Lockdown 2.0, Days 83, 84 and 85

 It's funny how quickly the days pass when I'm feeling content and happy. Last week seems like a distant memory, but this week has flown by and we're almost at the end of it. Caitlin's birthday tomorrow - I'm quite excited. Some of her presents have arrived and we've got lots of yummy food organised so it's going to be a fun day even though she's not able to see any of her friends.

I've kept fairly busy over the past few days (and been too tired to blog in the evenings). Tuesday was my usual shopping day, and this week the kids came with me. Caitlin and Liam went for a walk with Luna and met up with a friend, Amelie shopped with me. It was fun having some company. We ran into the big kids a few times, it was weird to see them out of the context of home, I haven't randomly run into them anywhere for many months now, we're always together! Wednesday I did a fair amount of work in our bedroom, clearing out everything on Tony's side of the room so that he can use the shelves and bookcases there for his stuff, and I can use more of the walk in wardrobe for my photography supplies. It looks good all cleared out, there have been boxes there for a very long time, it was exciting to finally take some action on them. Today Caitlin and I went to Yarra Glen to the post office, picking up a couple of her birthday presents and sending off some more parcels and letters. We browsed the lolly shop and popped into the IGA. 

In between those 'big' activities we've done yoga every day, been for a long walk every day, chatted about all sorts of things, spent a lot of time watching the birds around our house - there are 3 baby Welcome Swallows in the nest above our back door, sitting and watching the parents flit back and forth feeding them is really fun. The kids have played Among Us, Liam has spent a fair amount of time playing Terraria with friends, Caitlin and I have been cooking. This afternoon we watched Enola Holmes which was really really good. 

Numbers have stayed fairly low this week, the average is going down, it's feeling encouraging that restrictions might continue to ease.

Lockdown 2.0, Day 51

 A much quieter day today. I was surprised that there weren't many branches down around our place, one big one and a bunch of little ones - elsewhere there were trees down all over the place and some people didn't have power back yet. We had a calm morning at home, pottering around, doing some puzzles, browsing the internet, I did a bit of my course, chatted to both Mum and Dad on the phone. Caitlin and I went for a walk mid afternoon, it was sunny and actually fairly warm, a nice day to be out. Luna is getting much better at walking off lead and not chasing kangaroos. Amelie played games online with a friend. When Tony got home from work he took me over to Mum and Dad's - with Dad having minor surgery yesterday he's not able to drive at the moment, so he offered me his car while mine is at the mechanic. It was cool to have time in the car chatting with Tony, and exciting to be so far from home - the first time I've been past Yarra Glen in 4 weeks. It was great to see Mum and Dad, they're looking well and we talked for a bit before I took the car. On the way home I bought a Mint Hot Chocolate in Yarra Glen then sat in the car for a while at my favourite spot on Old Healesville Rd and read my book and listened to music. It was a beautiful afternoon and in between reading I really soaked in the view. Great view of the standing water in the fields across from our place, too. I drove home the long way from there and arrived feeling very relaxed after some time on my own. Also felt good driving a manual car, I've missed that. We had a hodge podge of dinner, everyone getting what they felt like eating, then Caitlin and I watched The Bodyguard - I'd never seen it, and was inspired by seeing Lorelai sing 'I Will Always Love You' on Gilmore Girls a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed it and it felt like a comfortable way to end a very up and down kind of week.

Lockdown 2.0, Day 48

 I woke with a spectacular headache so started the day with a long hot shower and then felt a bit better. I went about my usual morning routine but after working outside for a while I felt exhausted and just needed to sit. I'd promised to make waffles for Amelie, so Liam offered to make them, and I just supervised (he'd never really worked through a recipe on his own before to cook something, he did a great job and the waffles were delicious). I tried to have a nap but was too restless - lying down for a while helped though and I was able to get up and feel a bit more normal. Liam spent more time trying to figure out how to livestream his games and Amelie posted a video to her YouTube channel.

In the afternoon I had my fortnightly Zoom chat with the Yarra Glen Homeschool Group - there were 5 of us today and as usual it was a relaxing and enjoyable chat. As soon as it finished I headed down to Healesville to get our milk - it was incredible to see how much water was on the fields - it was like a lake over around the Maroondah Highway, and in the low areas of the Abbey's property. I popped into Coles (first time since Stage 4 started and it felt crowded and not where I wanted to be) to get a few things that we're low on but can't get at Aldi, then did the rest of our weekly shop at Aldi. I ran into 2 people I knew in there - another mum from Guides, and a good friend from Healesville, who I'd just been talking to on the Zoom chat!

