Lockdown 2.0, Day 10

217 cases overnight. That's better news than the last few days. I know that it doesn't mean that things are definitely better, or that things are trending downwards - but it does give me hope again. It's possible that things could improve.

Had a very low key, quiet day today. Lots of Gilmore Girls and playing on my phone, some writing, chatting to Liam, trying to stay warm - it was a cold day. In the afternoon I went out to Tony's work to help him collect wood that he'd been chopping, I hadn't been way up the back on the hill before - fantastic views of the valley in several directions, and a really fun place to walk through. Lots of little trees that are less than 11 years old - that area was burnt on Black Saturday. Lots of big old trees with fire scars too. I took Luna with me and we had a walk on the hill after loading the ute with wood.

I took Caitlin to work then had a wonderfully long chat on the phone with a friend, now settling in for more quiet evening time, and planning a similarly quiet day tomorrow.

The day after our big day out

I was surprised that I didn't feel more tired on Friday night after our big day - I saved it up for yesterday where I felt tired and kind of sleepy for most of the day. There wasn't a lot I needed a great deal of energy for though so it wasn't too bad.

Tony started work at 9 so we had a bit of time with him in the morning. It was surprisingly hot quite early in the day, I was really feeling the heat - a couple of weeks of lower temperatures has meant we're not used to the 30+ degree days anymore. When Amelie woke up I joined her in our room to watch some more Pokemon, and we talked about our favourite pokemon (Piplup for me, Maluetta (sp?) for her) - she gave me a great description of her favourite and I could picture who she meant, I just couldn't remember her name. I love hearing Amelie's descriptions of things, they are detailed and accurate, and the types of information she includes gives a great insight into how her mind works.

Once the other kids were up we sorted through a couple of bags of clothes that a friend had handed on to us, and found something for everyone to add to their wardrobe. Everyone was fairly quiet and subdued after our day out on Friday, so we just chatted and watched tv for the morning. In the afternoon we headed out - LiAM went to the movies with V to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens again (3rd time for LiAM), Amelie went to her friend E's house - she hasn't had many plays with friends where she was dropped off on her own, without siblings or parents staying, so she was quite excited to be going to her OWN friend's house, and Caitlin and I went to H's 19th birthday party. We had a lovely afternoon tea, all girls and chatted about lots of things, the younger girls played cards and went outside to play on the trampoline, the rest of us mainly stayed inside and talked. The boys came home later in the afternoon and Caitlin and S played with them for while and we kept talking. I played with H's hair and did some braids I'd been wanting to try, it was fun and it looked beautiful.

Around 6 we headed back to pick Amelie up and then dropped S and R off. LiAM wasn't back yet so S came home with us, to be picked up when LiAM came home. On the way home we picked up a desk from hard rubbish that will work under Caitlin's bed, much better than the one she has at the moment. We also got a new scratching post for Winky, and a little filing shelf that I'm hoping will work better for all my paper work than my current system (which is basically just a big pile on the kitchen table that keeps growing and falling over).

The girls played outside on the trampoline and in the paddling pool while I tidied up a bit and made toasted sandwiches for everyone. I did a bit of work on my photo sales - I was too tired to concentrate much so I didn't last long, I did some quizzes instead, much more fun. Tony does quizzes with me sometimes when he's around - we did a Summer Olympics host cities quiz recently and we got them all right - well, Tony did. We both used to know the whole order and I had forgotten chunks, but he remembered nearly all of them and I filled in a couple. I love knowing/remembering stuff like that, it provides so many little hooks for more knowledge to grab on to.

LiAM came home after 9 and all 5 kids had a bit more of a play while R and I chatted some more, then after they went home everyone went pretty much straight to bed. Caitlin is between books at the moment so was reading some French books and learning useful phrases and jokes in French.

Another busy week

One of the extra exciting things about seeing Cinderella at the movies on Monday was the 20 minute Frozen Fever film that showed beforehand. It was incredibly exciting to go back into the world of Frozen, and see all the characters again having a new little adventure.

It was a pretty big day all up. Before the movie we went and bought Caitlin's karate outfit - she's been training all of term 1 in casual clothes, so this was long anticipated. After the movie LiAM had a go at the claw machine to see if he could win a prize - and he snagged a plush Oh (from the movie Home). It was incredibly exciting. He and Caitlin had another turn each and got lollies this time, but the Oh doll is very much prized and loved. We with to the Pancake Factory and shared a Chocolate Chip Pancake which was delicious! From there we went to Costco and stocked up on some things we were low on, and bought some delicious gelato, and some lollies and chips in bulk - good to get the shopping done, although quite exhausting. By the time we got home everyone was quite knackered.

Tuesday we spent at home and for most of the morning we were all a bit cranky and restless - it happens when we haven't had enough quiet home time lately. We picked up in the afternoon though, it felt a lot calmer. Millie and I had a lot of fun playing with the bicarb and vinegar and food colouring again, and found new ways to make explosive painting work effectively (one of the things I did was to drip food colouring directly onto paper, then cover it in bicarb, then drip vinegar onto it (I'd found a dropper which meant we could control the amount of vinegar we were using). It was a very cool effect, with the bicarb bubbling and then the colour spreading through it.)]

Wednesday we had a quite morning at home then went to Yarra Junction pool in the afternoon, we hadn't been swimming for a while and we all enjoyed it. For most of the time we were there we had the centre to ourselves! We went to Yarra Glen library after the pool and hung out there and at the park, joined by S & V who were coming for a sleepover, until the big girls had Guides at 6. This was their first night in the senior guides, which was quiet exciting. We dropped them off and the other kids and I went home for an hour or so, then back to pick them up. They really loved it. Once home again the kids played Minecraft and went and lay on the trampoline with blankets and chatted and looked at the sky, then watched Dance Academy till they fell asleep.

Thursday the kids played more minecraft, and with kinetic sand, and went to visit our neighbour. We went to homeschool group in the afternoon, where we made Anzac Biscuits. It was a fun group, a few  families who've only come a few times were there, as well as lots of regulars, and it worked really well. Exciting to see the group growing and people starting to come more often. The kids also played Minecraft and Terraria and Lego and with some of the other toy library toys, and rode scooters and ripstiks etc in the park and played on the playground. Once most people had left the kids were hanging out in the library or at the skate park, and we were waiting at the park for karate to start - the kids decided not to come to karate so they went up to R's house with her kids, and I went to karate alone - it was my last training session before my grading, so I really wanted to go and practise, and it was fun and useful, I cleared up a lot of questions I had about the moves and practised effectively and felt much more prepared (although still incredibly nervous!)