Skip to main content

And so it continues...

Izzy's attempt to sort her room - she gave up at this point!
Well we've survived the first week back at work (and school) and live to see another day / week / month - quite frankly they are all the same these days. It was always going to be a busy start to the working year - we run straight into year end and a run of Board committees amongst other things, but then add in the chore of doing it all online, plus balancing against the kids being back into home schooling and by Friday I'd definitely had enough. Thank goodness for a house move to take our minds off things, even if it just gives us something else to have sleepless night over. 

Yesterday was Saturday and despite the restrictions we are allowed to do things associated with a house move so we went to Taunton again to measure up for wardrobes, sort out flooring and check some details / hand over more oodles of cash for a house we haven't yet bought...I still have daily nightmares that it is a lot smaller than our house and we'll never fit all our stuff in, but the kids are theoretically sorting through their rooms and putting the stuff they don't need to one side, and we are doing the same so hopefully by the time we get to moving we will have less rubbish to take with us!

Obviously the rules for Covid are pretty strict, but that didn't stop (for valid reasons) us ending up with
there being us, the builder, the man from Sharps and Mum & Dad (measuring for curtains) all there at the same time - its the biggest group of people I've been with for months! We did have all the doors and windows open to air the new wood-burner which was smoking like a train as we burnt off the wax coating they'd seen fit to put on the capping stone - why on earth that was a good idea I have no clue. This time it was Izzy's turn to come with us so Abi reluctantly stayed at home to keep the dogs company, while Izzy got to hang out in the van (there isn't much else to do there at the moment) while we measured the walls. It's amazing what one will do these days for excitement!  I did ask her if she really wanted to come, but it's understandable she wanted to get out - it's the only time she's left the house in over a week.

Home schooling kicked off again on Tuesday and by Wednesday it was clear the kids were already freestyling it. At one point Abi started cooking, and when I queries it saying I didn't think she had Home Ed this term she replied "I don't, but it's more interesting than drama..." true, but I'm not sure that's the way the timetable is supposed to work! By the end of the week they had settled into things a bit more and were mainly working downstairs at the kitchen table rather than slumped over their beds - progress I think. The biggest complaint they have (other than the teachers with rubbish microphones) is that they are still being given homework! I did point out to them that lockdown is just BAU now and they would have had homework had they been in school so why not at home. Their view is that it's all homework at the moment so don't add insult to injury by adding more on top. They have a point I guess. We have to find some happy balance - we are probably in this for the long run now. GCSEs and A-Levels have been cancelled for the summer but they have still got to learn something. 

In the meantime it's Monday again tomorrow and another day which will feel just like the last - when do we get a holiday?!?


Nothing like a good tussle with your bed!



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ypres

Walking around the lake in Ypres while waiting for the rugby to finish! A wet Monday evening after a lovely long weekend away in Ypres - just the two of us and just what I needed after what has been a relatively stressful few months of decision making. The decision is now made however and on Monday I resigned my job in order to join a new company in January. This will be the same role, but a company that hopefully offers more long term stability than my current one. It's been hard going through the initial round of telling people.Despite only being there for 7 months I've made some good friends and very quickly become established and everybody who I've told has been happy for me but very sad that I'm going - it hasn't made it easy. I do feel like I've been through the mill a bit this year - what with leaving EY, ramping up to a big new role, finding out it probably didn't have the longevity I was looking for and then going through the process of finding ...

Cough, cough

Izzy - can't do a photo without rude finger gestures It's fair to say that the last couple of weeks have been rough. I managed to get the cough Mum had a while back and it has been horrible! Both Dad and Glenn seemed to get a very mild version of it but Mum and I got the full dose and I can safely say that it has been a stark reminder of just how bad a viral infection can be. It also illustrates the whole Covid experience - some get it worse than others. For me it has meant that for over 2 weeks I have had the worst cough which has left me unable to sleep properly. I still can't sleep lying down fully, and have to be propped up on pillows on my back which is not my favoured sleeping position! It has also meant that Glenn has spent the last 10 days in the spare room because I have been coughing so badly he is unable to sleep in the same room. Thank goodness we didn't all have it - we'd have shaken the house to its foundations! It has also meant that I have been exhau...

Welcome Albert James!

So this week has been full of new things - Jess and Chris have welcomed Albert James Wilkinson Rayner to the family, a tad early but all doing well apparently (and so cute!!), I started my new job, Abi has her new shed and Dad got sorted on a phone that wasn't invented before the kids were born!! I always knew this week was going to be full on and it certainly has been. The first thing I had to do was try and sort out my diary which had been filled from dawn to dusk by my predecessor with meetings. I decided to set out as I mean to go on and immediately took out those that started before 9am. While I can get into  the office for 8am , it's a pain and requires me to be on the 6:30am train which is just a bit much every day (stating the obvious). I then made it clear that we don't need to be joined at the hip for the next 4 weeks which is a sensitive process - even though he is retiring it's hard to let go and he is understandably keen that the team are looked after. ...