When I got home Caitlin had just made scones (yummy!) and the girls were finishing The Sound of Music. I had a beer and a phone chat with a friend, we ate soup and watched The Block (Amelie watched YouTube and Liam was playing and chatting with a friend on his computer) then I had a long talk to my sister on the phone which was a lovely way to end a fairly social day.

Lockdown 2.0, Day 47

 After a weekend spent mainly sitting on the couch, I woke up (early - 5.20am) this morning with lots of energy and feeling keen to get on with some projects. I did a bit of tidying and organising and made some dents in a couple of areas of the house. I realised that I've been putting off the things I really want to do because they felt like wants rather than the necessary housework - but it's been leading to me not feeling motivated to even the necessary stuff. So today I prioritised those things - namely starting to clean out the walk in cupboard in my room to convert it into a little writing space for myself, and organising the files on my MacBook so that it's working more efficiently and I can work on my photos more easily. I made progress in each area and it felt good.

Liam and I went for a walk in the morning to see the water levels around the property. Everywhere is still very wet (we had 27mL yesterday, as well as 3-10 mLs each day for almost the last week) but there weren't so many rivers around the place. The creek level had dropped a fair bit but it was running fast. We saw ducklings on the dam, swimming away from the shore with their mum as we got closer. So incredibly cute! We had quite a few sunny patches today and it was slightly warmer - I even got the washing dry outside!

I watched Liam play Fall Guys for a while and we chatted about strategy. I had a good talk to a friend. Amelie and Caitlin played games on the House Party app, then Millie spent a good part of the afternoon using it to talk to a friend. They played Pokemon games and she jumped on the trampoline and was so excited to be able to see her friend on her phone rather than just hear her voice. She also started to make some more YouTube videos, and Liam is looking at recording some of his game plays. Caitlin watched YouTube for a while and finished crocheting her next little creature. She and Amelie went for a late afternoon walk then started to watch The Sound of Music. I talked to Mum and Dad on the phone - Dad hasn't felt well enough to talk the last several times I've rung, it was really lovely to chat with him. Tony watched the Collingwood game and the kids watched The Block - I saw bits while I tidied the kitchen and got ready for bed. Liam told me about some of the history of coffee that he'd been learning about - it was fascinating. 

Numbers were low today - only 116! Although 15 deaths. I feel that the new cases will go up a bit again later in the week, hopefully not too much though. It feels maybe slightly possible that we could come out of Stage 4 in another 3 weeks - that would be so great.

Lockdown 2.0, Day 41

 Today was quite a busy day, which is a bit (a lot) of a novelty these days. Although really exhausting - I'm not used to having more than one thing happen in a day, now I'll need several quiet days to recover.

I woke early (5.30) and I love being up at that time of day so I had a cup of tea and did some writing and checked my email and so on. I remembered at some point that I'd thought about doing another Strength Training Class with The Compound this morning - I ummed and ahhed for a while then figured I could put it off forever so I'd be better off just doing it. I booked in and spent the next couple of hours worrying about how hard it was going to be.

It was very hard. I've lost a lot of condition over the past few weeks with the bleeding (which did eventually stop, after 3 weeks) and my sore back. I got quite light headed about 3/4 of the way through the session and had to stop for a while - I need to remember next time to work at my own pace and not try to keep up with everyone else. It was cool at the end to have a quick chat with Clem and let him know how excited we were to watch him on Ninja Warrior.

Caitlin and I watched a movie (Its Kind of a Funny Story) while she crocheted, then a friend popped past to pick up some hot chocolates from the Chocolate Factory - Liam and his friends are going to celebrate the Hot Chocolate Festival via video call seeing as we can't all go together like we usually do. I went to Healesville to pick up my milk, and while I was there I dropped off some more hot chocs to another friend, then did our weekly shop at Aldi. I thought it might be busy at 4.30 in the afternoon but it was reassuringly quiet.

