Good day

This morning I woke up to a little girl whispering in my ear “can I go see the sunrise now?”

Little Emma had worked out what we’d been up to... the reason I left her behind yesterday was because I didn’t want the stress of having to watch her like a hawk and make sure she didn’t touch anything accidentally. And sometimes the other two just need a little break from her. But she had woken up before we got back to the house and was slightly annoyed about being excluded. So I have promised her I will take her for a little sunrise bike ride one of these mornings.

It was a pretty good day today. After living in a dirty messy house for the last two weeks I managed to get it together enough to convince everyone to clean the house. And it was great. Each kid got right into it and Scott too. Amazing what a difference a clean house can make to one’s mood.

Then the girls were rewarded for their efforts with a movie rented from ITunes and fresh popcorn, and Scott and I had a couple of beers/wine and really great chats with our friends Jess and Christoph, and then Leigh and Benny. So so so so so so so good. Didn’t realise just how isolated this whole isolation business was making me feel. (Feeling isolated, yet craving time to myself...hmm)

Nothin’ quite like good friends and glass of wine.

And a cute fluffy dog.

Tantrums

Had a fairly shitty day. Yes. It is completely ridiculous to declare this, when my day was spent at my lovely spacious home, with its green garden full of edible plants, where my three healthy children played and my employed husband worked at his full time job. Ridiculous.

But I am just so sick of it. I know everyone’s talking about how this time is giving us the opportunity to slow down and spend time with our family and that we should make the most of the situation... but I really really really just want some time to myself. I want to take my cello and go off to a rehearsal where I don’t have to be a mum for a few hours.

I miss the days when all we had to worry about was the climate changing. Oh yeah. That old climate problem. At least Covid19 is making us pollute the air and water a bit less. Though I’m guessing single use plastic has increased in a big way... frustrating that disposable plastic can reduce virus transmission. Bummer for the planet.

Had a bit of meltdown when putting Emma to bed tonight. We couldn’t find her baby doll in the hellhole mess that is her bedroom, and then her water bottle went missing. I completely lost my shit. Not proud of this at all. Turns out both items were underneath her pillow and her little blonde tear-stained head.

Also lost my shit at lunch time because I burned some of the lunch, and then Em poured half of her precious freshly made vegetable juice all over her shirt and shorts. Not on purpose, of course. For either of us.

Think the problem is that I got up at 5am again to take Molly and Lucy to see the sunrise. It was beautiful there but I hadn’t slept well before the alarm went off at 5 so then the whole day was a bit off.

And I desperately need to do some yoga. That will fix everything. Always does. Just have to find a space without little people in it.

Here are some cute little people in their Easter hats after we paraded around the garden for Grandma on FaceTime, and the cousins on Messenger... Thank goodness for connect-tech  ❤️📱😬

Robert

Early this morning I received a text to say that my old cello teacher Robert had passed away in the night. A funny coincidence - he passed while Musikalische Exequien was playing, funeral music composed by Schütz in 1635/36. I think he would have liked that. I had a listen to it today and a bit of a cry.

Robert was always very kind and generous to me. He was the one who found a beautiful cello for sale at Holt’s Violin shop in 1992 and convinced my parents to take out a loan and buy it for me. I was 14 and suddenly went from playing on a crappy 7/8 size student cello, to a lovely old 18th century Italian cello (they think -unlabelled) that has been with me ever since.

This is me back then, before a QYO2 concert, with my new cello:

Just a few months ago, Robert came over for a Christmas lunch and gave the girls some really sweet presents.

Emma was especially upset when I told her about Robert dying. I hadn’t really thought she knew what death was but it seemed like she understood. She had really liked him because he was quite funny and she has a great sense of humour.

A walking track and some Easter hats

Just heard, our favourite celebrity doctor Norman Swan does NOT have Covid19, just a boring old ordinary flu... just a “man flu” was how he described it on the Coronacast.

We had a nice walk at Mt Coot-tha this morning. Always refreshing to leave our suburb every now and then... makes us all feel a bit more positive and uplifted.

 Emma’s preferred bushwalking attire: a tutu

Yesterday we made Easter hats. Molly is funny -months ago she had decided to make a hat anyway, even though she is now too old to be in the Easter Hat Parade at school (prep to grade2 only). So, we are planning to have our own Easter hat parade on Friday (the day it was originally scheduled for at school) with the cousins via FaceTime. Check out those fancy hats. (Mine is not pictured here but i reckon it is pretty fantastic -made from toilet rolls)

Molly said hers was also a Maths hat and that it made her brain work better.

