Lockdown 2.0, Day 95

 A quiet day at home for me today - although most days are exactly that, so it's no surprise. Tony and the kids went to work to chop wood, the girls and Luna went for a walk and Liam helped with with wood (and Caitlin was stung by a bee). I spent the time trying to reorganise things in my bedroom - I wanted to clear the built in bedhead behind our bed so I could get into the storage inside it, move the stuff that was in there and fill it with paperwork and memorabilia - stuff that I want to keep but don't need to have regular access to. I made myself a cup of tea, moved the boxes that were on top of the storage area onto my bed, attempted to move some more things so that I had access to behind the bed, and knocked the cup of tea over - it seemed to fall in slow motion, and poured itself over all my library books, into drawers, onto some of my photos - I just wanted to cry and/or give up - but I needed to mop up all the dampness (there was so much of it, it took ages) and once that was done I didn't want to leave all the things all over my bed, so I kept going and managed to get things put away or at least put out of the way, and was pretty happy with what I got done. In the process I also stepped on some glass so it was a less relaxing afternoon than I'd hoped for, but it turned out ok. When the others came home Caitlin and I went through all of my tops, she took some for herself, I moved some on to the giveaway pile, and I reorganised the rest of them into boxes that will act like drawers in my cupboard - it was a very satisfying result.

I went for a walk by myself, down around the back of the property near the island we explored yesterday - I even crossed the little creek just beyond the dam, I felt much more confident today than I did yesterday. I found a balloon on a string caught up in a tree - I really wonder how it got there. I brought it home and put it in the bin, along with some burst balloons that I found on the ground - I don't want them out there for birds to try to eat.

Tony cooked mashed potato and rissoles for tea, very tasty, we ate while watching The Block then I went to my room to do a bit more work on my course. I also spent a fair bit of time playing with my photos throughout the day.

 I've skipped doing yoga the past 2 days, I feel like I'm stiffening up a bit already, I will make it a priority to do some tomorrow.

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 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.

Life in a house is a little strange

I'm feeling pretty relaxed as we continue to settle back in to life at home. Occasionally a worry or anxious though flares up, and I'm able to fairly quickly put it in perspective and feel OK about it, and get on with whatever I am doing. The car and trailer are slowly being unpacked, things are getting put away or reorganised, and it's surprisingly easy to keep the house looking tidy. We're all being more efficient with lights, water and power, we're not taking them for granted after living outside for 4 months.

I'm finding it tricky in the late afternoons as the light inside gets dull, but it's still light outside - it feels too early to turn lights on, and I'm not really enjoying artificial light anyway, but there's parts of our house that get dark quite quickly and the low light can bring my mood down a little. So there's still adjustments to be made to living in a house again, and it's helping us see what things we could do to improve the layout and set up of our house, which is cool.

Caitlin is at another sleepover - she'll have 9 nights without sleeping in the same place 2 nights in a row. She's so excited to see her friends again and is full of energy. She's doing heaps of work on reorganising her room and has made a photo presentation to show at Girl Guides this week.

We had our best friends come over and visit for the day yesterday, everyone was so happy to see them and they to see us. The kids played Minecraft and on the trampoline and shared all their new skills with each other, we mums talked and drank tea and enjoyed being with someone we were really really comfortable with.

Tony was back at work yesterday, he found it tiring although enjoyable. I found the afternoon really weird, waiting for him to come home and getting used to having that adjustment each day, time with him here and time with him away. I think we all missed him after being together so much on our trip.

A weekend at home

LiAM and Millie were up reasonable early on Saturday and joined me at the computer. Tony was going to go and buy some chainsaw accessories so he could cut wood for our fire, and he took the 2 kids with him to have breakfast at McDonalds and then get his supplies. Caitlin, S & V were still asleep until the phone rang shortly before 9 - perfect timing, as we were leaving at 9.20 to take V to a hair cut appointment. The kids got up and quickly dressed and ate, and we were in Yarra Glen on time to meet R. The girls decided to walk back to S's house to watch some more Dance Academy, and I went to the post office then bought myself a Chai Latte and headed up to open the Toy Library for the morning.

As I was putting the sign out Tony and the other kids arrived. Millie and Tony played a great game with one of the sets of animals, and LiAM watched YouTube videos, while I did a bit more stocktake and chatted to the guy who came to return toys. Once our duty was over Tony took the other kids home and Caitlin arrived back from S's. We made a quick stop at the op shop - and found some kitchenware for our camper trailer, the full set of the Fifty Shades books, and a whoopee cushion (it gets me every time, we have definitely gotten our dollar's worth of value from it already!)

