Something exciting happened today – we had a new door fitted on the office. Yes, the Smiths definitely know how to live a full and enriched life! I should probably explain that prior to today there was no door leading in to the office. The previous owners had removed the door (for unknown reasons) and, in the ten and a half years we’ve lived here, we’ve never thought to rectify this. Instead we’ve been living with a stair gate across the threshold to keep the kids out (mainly because Genevieve once found a Sharpie in the room and “decorated” the bathroom door for us).
Aside from keeping the kids away from our laptops and other office equipment, the new office door will also mean that Stephen and I can both have uninterrupted work calls, and that actually focusing on work for more than two minutes will now (hopefully) be much easier than before. Hurrah!
The slightly tricky part was that we had to be home for Ross (the carpenter) to fit the door, but we were not allowed upstairs as we had to give him the socially distanced space he needed. So we had a morning of house-based activities. We were very busy!
I finished the cards I’d started yesterday for the Lodge family. I’m very pleased with the end results and am looking forward to posting them later today.
James wrote a lovely message to Grandma Lindsey and Grandad Lawrie. It initially said “I love it” but he changed it to “I love you” with three kisses. He wrote it all by himself and was very proud of his work (and rightly so).
We also watched films, made lovely Hama bead rainbows and created some artwork to say thank you to the friendly neighbourhood monkey. Busy, busy, busy!
Stephen wasn’t feeling great today so went upstairs for a good, long sleep while we had a picnic lunch. Despite putting down a blanket the kids still managed to get crumbs everywhere. I’m so happy we bought a new vacuum cleaner just before lockdown – it’s been so useful!
Once Ross had finished the door and Stephen had reemerged, we took the kids for a walk as they’d been cooped up all morning. We started by visiting the friendly neighbourhood monkey as the kids wanted to post the “thank you” posters they’d made in the morning. They do really love coming to see him each day!
Today the monkey was in birthday mode and, very excitingly, I realised he was doing this for a friend’s daughter’s birthday. How lovely! The children were excited that I knew whose birthday it was (but Stephen was less impressed as, apparently, I know everybody), and particularly that the monkey was in birthday mode (perhaps they thought they’d get some cake).
Next we posted some important letters including the cards I’d made for the Lodges. Luckily the kids had two letters to post each (otherwise there would have been an almighty argument).
Having posted the letters we went to have a wander on the green. This swiftly turned into a very fun game of tag. Stephen sat an watched while I ran rings around the children. I think I ended up having more fun that them, and it definitely helped boost my step count for the day.
We also enjoyed a somewhat less successful session of “What’s The Time Mr Wolf”. You know it’s not going to end well when James starts with “one hundred o’clock”. It was still fun though!
Having burned off some energy, we attempted to take some nice family selfies. I’m really pleased that we actually got a few genuinely gorgeous photos (for once) where the kids are looking at the camera. It’s a miracle!
But to get the nice photos, we ended up with a lot more silly selfies and funny faces. The kids just couldn’t help themselves! The pictures are still great though.
And I even managed to take an arty “shadow selfie” of me with the kids. Check me out!
In addition to the selfies, there were so, so many photos of the kids just being maniacs. But fun loving maniacs, so it wasn’t all bad. They clearly had a lot of pent-up energy from being in the house all morning, and it was just lovely to see them running around having fun without arguing.
Midway through a game we unexpectedly saw our friend Marcus (James’s godfather). He had come to collect his bike from the local bike shop and spotted us on the green so came over for a brief (distanced) hello. It was great to see a friendly face in person after so long. He’s clearly not been on the bike for a while though as there was some mild swearing as he cycled off!
While the kids ate dinner with Stephen, my sister Daisy and I went for a socially distanced stroll and chat. It was so nice to spend time with her so it’s something we are both going to repeat.
Once back home, Daisy and I sat on the drive with the kids waiting for Ben to come and collect her (while Stephen went for another lie down). Somehow a giant game of fart noises began. I’m not sure who started it, but Daisy got very involved with the farting. The kids loved it!
Stephen was really feeling not well today so he went to bed really early. Once the kids were in bed I took the opportunity to log in to watch the Take That concert on YouTube. Brilliant!
I checked in on the kids before I went to sleep. James was clearly sleeping well as he was in the most unusual position. My legs hurt just looking at him!
What a lovely day, but I’m knackered so it’s off to bed for me.
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