Girls are having a “sleepover” in Lucy’s bedroom tonight. As I closed the door I heard the whispers  “good night sleep tight -don’t let Coronavirus bite”...ha ha

I am feeling a bit emotional today, and the trigger was watching a video the school sent about Preparing for Remote Learning... all about dealing with anxiety in kids and how to balance homeschooling as well as your own daily tasks. It discussed things like how to keep working full time at your own job from home, while also guiding the kids through homeschool....

And I realised how lucky we are... it’s probably good that I can’t work as a cellist at the moment because I can be totally there for the kids. And we should be okay financially (fingers crossed all is good with Scott’s job). Not going anywhere sure does save money: no petrol, cafe splurges, piano or swimming lessons, trips to local swimming pool, more cafe splurges... actually makes quite a difference.

And my permaculture course requires me to be online and in the garden, so that works out well. Though this new life means I’m not getting as much time to do my course, but luckily I have no strict deadlines with it.

Feeling love and gratitude for all the amazing people working in healthcare (thank you Aunty Mik, Kel and Chris!) and all the people who have to keep on going to work to keep the world going... makes me realise how sheltered we are here in our little home bubble. I feel really sad for the people isolating in their homes, all alone... (though being able to binge watch tv sounds pretty good)... and I’m so lucky my parents are pretty isolated anyway and that my mum has created a food forest around their house so they have plenty of fresh veg, so they should be ok through all this...

And we are really lucky that the three kids get along pretty well and can entertain each other for hours. And that they have Charlie the dog.

Sweet potatoes and poffertjies

What a weird world we’re living in, when our neighbourly chit chat consists of sharing strategies for the best way to disinfect groceries that you’ve brought home from possibly contaminated Coles.

In other tragic news, my Thermomix is broken! Will have to try and remember how to cook on the stove like normal people, until I can get it fixed.

Today we found some massive sweet potatoes hiding in the patch at the front.

Last night Scott entertained us by being The Eagle from the Muppets. Until his face got too sore.

Our latest Lego challenge is make something that uses up ALL the Lego bricks. Might take a while and a family effort.

We made poffertjies (dairy free and low sugar of course)

Scott has accused me of only taking photos of things that make me look like a good parent. So just to set the record straight, lots of imperfect pandemic parenting happening here:
1. Last week nobody brushed their hair ALL WEEK LONG which resulted in serious Tanglefest yesterday, with lots of tears, mostly from me.
2. I’m pretty sure I was the only one to brush my teeth in the morning all week
3. There was LOTS of yelling, from everyone, every day. (I mean, it’s understandable.. with the current situation there’s constantly a feeling of underlying angst. Even the dog seems a bit on edge.)
4. Every day I make the kids go for a walk or ride for exercise and I usually say to the family that I will ride Herbie the tricycle WITHOUT turning on the electric pedal assist, you know, so I get some exercise too. But I usually just turn the battery about 5 minutes in, cos I’m feelin’ lazy.

Oh well. Whatevs. (Our new motto, for getting through Coronavirus...)

Molly and the sunrise

Molly is usually quite happy to hang out at home. She loves to wander around the garden, lost in her own world, usually holding one of her toy animals and making it climb trees and hide in bushes. Then she will come back inside and fill a few A4 pages with drawings of animals, mostly dogs.
But lately Molly has been getting frustrated and angry more often, snapping at her sisters, crying about small things like her drawing not turning out right, or Emma taking her toy... just not quite her usual self.

So yesterday I decided to take her to Mt Coot-tha lookout to watch the sunrise, just the two of us. It was hard to get up in the dark (not an early riser) but so worth it to feel Molly’s excitement as we drove there. She chattered away happily the whole time. I really enjoyed being able to give her my full attention, without Emma around.

When we got there it was a bit cloudy but still beautiful. Nice to be out of the house, doing something different. We both enjoyed watching the sky change as the sun rose and I really cherished just being together in the crisp cool air. We didn’t touch anything or get too close to anyone but still used a bit of hand sanitiser once we got back to the car, just in case.

And whaddya know, for the rest of the day Molly was back to her lovely self... playing puppies with Emma for hours, getting along so well I didn’t make her do any schoolwork till late afternoon. I think we’ll try and have special Mum and Molly time every week. Well worth getting up in the dark.