So today the novelty of being at home and in the house is starting to wear off, especially for Drew. He is not feeling top notch anyways because he is all stuffed up, but it was really hard to get him motivated to do much on Friday.
And Lauren did about 3/4 of her work in her bed. Not sure that is promoting very good study habits so much. I don't want to crack down on her, but at the same time the fact of the matter is she is more focused on her instagram account than actually doing her homework. And that's not really very cool.
I have to say that I am starting to feel about closed in as well. I am not sure what the Easter break is going to look like to be honest with you. I hope that Brad will be able to take some time off, so that we can have some family time playing games and watching movies and maybe doing some walks around the block and possible even going to the common!
We are pretty sure that Brad had a minor case of the virus, as for about a weeks time he was feeling achy and tired and went to bed around 9 PM. And he lost his sense of taste and smell during that time. The thing of it is that he never had a fever or a cough. He now has a bit of a cough when he wakes up in the morning. It just goes to show that not everyone has the same symptoms.
The coronavirus is now spreading through Downing Street....Boris Johnson has been diagnosed, the chief medical officer. So self-isolation for them!
Monday, March 30, 2020
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
My first day off while on lockdown
As of last week, I changed my working days to Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and have Wednesday and Friday off. So, today is my first day not working, but I still have lots of work to do: making the meals, doing the washing up, helping the kids with their homework. And I just remembered I need to do the laundry today as well. I am so thankful that the sun is shining and that we have a garden where we can go to get some fresh air! We have taken the covers off the patio furniture for the first time in months, and we can say hello to our neighbours over the fence again (all whilst keeping our safe 2m distance of course.)
The kids are still amazing me with their willingness to do work and not moaning. The hardest bit is just getting them to the table to start, but once they get into it, they are focused and ready to do their work. I am not sure how much they are going to learn outside of Maths and English, but never mind.
I caved and signed up for one year of Disney+ for a year for a bargain price of £49! So we will have to check that out and see what we can find on there for Science as there is all the National Geographic channel as well. And I have seen people posting on Facebook about introducing their kids to shows like Ducktales and other shows from the 80s! That should be fun. I am still not sure I will get bored enough to watch the StarWars, but it all depends on how long this lockdown carries on.
The big news is that KFC is closed for business for the next few weeks. They had already made the decision to close before Boris made the announcement on Monday, but Brad has still been really busy on conference calls and such.
Yesterday the kids humoured me and listened to me reading them the first chapter of Harry Potter. I am hoping to do it nearly every day, as I think it's a good way to get them all in the same room and off electronics. And then we can watch the movie when we finish the book. I hope that we can take turns reading the chapters.
The most fun I had yesterday was a quiz night via Zoom! We tried Skype, but Skype is old technology, there is so much better stuff going on with Zoom and Microsoft Teams. I was very impressed with Gwen doing 6 rounds of the Quiz for us. We even had a Guest Round where her daughters made up all the questions. I came in last by half a point and Wendy was the winner as she knew all the songs in the last round. I am not so good with music. We have set the next one for next Tuesday and we are doing a round each: I am doing the All American round, so I need to start working on my questions! I may enlist the help of the kids as well. I am going to mix in all sorts of bits of geography, general knowledge. It will be fun!
Thank goodness for technology and being able to still connect with people.
Random thoughts:
~Drew is going to have super shaggy hair when this is all over, as we have no way to cut his hair!
~Drew and Alison love doing colour by number things using multiplication as long as it makes a picture.
~Lauren can really focus on her school work when she wants to
~I am missing our house in KY where we had multiple tables, as here the table rotates from being the breakfast table to the school/work desk to the lunch table back to the school/work desk to the puzzle working table to the dinner table. At least we have a big enough table to all work at!
~Thankful that we purchased a new iMac 2 months ago as Lauren has to do all of her homework online and submit some of it
~The kitchen is also being used as Alison's gym and Drew's football pitch (although a lot of his football is being played outside now that it's warmer.)
The kids are still amazing me with their willingness to do work and not moaning. The hardest bit is just getting them to the table to start, but once they get into it, they are focused and ready to do their work. I am not sure how much they are going to learn outside of Maths and English, but never mind.
