Lockdown 2.0, Day 31

 Another good day today. I feel like I've settled in to this lockdown and we're all doing things that we want to be doing, as well as having plenty of time to hang out and relax.

We had waffles for breakfast (home=made on our borrowed waffle maker - they were really easy and very yummy). Everyone was up and about by mid-morning which is very unusual. I spent some time outside working in the yard, Amelie jumped on the trampoline, Caitlin played with Luna. The 5 of us did some quizzes on Kahoot, they were fun and funny. Amelie had spent a lot of time creating a quiz about herself, it was very cool. Amelie and I did some monster sudoku puzzles and a few other types. I went for a walk in the early afternoon while I chatted on the phone to another friend who was also walking. It was such a beautiful day - sunny in patches and just a really lovely feel and everywhere I looked made me feel so happy to live here. Liam and Tony went for a bike ride in the morning and Caitlin did the same in the afternoon. Liam and Amelie and I played Monopoly on the X-box - way more fun than I expected. I spent some time uploading photos, making gifts for people, and working on my course. After dinner I turned one of my favourite dresses, which was stretched and had holes in it, into a big ball of t-shirt yarn. It was fun and it's exciting to think of all the things I can make with it now (I've already made a hair tie). Caitlin used a section of it (before it was cut into yarn) to make herself a top - she's doing things with sewing that I would never attempt!

Lockdown 2.0, Day 14

Today was hard. Numbers are way up - over 500 for Australia, most in Victoria. We’re 2 weeks into lockdown and things aren’t getting better. It’s scary and worrying.

I woke up with my head all stuffy and my throat scratchy. Caitlin woke up saying she felt really sick - she’d been heading that way for the past couple of days. I feel like mine is hayfever, hers might be too or she’s just exhausted, or she’s picked up a cold from somewhere... but it’s not worth assuming that and being wrong, so we went to Healesville to get tested. It was a bit odd having it done on the same room I do karate in...

Liam and I had a fun morning playing games - Othello (he’s pretty good but hasn’t beaten me yet - probably the only game o can say that about!), Flux, Burn and Kaboom. Amelie joined us for a while too. After Caitlin and I decided to go and get tested he was a bit worried so went to his room to play on his computer and stayed there for the rest of the day. Amelie spent a lot of the afternoon on the trampoline and playing with Luna. Caitlin and I watched Gilmore Girls, she did some sewing and i researches website and storage options. The girls and I went for a late walk and played with Luna a bit more. The dam was beautiful in the post-sunset light.

We’re all a bit on edge. Caitlin and I both became more anxious as the evening went on - a duet session at the piano had us laughing hard and helped quite a bit. I had a bath and Caitlin talked to friends- I think we’re all a tad stir- crazy and feeling anxious and it caught up with is all today. The house is a mess and I feel like I have a massive list of things I want to be doing and m not getting to - hopefully tomorrow I’ll either be able to do some of them, or stop worrying about them!

Rollerskating

Since Saturday morning Amelie had been wanting to watch The Wynx DVDs that she'd borrowed from the library - she wanted someone to watch them with her and it didn't work out on Saturday. As we went to sleep we talked about how we would remember to watch in the morning - my suggestion was that when we saw Winky the cat, I would say 'Hi Winks' (which is what I usually say) and that would remind us... As is often the case, having talked about it at length, we both remembered as soon as she woke up, without needing a reminder.

So we snuggled on the couch and watched a Wynx movie - she's borrowed them so many times that I thought I'd seen them all, but this one was new to me. Quite enjoyable too, lot's of 'believing in yourself even when others have given up' type messages.

After the movie we played her animal game where one person acts like an animal and the other has to guess what animal it is - we haven't played for a while and she's come up with a lot of new animals to act out, it's quite fun (hard to think of animal who I can convincingly act out, so I'm rehashing my old repertoire mainly, still fun though).

Caitlin and LiAM both slept in after a late night on Saturday, so when they woke up they had some breakfast and we got ready to go out. Caitlin made a drawstring bag to use as a bag for a birthday present - she did it slightly differently than the previous bags she has made and was confused for a while as to how to make it work - I made a suggestion and she was able to figure it out and make another beautiful, functional bag.

I dropped Amelie and LiAM off at our friend's house, and I took Caitlin and S rollerskating, part of our present to S for her birthday. I read my book while the girls skated, and I think they really appreciated having an outing without any younger siblings along.

When we got back to S's house all the kids wanted us to stay longer, so I had a cuppa with R and the kids played Minecraft and talked, and after a while went down to the park. Amelie wasn't having a good time so she and I went back to the house and curled up in the armchair and played Hungry Babies. When the others came back they played more Minecraft and then watched Ice Age 3, while we had some homemade pizza for dinner. The kids wanted to stay until dark because they had plans for a game down at the park, we all headed back down a bit after 8. They played for a while then everyone was getting tired (the mothers especially) so we wrapped it up and went to our respective homes. Tony was still at work when we got home - a very long Sunday shift.

