Staying in, staying safe – week 3

This is a little diary of our third week in social isolation, home learning, and with me working from home and himself on “holiday” this week.

See what happened in week 2.

Monday

I was up bright and early and at my desk before the kids were up. It was himself’s actual birthday so he had (another) lie in. The morning was really productive, himself and the kids did the volcano experiment and then set about preparing for a scalextric layout.

I got the courage up to deal with my arsehole colleague. He claimed a brain freeze and “obviously I meant what you said not what I wrote”. FFS. Cos I’m a mind reader and should know that X means Y even though he said X three times and was corrected twice. Yeah so after an IM chat where he showed no interest whatsoever in getting done the thing he stated was necessary on Thursday night, I offered to walk him through it but no really it’s too much trouble for him. So I ended up doing what he asked without any input from him and promising to email the result and reasoning through. Pissed off and taken advantage of because I’m too scared of ending up being shouted at.

After lunch we went for a walk and small boy managed to trip over and poke himself in the bridge of his nose and eyelid with a stick.

I worked through the afternoon while the boys set up himself’s epic scalextric layout. My earlier hope that all had gone well with my arsehole colleague was dashed just after 4pm. Apparently, I’m trying to police him, dictate tool usage and have no right to do so because he’s older than me. Ah yeah well but I’m senior to him, have an extra title and responsibilities which are well laid out and it is in fact my job to educate the team about best practices. He still had me in tears. Thank goodness for my marvellous boss (cat chat and all), she was horrified when I showed her the IM conversation and promised to sort things out. Then I called my work wife because she’s always calming.

I made the boys’ tea, then chilled on the sofa for a bit. I was just exhausted from the roller coaster of emotions the last few days.

Tuesday

A new day to start afresh, avoiding the arsehole at work – thank goodness for working from home!

The kids were up at the same time as me, but they wanted their morning bed snuggles so small boy got in with large boy in his bed and cuddled for half an hour. Himself got them up and breakfasted then he went to the super market. I was working as usual.

Himself evidently hit the sweet spot at the shop, he didn’t have to queue to get in and they had almost everything we wanted. He did some rugby with them in the garden, small boy did great catching. Then started sorting the scalextric track some more. I was working.

Except, then I went for a run. My right arch was tight again so I didn’t go far and it was really warm. Amazon order when I got home to get some lighter weight leggings and shorts as we get more into spring.

I went back to work and the three boys all went back to scalextric for the afternoon. Himself made a spreadsheet to track timings. Mid-afternoon large boy had a zoom call with 6 of his class mates, then some screen time.

I had a meeting with my manager and we talked some more about the problems I’d had on Monday with my arsehole colleague. She wants me and him to sit down and talk about how we can work together. She’s only been around 6 months, I’ve been dealing with his shit for almost 7 years. I’m willing to try again because she needs to witness herself how unwilling he is to be flexible. I’ll try, I don’t want the stress for myself or for him. I’m sure he doesn’t enjoy getting so wound up that he treats people so unpleasantly. I don’t believe he’ll change though.

At tea time we discovered that himself had forgotten the main component of dinner. No breaded chicken to make sweet and sour. So I broke the rules and went out for a second time to pick some up at the shop. Forgetting to post large boy’s card he had made for his best friend who is poorly with tonsillitis. I feel bad but I was in and out and didn’t touch anything that I didn’t buy and bring home.

After tea I called my grandma while himself put the boys to bed. Then gin and cheesecake and the Walking Dead for chill out time.

Wednesday

I went out early to post a little note for large boy’s best friend, then down to work. It was an uneventful day which was nice. The boys had a busy day with himself, playing rugby and filling in their lockdown time capsules.

They spent most of the afternoon outside, himself has antibiotics for infected eczema again so he indulged in a white russian before avoiding alcohol – he rarely drinks but he’d been looking forward to some cocktails while on holiday. By evening his knees were looking a bit pink. They played some rugby and filled one of my garden waste buckets with water – who knows why?!

I called time on work at 5pm (a little irked that there’s a possibility of furlough and a request to take 9 days holiday by end of May – almost half my annual allowance). I wouldn’t mind furlough really, but being made to take extra holidays is tough.

Himself made chicken kebabs with Irn Bru marinade, potato wedges and veg for dinner. Really yummy and the boys enjoyed it too. I’m loving having family dinner almost every day, feels like we’ve been waiting for this phase in our family for ages.