I caved and signed up for one year of Disney+ for a year for a bargain price of £49! So we will have to check that out and see what we can find on there for Science as there is all the National Geographic channel as well. And I have seen people posting on Facebook about introducing their kids to shows like Ducktales and other shows from the 80s! That should be fun. I am still not sure I will get bored enough to watch the StarWars, but it all depends on how long this lockdown carries on.
The big news is that KFC is closed for business for the next few weeks. They had already made the decision to close before Boris made the announcement on Monday, but Brad has still been really busy on conference calls and such.
Yesterday the kids humoured me and listened to me reading them the first chapter of Harry Potter. I am hoping to do it nearly every day, as I think it's a good way to get them all in the same room and off electronics. And then we can watch the movie when we finish the book. I hope that we can take turns reading the chapters.
The most fun I had yesterday was a quiz night via Zoom! We tried Skype, but Skype is old technology, there is so much better stuff going on with Zoom and Microsoft Teams. I was very impressed with Gwen doing 6 rounds of the Quiz for us. We even had a Guest Round where her daughters made up all the questions. I came in last by half a point and Wendy was the winner as she knew all the songs in the last round. I am not so good with music. We have set the next one for next Tuesday and we are doing a round each: I am doing the All American round, so I need to start working on my questions! I may enlist the help of the kids as well. I am going to mix in all sorts of bits of geography, general knowledge. It will be fun!
Thank goodness for technology and being able to still connect with people.
Random thoughts:
~Drew is going to have super shaggy hair when this is all over, as we have no way to cut his hair!
~Drew and Alison love doing colour by number things using multiplication as long as it makes a picture.
~Lauren can really focus on her school work when she wants to
~I am missing our house in KY where we had multiple tables, as here the table rotates from being the breakfast table to the school/work desk to the lunch table back to the school/work desk to the puzzle working table to the dinner table. At least we have a big enough table to all work at!
~Thankful that we purchased a new iMac 2 months ago as Lauren has to do all of her homework online and submit some of it
~The kitchen is also being used as Alison's gym and Drew's football pitch (although a lot of his football is being played outside now that it's warmer.)
Monday, March 23, 2020
COVID- 19 Thoughts and Reflections
who would have ever thought a pandemic of this caliber would ever happen in our lifetime?
As Lauren said yesterday: "My grandkids will be reading about this in history!"
Everyday, we turn on the TV at 5:00 to listen to the Prime Minister address the nation with the latest updates. First it was stay home if you have symptoms, then it was stay in isolate for 14 days if you or someone in your household has symptoms, then it was the schools are closing (but open for children of key workers), then it was all the bars, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, leisure centres and theatres are closing, then it was anyone in a high risk category should stay home for 12 weeks. Who knows when the lockdown will come, but possibly today.
Some groceries are hard to come by: pasta, loo roll, anything for baking. However, i did find salt, brown sugar and pasta at the corner shop yesterday! And I said thanks but no thanks to the small bottle of hand sanitiser for £6.....
I have made sure we are stocked up on the essentials: coffee and wine! With Brad and I both being home all day everyday, we have been through one bag of coffee in about 3 days, and we can't survive without coffee. And I don't know that we can get through the evening after being stuck in the house with all 5 of us without something to relax myself.
I am surprised the network can cope with all the activity with everyone working from home and all the kids being at home and working from home.
It's a good time to force ourselves to slow down and enjoy family time and reconnect with people. And the environment benefits because there are less people driving and out and about.
I am frightened by what has happened in Italy and Spain and what is going to happen here. The press conference is tonight at 8:30, so we will see if Boris puts us on lockdown along with the rest of Europe. I just don't see how he can get away from doing it.
As Lauren said yesterday: "My grandkids will be reading about this in history!"
Everyday, we turn on the TV at 5:00 to listen to the Prime Minister address the nation with the latest updates. First it was stay home if you have symptoms, then it was stay in isolate for 14 days if you or someone in your household has symptoms, then it was the schools are closing (but open for children of key workers), then it was all the bars, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, leisure centres and theatres are closing, then it was anyone in a high risk category should stay home for 12 weeks. Who knows when the lockdown will come, but possibly today.
