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.

Slowing down

Things are quietening down here a little as our activities wind up for the year. We've got a few final sessions this week, and by next Monday everything will be over for the year. I'm looking forward to 6 weeks or so with much less of a schedule. Time to focus on the things we really enjoy doing without having to cut them short to be somewhere else, and time to think about what activities felt worthwhile and that we'd like to continue next year.

I think we'll try to do a lot more swimming over the next few months. We've been 3 times in the last month and everyone's skills have improved greatly. Millie was still clinging on to me a month ago, and last week swam for nearly an hour just using a noodle, I didn't hold her at all. Liam can now swim several metres without any aids and his confidence has sky-rocketed. He did his Level 1 swimming badge at Cubs a couple of weeks ago - if he had tried that even 2 weeks earlier I don't think he would have been willing to get in the pool and try. I'm hoping that if we swim a lot over the summer then I'll keep it up during the colder months next year as well - we all enjoy it so much, and its really only that we have so many other things on that it falls down the priority list, I'd love to continue to make it a priority and possibly work other things around swimming instead.

I'm hoping to get back to Melbourne Zoo soon, we haven't been for well over a year - maybe even 2 (we've been to Werribee Zoo and Healesville Sanctuary several times this year, so our membership has still been worthwhile). I offered a trip to the zoo a couple of weeks ago when we didn't have many other plans. Caitlin was keen but Liam was surprisingly reluctant. In part that was because he was sick - he had a virus for several weeks which sapped his energy, and a trip to the zoo was just too much. He's also not enjoying long car trips at the moment, so wants to save them for something worthwhile. Lemur Island will soon be opening at the zoo and he wanted to wait and go once it was available to see - lemurs are his favourite animal so this should be his ultimate zoo experience. I was quite pleased that he was able to say no and delay his trip to the zoo - it shows that he trusts that we will get to do fun things and he doesn't need to grasp at every excursion opportunity that is offered - and it also alleviated my worry that I hadn't been offering enough trip options lately - if he can say no, then he's not feeling like he wants to be going more places. Lemur Island opens on December 21 - I haven't decided yet whether we will brave the school holiday crowds and go and see it as soon as we can, or wait a bit and take advantage of being able to go on quieter days...

I think we'll also have the chance to spend more time hanging out with friends and/or at the playground.  Those days tend to be the ones we enjoy the most, so it will be nice to have less time constraints on our social activities.

And once activities start up again next year, we'll be relaxed enough to be able to find a non-stressful balance between Caitlin's need for activities and groups, and everyone else's preference for non time specific activities.

Still busy, feeling calmer

Once again its been a while since I've written a post. I feel like there hasn't been much time to breathe, let alone sit down and write, over the past few months. We've had all our regular activities, time with friends, medical appointments, some extra volunteer activities on my part - there hasn't been a lot of quiet time at home, or time to go to the zoo or anywhere new. I feel like things are quietening down a little bit now - or perhaps i'm looking at things differently - I feel like I'm breathing again anyway, and I've even found time to write.

Over the weekend Caitlin went to a regional Girl Guides Camp. There were over 100 girls there from the various Guide units around the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. Caitlin was in a group that slept in tents, and had their meals prepared and eaten outdoors. She had a wonderful time and made several new friends.

When I went to pick her up yesterday Liam and Millie reluctantly came along too. They had wanted to stay home all day (we'd had a busy day on Saturday - Liam went to a birthday party and then the 3 of us went to Healesville Sanctuary on the way home - it was easier for them to leave the party house as they were going somewhere else fun). Tony however was still on his way back from his uncle's place in Camperdown - he'd gone over on Saturday to pick up our new (to us) dishwasher - ours had died a couple of weeks ago so it was a good opportunity for him to spend some time with his uncle and see his Nanna, and get a working dishwasher as well. So the kids came with me and picked up Caitlin from the camp, and I said we'd try to find something fun to do on the way home so it was worth their while coming for the drive. As it was so hot (around 30 degrees - crazy, since 2 days before it was cold enough in the morning for potential frost, and we had the fire going) I thought we'd see if the Seville Water Park was operational yet (I thought it might be too early in the season). Happily it was turned on, and the kids were happy to play in it in their regular clothes, so they spent a very happy hour or so running around through the water jets, clambering over the dry rocks and through the tunnels, playing water pistol fights with some other kids (Caitlin even found one of her new friends from camp to play with!) We came home tired but happier than if we'd just driven straight to camp and back.

So I'm thinking that even though we are often busy, popping in those extra little fun activities is definitely worthwhile. A play at the park on the way home or dropping in to a friend's house, an hour at the sanctuary or stopping for ice cream - these things enrich our lives and stop us from feeling like we're constantly running on a schedule. These are the things that I want to focus on, not getting to gymnastics on time or making sure we've got everything we need for Cubs... We can still do all our activities, but they don't need to be the priority. My priority is spending fun and connected time with my kids, grabbing learning and playing opportunities as they pop up (and being open to creating them).

I think the reason that our busyness has felt so overwhelming lately is because I'd stopped having the fun times as well, it felt like there wasn't enough time. My days were more about 'having' to be where we needed to be, instead of thinking 'right, these are the things we'd like to get to today, how can we work this out so that everyone is happy'. So balancing Caitlin's need for activity and social contact, with  Liam and my need for downtime and Millie's need to hang out at each place for long enough to feel comfortable - we can do all of that, if I prioritise our relationships, fun and learning, over sticking to a schedule and meeting external expectations.