But I Smile Anyway…

Another week passes by… is it just me or did it seem to go on for about five months? Anyway, enough pondering… let me tell you about my week!

• Monday was my first full day in school with the keyworker children. It’s strange, a different sort of latchkey kids, you know. These children who have nowhere else to go, because their parents are at work… Sorry, I digress… So we had 8 children in, and I had a few things planned for them. We started off with some Easter crafts, then went on to do a bit of PE, following the live PE lessons by Britain’s PE teacher, Joe Wicks. Always a good workout, but I feel it for days after! Then we came back, and I told the kids we were going to do some writing. There were moans, but, hey, writing can be fun, can’t it? And who better to teach them that, than a writer? Well, I had a chat with them about all the people they weren’t able to see at the moment, and we all wrote letters, together to someone they were missing at the moment. It was a touching moment when even the least likely to put pen to paper child, by choice, wrote a page long letter to his great gran who had been admitted to hospital two days previously. Then we had a short story time, where I read Fantastic Mr Fox to them. After that, they had lunch, and then we concentrated on some structured art, with me teaching them to draw three different types of flowers, with they then collaged in rainbow colours, so they could take them home to put up in their windows. A short film time at the end then they went home. Or the last four went home, as others had been picked up as the day progressed. My day at school was finished, and I went home, tired. Jumped in the shower, and got fresh, ready for my own family. Until the Easter break is over, that is my lot for school ❤ Thank goodness. I can devote time to my own family, and observe the social distancing properly.
• On Tuesday, it was time to get ready for food shopping. I have been very strict with the family, and made them aware that we will be eating whatever we have at home, and I will only go out once a week, or even less, if possible. But today, we needed fresh fruit and veg, and bread. i jumped up out of bed early, knowing there would be queues, and there were, but sensible, socially distanced queues, that went down pretty quickly. Everything I needed was in stock, and it was a genuine pleasure to see most stock actually available!

• I tried my hand at making chickpea curry today too, after a long time, and thankfully it wend down a treat! Lil Man even asked for seconds! I count that as a compilment!

• The rest of the day was pretty smooth sailing. Kids worked hard at their school work, and Hubby was busy in his makeshift office. I even got another module completed on the writing course!
• On Wednesday, I had a live webinar to attend for school. I sat there, all ready, and we started… but the whole thing messed up so that went out of the window. Oh, well, back to it tomorrow, apparently! The kids officially finished school at lunchtime, so that was it, they were not interested in doing anything after that! It’s been fun, though. Every evening, I have been taking one, or both of them to the Gurdwara playing field which is a short walk from our house, to get some exercise. Not many others are using the place, so it is perfect for social distancing. I have managed to work up to walking a good 7 laps of the track while we are there.

• Thurdsay saw a lazy bunch of kids who didn’t eve surface unitl 12pm! But that suited me as I had to attend the webinar again! Once that was done, and all were fed and watered, I took part in a live writing sprint with Sacha Black, in her Facebook group, Rebel Authors. It was quite productive, as even though I didn’t write, I got a lot of planning done for book two’s structure, as I have started writing it, but I am floundering at the moment. Every little helps! Talking of Sacha’s group, we even had a Google Hangouts meet on Wednesday evening, where we just chatted together, with the videos on. It was like being at a local pub with your mates! Such fun! We talked productivity, as well as how we are getting through this crazy period. It’s going to be a regular thing, as far as I know, so I look forward to the next one.
• Friday was a pretty quiet day too. I read lots. The kids woke late again. But before I started my reading, I cleaned the house from top to bottom, bleaching everything I could. All the bedsheets were changed and the house properly aired. I felt I had accomplished something!
• On Saturday, Hubby started tidying the garden up. It was meant to be a glorious weekend, and what better way to spend it, than in the garden, epecially as we aren’t meant to be going out? And I also discovered TikTok! I apologise in advance, but you may end up seeing silly videos of me if I decide to post them on here! If you follow my Insta, you might have already seen a couple on my stories! My nerves were all over the show, because I knew I had my radio interview. I busied myself with cooking, laundry and reading, then as the dreaded hour approached, I had to keep stopping myself from be ing convinced that the next call would be to tell me that it had been cancelled again… But it wasn’t! In fact the fifteen minutes sped by and I had a lovely but rather fast chat with Harriet Minter about the book, as well as being a teacher in this time. So, is that it? My fifteen minutes of fame? Who knows!
• Sunday was another beautiful day. They all got up late AGAIN! But I was good. I don’t stay in bed unnecessarily, and I have even been doing a 15 minute workout video on YouTube every day, to make sure I don’t get too lazy during this time, as well as that daily walk. So, workout done, I had a cuppa, and then woke the masses up. We breakfasted (brunched) and then off to the garden for more business!

• Hubby Dearest started trimming the hedge, until he trimmed right through the wire… well, that was the end of that… until I found a pair of shears and managed to finish the end off. I even ended up hanging out of the bedroom window to do part of it, as the hedge is huge and keeps banging on the window in the wind! Then we went to jetwash the patio, but about a quarter of the way in, the hose snapped so that was the end of that… until I grabbed the broom and physically scrubbed the patio! It’s not sparkling, as it would have been, but it’s cleaner! The rest of the day was spent lazing about outside, on the lounger, as the kids played water fights. We had the music on, and enjoyed a real family afternoon/early evening, which finished with video call to the rest of the family, and a film together!

It wasn’t as bad a week as I thought it was going to be!

• We listened to the Queen give her speech to the nation in the evening too. She is a wonderful lady, give her her dues. And as I pack up for this week, we just found out that Boris Johnson, the PM, has been taken into hospital as the symptoms he has been experiencing, with COVID-19 have not subsided in ten days. Wish him well, this illness is awful, and has touched everyone. I lost an aunt this week to it, and another of my aunts has been in hospital for a week, so far, battling it. She was actually taken in with Pneumonia, and a first swab test came back negative. But the results took four days. In that time, it is likely she picked it up and a scan of her lungs showed that she did indeed have the virus. Thoughts and prayers for them.

Let’s see what this week holds, as the kids are on holiday, Hubby Dearest is still working for four days, and I really want to try and get writing for a couple of hours a day!

Sacha has a couple of live writing sprints planned again, including an evening, bring a drink one, which should be ‘interesting’, and another Google Hangouts meet up has also been scheduled.

The weather is meant to be good too, so hopefully that means more outside time for the kids as well, as us.

The strrangeness of this new normal is so surreal…

How has your week been? Any signs of settling into this new life?