Some groceries are hard to come by: pasta, loo roll, anything for baking. However, i did find salt, brown sugar and pasta at the corner shop yesterday! And I said thanks but no thanks to the small bottle of hand sanitiser for £6.....
I have made sure we are stocked up on the essentials: coffee and wine! With Brad and I both being home all day everyday, we have been through one bag of coffee in about 3 days, and we can't survive without coffee. And I don't know that we can get through the evening after being stuck in the house with all 5 of us without something to relax myself.
I am surprised the network can cope with all the activity with everyone working from home and all the kids being at home and working from home.
It's a good time to force ourselves to slow down and enjoy family time and reconnect with people. And the environment benefits because there are less people driving and out and about.
I am frightened by what has happened in Italy and Spain and what is going to happen here. The press conference is tonight at 8:30, so we will see if Boris puts us on lockdown along with the rest of Europe. I just don't see how he can get away from doing it.
Homeschool/Work From Home Day One
It has arrived....the day I have to homeschool my kids!!! Thankfully, the schools are very organised and have provided the kids with some things to do. However, my fear is that the work they have been given is only enough for a couple of weeks and then what. It is 2 weeks until the 2 week Easter holiday, so I suppose we will be doing some research and loads of printing of new things to do after the Easter break. And Lauren's school has set all of the homework on the computer, and her first lesson was music and then drama. After she spent minutes on her music homework, she moved onto editing a Dance Moms video.
Overall the day was pretty good. They all got up and got dressed and started working from 9 AM. They couldn't understand why I wanted to do the register, but I did it anyways!! They worked well for the first hour and half doing English and maths, and then Drew did some reading. Break time was a welcome time to get up and move around. We did do 2 laps around the block. The afternoon was a bit less structured. Lauren taught Drew how to do a PowerPoint to satisfy both of their computing lessons, whilst Alison did PE.
Lauren did all of the homework her teachers set out using her timetable, and in between she did editing.
So now what do we do for the next few hours??? I am going to go for a walk to collect our new keyboard and mouse from the shop because the keyboard of Brad's laptop is not working, so he needs one because Lauren is doing all of her work on the computer.
I am hoping to sit down and read the first chapter of Harry Potter aloud to them all. I know Lauren and Drew would read, but I somehow have to figure out how to get Alison to read everyday.
And of course our American History lesson!
Didn't get around to the Harry Potter or the American History today. But there's always tomorrow!
Brad was on conference calls ALL DAY LONG!
At the end of Day one, I am thankful for a dishwasher, the sunshine, healthy family and kids who didn't complain (much) about their homework. It helped that Drew could go outside and play a lot of football, and Alison could do a lot of flipping inside and outside! And Lauren was at the computer desk, doing loads of editing in between all the school work.
And my hands are SO dry, completely old lady hands right now.
Overall the day was pretty good. They all got up and got dressed and started working from 9 AM. They couldn't understand why I wanted to do the register, but I did it anyways!! They worked well for the first hour and half doing English and maths, and then Drew did some reading. Break time was a welcome time to get up and move around. We did do 2 laps around the block. The afternoon was a bit less structured. Lauren taught Drew how to do a PowerPoint to satisfy both of their computing lessons, whilst Alison did PE.
Lauren did all of the homework her teachers set out using her timetable, and in between she did editing.
So now what do we do for the next few hours??? I am going to go for a walk to collect our new keyboard and mouse from the shop because the keyboard of Brad's laptop is not working, so he needs one because Lauren is doing all of her work on the computer.
I am hoping to sit down and read the first chapter of Harry Potter aloud to them all. I know Lauren and Drew would read, but I somehow have to figure out how to get Alison to read everyday.
And of course our American History lesson!
Didn't get around to the Harry Potter or the American History today. But there's always tomorrow!
Brad was on conference calls ALL DAY LONG!
At the end of Day one, I am thankful for a dishwasher, the sunshine, healthy family and kids who didn't complain (much) about their homework. It helped that Drew could go outside and play a lot of football, and Alison could do a lot of flipping inside and outside! And Lauren was at the computer desk, doing loads of editing in between all the school work.
