Like most of my migraines the onset seemed to come out of nowhere. Rarely do they catch me in a moment of panic or stress - this time I was putting away the shopping as I noticed the my eyes weren’t adjusting to change in light as I came out of the larder. Uh oh. Then came the loss of vision in the bottom left quadrant of my eyesight; normal sight being replaced with a flashing kaleidoscope. Time to take all the drugs and then go lie down somewhere before the random pins and needles start.
I knew I was stressed. I knew I was only just holding everything together and keeping all the plates spinning. But it was only just. A migraine is pretty much my body saying stop this crazy shit already. Luckily Ed is going to start taking a couple of days off a week from Monday, so elements of the juggle are going to start getting easier - and it’s a bank holiday week which also makes for a much easier week. But please let this crazy shit ease off soon. I’m not asking for the schools to go back, I’m not asking for it all to be normal again - or even whatever the hell the ‘new normal’ is gong to be - I just want to be able to take them to their grandparents house and tag someone in for a little while. I want my kids to be able to play with a friend - just one. Pip, bless his little toes, is desperate to keep up with Sally and her games, he keeps announcing that it’s time for a fashion show or some such. He needs to play with someone he’s not in constant competition with and Sally really needs to muck around with a friend her own age.
Oh, and they keep playing ‘let’s get married’ which really needs to end.
So the last couple of weeks - what have we been up to? I was always inevitable that the weekly posts were going to slide away, but the last couple of weeks seem to have dashed by in a blur of interminable and mostly interchangeable days. I have to look back at the photos on my phone to work out what happened when. But this is what I have noticed…
Homeschool was probably easier before the teachers got involved. Sally’s school has been great, her teacher spends most the morning doing live sessions for the two halves of the class - this means three live sessions in the morning and then another in the afternoon for topic work. It’s great, but it doesn’t have much in the way of flexibility. And whilst I think it’s working for Sally - she has been really engaged with most of it - I’m not sure it’s working for the whole family. Oh - and let’s not forget I’m trying to keep in touch with my own students and work out who isn’t submitting work because they’re having computer problems, feeling overwhelmed and emotional or mental problems, struggling with organisation or just being lazy because no one is watching.
But we have done all sorts of fun thing when I do look back on it. Here are some of our wins:
Pinching a few bits of old guttering from my parent’s garage - that plus a couple of saw horses and a few golf balls kept the kids busy for ages.
As did a buckets of water and a random assortment of things from the kitchen.
The flowerpots Ed bought to grow potatoes in were also a big hit! - then the weather changed and….
I bought more Duplo - the kids seem to be really in to it at the moment and they play endless creative creating games with storylines that seem to feature lots of hurricanes. I’d put off buying more as it seems unreasonably expensive. Of course the day after I bought it a bunch of people listed their old supplies on fb marketplaces, but never mind.
Sally has got so much better at Maths. We’ve done lots of work, we’ve done lots of practice, and suddenly the comments about not being able to work independently from her last school report - ALL GONE. My little girl can do her sums all by herself.
Cleo continue to get faster at getting from the kitchen door to the flower beds and finding soil to eat. She has also become remarkably adept at putting things in the toilet. It's a really good job that the toilet paper crisis is over.
and the final surprise hit - pulling up a few sprigs of the lemon balm that has grown way out of control and chasing each other around the garden shouting ‘lemony lemony’.
I like the one with Cleo and Ed with matching haircuts.