He came home while I was feeding the animals and so on, great to see him briefly before we all went to bed after a surprisingly tiring day.

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.

Karate, Guides, friends and car service

This is the first full week of school term and all our activities are back on. On Tuesday we mainly stayed at home. We played Titan, played Minecraft, watched TV, Millie and I watched some Pokemon, we did Sudokus, played cards, played with Barbies and pillow pets, jumped on the trampoline, Millie did some more drawing, we read books. In the evening we went to karate - Amelie came with as Tony was at work - she could have joined in, though chose not to yet. She watched from the side and played on the iPad. I really enjoyed being back - I was a little worried about my knee, but I'd warmed it up before we got there, and strapped it, and I was very careful doing kicks (it meant that I really concentrated on doing them correctly), and it was fine. There was one leg sweeping move that one of the black belts was teaching us that looked too risky for a questionable knee, so I sat that one out - one of the things I love about this dojo, that no one is expected to anything that they are not comfortable with. The kids played in the playground after karate which for Amelie especially made the evening much more fun.

After karate we popped into Coles for more chocolate milk and a snack, then home for a late dinner of potato wedges and dim sims. Tony came home after we did, and had some dinner then went to the shed to practice his darts for Wednesday night. He's trying to get to bed a bit earlier because he's working so much, so I'm doing more of the helping everyone get into bed part of the night, which means I'm going to bed later than I usually do, and then waking up later as well. I think I'm getting the same amount of sleep, just at a different part of the night, and it's taking me a little bit of time to adjust.

So Wednesday morning I didn't wake up until 8.10, and I was dropping the car off to be serviced at 9! I quickly cleaned everything out of the car and grabbed something quick to eat (raspberries and cream). H had come over to be with the kids so I took the car down, then walked to the bus stop in the rain which was quite pleasant. I thought the next bus was at 5 past 10, but there was one at 9.30, so I was home again within 40 minutes of leaving. All the kids were up once I got back and H was getting them breakfast.

H and Caitlin spent most of the day sewing, making a halter neck top for Caitlin. It was very cool to watch the process, as neither of them had done it before and they didn't have a pattern, and they worked together to figure it all out as they went, and tried different ideas and adjusted as necessary. The top is beautiful and looks well made, I was impressed and inspired by the way they just had a go and worked it out. H also helped Amelie make some clothes for her barbies, and they played with the dolls for a while. The kids played Minecraft with H and watched some TV. I was able to a heap of tidying up and cleared most of our kitchen table which was quite exciting, haven't seen that much of the table for a while!

In the afternoon V came over to play with LiAM, they tried to play Jetpack Joyride but we couldn't update our copy, so they played Minecraft and then went outside on the trampoline and swing. I had a cuppa with R, then she took Caitlin with her to get S from school and go to S's swimming lesson. I caught the bus back to Healesville to pick up the car (which now has a new battery, hurray! Hopefully we won't be stuck unable to start the car anymore for a long time now). H had got the kids ready and I piled everyone into the car on my way back through. I took V home and left my kids at his place, H and I took Caitlin to Guides then H drove home. I had a good chat to L while I watched her boys on the trampoline, then back to pick my kids up and a quick cuppa, then picked Caitlin and some friends up from Guides, dropped the friends off and then home. It felt like a complicated afternoon, but it worked quite easily and everyone got to be where they needed to be and had a good time.

We had a bit more food, Caitlin did some more puzzles, we watched Heartland (they are now showing Season 3 on ABC3, which we have seen on DVD but not on TV, so we were quite excited) then Amelie and I went into the bedroom to watch Pokemon until she was tired enough to sleep. I was in and out with the others while she was watching.  Caitlin watched a movie about horses. LiAM did an online survey that asked for a 6-11 year old boy - I was reading the questions for him and he was able to read about half of the answers, picking up a few new words along the way. Tony came home while were all still awake and was able to help LiAM get to bed and we all made it to sleep a bit earlier than the night before (although still quite late). Actually Caitlin has been reading a lot in bed too, so she's going to bed with the rest of us then reading for an hour or two, she's immersed in the sequel to The Princess Academy and she's really loving it.

Sorting, party, and rodeo

On Thursday a anFriday I spent most of the day sorting through all our sewing and craft supplies. They were piled up on and under the sewing desk, which is set to become Caitlin's dressing table, and in tubs in the hallway. I got through most of it, and while I didn't get rid of a huge amount, it is now all organised into tubs and boxes, I know what we've got, and Caitlin's room is nearly free of extra stuff, so she can really make it her own.

We'd just borrowed Season 4 of Heartland from the library, so while I sorted we watched that - it's such a compelling show, and a very enjoyable way to spend a couple of days (planning to finish the series today), and it made sorting the sewing seem easy as I was happily entertained while I was doing it. And we were all hanging out together which was really lovely as well.