And my hands are SO dry, completely old lady hands right now.
Friday, March 20, 2020
The Coronavirus pandemic of 2020
Wow, what a crazy chain of events have been happening in 2020. Today could be Alison's last day of primary school. She is going to miss SATS which I am sure she is happy about, but she will also miss the fun bits of the end of school....the PGL trip, the disco, the goodbye assembly, her final sports day, superlatives. I think the teachers are all feeling a bit sad about it all.
The announcement was made on Wednesday that the schools were going to close, to all but children of key workers effective on Friday 20 March. It's all very surreal. We had a staff meeting with the headteacher of my secondary school and she is planning for the schools to be closed for the rest of the school year. I am very impressed with how organised the school has been with getting everything up and running on line. And the kid's schools have been very proactive in getting things prepared for them to do as we adapt to the new normal.
The new normal in my mind will look like this:
The kids get up, have breakfast, get dressed. School work from 9-3 with breaks for lunch and some physical activity. I have decided that we should use this time to teach them American History, and learn life skills like tying shoes, tying ties, basic cooking skills, basic life skills like doing laundry and things like that. In the afternoon, have some for reading the Harry Potter series, and in the evenings, watch an episode of Modern Family.
And lots of time for working puzzles and playing games. And organising and tidying the house and doing a major clean out.
And I will be working on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. And Brad will be working as usual everyday, from home until at least the Easter holidays I would assume.
What I really want to avoid is having the kids be on electronics so much. We need to connect as a family again. We have been all so wrapped up in our own little worlds, and we need to come back together.
I will report back on Monday on how the new normal really looks!!
The announcement was made on Wednesday that the schools were going to close, to all but children of key workers effective on Friday 20 March. It's all very surreal. We had a staff meeting with the headteacher of my secondary school and she is planning for the schools to be closed for the rest of the school year. I am very impressed with how organised the school has been with getting everything up and running on line. And the kid's schools have been very proactive in getting things prepared for them to do as we adapt to the new normal.
The new normal in my mind will look like this:
The kids get up, have breakfast, get dressed. School work from 9-3 with breaks for lunch and some physical activity. I have decided that we should use this time to teach them American History, and learn life skills like tying shoes, tying ties, basic cooking skills, basic life skills like doing laundry and things like that. In the afternoon, have some for reading the Harry Potter series, and in the evenings, watch an episode of Modern Family.
And lots of time for working puzzles and playing games. And organising and tidying the house and doing a major clean out.
And I will be working on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. And Brad will be working as usual everyday, from home until at least the Easter holidays I would assume.
What I really want to avoid is having the kids be on electronics so much. We need to connect as a family again. We have been all so wrapped up in our own little worlds, and we need to come back together.
I will report back on Monday on how the new normal really looks!!
Summer 2019: Broken elbow and staycation
It's hard to believe that the summer holidays are nearly over. 6 weeks has gone REALLY quickly in my opinion. Maybe not so much for Alison, who broke her elbow just as the second week of the summer holidays were starting!
The first week was good overall, Lauren had a couple of sleepovers, the kids went to camp a couple of days, then on Sunday, Alison was over at the neighbour's house doing gymnastics (as per usual) and we just heard our neighbour say "oh my goodness, I think she has broken her arm!!" She was crying really hard and her left arm was VERY swollen so we hopped in the car and rushed to the A&E at St. George's. We arrived around 8:30 and didn't get home until nearly midnight. They took an x-ray and said it was fractured and gave her a temporary cast and sent us home with an appointment at the fracture clinic on Wednesday (3 days later!!!) Drew was so sweet and immediately made her a picture that said "Get Well Soon" and Lauren was a very nice and supportive sister. She had a very uncomfortable night's sleep and was afraid to move her arm because she could feel the bones of her elbow moving around.
