Baking and Present Giving

Day 280...

Today was the first day this Christmas break that we didn't have any critical plans that we had to be up and about for so we had our first 'lie-in' of the holidays. Which after a rubbish nights sleep was much appreciated by me.

So after a steady start to the day we formed a plan; we had presents to drop off at friends, my dad to see, baking to be done and more paint spraying for R2D2.

We decided to brave the grey and rainy day and take a walk out to distribute presents and see my dad. It was at this point that Simon decided to surprise me with his latest, and secret, purchase...a Christmas jumper! Now to put this into context I have a number of jumpers and t-shirts all of a festive vibe that I will wear throughout December but this is something that I have never known Simon to take part in. Simon has always tolerated my love of Christmas and puts up with the ever expanding number of ornaments, decorations and lights each year...which also seem to go up earlier and earlier each year. He has always found Christmas to be stressful for lots of reasons but this year is the most relaxed he has ever felt and he decided to surprise me with his jumper as he knew how much it would mean to me to see him joining in the fun. It is, of course, a Star Wars themed jumper which is as it should be for him and was rather appropriate today as I was wearing my Darth Vader Gingerbread Man t-shirt.

Braving the rain we were able to walk to my dads to make sure he is doing okay and arrange for him to be with us on Christmas Day. We then stopped by a friends house to drop off a present and have a chat - how I miss my friends and just being able to pop by, chat, enjoy a drink, give them a hug and just enjoy their company.

Back home and Molly was all organised ready for an afternoon of baking. We (well I say we but Molly did most of the hard work I simply helped and washed the pots!) made a coffee caramel cake ready for Ethan's birthday tomorrow...

...some Christmas cupcakes (like mini Christmas cakes)...

...and most importantly the waffle batter ready for tomorrows breakfast of Mickey waffles. It has become a tradition over the years that on the kids birthdays and at Christmas we have Mickey shaped waffles for breakfast...with maple syrup...bacon...and of course ice-cream!

While Molly and I baked Simon was in the garage air-brushing more paint onto various parts of his R2D2 build. He is hoping to get all the painting done so that he can start some of the final assembling. This has been a long project that has been done in between work and prop and art commissions and has been a proper labour of love for Simon but it is getting closer and closer to completion.

So for a day when we didn't really have any set plans I think we had a pretty productive day. I am trying to avoid the news as much as possible at the moment. I am aware of more areas of the country going into Tier 4 as from Boxing Day and the possibility of more nationwide lockdowns in the new year but to be honest I am just very tired of it all now. I think for my own mental health I just need a few days without it being the only thing that we hear about. While doing jobs today I have felt fine but without the distraction of things to do I was very aware of how anxious and panicky I was feeling and I think I just need to try and avoid too much news and being overloaded with the same thing over and over again.

Please take care and look after yourselves.

xx

Day 59

Day 59...

And we had another lockdown birthday today, and this time it was Simon's.

So we have had a very relaxed day that started with presents and cards; I had done another piece of artwork in lieu of a card and made Simon a low carb birthday cake - a peanut butter & jelly cake. The sponge was made with peanut butter and sandwiched with homemade raspberry chia jam and fresh cream!

My birthday artwork - The Mandalorian & The Child (Baby Yoda)

Low carb peanut butter & jelly cake

Simon also managed to sell a helmet today so we were able to send that out in the post as well before having our afternoon walk. We took one of our longer routes today, just over 4 miles which we completed in about 1 hour 30 minutes and were surprised by the amount of people who were out and about. I guess as it's the weekend people must be looking for something to do and so going for a walk in the countryside must fit that bill. Most people were considerate and smiled or spoke but yet again we had a couple of instances where we moved over to one side of the path and walked single file and others just carried on and made no effort to show any consideration whatsoever - so annoying!

Even the cows in this field were socially distancing from each other

And while having a lovely day there is still this virus hanging over us and in particular the return of schools early next month. Listening to the government today I have never heard anything so patronising and quite frankly ridiculous. Of course teachers want children back at school, of course teachers want to see their children again and get those children back into school life BUT it MUST be safe for everyone - children, parents and all staff. 

Very young children cannot socially distance; they are naturally tactile beings who like to 'get into everything', to get mucky, to have a cuddle and who have little, if any, regard for hygiene so how the powers that be think that these very young children can adhere to the guidelines and experience school in a proper manner is beyond me. Going to school under these circumstances will not be like going to school normally and that maybe as traumatising for some as being at home. Teachers will not be teaching they will need to reintegrate these children and help them cope with a new way of schooling, one where they cannot sit with their best friend or even be in the same room as their friends, they may even end up with a different teacher. There are so many factors to take into account and I fear that those making these decisions have no real idea of what teaching young children is actually all about.

Just today it was announced that 2 schools in my local education authority have had confirmed cases of COVID-19 resulting in both schools having to close and staff and children having to self isolate. These schools were only open for key worker's children which will be a much smaller number than when schools open for the recommended year groups, and one of these schools is about 4 miles away from me. Prove to staff and parents that it is safe to open and we will do, but at the moment there seems to be a lack of scientific evidence that will put our minds at ease.

Take care out there,

xx

Day 55

Day 55...

And we have our first lockdown birthday today - Molly!!!

So as is tradition we had breakfast followed by the opening of presents and I have to say I think Molly did rather well this year...I blame online shopping.

And I can now reveal the little bit of artwork I was creating over the weekend, rather than buy a birthday card I decided to have a go at drawing some of Molly's favourite Disney characters and I don't think I did too bad!

And talking of creative endeavours look how Molly's cake turned out...

...layers of cappuccino cake and lemon & poppy seed cake sandwiched with vanilla buttercream and decorated with handmade chocolate swirls! All Molly's handy work!

It was lovely to see a couple of Molly's friends take the time, and make the effort to drop by with some gifts. Both friends visited independently of each other and both kept to the social distancing rules but it was nice to experience a little bit of normality in this crazy world.

My day had rather a heavy work focus as following our governments announcement on Sunday, and then updates yesterday, revealed that not only is the proposed return to school aimed at Reception, year 1 and year 6 children but also early years providers...just like my pre-school. So I read through numerous government documents this morning to try and glean some understanding of what is expected of our pre-school. I then composed emails to staff, my committee and our parents to let them in on what the proposals are and to try to gauge what the parent demand for places would be.

All the information that I have read is, to be honest, pretty vague, full of lots of ifs, maybes, potential and possible statements. This is all predicated on the easing of lockdown measures going well, so that schools should be able to 'welcome more students' from 'potentially, at the earliest, the 1st June'. So I am now having to figure a way forward and plan for possibly opening...at the earliest...on the 1st June while still adhering to social distancing (with under 5's!) and good hygiene. I will admit to my mind being a bit full of stuff and possible scenarios, but I am glad last week I took the time to put some of this down on paper so that I can now start to unpick and hopefully formulate a plan of some sort. I must admit I have been surprised by the number of parents wanting their children to return as I am not sure what I would be doing if I was in their position. We will be returning for possibly 6 or 7 weeks before the summer break...assuming that still happens...I guess at this point all bets are off as they say!

And we had our usual lunchtime walk, another 2 miles in the cold and wind, where has the good weather gone? Oh and chance for me to have a rant at cyclists who insist on cycling on the footpath when there is a clearly marked cycle path on the road which ends up with me and Simon having to walk on the road - argh! Oh and pedestrians who have to walk two abreast rather than single file even though Simon and I always walk single file and move as far away as possible from any other walkers!! Rant over!

Oh and to end the day we had cake...and it was good!

xx