LiAM's friend V came over on Friday evening for a sleepover. We had pizza for dinner and the boys played Lego Harry Potter, Plants v Zombies Garden Warfare and Minecraft on the Playstation and Xbox, with the occasional trip outside to jump on the trampoline, play on the swing, run down into the paddock to see if they could get closer to the kangaroos (they couldn't - the kangaroos ran as soon as they saw the kids coming). They stayed up pretty late playing and talking, and were up again early in the morning and kept going. They really had a lovely time together.

On Saturday morning I'd heard about a garage sale in Yarra Glen, and Millie had been asking lately to go to a yard sale, so it seemed like a perfect chance to go. LiAM was interested too but decided to stay and play with his friend, and I said I'd buy anything that I thought he'd be interested in. Caitlin came along as well and the 3 of us had fun browsing through all the goods on offer, and came up with a selection of DVDs, bowls, a cool plate and cup for Millie with a strawberry pattern on it, a few stuffed toys (I found a very cool monkey for LiAM, and a penguin for Millie - she'd also been saying recently that everyone else in the family has a toy penguin and she wanted one too), a washing basket and a few other bits and pieces.

The girls put some blankets out on the back lawn and had a tea party with most of their stuffed toys. Millie had also bought a 3 part serving dish, which was perfect to house some tea party food. After the tea party Caitlin and I headed off to a friend's house for a Norwex cleaning products party. I hadn't seen my friend since before christmas and hadn't been to her new house at all (Tony and Caitlin helped them move in, but I hadn't been), so it was great to catch up with her and her husband, see the new place, and catch up with some of her other friends that I know as well. I could have bought a lot of stuff as well - I just grabbed a few things that I'm pretty sure I will use because I don't have anything like them and have been wishing I did.

From there we raced back home to pick up LiAM, and Caitlin's friend S, and the 4 of us went to the 1st Annual Yarra Valley Rodeo. I could not believe the number of people who were there - the biggest crowd I've ever seen in Healesville! We parked a little way up Chum Creek Rd and walked back to the racecourse, and joined the long (but fast moving) ticket line. Because I'd had a rushed afternoon I'd forgotten to get our hats out of the car, and the water bottle, and I didn't have any food with us - which wouldn't have been a problem if the crowd hadn't been so big and all the lines so long! Luckily I had sunscreen so waiting in the sun wasn't as bad as it could have been. Once we got in we found the water station and all had a good drink.

Caitlin confidently led us through the crowd up to the front near the arena and we found a spot where people were sitting on the ground and we squeezed in there (there were no grandstands, it was people sitting in their own chairs around the arena, and people standing behind them, so I had been worried we wouldn't be able to see at all). It was a good view, and Caitlin was pretty excited to be so close to the horses. Once we were settled I left the kids there and went to line up for food and drink. It was one of the densest throngs of people I've been in for a very long time - I'm glad I was able to leave the kids and just get through it myself. Eventually I got to the front of the line and discovered there was a very long wait for hot chips (which the kids wanted) - so I got roast beef sandwiches instead, I didn't want to be away for even longer. I made it back and they were happy and still settled - happier once they had something to eat and drink.

It was very dusty and LiAM was a bit worried about his asthma, but we managed to keep it under control with some telfast and rescue remedy. I'd seen a friend of the girls when I was heading out for food, so she sat with us as well. After we'd eaten the kids needed the toilet, so we made our way out and did that, then wandered over to the dodgem cars and all 4 kids had a go - they loved it. We also ran into some other friends of the girls and it was a fun place to be. We made our way back to our spot and squeezed in to a slightly smaller space to watch the rest of the rodeo. So cool seeing all these events for real, especially after watching them in Heartland quite a lot this week. I loved the team roping and the bareback. Caitlin was hanging out for the Barrel Racing, which was the 2nd last event, and was very exciting when it finally happened. Those girls are fast, and so in control of their horses. I was surprised how much I loved the bull riding - and I'd planned to leave before the open bull riding so we could beat the crowd - but the 2nd division bull riding was so great, we decided to stay and watch at least a few of the top level guys, and I'm glad we did, it was spectacular. We left after 3 bulls, and saw another one on our way out of the crowd. Another toilet stop, then the last bull ride happened as we were heading for the gate, so we weren't completely ahead of the crowd but were in front of most of it. Getting out wasn't too hard, the kids were pretty pumped so the walk to the car not difficult (although they were disappointed that I went back a different way which meant we didn't have to jump/climb across a big ditch in the dark (we'd come through the ditch on the way in and they all enjoyed it)). We took S home then back to our place where we watched the end of the cricket and crashed pretty quickly into bed.

LiAM on dodgem cars

Caitlin in front of the ring at the rodeo

Bull riding