Large boy’s Cubs leader sent an email saying they could camp out at home to accumulate nights for one of their badges. So we set up a play tent in his bedroom, laid out sleeping bag and torch. He loves it and can’t wait to sleep in there every night. Ha!

Thursday

Not much to say about my work day. Busy, uneventful bar trying to figure how many holidays I’m being forced to take.

Large boy’s camp out in his bedroom failed and he ended up in his bed, the floor being uncomfortable and the play tent too hot. Hardly a surprise.

Himself took the boys on a long walk after lunch, down to school to pick up Easter eggs that had been donated by our local Aldi. Then they played in the garden before continuing their mammoth scalextric lap timing challenge.

I finished everything up at work to leave things in order for 10 days and we set about cooking a fry up. Never really managed one for the boys before, but they loved their fried eggs and hash browns, ate loads.

Overall an uneventful day.

Friday

Woo hoo! Holiday off to a good start. No lie ins for the boys and so I was awake when they were. I had a lovely quiet coffee in the kitchen while they watched crap TV. Then breakfast and I talked large boy into a daily mile run. He was super fast, I couldn’t keep up when he was running full pelt. However, he tired quickly and needed to catch his breath. Then he was off again. Almost 2km in 12 minutes was pretty good.

Himself and I cleared out the dining room sideboard – thrill a minute. After lunch, a spot of Lego Harry Potter for me while the boys played scalextric. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon in the garden. Small boy and I cleared the rest of the vegetable patch and decided what to plant when we get compost next week (waiting til supermarket shop, no extra trips out). Then we planted some herbs using those compact compost disk things (messy stuff) and cress for the boys.

We had great fun sitting on the patio step with Alexa just inside, playing Trivia Hero – both boys knew surprising things.

We noticed that my cherry tree was starting to bloom, so I sent a message of thanks to the friends who gave it to me last summer. My reaction made me realise that I’m very much more my usual self: I’ve come back to myself.

Himself made penne carbonara for dinner, I decided to indulge in some rosé wine we brought back from last summer’s holiday. Then almost straight into bedtime, this time listening to stories read by some teachers. Shared by school, it’s a lovely way to feel connected with their other adults.

Himself and I had our movie night, Rocketman. Another brilliant one.

Saturday

Small boy woke large boy up before 7. Again. We introduced a new rule. Next time he does that, large boy must bring him into us. Small boy mustn’t go into his brother if his light is out and large boy shouldn’t start reading before 7.30. Sounds complicated but they’re both so tired, big dark rings and they need to have a couple of long lies to catch up.

After breakfast I went for my long run for the week. I did 10km in 59 minutes, a little slower than last time but the weather has really changed. It was so warm, even in just a vest and shorts. How am I going to cope as we get into summer? By the time I was home and recovered and showered, it was almost lunch time.

After lunch we all went out into the garden and had a games afternoon. Large boy and I played badminton – he was quickly back to returning rallies like he was last summer. We had a family game of boules and the boys played with bubbles and frisbees and balls and scatch. We video called my parents on WhatsApp and it was lovely sharing the outside fun with them. Later we called the in laws too and large boy showed off his rugby skills to grampa.

We came in when the boys started getting hot and tired and grumpy, they played some video games. Large boy called his best friend but wasn’t really in the mood for that either. Himself ordered takeaway and went to collect it, returning from a 10 minute trip almost an hour later. That’ll be our last takeaway for a while.

After a very late dinner, the boys stayed up a bit longer – its holidays and we hoped it would pay off with lie ins on Sunday.

Sunday

We aren’t religious so we don’t celebrate Easter as such. Any excuse for chocolate though. A slightly later wake up, and small boy didn’t disturb his brother. At breakfast the boys got an egg each and a parcel from gran, plus a mug, a card game and an activity book each from us.

Mid-morning we learned the sad news that Stirling Moss had died. All the teddies in our house are named after racing drivers – small boy’s favourite orangutan that sleeps in him tummy sometimes is called Moss. I felt genuinely saddened, he was such a gentleman and brilliant driver.

After lunch we went for a walk to pick some wild garlic for large boy’s Cubs naturalist badge. We bumped into two sets of children from school and small boy’s best friend as we came past his house. A play in the garden and then Detective Pikachu when we got home.

That’s it, week 3 done.

See what week 4 brought.