Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

Welcome to the 'talking tub' - pure homemade therapy! That's what we have decided the hot tub has given us - a place to have those conversations that you might not find the space or time to have elsewhere... unless you are Glenn of course, in which case it's a place to be alone with your iPad. He heads off there quite often, grumbling that he's only using it because no-one else is, then emerges about an hour later looking very flushed. I think he secretly quite likes it! In reality with all that's going on, between coronavirus and 2 adolescent daughters in the house, we need a space for catching up on the little but important things in life. Despite still spending way more time in the house than ever before, life appears to be rushing by as quickly as it ever was and I cant believe that we are nearly into August. Before you know it the summer holidays will be over and (fingers crossed) the girls will be back in school. The nights are noticeably drawing in an...

Somehow I missed posting last weekend and as ever its almost impossible to catch up on myself once my Sunday slot has passed... despite lockdown measures still being in place (sort of), the world has definitely gone back to full speed and we seem to be back to rushing around. I had high hopes of posting while we were in Port Lympne, but the wifi was a bit rubbish (much to the horror of Glenn and Izzy, not so much Abi and not at all me), and so here we are - Sunday again! So, back to last weekend and it felt like a rare dose of normality after so many weeks of locking ourselves away from the rest of the world. The government guidelines, now almost incomprehensible in their layered complexity, allows for 2 families to mix indoors and overnight, albeit I believe while maintaining social distancing (?!?!), so first Kerrie and Ryan dropped by on their way home from seeing Ryan's parents, and then Simon and Sharron came to stay. It was lovely to see Kerrie - she's looking so we...

My constant companion in the garden! So much for the relaxing sunny week off work - the weather has been more like October than July and so this week has been mainly about dodging rain and wind rather than basking in the sunshine. Despite that I have managed to have a good week off, mixing seeing lots of friends and family with some extra yoga and walks, as well as time with the kids. The sun finally came out today and I even managed a bit of time in the garden! We've capitulated on school and so this was essentially the first week of the summer holidays for the girls. I know we should have made them see it though to the end, but it was getting more and more of a chore and they never do anything by this point in the term anyway and so I'm sure they haven't missed much. The question of what they will do over the summer holidays feels like it is more my problem than theirs - they are quite happy to potter around doing very little - it's just me that wants to see the...