Today it proved to be a little tricky getting the kids up and sorted for the day as Stephen woke up feeling absolutely awful again. It’s the first time he’s felt this bad in weeks so he messaged his boss and contacted the doctor – without any prompting or suggesting from me!! That is how poorly he was feeling.
It was not great news when he spoke to the doctor on the phone mid-morning. This is all still classed as pretty “normal” for post-COVID fatigue. They don’t know enough about it yet to offer any meaningful advice or give a time-frame for when it will start getting easier. Stephen was instructed to rest more, do less with the kids and at home, and no work for another week. I was less than impressed with the doctor’s suggestion that “I’m sure your understanding wife will pick up what you can’t do”.
Genevieve came downstairs to discover that she’d been awarded another Beaver badge – her International Activity badge. She’d finished the final bits during last night’s Zoom meeting and the badge was dutifully posted through the letterbox later last evening. She’s lucky to have such dedicated Beaver leaders.
Once I had managed to drop Genevieve at school, I then ran James over to my parents’ house for a day in the garden with Grandma Margaret and Grandad Stephen. This meant time in the park, ice-lollies, iPad time and lots of fun with Tizzy, their dog. He had a very fun day from what I can make out!
This left me able to return home to my class Zoom call which was lovely, and to get more work done without any children around to interfere. It’s amazing how much you can get done – jobs as well as work – without the kiddiewinks around. Hurrah!
The school run provided an opportunity for me to chat to my lovely friend Philly who lives in Manchester. We have been trying to chat for weeks but it’s been very tricky. Turns out the school run with my new running headphones is a real winner!
The walk home from school was fairly standard with Genevieve’s friends. They love to run, chat, look and generally have fun on the way home in the woods. The photo of them standing apart is definitely not representative of how they meander home. The favourite activity is probably the “funny mirrors” in the reflections of the sides of parked cars. It’s a huge hit.
And we may have chased down an ice cream van on the way home. Genevieve was ecstatic about having an ice cream and exceedingly sticky once she’d finished. Classy.
As soon as Genevieve burst in the door, she desperately wanted to show Stephen her yoga skills. I have no idea why as she hadn’t mentioned it once on the way home! So she quickly whizzed through her warrior, tree and triangle poses before I whisked her upstairs for a bath.
Once Genevieve had been bathed we could go and get James and say a brief hello to my parents before getting both children home for dinner.
This section is written by Grandad Stephen.
Today was James’s first real visit to Grandma Margaret and Grandad Stephen’s house for three months. His first words… “can I play on your iPad, Grandad Stephen”. No – first it was a walk around the park with Tizzy stopping on the way for a piece of flapjack and a drink.
Back home, the following dialogue transpired:
Me: “Where are your sunglasses James?”
James: “Don’t know.”
Me: “Did you have them in the park?”
James: “Yes.”
Me: “Did you leave them in our house?”
James: “Yes.”
So, duly confused, Grandad Stephen was sent to retrace our route and found them exactly where Grandma Margaret said they would be on a bench.
After a jam sandwich for lunch, it was back down the park for football training with Grandma Margaret. Amazingly – or not – the ice cream van is there so a lolly is bought. “I love you Grandma” says James.
Back home he shows us how well he can write now as he signs a cheque to pay for the lolly. And then, finally, he had 30 minutes on the iPad before Mummy and Genevieve came to take him home.
While we’d been out, Stephen had handmade a batch of meatballs – the one thing he felt able to do today, and all done whilst sitting at the kitchen table.
When I got home he took over looking after the kids while I transitioned in to meatball sauce and pasta cooking mode. Stephen, bless him, was in such a sorry state that he even endured watching the Smurfs film with the kids (21% on Rotten Tomatoes) as he was too tired to do anything else.
Much to Stephen’s relief, dinner was soon finished so he was able to turn off the little blue folk. The whole meal was delicious – a great display of teamwork between me and Stephen (even though he tried to apologise for his unusually casual approach to cooking).
After dinner we went for a quick visit to see the friendly neighbourhood monkey. Inspired by the hot weather and sunshine, the monkey had been planting seeds to grow some beautiful flowers. We can’t wait to see them in full bloom.
After all the excitement of the day, there just enough time to record a quick video message for friend Jimi who is 40 on Thursday. His lovely wife is creating a fantastic video montage of us all so it was an essential part of the day. Stephen was reluctant to join us as he was feeling less than sparky, but I eventually persuaded him. Here’s our contribution – it’s utter chaos but also rather charming.
It probably won’t surprise you that James became very attached to his mask and was not that keen on relinquishing it before bedtime. I had to one-up him by donning a Kylo Ren mask and ordering him to take it off. How was I to know that negotiating with a masked four-year-old would be one of the never ending trials of parenthood!
Then it was time to put the kids to bed. They seemed to settle relatively quickly tonight which helped as I was starving for the meatball dinner by the time we got to eat it! And we even found a new series to watch on TV: “Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector”. I have high hopes as I love the film.
The Smiths Family Blog 
Was a bit worried when I read …then I ran James over… but relieved it continued …to Grandma Margaret’s house
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