Standard Sunday

Day 270...

And here we are back round to another Sunday as we hit day 260...that's how many days it has been since my first lockdown and the impact of this virus malarkey started for me and mine. I don't suppose any of us thought back then that we would still be where we are now 9 months later.

But Sunday it was and a pretty standard Sunday too. Although first job of the day saw us heading out of the house into the rain to visit our tenants at our 'other house' as they were having problems with the boiler; hopefully we have that sorted now. Then it was on to a local garage to check the tyre pressure for my car as it had 'beeped' at us yesterday telling us pressures were low! Once home there were a few last minute additions to my weekly online grocery shop ahead of collecting it tomorrow. 

Simon had a few more pieces of R2D2 to spray with paint as well as a little casting of parts to sort for someone looking for some spares. I then started to watch The Muppets Christmas Carol which was purely for research purposes ahead of this evening's Disney quiz. But I'd not long started watching when Simon asked if I wanted to go out for a walk as the rain had subsided. So to make the most of the break in the weather we set off on just a couple of miles walk and promptly got rained on! It wasn't too bad but a couple of miles was just about right especially as I was trying a different pair of boots today and they were just starting to feel a little uncomfortable by the time we returned home.

Armed with a coffee I then settled down to continue watching The Muppets Christmas Carol. I'm not the biggest Muppets fan, I prefer them in short bursts rather than an hour and a half movie but it was a while since I'd last seen this one. In fact I did comment that I remember having it on VHS...but I think I have watched it since those days!!

And then it was time for the aforementioned Disney Dream Girls Sunday evening Disney quiz, and the lovely Tracey in Wales had set the questions all on The Muppets Christmas Carol...and I won! Obviously the benefit of watching it just before the quiz meant it was quite fresh in my mind. So next week I am setting the questions and we have picked the Disney Christmas movie 'Noelle' to have questions about, which means I will need to watch the movie first!!

And so we have another Sunday as we begin to hear rumours about more lockdowns around the world, speculation as to the changes (or not) to which Tier levels we will be in next week, warnings about not doing what we've been told we can do at Christmas and then don't even get me started on the whole Brexit thing!

The end to 2020 will I think be received with a great sigh of relief but at the moment I am struggling to see what 2021 will bring us that is any different from the past nine months!

Take care,
xx

Straightforward Saturday

Day 269...

Well we have reached the weekend and it's been a fairly standard sort of Saturday.

A steady start to the day followed by taking Molly to her guitar lesson and for Simon and I a drive thru' coffee to pass the time while we waited for her to finish her lesson.

It was then home for an afternoon at home. I updated this weeks online grocery shop as I had rather a lot to add and spent most of the time swearing at the site for either going slow or not loading properly. Simon finished his latest digital gamer girl drawing, check out his Instagram for his latest art projects.

Simon then ventured out to his 'workshop' (otherwise known as our garage) to cast a few helmet pieces as he'd received an order for some parts as well as start the painting process of his R2D2 build...apparently we have pieces sprayed blue today!

I then decided to get on top of my Christmas present wrapping while catching up on some TV, namely The Crown!

And that has been today, a quiet day but then again what else can we do at the moment?!

Take care out there,
xx

End of the Working Week

Day 268...

We have reached Friday which means we have just four more days of pre-school before we break for Christmas. 

Today has been a catching up on admin jobs day, a little banking and then finalising our Christmas Raffle this afternoon. 

This afternoons raffle draw went very smoothly and we hopefully have a number of very happy individuals. The weeks fundraising activities have raised a very impressive £400 for pre-school, and while our annual Christmas Fair would normally raise double this or even more we have been amazed at the support show and how well we have done with what we could manage 'remotely'!

Once home I still had a few emails to send and a few Facebook posts to organise. Not only have we been fundraising this week but we have also joined in with a local community event. Festive Windows is a special activity with local houses and groups decorating their windows and forming a 'Christmas Trail' for locals to follow. While we don't have a window that we could decorate we decided to adorn our gate instead and my team along with the children have created this amazing piece of work...

How fab is this?!!

...we even have twinkly lights all around it so it can be seen at night!

And then it was yet another 'Baby Yoda' show this evening...except there was no baby Yoda in it!! Still a cracking episode though...only one more to go in this series and I have a feeling it's going to be a bit of a cliff hanger!

Take care out there,
xx

Usual Thursday

Day 267...

Today was my usual non-working Thursday and it was chance to catch up on a few jobs around the house while also keeping an eye on work stuff as we are in the final throws of our virtual Christmas raffle.

The first part of the morning saw me doing a little research ready for podcast recording later on today followed by getting all the ironing done - whoop! A great sense of achievement...as I put yet more laundry in the washing machine...mmm a never ending job!

At lunchtime we took a walk out and decided to chance the fields, well we got so far before the fields started to turn into a swamp! We made an about turn and kept to drier ground, this did mean we were out a little longer than normal managing 2.4 miles in 53 minutes.

The afternoon was taken up with chasing a few emails for both work and home as well as keeping an eye on raffle ticket sales and making sure that we had some final promotional posts ready to go on Facebook.

Early afternoon I took delivery of my weekly dairy order...the order that I'd forgot to amend the week before...the order which meant I received extra items! Oops! I have more ice-cream than intended...another tub of Christmas Pudding flavour and Panettone flavour...oh well it is Christmas and time for a treat!

Then it was time to chat away with my fellow Disney Dream Girl, Michelle, as we recorded our show ready for release this coming Sunday. We had a natter about Disney themed gifts, some news in the world of Disney as well as looking at some events in Disney history.