Monday morning I had to take Drew to the allergy clinic for his annual food allergy check-up and while we were there, I received a phone call from St Georges and they said I needed to bring Alison to the fracture clinic that afternoon because they had seen something on the X-ray that didn't look right. So, I was back at St George's a couple of hours later. And they told us something I didn't expect to hear: she needed surgery to repair the break in her arm. We were booked in for the next day. Thankfully, it's a slow time at Brad's work so he was able to take the day off and work from home. Alison was so brave through the whole thing, and she was really still in a lot of pain.
Tuesday morning, we had to be at the hospital at 7:30 AM so we dropped Drew off at the neighbour's and left Lauren sleeping! We were assigned to bed #7 which we saw as a good sign because that is Alison's lucky number!!! They were a lot of kids with different things happening. We saw the anesthesiologist, who was great with Alison telling her what to expect with the anesthesia and everything and then we saw the surgeon who explained what he was going to do and what to expect. His plan was to put the wires in without making an incisions! They perform the surgeries in age order with the youngest first, and there was a girl with a similar injury a bit younger than Alison who went first. They came and took her back to the theatre around 11:30. While we waited, she watched Matilda and played a couple games of Guess Who. When we got into the room for the anesthesia, she really didn't want to have the mask over the face, but the doctor was great and was talking to her about school and then she was out! The procedure took about 2 hours, and the doctor said he just had to make one small 2cm incision and 3 wires. He said it went as planned.
When we saw her in recovery, she was in a LOT of pain and not happy at all!! They finally gave her some pretty strong medicine and then she calmed down a bit and went back to her bed. She ate a lot (I think at least 6 pieces of toast, some jelly, some apples and grapes). She watched another movie and was very scared to get up and move around. Her heart rate was a bit elevated, so they weren't really able to discharge her and she needed to show that she could walk around. She was very apprehensive to move her arm: she thought she was still going to be able to feel the bones moving around in her arm. But once she actually got up and out of bed, she realised that she couldn't feel that anymore. That's not to say she wasn't in any pain, but just different pain. We were discharged around 7:30 and we came home to Bob and Rebecca and the first thing Alison wanted to do was play hand and foot with them! That was a good sign!
The first couple of days were tough because she was in a lot of pain, but we did go and get her hair washed at the salon, but the best part of that was that one of the hairdressers did her hair in amazing dutch plaits! That made her smile really big!! We also went to gymnastics because she wanted to see all of her buddies.
We made the decision to go private after she got her proper cast on, just because the physio options will be better and the process should be quicker. So, we went to see the doctor on Friday after she had surgery. He was very nice and said he actually knew the doctor who performed the surgery and after seeing the x-rays, he said the surgery was perfectly executed. He recommended we go back to see the doctor who did the procedure because they like to "see their handiwork," but then we could continue with him after that. He also said that we shouldn't travel to the US because travel insurance wouldn't cover if anything happened as it was a pre-existing condition.
A week after the surgery, Alison went back to have an xray to make sure the wires were in place and everything was going well. She selected a blue cast rather than the really bright yellow as she previously thought she wanted. The doctor said everything was looking good and seemed to be healing well. That evening, we went to gymnastics so they could wish her a happy birthday and she got lots of signatures from everyone (Even the artistic girls she noted!)
For her birthday, we went back to the salon for another hair wash and some Dutch plaits, bought her some shirts so she didn't have to wear my shirts, had some lunch at Pizza Express, and then the two of us met Brad in the city for Matilda! Overall, I think she had a nice birthday. I hope so! it's the first birthday she has even spent not in the US.
So, due to unforseen circumstances, we are having a staycation in London for the summer holidays!!! Brad is taking the days off still, and we have planned some fun things to do in and around England. We are definitely sad to miss seeing the family, but we are looking forward to seeing them at Christmas instead.
The first week was good overall, Lauren had a couple of sleepovers, the kids went to camp a couple of days, then on Sunday, Alison was over at the neighbour's house doing gymnastics (as per usual) and we just heard our neighbour say "oh my goodness, I think she has broken her arm!!" She was crying really hard and her left arm was VERY swollen so we hopped in the car and rushed to the A&E at St. George's. We arrived around 8:30 and didn't get home until nearly midnight. They took an x-ray and said it was fractured and gave her a temporary cast and sent us home with an appointment at the fracture clinic on Wednesday (3 days later!!!) Drew was so sweet and immediately made her a picture that said "Get Well Soon" and Lauren was a very nice and supportive sister. She had a very uncomfortable night's sleep and was afraid to move her arm because she could feel the bones of her elbow moving around.
