The schools are off now.
We’re staying at home.
There will be A LOT of gardening going on, a lot of reading, and using online resources. I posted on my other blog (The Inquisitive Newt), a long list of activities we plan to do over the coming weeks. I hope it might be of use to some of you.
With the exception of this post, I don’t actually blog in ‘real time’. I queue things up as they become relevant, or as I finish writing them – some posts are more in depth than others and/or may require a before/after picture, for example.
I’ve got posts lined up and ready to go until April 6th.
I’ll endeavour to continue after this point, of course, but I wanted to let you know that if any of the next handful of posts reference us going out/meeting people, that all of this occurred in the past. In particular, the post about our local market and seed library springs to mind. The market I’m referencing happened on March 7th, though the post isn’t scheduled until April 2nd.
I ask that you keep this in mind.
Really, being at home isn’t anything of a hardship – there is so much to do here, and so much richness in our lives. We have aeons worth of things we could be doing – boredom will not be an issue – and while we’re here, perhaps I’ll finally lower my transport emissions!
In regards to the kids, I’d originally wanted to home-school my children though my eldest had other ideas on the matter. I’m glad things turned out this way – our school community is vibrant, supportive, and nurturing. Our staff – teachers, secretary, cook, cleaner, visiting specialists, and so many more – are all like an extended family. Whilst I might be keen to work with my babies more, I think they’ll miss the wonderful community they’re leaving behind (for the time being). I’m especially sad for my youngest – the transition from nursery to school will be interrupted, sudden, jarring.
For a much better post about staying at home, why not take a look at ‘En Casa’ on This Simple Life.
And whatever else you do, please, please, please – do stay at home. Unless you’re a key worker, the best way that you can help fight this virus is by giving those working in the hospitals time to treat patients. A close second is to stop panic buying. If you’re out of bog-roll because other people have hogged it all, consider the innocuously named ‘family cloth’. It is absolutely my plan B!
So if you’re not working from home, sewing your own loo roll (don’t flush it!!!!) or gardening, what other free things can you get up to?
Why not check out Project Gutenberg, for free reading material? Or your local library’s online catalogue?
There’s also a whole pile of free video-games on Abandonware.
I made mention earlier to child-friendly activities that I listed on my other blog, but it’s worth linking to again here. Especially worth noting are the links to classical music.
Or watch our veg being grown at the local Community Supported Agriculture initiative – I can’t wait for our first veg boxes, and the children really love watching the videos!
If that’s not enough, I totally recommend having a peruse this list of activities from Chatterpack.
Stay safe out there, friends. Be excellent to each other.
It’s a truly horrible situation but I know you have all the skills and resilience to cope because of the lifestyle you lead and even though your children’s lives and routines are being disrupted, I suspect the time you all have together now will be incredibly enriching. Thank you so much for linking to my post, we are very blessed to at least be in lockdown in a beautiful and productive place; the experience of people trapped in tiny flats in towns and cities here must be horrendous. It is looking increasingly likely that there will be an extension of another 15 days to 12th April and if that’s the case, so be it. This morning I have been sorting out old scraps of daggy spinning fleece to line hanging baskets to plant with strawberries . . . and so life on go on. Stay safe and well and keep writing, I love your posts! 🙂
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It’s times like this that I’m more than usually happy to be where we are. My heart goes out to everyone stuck in flats and terraces – it has the potential to get a bit lonely here, sure, but if that’s all I have to complain about then I’m certainly one of the luckier people in the world right now.
And it’s really hard to be grumpy when there are lamps over the fence of the back garden. Can’t beat watching the lambs.
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