Last Updated on 1 May 2023 by Colette
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Like lots of people, we had a full week of plans for the first week of the Easter holidays including a trip to Wales and our standard trip to York for the Easter weekend itself. Dave was due to be off work all week but we cancelled his leave on the basis that the “long weekend” was enough time to be at home doing nothing, he didn’t need to take extra time off work when we couldn’t go anywhere.
I decided fairly early on in lockdown that I didn’t want to continue doing school work during the holidays – we all needed the break. We agreed we’d keep the mornings screen free to encourage the kids to do something other than play on the Xbox or watch tv all day.
Monday saw a fairly bright but not very warm day – Dave was working from home and the kids were quite happy to entertain themselves. Chloe and Amy spent all morning planning a teddy’s bears picnic with invitations, a seating plan and menus (Nutella sandwiches of course) for the following day when the weather was due to be nicer. They continued this outside in the afternoon, cleaning up a toy wheelbarrow to use as luxury transport for the bears attending the event!
Tuesday finally brought us the warm and sunny weather we had been promised – I spent the day in the front garden, carrying on with painting the fence and planting some shrubs in a bed that’s been empty for years. The combination of lovely weather and feeling that I’d done something productive really helped. The girls spent all morning preparing for their teddy bear’s picnic in the back garden only for Poppy to come along and join in rather enthusiastically which left both girls in tears. We’ve suggested that next time they try and host their picnic in the front garden where Poppy won’t be allowed to join them!
On Wednesday Dave was in the office all day. I woke up feeling thoroughly fed up and demotivated. After sitting on the sofa for a bit feeling sorry for myself, I decided I’d better get up and start doing stuff. In the end I had quite a productive day cleaning the kitchen, doing multiple loads of washing, training Poppy and gardening.
Thursday saw Dave head out on a visit so he was up and out to Birmingham first thing (most of his visits have been cancelled but this particular one has to happen so he goes down each week at the moment). I spent most of the day doing crafts with the girls and working on some bits for a client before heading back into the garden to finish painting the front fence and the new gate Dave had made.
The gate took forever – about seven coats of fence paint on each side – so I finally finished that on Friday and Dave fitted it. I can’t tell you how pleased I am to actually have a gate down the side of the house – we’ve been using a pallet for about five years now and it was a right faff when you wanted to get to the bins. It only really mattered if we had Tilly staying with us but now we have Poppy it was more important to get a proper gate sorted so that’s another job ticked off the list.
Dave took Ben out for a ride on Friday morning – quarantine has been playing havoc with their training though I’m not sure either of them will get to do the big rides they had planned this year! Ben was just really happy to be out on his bike and Dave said that the roads are a joy at the moment (as you’d expect).
We drank gin cocktails and did a quiz with some friends on Zoom on Friday night – we had a laugh and it was lovely to see everyone but I don’t like quizzes at the best of times so combined with video calling it wasn’t my favourite! I can’t wait to just be able to catch up with people properly in real life!
With another day of lovely weather on Saturday, Dave and I spent the whole day out in the garden. He continued to attack the tree stumps that have needed removing for longer than either of us cares to remember – he has taken five out in total over the last week and the garden looks so much better for it. I spent Saturday painting three fence panels = three coats of “one coat” Ronseal each and we have a really smart looking fence now (and a sore hip to boot). I’ve still got the other side to do next week and then maybe the back, I haven’t decided yet.
We started looking at how we might get some seating into the garden and Dave priced up making some – we soon changed our minds when he totalled it all up so it’s back to the drawing board on that one. We will reach a point fairly soon where there isn’t much more we can do in the back garden until real life resumes and we can replace the lawn with artificial grass.
Easter Sunday was a bit of an odd one for us – we usually spend Easter in York. We had chatted to the big two and agreed that we would “postpone” Easter until we could all be together and that the Easter Bunny (also known as Aunty Nic) would do their Easter hunt next time we could be at Granny & Grandad’s. The Easter Bunny wrote the kids a letter explaining that he couldn’t leave his burrow because of the virus but that he had managed to deliver some small treats to the house as a “put me on”. (Aunty Nic enlisted Ben’s help with this and he was really pleased to have such an important job to do!)
Dave and Ben cooked us a roast for lunch then we basically wrote the rest of the day off to being exceptionally lazy – I spent a significant chunk of the day laid on the sofa reading a new book (The Flatshare) and eating chocolate though we did take Poppy for a short walk before tea (which was basically crisps and dip!)
Dave’s only working three days this coming week with tomorrow being a bank holiday and Friday being his birthday (not that we can do anything particularly special of course!) I’m hoping this lovely weather holds out for us as it definitely makes everything feel a bit easier – even if it does make me want to take long walks in park with Poppy!