I got home and took Luna for a walk - just a short one, around the dam, because I was pretty tired after my class and the shopping trip. Social interactions are also more tiring than they used to be - even though they are great, even brief, socially distanced interactions. The house smelt great when I got home as I'd put soup on to cook in the morning. Tony brought home some gnocchi he'd ordered from the restaurant at work so we had that with it's accompanying mushroom sauce - delicious! The soup will keep for another day. I was suddenly extremely tired and everything seemed very difficult, so I was very happy to relax on the couch and watch Ninja Warrior - we Facetimed with friends to watch together and it was a fun evening. I went to bed as quickly as I could afterwards and read my book - it was great to leave the evening housework and just rest, I can catch up with all of that tomorrow.

The number of new cases is trending nicely down, although deaths are still fairly steady. The kids (the girls in particular) are getting more and more restless - it's hard to not even be able to take Caitlin with me when we go shopping, she really needs to get out of the house - although this is the first time it's really been bothering her, which is quite impressive. 

Lockdown 2.0, Day 39

 I felt really disheartened today. Everything seemed too hard and I was quite teary. I spent too long on Facebook reading posts that annoyed me, the printer wouldn't work, I got frustrated at people not helping out around the house... I couldn't decide how I wanted to spend my time and was just really agitated. Being outside was good for a while, working hard and being in the cool air (it was raining on and off, but not heavily (there was heavy rain later on)). I did some puzzles then had a long chat with Tony. He suggested I have a bath so I took one of my new library books into the bath and ate chocolate and Tony brought me a big mug of hot chocolate. I felt much better when I got out, although quite tired. I lay down for a while then worked on my photos. I went for a long walk in the hour before sunset - the clouds to the east again had a brownish orange tinge to them, it was pretty spectacular. I was listening to a battle scene and the aftermath in my audio book (Book 1 of the Wheel of Time) and the atmosphere of the dark clouds and the storm front felt quite appropriate. I went over the creek - the water was probably as high as I'm willing to cross, and unusually it was trickier coming back over than going across the first time. I had my camera with me which made me a bit more cautious, I'd like to try it at that height without my camera next time. Once home I tidied up for a bit then we all watched State of Origin Ninja which was quite exciting. 

The girls watched Bolt and Grease today in a bit of a John Travolta marathon (is 2 movies a marathon?) and Amelie played Minecraft on the phone with a friend. Caitlin crocheted a little teddy bear and Liam played on his computer and chatted to a friend. Tony took care of a bunch of housework while I rested.

I wonder if my mood was strongly influenced by my Facebook feed or if I would have been out of sorts today anyway. I felt like there was a lot of complaining this morning - complaining and scapegoating, which I think is the bit that got me. I don't deny that Stage 4 is hard on just about everyone. I don't like it and I feel like on the whole we've got it pretty easy. Everyone is missing out or has missed out on things. And regardless of individual circumstances, some people are finding it harder than others. I think we can acknowledge how hard it is though without having to blame someone for it, or spend a lot of time say 'if only so and so had done this at that point.' Maybe things would have been different if things were done differently earlier on. Interestingly though, a lot of the people who are now complaining are also the ones who were pushing to have restrictions eased last time. For me, the easiest way to get through this is to accept that this is what the situation is right now. We are in Stage 4, regardless of how we got here. So from this point if each of us makes choices that are in line with the restrictions, finds way to bring joy to our lives when we can, acknowledge how difficult it is when we can't, reach out to each other for support and provide support to others - I think that's all we can do. It's what I'm aiming to do anyway. 

Lockdown 2.0, Day 36

 I slept badly - although I got up and did some writing which helped pass the time and I was much more relaxed when I went back to bed. My back was a bit twingy during the day but an improvement on the past couple of days. I had hoped to do another strength training session with The Compound - wasn't quite up to it today, hopefully I'll manage one next week.

I got a good handle on the dishes today, they've been mounting up a bit, as our dishwasher still isn't working - I significantly reduced the pile today, listening to my favourite music and chatting to the kids, and it felt good. Caitlin and I had a loud and fun game of Spit - I thought she was going to beat me in only 3 rounds, but I fought back and we played for ages. Amelie and I did some number puzzles, and Caitlin brushed and braided my hair. I spent some time sorting stuff in Amelie's room - we were looking for her DS and eventually found it, after finding a lot of other things that we'd been looking for as well. The girls and I watched 10 Things I Hate About You, and I made roasted almonds and a Raw Paleo Fudge. I went for a walk across the creek - a beautiful sunny afternoon although a little windy. I chatted to a friend on the phone for a while then listened to my audio book. Caitlin dyed the bottom of Amelie's hair purple - it looks fantastic!Caitlin and Liam went for a bike ride. Amelie watched some Avatar: The Last Airbender and we all watched bits of it with her. I did some work on my course and Caitlin cooked nachos for dinner - delicious.

