Our Family Life 2021 (20/52)

Our Family Life 2021 (20/52)

Monday

I had a nice catch-up with a friend via facetime and managed to book a toddler group for Freddie to attend starting in June. I’ve been looking for somewhere to take him for a few weeks, but there seems to be a waiting list for everything. I also got the application form sorted for Freddie to start pre-school in September which is something that’s been hanging around on my to-do list for a while. He loves other children, so I know he’s going to love it. We walked home the long way as we quite often do if the weather is nice. This is Belle marking the Pooh for the dog who loves to run halfway across a field just to find the perfect pooh spot. It drives me mad when I have to go searching for it. Anyone else’s dog do this?

Tuesday

A working from home day for me and a very productive one at that. We also popped to  Tesco to pick up a new range of Kingsmill 50/50 no bit seedy bread as well as a multi-seed bread for an Instagram post. Might have also had a nose around the clothes section. When did clothes shopping at the supermarket become such a highlight! As per usual, we picked up a few bits for the kids and nothing for ourselves.

Wednesday

I did a big chunk of blogging work with the help of Freddie. Some days this is impossible, but today I managed to get a lot done in between building bricks, racing cars, and the 155 snacks that Freddie wants a day. This is my absolute favorite kind of day as I can tick things off my to-do list as well as spending time with my little side-kick which I love.

Thursday

Another workday from the office and very welcome to get out of the house. I’m sure everybody is, but I’m really fed up with all this rain and not really doing very much. I don’t drive and it’s only recently that I’ve really wished that I could so that I could pack up the kids and go somewhere. Anywhere! Passing my driving test is very much at the top of my personal to-do list (just underneath buying a house). Driving instructors are back up and running now so I need to take the plunge and get this done. Plus I made a bet with my eldest that I would beat him to it so I need to win this bet!

Friday

Was a boring house day. Making and changing beds, cleaning the bathroom as well as more decluttering. I’m not surprised we don’t have enough room for stuff. We literally have so much stuff in the house that it’s ridiculous. Our charity shops aren’t really taking donations, but the clothes bank is now being regularly collected so I’ve been doing regular drop-offs for the clothes that we no longer need or want.

Saturday

We went charity shop shopping. This is one of Isabelle’s absolute favourite things to do and she’s missed it so much with the shops being shut. Always at the top of her list is anything Barbie whether its clothes, accessories, or dolls. She really doesn’t need any more dolls, but she does break me every now and again. Charity shop purchases are always met with a tut and an eye roll from Chris as the kids don’t really need any more toys, but it’s something we like to do together. We bought a Bratz doll and a couple of books (my fave buy from charity shops) as well as some cars for Freddie. On the way back from the shops, I let Freddie loose to jump in puddles which made his day. He was absolutely soaked with speckles of mud on his face and wellies full of water!

It was also my business’s first birthday today so Chris and I had a glass of bubbles to celebrate.

Sunday

It rained! We opted for a baking day. I picked up a cake-making kit that included Jelly Bubbles which you had to make using a Calcium solution, so it was baking as well as a little science experiment. The kids enjoyed this so much, but unfortunately, the cakes didn’t taste as nice as we expected. We had a delivery of homemade biscuits from Nanny who braved the rain, so this more than made up for it.

If you liked this post then you may like to read some of our other Family Life Posts.

Our Family Life 2021 (19/52)

Our Family Life 2021 (19/52)

Monday

Bank holiday Monday and nowhere to go. I’m not really fussed about going out for drinks or food as yet, but it would have been nice to do something with the kids. As it was, it was raining so another day at home. I made the first lasagne in ages. Chris is really good so it was a test to see if mine was better. I missed out on the crown for best lasagne, and literally only scraped through with being better than school lasagne. We made a cheeky reel if you want to see what my daughter thinks.

 

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Tuesday

Tuesday was a work from home day. We were also waiting for the plumber to come and fix the kitchen sink. He finally arrived at around 4pm so we had fish and chips for tea, by the time he was finished and gone.

