When the lockdown started a month ago nearly, I had set some goals that I wanted to achieve whilst at home before the time came to go back to work. It’s a funny old time but really, I’m viewing it as an amazing opportunity to be at home with my family. We will more than likely never get this time again, it’s like a bonus maternity leave period!
It goes without saying that by the end of all this I will have made amazing memories with the kids and I will be able to add “Teacher” to my CV of course but it’s the personal goals that I have set that are really important to me.
The one thing I said was that I wanted to take this time to get my blog up and running again. I really love to blog, and you can check out my reasons why from a previous blog post here. With looking at a computer day in day out in work I just didn’t have the motivation to come home and start writing on my laptop. I am not doing that now, so I see it as the perfect opportunity.
I have written more in the last 4 weeks than I have in months however in saying that I am finding topics to cover a bit harder. It goes without saying that a lot of content I generate comes from things I am up to, being out and about, events I’m going to or things I’ve planned in the home. These have now all came to a halt and I’m conscious that everyone is documenting the same thing so what will make my story any different to anybody else’s. That is just the point. There is no difference as we are all in this together. Everyone is journaling the same thing be it home schooling, ideas to keep the kids entertained, Easter activities, ways to beat the boredom etc. and I’m enjoying these blogs. It takes away from the loneliness of it all. So I will continue to write about what I know and at the minute that is just being at home and loving it all.
I wanted to read more books so I got out seven before the Library closed. I have only managed to complete one so far, I could easily manage 2 a week if I really focused on it. Three weeks ago my head just wasn’t in it. I was watching the news after the girls went to bed and it set my mind racing. I got into bed and picked up the book and even though I was turning the pages I was reading nothing. I had to just give up. I’m now not watching the news and this has really helped with my anxiety of it all. We don’t talk about what’s happening during the day when the kids are with us unless we are talking about the amazing work done by the NHS or the key workers in shops etc. as I don’t think they need the worry. We are definitely feeling like this is our normal now and it might actually be much harder to reverse it all when the time comes.
I could sit in the evenings and watch the entire collection of Netflix, but I don’t want to waste so much time. I can watch TV any evening, so I have now enrolled in two free online courses. One is based around Social Media which starts at the end of the month via Berkeley University, California and the other is Career Coaching and Mentoring via The Open University which I started this week. The Career Coaching has really prompted me to think about not only my career stance but also my outlook on life, my self-awareness and a lot of self-reflecting. I’m only on week 2 but it very thought provoking, and this is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to do with this gift of time.
Our house is coming down with DIY jobs that need done like painting our living room and Olivia’s bedroom, sorting out plants for me to kill in the garden and jobs like that. These are at the minute non essential jobs which would require us to go out and buy things and totally goes against what we should be doing. The only reason to leave the house is for basic food and a short walk. For now we are just doing things around our home that don’t require extra purchasing like power hosing the outside areas, treating the grass with feed that we already had, sorting through our attic and getting items we are going to take to Woman’s Aid when it is safe to travel to our local branch, organized. The non-essentials can follow on after wards much to the delight of my husband, he just loves to paint don’t you know! We can achieve those #housegoals when its safe to do so.
For now just enjoy the sunshine, cherish the time with your kids and family even if they are driving you mad some days and that does happen don’t be fooled about that! Set some goals so you can look back and feel a sense of achievement. Use this time to educate yourself, do something you wouldn’t normally do, get fit, take up baking, the list is endless and if you are stuck, I have a few ideas in a post here. Without holidays or days out to look forward to at the minute its good to have a goal to work towards no matter how small it may be.
Stay Home and Stay Safe.