I had a look at the graph of new cases for the first time in about a week. It looks better than last time I looked at it - the trend does seem to be heading down. I started to worry though, it feels like we'll be in lockdown for a good while longer and even once restrictions ease, the virus is still going to be around, there doesn't seem to be a good options for the future. I got a bit down about it all, then felt really bored and restless for the rest of the evening. I've been feeling really good for a while now, so a bit of a slump isn't too bad. I'm hoping a better night's sleep tonight will help.

Lockdown 2.0, Days 34 & 35

 I didn't post yesterday because I had a sore back and by the evening I just wanted to lie down and not think. It felt a lot better today although still twinged occasionally and I was very careful to not do anything to aggravate it.

I had big plans yesterday to get a lot of tidying done. I started the day playing Hanabi with Amelie (we bent the rules a little and nearly won, it was a lot of fun (with lots of laughter) and my back was so sore that at times I couldn't concentrate on the game. I scrapped my plans for the day, took some anti-inflammatories, and spent about 90 minutes in the bath, listening to music and relaxing. I had a lot more movement once I got out, and I felt well enough to cook the sauces for the vegetable eggplant lasagne I had planed for the evening meal. A friend called by to pick up some eggs (our chickens are giving us 4 a day so we are pretty well stocked). We had a brief (masked and distanced) chat in the carport - it was exciting to see someone outside of our immediate family.

In the afternoon I had my Yarra glen homeschool GRoup Zoom meeting so I was able to lie down on my bed and rest some more while I chatted to 2 of the other mums. I'm really loving this fortnightly connection - and glad I dropped it back from weekly, that was feeling a bit overwhelming. At 4pm I drove down to HEalesville to pickup my milk - the dairy is doing a drop off there once a week so we can still buy their delicious milk. HAlfway there I realised I had forgotten my mask - I had a scarf in the car so I used that instead. I will get a pack of disposables to keep in the car for us all in case we need them.

Tony and Caitlin and I went for a slow, short walk, then I put the lasagne together and spent the rest of the evening on the couch. THe kids and I watched Mulan (which i always find exciting because I worked with one of the animators when I was in Tennesee) then I headed straight to bed.

Today I had no plans, but feeling a bit better meant I was able to get some tidying done, and I made lemon butter. I also did a fair bit of writing in the morning. I had a long phone chat with a friend and got ALL the washing folded - now we have room to sit on the small couch again and everyone's clothes supplies are back up. I went for a longer walk this afternoon (our medium length walk). Caitlin walked and Liam rode with me. I got very tired at the halfway point, came home and got straight in the shower, when I got out I felt so weary so spent the rest of the day on the couch, doing my puzzle, talking to Mum, working on my photos. The girls had Guides and CHeer training, and they played a lot of SIMS today. AMelie spent time on the trampoline and Liam did alot of work on his pull ups and chin ups.

I have been avoiding the news still - the only thing I heard was that Auckland is locking down after 4 mystery cases have been detected. Good job NZ For getting straight onto the problem.

Rest day

I was exhausted yesterday - maybe 6 weeks of Vintage catching up with me - and I only had short bursts of energy, and spent a lot of the day lying on the couch or sitting propped on my bed, and the kids brought their games, books and conversations to me.