Monday morning I had to take Drew to the allergy clinic for his annual food allergy check-up and while we were there, I received a phone call from St Georges and they said I needed to bring Alison to the fracture clinic that afternoon because they had seen something on the X-ray that didn't look right. So, I was back at St George's a couple of hours later. And they told us something I didn't expect to hear: she needed surgery to repair the break in her arm. We were booked in for the next day. Thankfully, it's a slow time at Brad's work so he was able to take the day off and work from home. Alison was so brave through the whole thing, and she was really still in a lot of pain.
Tuesday morning, we had to be at the hospital at 7:30 AM so we dropped Drew off at the neighbour's and left Lauren sleeping! We were assigned to bed #7 which we saw as a good sign because that is Alison's lucky number!!! They were a lot of kids with different things happening. We saw the anesthesiologist, who was great with Alison telling her what to expect with the anesthesia and everything and then we saw the surgeon who explained what he was going to do and what to expect. His plan was to put the wires in without making an incisions! They perform the surgeries in age order with the youngest first, and there was a girl with a similar injury a bit younger than Alison who went first. They came and took her back to the theatre around 11:30. While we waited, she watched Matilda and played a couple games of Guess Who. When we got into the room for the anesthesia, she really didn't want to have the mask over the face, but the doctor was great and was talking to her about school and then she was out! The procedure took about 2 hours, and the doctor said he just had to make one small 2cm incision and 3 wires. He said it went as planned.
When we saw her in recovery, she was in a LOT of pain and not happy at all!! They finally gave her some pretty strong medicine and then she calmed down a bit and went back to her bed. She ate a lot (I think at least 6 pieces of toast, some jelly, some apples and grapes). She watched another movie and was very scared to get up and move around. Her heart rate was a bit elevated, so they weren't really able to discharge her and she needed to show that she could walk around. She was very apprehensive to move her arm: she thought she was still going to be able to feel the bones moving around in her arm. But once she actually got up and out of bed, she realised that she couldn't feel that anymore. That's not to say she wasn't in any pain, but just different pain. We were discharged around 7:30 and we came home to Bob and Rebecca and the first thing Alison wanted to do was play hand and foot with them! That was a good sign!
The first couple of days were tough because she was in a lot of pain, but we did go and get her hair washed at the salon, but the best part of that was that one of the hairdressers did her hair in amazing dutch plaits! That made her smile really big!! We also went to gymnastics because she wanted to see all of her buddies.
We made the decision to go private after she got her proper cast on, just because the physio options will be better and the process should be quicker. So, we went to see the doctor on Friday after she had surgery. He was very nice and said he actually knew the doctor who performed the surgery and after seeing the x-rays, he said the surgery was perfectly executed. He recommended we go back to see the doctor who did the procedure because they like to "see their handiwork," but then we could continue with him after that. He also said that we shouldn't travel to the US because travel insurance wouldn't cover if anything happened as it was a pre-existing condition.
A week after the surgery, Alison went back to have an xray to make sure the wires were in place and everything was going well. She selected a blue cast rather than the really bright yellow as she previously thought she wanted. The doctor said everything was looking good and seemed to be healing well. That evening, we went to gymnastics so they could wish her a happy birthday and she got lots of signatures from everyone (Even the artistic girls she noted!)
For her birthday, we went back to the salon for another hair wash and some Dutch plaits, bought her some shirts so she didn't have to wear my shirts, had some lunch at Pizza Express, and then the two of us met Brad in the city for Matilda! Overall, I think she had a nice birthday. I hope so! it's the first birthday she has even spent not in the US.
So, due to unforseen circumstances, we are having a staycation in London for the summer holidays!!! Brad is taking the days off still, and we have planned some fun things to do in and around England. We are definitely sad to miss seeing the family, but we are looking forward to seeing them at Christmas instead.
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