Wednesday

Wednesday was my Step-Dads funeral. The day started off really grey and rainy, but by the time we were at the crematorium it had brightened up. It was cold, but we had blue skies. The funeral was as sad as expected. The worse bit is seeing how upset your kids are. They’ve only seen him for well over a year to wave at from their balcony which is so awful. We were taking Freddie with us but at last minute decided to ask my in-laws to look after him. I’m sure a funeral comes under essential childcare so I don’t think we broke any COVID rules as a one-off. We went to a local pub to toast his memory and ended up staying for food. It was nice being out, but still a bit of a strange experience

Thursday

Thursday I was back in the office. There was lots of chat about going out and the fact that the weather is killing any enjoyment. Everyone’s on countdown to June when hopefully the COVID shackles will be removed. It was also polling day so the school was closed as it’s used  as a polling station.

Friday

Freddie and I took it easy on Friday. I felt absolutely exhausted after the funeral and all the thoughts that come with that. I put my phone to one side and we did jigsaws, read books, played with playdoh and crawled around the floor as cats. Freddie loves to pretend he’s a cat, quite a lot or sometimes a puffy (puppy).

Saturday and Sunday

What the hell is wrong with the weather at the moment! We’re craving being outdoors, but the weather has been so rubbish. Hats off to all the people braving the weather to sit under umbrellas whilst fending off the wind and the rain. We stayed home as is the norm these days.

We did make homemade pizzas on Sunday for dinner which both kids enjoyed. Dinner times are not very pleasant at the moment. Isabelle complains about every single meal we give her and  Freddie just doesn’t like sitting at the table at all. Thankfully as they made the pizza’s themselves, Belle couldn’t complain as she’d made the food and Freddie was keen to get Daddy to eat his ‘Best pizza’.

Our Family Life 2021 (1/52)

Our Family Life 2021 (1/52)

So last year so the start of the Coronavirus pandemic and life as we knew it changed. I started the Coronavirus Diaries but I didn’t publish many of them as they all became a bit ranty as we grew less enthusiastic about how to entertain the kids, and FaceTime and zoom calls became something we dreaded. Our Family Life Diary is going to be a weekly catch up of what we’ve been up to, so that we can look back on how life was during a global pandemic as it already feels like we’re on rocky ground. 

2021 had so much promise….

A new year and a fresh start is how it’s supposed to go. Setting goals and making plans for the year ahead.

Sadly it’s likely that the beginning part of this year is still going to be a time to live each day as it comes with all plans on hold or with back up options. We’ll await the next instalment from Boris on that one.

I thought that instead of a coronavirus diary, I would write a weekly update on what we’ve been up to, more for ourselves to look back on.

Christmas

Christmas for us was how we’d planned it to be. Us and the kids at home which is what we did. Obviously we would have liked to have still visited family instead of doing doorstep present deliveries but the actual day itself went as we’d hoped.

Mum and Kids in Matching Christmas Pyjamas on Christmas Eve

Boxing Day was a bit rubbish. Chris went back to work so it was just me and the kids. We would usually go to my mums and my brother and sisters would come over with all the kids so it was a bit of a low day.

We spent the next few days eating our own body weights in cheese, pate and chocolate.

Toddler standing in mud on a dog walk

The weather has been awful with lots of rain and wind but we did manage a nice dog walk. Freddie was happy walking in the ‘squishy mud’ and we found some amazing icy puddles to crack. 

New Years Eve

New Years Eve was spent pretty much how we spend every year. We ordered a takeaway and had some nice drinks.

This year was slightly different as we let Belle stay up until the real midnight this year. For the last couple of years we’ve put the previous years New Years fireworks on YouTube on the TV at around 9pm and done our own countdown and cheers before happily packing her off to bed at around 9.30pm.

Harsh you may think, but we thought it was genius!

My Favourite First Job of the Year!

Is of course writing my calendar and starting to fill my Planner. I like to sit down with something good to watch and a glass of wine. I use my best pens……like a pig in muck!

Board Games

Freddie’s not really one for sitting down to play games or do jigsaw puzzles, but we’ve managed to play a couple of the Orchard games which are really quick to play and a good introduction to family games.

Buddy the Elf brought the kids Pull My Finger which is also a great game to play when you’re two years old! parp!!

The plan is to post our week’s activities every Monday so we can keep a diary of these odd times and all entries can be found in the Family Life link at the top of the page.