Covid Diaries Week 5

Week 5 of physical distancing...

Saturday April 11th

A teenaged girl in the neighbourhood has been doing chalk drawings and her latest creation is an Easter egg “hunt”. We took the kids on a long walk and they had fun finding the different eggs drawn on the sidewalks.

My mom has dug out her bread machine, so we’ve had fresh baked bread and cinnamon rolls the past few days. Luckily she already had an unopened jar of yeast, as yeast is one of those things that has been difficult to find since the pandemic started. Everyone is at home making their homemade bread.

Sunday April 12th

Happy Easter! We started with an egg hunt outside. Ella was VERY excited. She’s reached the age where Christmas, Easter, Hallowe’en are all things she remembers and looks forward to. Ollie was a bit slow to find eggs so we had to make sure Ella let him find some before gathering them all herself.





Monday April 13th
No school today, yay! Another day to just take things slow at home. It wasn't the nicest day but we did manage a walk around the marsh. Ella was very excited to check out this snail up close:

Tuesday April 14th

A few days late, but my mom and Ella made a bunny cake for Easter. Between this, the homemade bread, and the Easter chocolate our diets have gone out the window this week.



Another cold and grey day here. My dad and I took this kids for another walk around the marsh. This is my best attempt at a selfie of us:

Wednesday April 15th

Got my new treadmill desk up and running. My dad fixed a plank of wood over the arms of the treadmill and I got a wireless keyboard and mouse. It’s not a bad set up! I walked 3km today while sending emails and doing admin. I can’t type quite as fast but it’s a good way to get in a bit of exercise. When teaching I’ll use it more as a stand up desk as I can’t really walk and teach, the treadmill itself is too noisy. It’s a huge improvement on sitting through an entire workday, which combined with the increase in screen time, leaves me feeling super lethargic.

Thursday April 16th

My go to lunch at the moment is a bagel topped with garlic hummus, avocado, hemp seeds, olive oil and sea salt. Mmmmm. Tasty, quick, healthy and filling. 

Today has been a rough day for whatever reason. Both kids are whiny, the weather isn’t great (3 degrees and a cold wind) and I’m starting to get very busy at school. It’s just one of those days where it feels like we are in an endless pattern and things will never return to normal. I’m reading a new book (The Road to Zoe by Nick Alexander) and in one part the characters visit Nice on holiday. Reading about warm sunny skies, beaches, and French culture makes me sad for our inability to travel right now. We were meant to go to Spain in July for Andy’s friend’s wedding, which is very unlikely to happen now (ETA: The wedding has officially been postponed until October, which means we won't be able to attend.) I know this is a first world problem, and there are people who have had way worse to deal with throughout the past couple of months, but surely I’m allowed to be sad for a little while over our cancelled holiday?

Friday April 17th

Today has been a much better day. Ella woke up around 7am, and instead of demanding that Andy go downstairs with her, she actually went down by herself and turned on the TV. We didn’t end up coming downstairs until nearly 8am, she was content down there on her own. This is a huge development! It helped that Ollie also slept in until 8:30am, which is super late for him. Everyone is very well rested and the morning felt much calmer than usual. I even got a few minutes to write in my gratitude journal at the kitchen table while Ollie and Ella coloured together.

The gratitude journal was my March intention, and I was in a good routine of writing three things I am grateful for every morning, and three amazing things that happened every evening. (I use the Five Minute Journal by Intelligent Change, which I love). Once March was over, I kind of got out of the habit of using it regularly. But I've realised it really does help improve my mood, or at least help me to be more aware of the good in my life and it puts me in a better mindset in the morning when I start my day thinking about what I am grateful for.