- We looked at more of the Guinness World Records Gaming Edition book, flicking through to find random facts and records, and then going off on tangents from each of those, discussing the game and record and the people who attempted the record and things we knew about the game ourselves and what records we would be interested in and so on
- We did a heap of quizzes - geography, Disney movies and characters, mythical creatures
- From the mythical creature quiz we looked up Gorgons (one clue said that Medusa was a Gorgon, and we've come across Medusa in lots of places, and Gorgons in our Titan game, but didn't realise they were linked) So we read up on Gorgons, and Medusa, which took us to Perseus, and then looked up a heap of information about his story, discussed how it was similar and different to the Percy Jackson movies, then looked at his constellation in the sky, which lead to looking at heap of other constellations of mythical people and figuring out which ones we'd be able to see in the Southern Hemisphere
- We played cards, 2 player games and 1 player games with people watching. LiAM beat me three times in a row at his favourite game and decided to leave it at that (I love playing with him, his strategy is sound and I can only win if I play really well AND have good cards)
- the kids played with Duplo animals and blocks for ages
- Caitlin did some more painting
- Caitlin went to our neighbours and hung out there for a while, and rode her bike back (she'd left it there during the week)
- I had a bath and finished reading 'Ender in Exile' (the direct sequel (although written after the rest of the series) to  Enders Game - I'm very keen to read the rest of the series, I really love the way they explore responsibility (personal and collective), morals, whether the ends justify the means, and how different characters feel about that. And it's a great story.
- Tony came home from work mid afternoon and had a nap, once he was up he watched a bit of TV with us (one of the episodes of Australia's Got Talent that we'd all missed during the week)
- Tony and Caitlin went for a bike ride
- Tony and Caitlin went and picked some grapes and are going to make a small amount of wine from them
- Amelie and I played Hungry Babies, Disco Zoo and ABC Solitaire on the iPad
- LiAM and I watched Superman Returns - I'd seen the end of it before but couldn't remember the earlier bits. I really enjoyed it, even though I did pick apart some of the special effects that weren't realistic enough.
- LiAM and Amelie played with their Skylander figures (not on the playstation, just as figurines on the table)
- Caitlin played Coffee Shop and other games on cool-mathgames.com
- Caitlin and I talked a lot about horses, the ones she is looking after, the ones in the other book I'm reading (Silk Route Adventure, where a lady is riding a horse across the central asian countries), the horses she'd like to have and those that she's met in other places
- I read a chapter of Brisingr to everyone - we've read it so infrequently so far and the story hadn't really got going so it was easy to forget to go back to it - but it's picking up now and we're all keen to keep reading regularly again

It was a pretty full day even though I spent most of it resting, and I'm hoping that it will have help me recharge and feel more energetic today.

Sewing and karate

On Wednesday night Caitlin had found a library book called 'Made by Me', with lots of patterns and ideas for things to make and sew. She said that she'd start making some of them on Thursday, and she did. She made a doll, several drawstring bags, and some other little decorations. She worked really hard and spent hours sewing, asking for help or ideas when she was unsure, and taking a break when she was getting frustrated. I am always impressed with her sewing skill, and this was no exception, the things she made looked fantastic and she did them fairly easily.

LiAM played Lego Marvel Superheroes again and realised he was close to the end so was excited at the thought of completing the whole game. At one point something had happened in the game where he'd missed his chance to do a vital action in order to finish that level. He tried lots of things and I looked up the walkthrough, and in the end it looked like the only way to finish the level was to start that section again, which was a lot of work. He was pretty upset, feeling like all the work he'd done so far had been wasted. He stopped and had something to eat and eventually decided to go back and do it all again, and was able to calm down enough to enjoy it even though he hadn't wanted to do it. When he got back to the same spot I was able to read the walkthrough to him (he really didn't want to miss his chance again) and he defeated Rhino and Magneto and was thrilled. I'm impressed at his increasing ability to calm down and continue when he's upset or anxious. He still feels and expresses his disappointment, when he was younger though it could mean the end of the game, now he's more able to work through it and get some perspective.

Amelie watched and helped LiAM play, did some more pokemon and planet quizzes with me, watched some more Pokemon, played with her My Little Ponies.

After a while LiAM had enough of his playstation game, and spent time playing with the Titan characters.

When Caitlin had finished sewing she went to visit our neighbour next door and took her creations with her - everyone there was quite impressed too.

We went to karate in the evening. Amelie joined in and trained for the whole class this time. She was quite overwhelmed by the end of it, it's a lot to take in (and at the moment there are 7 kids who have just started, so the group she's training in is quite big which would make it much harder). Afterwards she had a quick play in the park, while LiAM talked Terraria with some of the older kids.

Back home and we had a bit more to eat, and watched Degrassi (far less full on than the previous night) then Heartland. Tony came home and went almost straight to bed. The kids put on a pokemon movie and I went to bed, they got themselves to bed once it was finished.