially for link and indie, who are usually sworn enemies.

I finally was able to sit and relax and finish a book that I bought a few months back, I tried on and off to read this and even during lockdown I just couldn't focus, but with a routine in place with the boys I found time to read and I really enjoyed this book.

I had a big sort out in the twins room, as it was just full of rubbish and stuff, Oscar is a bit of a hoarder and likes to collect shoe boxes, stones, bits of rubbish and anything shiny.

Every time I went into their room it made me unhappy. 

So 5 bin bags later and a massive dust up, it's finally a nice relaxing room and I keep finding myself just standing in their admiring my hard work.

Whilst decluttering their room we found the Treasure Island playmobil set that Jon's mum had bought Noah many moons ago, so I set it back up and Ru is loving it.

I can never resist taking a photo of a rainbow!

I have also got into wax melts!!

My house has never smelt so amazing.

I get mine from flaminglewaxco.

Beautifully packaged and at great priced!

I'm loving my little collection and the boys love picking out a new scent every day.

We had a little VE Day tea party in the garden to celebrate the 75 years.

I made a Victoria sponge and managed to get some little cupcakes from our local Tescos.

The boys all coloured in some Union Jack bunting that we put up in our front windows and we also did a little home learning on WW2 to get them to understand what we were celebrating. 

Noah has already learned all about the war so was more than happy to help tell the boys all about it.

Twinkl had some great resources for us.

I really can't be trusted with money as I've bought even more plants for the house.

These were from canopy plans £35 for a box of beginner plants, so I had no idea what they'd be until the arrived.

Im very pleased with my selection and already my pothos has nearly doubled in size since arriving.

I also made three ingredient sugar biscuits.

100g salted butter,

70g sugar,

120g plain flour.

- Pre heat the oven to 170,

- Mix all the ingredients together,

- Form the dough into balls and press down with a fork,

- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes.

These tasted amazing right out of the oven! 

Even with the relax on the lockdown soon to commence me and the boys will be sticking to what we are already doing, I have a feeling people will decided its ok to go back to normal and we'll have a spike on our hands.

Ru is year 1 and would be expected to return to school on the first of June, even if we hadn't made the decision to home school from now he wouldn't be going back.

YR and Y1 abiding to social distancing regulations seems like a joke!

Noah will not be going back to school until everything is under control and there is a vaccine available, schooling with social distancing seems ridiculous to me. They are all much safer at home.

I understand this isn't an option for everyone and my heart does go out to everyone who isn't able to have the option.

I hope everyone stays safe and sticks to the rules and that this virus is soon under control!

xxx Stay Safe xxx

- Lockdown Diaries -

I thought I would share a little post on what we have been up to during the lockdown so far.

We joined in with painting rainbows for our windows, for people to spot on their daily walks. Ru really loved getting creative with his paints and ended up doing all sorts of designs that we now have up on display, he's also posted a couple to his friends and grandparents.

Home learning has been a bit of hit and miss recently, it all started off really well and they were all very excited to be learning from home, but that soon wore off. 

The twins and Ru are easier to keep focused by using print offs from Twinkl.com which I have been using a lot but Noah is a different story. 

We get sent 10 or more texts a day from his homework app to say he's been set more work or he has work due in, some of which he has no idea how to do and others his passwords no longer work for him to be able to log into the websites he needs to get on. 

So we are doing what we can and I am trying to find him other bits to do when his school app is stressing him out. A stressed-out pre-teen is pretty much like dynamite and I try to avoid it at all costs.

We are currently doing around 1-2 hours of work a day and getting in at least half an hour of physical activity, either in the garden or by joining in with Joe Wick's PE sessions in the morning.

We've been going for walks around the village occasionally, as we have a decent-sized garden that the boys play in every day so we tend not to need to go out on a walk every day and plus the thought of bumping into people really has put them on edge when we're out so it's just calm and easier to stay at home and play in the garden.

Though I am planning to make them walk to the beach and back at least once a week, as I do miss seeing the waves. 

We have been baking A LOT! 

we've done countless amounts of banana loaves,

chocolate chip muffins,

brownies,

slow cooker bread,

cheese scones,

shortbread biscuits 

chocolate chip and marshmallow cookies,

and one vanilla sponge cake with sprinkles.

Muffins

cheese scones

Noah's banana loaf

Vanilla sponge 

brownie

slow cooker bread

shortbread biscuits

The boys have all been creative with different slime experiements and building little characters out of air drying clay.

By doing crafty things like this, it helps limit their screen time - which if it was up to them, they'd be Fortnite all day long. 

It also helps them relax and enjoy being together because lets face it .... they can fight like cats and dogs when left to their own devices.

Most of our afternoons are chill-out time and the boys do end up doing what they like, be that playing on their games, watching a film or playing in the garden whilst I read my books. Life is less stressful this way and everyone goes to bed happy.

I have also managed to finish my first full year at uni, as my last TMA was cancelled so once I submitted number 5 I was done. I put my books away with confidence and now I am looking forward to starting my first part of year two in October.

We have also made our own playdough and have really been enjoying time together when the lockdown was first announced I was slightly dreading being stuck in with the boys as I just assumed it would be fights and arguments every day but actually it has been really lovely.

The boys are much happier at home, no stress from school, we aren't running around to all sorts of different clubs and we are just taking out time and doing things when we get to them.

I've been trying to keep myself from buying unnecessary things off the internet but I failed when it came to buying new plant babies!

A babyMonstera Deliciosa and Monstera Minima. 

Chlorophytum Green Orange

Chlorophytum Green Orange

It really has been a bit of a wake-up and maybe we do need to take things a little slower and maybe question our usual routine.

We are already considering homeschooling the younger three as in June, their school is due to shut down and a lot of the local schools do not have room for more students, and seeing how they are all much happier with the home learning I think we may be on to a winner. There are also so many home ed groups in Norfolk that I know we won't be stuck for things to do or places to go and learn about. 

I definitely feel my mum mojo is back, I'm no longer stressing about my job, the house is constantly tidy, the washing is always done and put away and I am enjoying spending time with the boys.

I feel this has been a bit of kick up the backside from the universe and it's telling me what is more important in life!

Lockdown style! 

xxx Stay Safe xxx