Tony played with Millie for a while, then went to cut wood. I had bought 'TinkerBell and the Lost Treasure' on DVD from the Op Shop, so we watched that (twice). Millie had a bath in the middle of the 2 movies, playing with a water toy (a boat and a water wheel and pump and some other blocks that fit neatly in the boat) that we'd borrowed from the toy library.

Caitlin played her fashion game on the iPad and the others played Minecraft and Terraria, and in the evening we watched Heartland - a new series about a horse ranch, this was the first time we'd watched it and Caitlin really loves it. Millie played with Lego for a while, and also a game where she was an ocelot and I was a human who adopted her. Millie and I went to bed before the others and read a big pile of books together.

Yesterday we had LiAM's friend A come over as his family was taking his sister to the airport and he wasn't keen on the long drive. The kids played Minecraft and Terraria and jumped on the trampoline and played on the swings all day, quietly and with no arguments. The girls joined in when they felt like it and did their own thing at other times. All the kids popped over next door to see our neighbour, they helped Tony unpack the wood from the trailer, then he took them for a ride in the trailer and in the Kabota, down around the dam. At one point when the kids were all occupied Tony and I had time to play a game of Letters and Numbers and just hang out together chatting for a while afterwards. Hasn't happened much in the last couple of months, it was great for him to have the whole weekend off work (and baseball starts next week so he will be away on Saturdays again from now on). In the afternoon Caitlin and I sorted my tea collection - I had 2 shelves of boxes and packets of tea, shoved in there when we moved in and not really touched since, except for the popular ones which were all over the place. So Caitlin labelled everything for me with her label maker, and I sorted and rearranged and put things in boxes that can slide in and out of the shelf - so I can access the stuff at the back and I actually know what is in there now. It was really fun working with Caitlin and made the job much easier - and it's exciting to feel not overwhelmed by my flavoured tea collection and actually feel like drinking some of it now - I think every time I thought about it before it felt too hard to find anything and so I didn't try.

LiAM and I took A home in the evening and the boys had a bit more of a play there while I had a cuppa with L, then home for a roast dinner, another episode of Heartland, then the movie Space Jam and some Star Wars Clone Wars.

Back into our activities

We've had a busy start to February, now that school holidays are over and all our activities are starting up again. Monday we attended Yarra Junction homeschool group at the Yarra Junction library - the kids all played with a large train set, and I talked to the other mums - there was one other regular, long-term homeschooler there, and 5 families who were just beginning, so we had lots of chats about how it can work, things to make it easier, how to manage common anxieties and questions about it all.

Tuesday we spent visiting another unschooling family - I had met the mum at the Sandra Dodd conference last year, and we've met the kids at a couple of unschooling meets. Caitlin and the daughter have been skyping and playing Minecraft together over the summer. This is the first time we'd been to their house - and all the kids (there are 4 of them) had a great day, playing on the slip n slide, trampoline, riding scooters, dancing, playing the keyboard, playing tiggy, playing monopoly, talking and laughing. We were there until 6, then reluctantly left with lots of promises to do it again soon. On the way home we stopped at McDonalds for tea, and after eating the kids played for over an hour in the playground - it was a useful transition from being with friends to going home.

Yesterday Caitlin started cleaning out the kids' bedroom, ready to install the girls' new bunk beds. Millie and I played a game with counters, egg cartons and skylanders - we sorted the counters in to the egg cartons, then the egg cartons flew into Skylanders territory and the Skylanders came to investigate the strangers, there were battles between Skylanders and some made friends with the counters... LiAM joined in too and the game became quite complex and lots of fun.

In the afternoon we went to Yarra Glen library - LiAM was relieved to finally be somewhere where he could watch YouTube videos again. Millie played with her toys and the library toys on the floor, Caitlin rode her RipStik in the park. The girls went to Guides, and were joined by Caitlin's friend S who is thinking of joining Guides this year. S's brother joined LiAM at the library and they watched videos together while I chatted with their mum. After Guides the kids and I went to the IGA to buy food to make tacos, we came home and Tony cooked (his hours haven't increased a lot just yet so he was still around and happy to cook) while I finished sorting out the craft tub for Yarra Glen Homeschool Group - I wanted it to be neat and uncluttered for our first meeting today. It had collected a lot of scraps and half made items over the past year and it was getting hard to find anything. It's lovely and organised now!

The girls were very keen to sleep in their new bunk beds, so at about 8pm we decided we would put them up (rather than risk Tony being at work every evening from now on and missing a good chance to install them). We finished clearing stuff out of the room, then had an extended search for our Allen Keys so that we could take Caitlin's loft bed apart. We eventually found them, as well as a lot of other stuff while we were searching. Everyone helped put the new bed together then 2 very excited girls got ready for bed and happily jumped in. Millie slept in her lower bunk for about half the night before coming in to us - I don't mind if she doesn't sleep in it all the time, having an extra bed available is going to make night times a lot easier all round.