And while Simon headed down the 'gym' this evening I decided to chill and catch up with watching The Crown as I am woefully behind. Stopping and taking time for myself to watch something or do something just for me is not easy for me. I always seem to find something else that I 'need' to do rather than just allow a little time for me...but I am trying to get better at it! 

And now it's time to stop again and chill with Simon and the kids.

Take care out there.
xx

Another Lockdown Birthday

Day 266...

Yes we have another birthday during these strange and unprecedented times and this time it's mine! As a lady I won't reveal my age, let's just say I'm not 21 anymore!

I have a wonderful team of work colleagues which meant that although I was in work this morning I was able to take the afternoon off.

Yesterday's baking efforts were a special delivery for my team...some, hopefully yummy, rocky road muffins!

I decided to leave the opening of presents and cards until later in the day when I could better enjoy it, but I feel very loved and thankful to have received some very lovely and thoughtful presents.

My work team surprised me with this gorgeous necklace and little did they know that I have been eyeing up this necklace for years!

My very good friend and podcast co-host Michelle not only got me one of my all time favourite chocolate bars (Cadbury's Old Jamaica) and a Star Wars t-shirt but she got me this absolutely adorable Figment hanging decoration.

Simon, along with a couple of t-shirts, had bought me this amazing Disney book that I'd been wanting for a while...Disney and holidays, there is no better combination.

I like that Molly and Ethan are optimistic about the year ahead as they bought me a calendar and diary...Disney of course!

And as look would have it I received my Hotel Chocolat subscription today...dark chocolate of course...

...and this gorgeous pair of cute bambi-esq, festive, glittery earrings that I ordered after I'd fell in love with the design on an Instagram post also arrived!

I was very blessed to see in person one of my closest friends who I haven't seen since this whole COVID thing started as she dropped by with a card and pressie. It was lovely to chat, all be it outside in the cold, and catch-up just a little bit. Plus she knows me too well as her pressie was a Christmas themed jigsaw!

And when I arrived home at lunchtime I found that Molly had baked me a cake...my favourite low carb dark chocolate cake which I am going to enjoy with some raspberries and a generous helping of double cream.

And that is where I am going to leave todays post...it's my birthday and I can do what I want...I have another glass of red wine calling me and chocolate cake to eat! Happy Birthday to me!

Take care.

xx

Day 255

Day 265...

A day in work today and the focus was on cashflow forecasting - whoop!

The morning was taken up with the usual admin tasks, updating the banking, responding to and sending out emails before putting figures to paper as we begin to look forward over the next few months.

These are interesting times for early years care and education as we have seen a dramatic reduction in the numbers of children attending which we surmise is a knock-on effect of COVID. Parents may be struggling financially, or working from home and so don't need the childcare or simply haven't thought about sending their little one to pre-school. 

Our usual way of life has been disrupted and therefore the chain of events that would lead a parent to sending their child to us have simply not happened. All the usual places where parents of young children meet and chat like parent and toddler groups, soft play centres and parks haven't been open or have had restricted opening. So missed conversations has meant that parents, especially new parents, haven't given pre-school a thought or may not even know about pre-schools.

But the knock-on effect means that a lot of other pre-schools have struggled and some have even had to close. Thankfully that is not the case for us but we do need to make sure we are prepared and plan for whatever the coming months may hold.

Once home I had a little more work to complete before I turned my attention to baking...not something I do very often as following a low carb/keto diet means that cakes and sweet treats are a thing of the past, not that I actually miss them. But there was a reason for baking which will become apparent tomorrow!

Interestingly, talking about low carb and keto diets, there is a lot of evidence now emerging that poor metabolic health and high blood sugars are not conducive to contracting COVID and impact on the ability to fight the virus and recover from it. Our modern day western diet is so full of highly processed foods and sugars that we find ourselves running on the wrong fuel which in turn is affecting our ability to combat illnesses. Our bodies are supposed to run on protein and fats...put the right fuel in and the body is in a better position to run smoothly but load it up with too many carbs, sugars and highly processed foods and it's going to find it tough going.

Check out my page 'Eating Well, Staying Healthy' to find out why I changed my diet, how I did it and more importantly how I am still doing it.

Take care out there,
xx

A Short Post

Day 264...

Today started with me and Molly off out to collect the weekly grocery shopping with a little detour via pre-school as I had some money (a float) to drop off ready for this weeks fundraising activities.

On the way home we popped into another local supermarket in search of wrapping paper, mulled wine (Ethan's favourite) and other festive bites.

When we arrived home Simon was busy in his workshop, aka our garage, working on a couple of helmets. He had one that needed 'cleaning up'; this means removing all the overspill and getting it ready to ship and another that he was casting.

Shopping and helmets out the way it was a quick trip to the post office to get a number of parcels on their way before heading out for an afternoon walk. It was decidedly chillier today but we managed 4 miles in an hour and 18 minutes.

Back home and in the warmth Simon was 'chatting' with the person buying the helmet and was able to get payment sorted and the helmet all packaged up and ready for posting to the US; fingers crossed this will arrive quickly as it has been bought as a Christmas present!

Molly has been working hard on her website today as she wants to be able to sell her cards and prints direct from her website rather than use a third party and pay them fees and commission! Check out her website for her photos, art and more - Shutter Studios.

This evening saw Molly making use of the facilities at her karate gym while Simon and I took a second trip to the post office to get the helmet on its way to the US. And in between all of that Simon has started to spray paint his R2D2 build. 

Another productive day.

Take care out there.
xx