After a good night’s sleep for me (Stephen was up at 2am with James and then struggled to get more sleep), we were up early for the Tesco delivery. It arrived with all the various bits I had ordered for friends and family as well as everything we wanted. Hurrah!
I had decided I was going for a run this morning and was feeling brave so attempting to run a longer distance. I had requested pancakes for breakfast on my return so Genevieve jumped on that bandwagon pretty quickly so she could have them too. James was most insistent that he had Shreddies and that he made them himself – result!
I managed a 7.5km run. The furthest I have gone before by a whole kilometre. I was so proud of myself. And the first 5km was even a PB! Whoop whoop. And then I had pancakes and a cup of tea when I got home. Awesome start to the day!
While I was out, Stephen had got the kids on their bikes in the living room to practise the balance and peddling motions they need to be able master to ride outside. He was a genius if you ask me. The kids loved it and hopefully it will help when we can get back outside with them when Stephen is recovered.
As Stephen had been up so much of the night, he was pretty tired and needed a lie down once I had showered. So I tagged in. My friend Gemma came to collect her special cheese, butter, sugar and chocolate that I’d managed to add to our Tesco order, and we were able to grab a five minute chat on the doorstep before the rain threatened and she headed home.
At this point I felt it was important to bring out the big guns with entertaining the kids so we built dens with some special den building sheets I had purchased at the start of lockdown. I had been promising to do this with them for a while so they were most excited when the dens finally went up. They each had a pillow and blanket in their dens so were happy to curl up watching The Little Mermaid thanks to Disney+!
They even ate their lunch in their dens (which mean crumbs everywhere but it was worth it)!
After lunch we had a video call with friends while Stephen slept upstairs. Six children and three adults all on Zoom. It could have been disastrous but, thanks to Bethan’s efficiency, was a huge success. We all played Bingo and the kids loved it! It was really nice for them all to see each other as it was the first proper kids’ Zoom call for them all since lockdown (with these friends anyway).
At this point I wanted to be lazy and chill for a bit as I was still flying solo. Plus we hadn’t had pudding after lunch so, as promised to the kids, I made them hot chocolate with squirty cream and baby marshmallows. They loved these and were really good at drinking them in their dens. Parenting winning! Stephen came downstairs at this point and both kids were calm in their own tents happily watching TV whilst I lay on the sofa chilling out. I literally was so pleased with my parenting skills I thought I deserved a gin. Alas, it was a tad early in the day.
As Stephen was awake, I was able to pop up to the local NHS pop-up shop to donate some goodies I had added to our shop. It’s such a good thing to do and they were very grateful for all the sweet treats I dropped off.
I’d like to point out that I did include some pasta and hand-cream along with all the cakes and chocolate, but these will be hard to spot amongst the overwhelming quantity of sugar goods!
It was soon time for BBQ lighting and bingo chat time with Grandma Lindsey and Grandad Lawrie. James got bingo first but Genevieve had the first line. They really love bingo day and it’s such a nice thing for us all to do together. They’ve even grasped the idea of there only being one winner – amazing!
Dinner was almost a disaster as Stephen didn’t put enough charcoal on the BBQ. By his own admission, he had messed up how much he needed. Frankly this is a clear indication that he’s still broken as BBQ is normally his speciality!
After a mixture of BBQ and oven cooking we enjoyed a veritable meat feast with Chinese pork, two different types of sausages and succulent Chinese chicken. Yum!
Another weekend in lockdown done. The kids are still happy, Stephen’s slowly on the mend and, more importantly, we are surviving. Hurrah for dens, hot chocolate, and BBQs.
The Smiths Family Blog 